Repairing a Tear in a Quilt Block

R Barbara
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Repairing a Tear in a Quilt Block I made this patchwork quilt years ago for my husband's Lab. She has since passed and it has become an extra cover in the winter for me. I noticed that there was a tear in one of the triangular pieces making up one of the blocks and decided to repair it.

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Supplies:

fabric, I had some of the original fabric in the form of an unused block
seam ripper
needle
thread
scissors
embroidery or quilting hoop
optional - embroidery floss and needle for detail stitches
craft thread for retying the corners of the piece
optional - boning tool

Steps:

First I ripped the seam between the two right triangles making up the square, so that I could adjust the torn piece and get it to lie flat. I wanted to patch over the tear, rather than remove the torn piece. I basted the torn pieces down, but did not go all the way through to the quilt backing.

I found an unused block in my craft fabric stash and identified the piece that I wanted to use to make the repair. Clearly the quilt had faded over time from washing. However, I decided that I was fine with the patch being much brighter in color than the quilt.

Using my seam ripper I removed the small square from the unused block.

Then I separated the two triangles saving the solid blue for other uses. (I don't throw anything I can still use away.) You can either finger press or use a boning tool to press the seam allowances under on your patch.

Now it was time to check fit the triangle over the torn piece.

I removed the craft thread ties in the corners of the piece.

Next I pinned the patch in place, adjusting for a good fit and futzing with the corners to turn under the excess fabric. I did snip off a bit of the extra fabric, being careful not to create an opening in the folded corner of the triangle.

Once the patch was pinned in place to my satisfaction I blind stitched it to the surrounding squares and up the center to reconnect it to the corresponding triangle making up the square.

I used craft thread to retie the corners of the patch using a square knot.

You can stop here or do some embroidery around the patch for decoration and added stability. I chose to make a fern leaf stitch with added colonial knots to finish the project. I have used crazy quilt embroidery stitches on several baby quilts that I have made to complement the tie method of securing the layers.