The blue side, where the wool yarn is showing the design, left,
has much more degradation than the linen field side, right.
Our client brought MPF Conservation (hereafter called MPFC) this linen and wool pocket weave blanket to be conserved: Kate was the conservator.
One side is dark blue wool field, the other is the undyed linen field; the contrasting sides can be seen above. The word “LIBERTY” was woven so that it could be read on each side, that is, it is backwards every other word, indicating the blanket was once reversible.
HISTORY: FROM THE FAMILY
MPFC was given a page copied from history notes from my client’s family. This is from that copy. We are interested in the history of the pieces we conserve, and pass this bit on to you. (Signature of weaver shown below left.)
“Before my grandmother’s death, my mother, Eliza Quinn, had married my father, Barzilla Harrison. The wedding was at my grandmother’s house near Savannah, Ohio, in march 1841, and I have in my possession a coverlet bearing this date. The materials mother had taken to the weavers just before the wedding as it was to be part of her home furnishings. She had spun the wool and the pattern was of a pine tree, blue wool and white linen.
The weaver had placed his name, date and location as follows: “J. McClellan, Ashland, Ohio, 1841.” I am pleased to have it. (Note: This coverlet had been woven in two parts and later divided and half given to Rosella and half to Gladys.)
My father was a public school teacher and the family lived in a number of places until father finally bought a farm in Holmes County, Ohio, I think near Killbuck. My mother never liked that location, the community was not so prosperous nor the soil so fertile as in Northern Ohio. But like a good soldier, she carried on. The farm was rented while my father taught. Sometimes his school was so far away he could not get home often.
On January 28 1842 their first child was born, Marion Minerva. In September 1843 a son, James Quinn was born and in March 1845 another son, John Westley. He died four years later and on July 16, 1850 their third son, Francis Asbury was born. In 1852, Susan Elnora was born but she died a year later of bloody flux, while our mother was ill with the same disease. Seven years later on April 9, 1859, Mary Melissa, was born… and a year later our family moved to Cambridge, Illinois.”
YARNS: WOOL AND LINEN
The linen yarn is quite brittle in many areas. The blue side shows much more degradation than the linen field side, because the linen yarn, undyed, disintegrated more quickly than the dyed blue wool yarn. Hereafter we will refer to the yarns simply by their color, “linen” for the natural linen yarn, and “blue” for the blue wool yarn.
GOALS
The coverlet was cut in half; the two quarter sides of the
linen field side are shown above before treatment.
MPFC was asked to repair the coverlet so that our client could gift the textile to her relatives. We were to spend a set number of hours on the project. Our goal was to work on the linen field side shown above:
- Repairing the long edge with the rolled edging along one side, shown right.
- Repairing/stabilizing the long cut edge.
- The two “side” edges, examples shown right, would be repaired.
- Stabilizing and repairing the edging would both stop degradation and allow the textile to be gently handled with less worry about further damage.
- In instances where the pocket weave was damaged in a manner shown top right, where you could clearly see both layers, we were to tack the layers so that they read and were stable, rather than simply cutting the edges to match up (see video below).
- In all instances we would retain as much of the original blanket as possible.
- We were to repair large holes and the rip along one side, shown right (see video below).
- We also tacked down loose linen yarns where possible. This was especially true when Kate was repairing an area and had leftover thread. She then repaired nearby small pulls and such.
- In the beginning we were thinking to infill some holes, but a dye issue in the states stopped that goal (see notes below).
- Stitching was to be performed by hand.
- To hand-wash the textile after reparation.
A project like this, with reparations ranging from loose threads to large holes 1-inch or more in diameter, could go on endlessly. In museums it is likely that all reparations would be completed, however, that is rarely the case with private clients who have reasonable budgets. After discussion, our client offered a monetary figure to work with and this determined our scope of work.
After carefully pondering how to approach the project, MPFC decided to focus on the side which had the natural linen field, because the design on the blue side (in linen yarn) is so degraded visually that it is almost unreadable in some areas and would be unsatisfactory for the family to display.
Kate’s setup for the project, the lid holding the threads and needles and scissors.
She folded the coverlet continually to keep it safe during repairs.
When she stepped away, the project is covered with the sheet above.
MATERIALS
Thread used was Gütermann 100% cotton thread CA02776 in colors 927 and 6250. We chose a slightly darker linen colored thread because it actually disappears into the field better than a lighter, “perfect” match due to the shininess of the thread versus the worn linen yarn.
Needles, for the most part, were Sharps size #9 and #10, and CS Osborne and Co lampshade 2″ curved needles, gauge 21, with a round point, #741.
Regarding infilling holes, Kate spent two days (on our nickle) searching linen/cotton/wool yarns in the USA and had no luck finding a color in an appropriate yarn that came close to matching the blue yarn. (Image of Woolery’s Euroflax Linen Yarn colors shown left.)
Finally we spoke with a local yarn company that also specializes in dyes. Kate sent the colors she had found next to the color of the blue, and asked if the yarn could be dyed to “match.” It did not have to be a perfect match just closer than what was available, the 3-4 colors of linen, linen/cotton blends, or wool blends that appeared to be appropriate for coverlet. I was told that in the USA the dye companies have limited the available dye colors, and because of the issues in dying they do not mix color, so this is why in the USA the blues, for instance are limited.
We had to move on with what we had available.
CLEANING DYE TEST
We began by performing a dye run test, to ensure that at the end we could in fact wash the coverlet by hand. This is important as the coverlet would always be fragile, even after our reparation, so could not be sent out by our client to be dry cleaned. Dry cleaning, besides being chemical, is also usually tumbled during the wash cycle and this would never be appropriate for this piece. Hand-washing in gentle conservation soap would be our goal, and we wanted to know early if the dyes were stable or would run.
To that end, we saturated a corner of the coverlet and then watched over several minutes to see if the blue dyes ran; we are happy to report they did not, and proceeded with the reparations.
REPARATION
Kate began with the edges; after the edges were stabilized, she moved to the interior.
Occasionally Kate came across a previous repair, usually obvious in that it was hand-stitched as the one shown right. These were removed and properly repaired.
Stitches used were typically the blanket stitch, running stitch, and cross stitch in variations.
We are jumping ahead to a video
taken after the project was completed and the coverlet cleaned:
Kate showed where, other than the rip (shown later) the bulk of the extreme
damage occurred along what we assume is the fold line. It is a bit of a warning
to consider how items are stored, because this probably simply rubbed against
a texture (wall?), and abrasion of the fibers occurred along this line.
Kate has over 400 images of the process. Rather than show with ALL of them, we will show a few process images of select areas.
REPARATION: EDGES
Reparation began at this long edge, with the proper rolled edge along the long side.
Before and after of this area.
Note the cleaner linen color inside the rolled edge shown left.
Above, the steps in reparation of the corner edge with the rolled bottom. Large loose yarns were trimmed, stitching of the two layers of the pocket weave were repaired using mostly the blanket stitch.
Left, the completed corner with the two layers trimmed and stitched, and loose areas stabilized.
Above, a second repair along the rolled edge, where pinning was
crucial in having the rolled edges stitched properly.
Above, brittle linen yarn was stabilized and trimmed along the pine tree trunk using the blanket stitch; the side edge was stabilized using the blanket stitch..
The signature shown (backwards) on the corner. Besides the edge, linen yarns inside the signature were also stabilized using cross stitches and blanket stitches.
Above and below, a six inch rip along the long cut side was the most difficult repair.
Kate was happy she saved the six-inch rip along the long cut side for after she had performed a lot of stitch work on the coverlet. The goal was to not just repair the rip, but to have the rip lay flat and to have the pattern recognizable.
The gross tattered yarns were trimmed in preparation.
White basting thread loosely stitched the rip into place while Kate laid the edges as she wanted them. A running stitch and blanket stitch, in both the linen thread and the blue thread, secured the rip; as the true stitching was performed, the white running stitch was removed. Finally, an additional running stitch was used to secure linen threads along the right at the top of the rip.
Below, the rip before and after reparation.
REPARATION: INTERIOR
Several interior motifs had damage. We noticed it was along one line, and surmised it was along a fold line, where it possibly rubbed on items in shelves.
One of the ways Kate prioritized the treatment was if a fingertip could be inserted under a lifting linen area. Those areas were all repaired, and then adjacent areas might be if there was leftover thread on the needle..
Above, before and after the top half
of a floral motif; right, the entire
motif shown after treatment.
First the large hole was edged with
the blanket stitch in blue.
Linen was stitched into place in
several areas using both the blanket
stitch and a cross stitch occasionally.
in the process another small hole
in the blue was found and repaired.
While several areas of this large motif were repaired,
the large top floral was shown in detail above.
This motif was extremely damaged, shown before and after, above. The linen which defined the center flower was lifting all around.
Below, details of everything that was repaired.
Several of the petal edges could be lifted and a fingertip inserted underneath; these were stitched. Several small. holes were discovered in the blue field. The threads were trimmed, and the holes stitched. The linen along the sides of the petals were stabilized using the blanket stitch.
The flower after treatment, above; all the linen areas were
secured and several small holes were also repaired.
The left-facing floral motif surrounding the central flower was trimmed and tacked into place where it was lifting; above. Below, the same on the right-facing side.
The central flower with the floral motifs that flanked each side after treatment.
The top floral motif and flanking sides with extreme losses after treatment;
unfortunately the large blue areas were not original to the coverlet.
Below, one of the damaged star patterns which are between the large floral patterns.
Before treatment, several holes were discovered in the blue field alongside lifting linen threads.
Four holes 1/8”-1/2” were treated. The largest hole was surrounded with the blanket stitch in a starburst pattern. Smaller holes located and were treated by weaving across the hole and around it with a running stitch to stabilize.
Finally linen threads were stabilized and the area was finished.
HAND-WASHING
The coverlet was gently folded and soaked in cold water for a half-hour with Orvas paste, above left. From time to time gentle agitation was performed by refolding (easy to do in a full tub of soapy water) and pushing gently on the folded coverlet.
The coverlet was rinsed a dozen times until the water was clear with no trace of soap, above right. It was then set on a stack of thick towels to drain for an hour.
Finally it was set on a clean set of tables to air dry over two days. We did not add heat to the mix; we wanted it to dry gently.
COMPLETION
Video of the Liberty Coverlet after treatment and dried from washing.
Oops, coverlet, not quilt in the video…
I apologize for the shaky video; I am not fond of standing on the tall ladder.
I am very happy with the results of the treatment. Even with the obstacles to reweaving due to dyes, the goal of the treatment was to stabilize the areas, repair where possible, restitch, and clean. The coverlet can now be safely gently handled by family without doing immediate damage due to ripping holes. As you can see in images below, the colors became brighter, and even the stains left many years (and of unknown origin) were lightened or removed altogether
Above, the halves as they roughly match the after images below.
Unfortunately I did not take the exact same images.
Still, the same lighting shows how much cleaner the coverlet became, and the
lightening of the dark stains on the right facing images from top to bottom.
As stated in a video at the beginning of this post, the bulk of the serious damage is along the area shown below, which we surmise is where the coverlet was folded for many years, and in that time rubbed against something that abraded the fibers.
Below, several examples of entire motifs after treatment!
dkatiepowell @ aol.com / mitchellrpowell @ aol.com
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503.970.2509 / 541.531.2383
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