Welcome to the first Inside Thread, where I take you from start to finish on a quilting project at Ideal Stitches.  Recently, I was commissioned to do a quilt repair on a T-shirt quilt that had been chewed through by the family dog.  The T-shirt quilt commemorated the Indian Ceremonials in Gallup, New Mexico and was treasured by the local family who owned the quilt.

As you can see the hole in the quilt goes through the front, batting and backing fabrics and is approximately 3 inches by 5 inches.  Wow.  The challenge for me is to make the repairs without making the quilt look obviously “patched”.    I started with the back side and was relieved to find that the fabric was a solid black which meant I could easily match the fabric.  The batting was polyester and again easily matched with batting that I carry in the studio.  The front posed more of a design challenge as fabric was one of the commemorative T-shirts.  I knew I would lose a little of the lettering with the repair.  Although I could also make the patch with the solid black fabric, I wanted to do more with the repair on the front as it would not be as easily camouflaged as the back.  Time to get the creative juices flowing.

Tune in to the next edition of the Inside Thread to see the finished project.