We have our first quilt casualty

When I give a quilt to a friend or family member I usually include a couple of pages with the quilt.  One is the care instructions on how to wash the quilt.  The second page is just a little something, that I hear from somewhere, that I thought was cute, so I started doing it too, and that is a warranty.  The warranty  goes something like this:  life time warranty for repairs and replacement.  Love it and  use is up. 

So now we have our first casualty.  My niece had a mishap with the quilt I gave her for Christmas a few years back.  The quilt now has a wound(a hole, hehehe).  Not a large wound, but something that needs to be taken care of before it festers(gets bigger, hehehe).

I had my patient(the quilt, hehehe) resting on the guest bed waiting for an opening in my schedule to operate(take care of it, hehehe).

The time has come to get serious and tackle the repair.  First I examined the quilt top and found two holes.  I marked it with colourful pins, got my seam ripper and started to take the ripped pieces off the quilt.  One of the wholes is situated between two blocks.

The second whole is between a single half square triangle.  I figure I am doing good time and will have this done in no time at all.  Until.....

...I turned the quilt to the backside.  I don't know why I didn't notice it sooner.  I guess I was just concentrating on the wholes themselves, but when I turn the quilt over to see what I had to do there, I notice how bad the backing is.  The backing was a flannel fabric.  Now, it is so thread bare that it is almost see through.

In fact, when I inspect the whole back, I am disappointed to note that there are numerous small wear wholes everywhere throughout the quilt.  This backing is not holding up to the test of time.  Upsetting as it was, I realized that the only way to repair this quilt is to take the whole back off and replace both the backing and the batting.

I started by removing the binding.  Gingerly started to remove the quilting, making sure that my seam ripper stays between the backing and the batting, so I do not injury the top.  Unlike my earlier thoughts of no time at all, I realize this will take a long time to complete, as the quilt is very heavily quilted.

A lot of work, but I feel it is worth it.  The top is still in very good shape, outside of the two wholes.  My niece is worth it, too.  If it were my quilt again I would have just relegated it to a display piece, but my niece likes and uses it regularly.  I have to see what I can do to fix it.