I remember just putting the quilt in the washing machine and pouring in the buttermilk...it took about 2 gal. If the quilt is colorfast and has a lot of white, you can add a little lemon juice as a natural bleach, but make sure it is mixed into the buttermilk before pouring over the fabric. (It really does bleach, so be careful with it.) I let it soak for 24 hours and then rinsed it out with cool water before washing with Woolite. I have included a couple of links below that contain information about the process. It removed most of the mildew stains and all the musty smell. It really brightened the fabric (without lemon juice), much more than I expected, and the quilt is now atop the bed in my friend's guest room.
Good luck...

http://www.ehow.com/how_4546575_remove-mildew-from-fabric.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/remove-ink-stains-naturally.html

jcarkeet wrote:
Any chance that you can pass on the recipe and process here?

Sarah

Thank you all so much for the help!
It sounds like the quilt is more circa 1930s rather than the 20's. The info regarding Maybelle's birth and age at the time the quilt was made is especially valuable and will go on the label.

The quilt is in pretty good condition, considering it was USED for all those years. I soaked it in a buttermilk solution (got the recipe from Alex Anderson on Simply Quilts) to get out some of the mildew and brighten the colors. It worked as far as it went, but now we need to go to the next step and have someone who knows what they are doing take a look at it.

I need the name of someone in northern California who can help us with a proper cleaning and restoration. Anyone have any ideas? I'd hate to mess this up because I don't really know what I'm doing.

I just looked at the 1920 census Madison Nebraska, put Maybelles birth November of 1917 but there is a family tree states Jan 1917. If you want I could send you more information via e-mail. Let me know if I can help any more. Cheryl

Ancestry.com has tons of information. I have a membership and it is addictive. Next thing you know its time for the the kids to get home from school. HEE HEE. I have been working on both parents liniage for quite a while. Infact that is where I was before logging onto TQS. Cheryl This is from the 1930 census

Maybelle W Youngquist
Home in 1930: Shell Creek, Madison, Nebraska
Age: 13
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1917
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Father's Name: Gust C
Mother's Name: Hilma
Race: White
Occupation:

Education:

Military service:

Rent/home value:

Age at first marriage:

Parents' birthplace: View Image
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Gust C Youngquist 43
Hilma Youngquist 43
Vincent G Youngquist 17
Arthur W Youngquist 14
Maybelle W Youngquist 13


View
Original
Record

View original image

Forgotten to say: With such an unusual surname to may find family members alive today by searching the US census site: http://www.census-online.us/search/YOUNGQUIST,HILMA

Lorchen

Sorry to disappoint you. I'm neither an expert nor can I work miracles. I simple googled the girl's name. It was mentioned in a couple of other contexts, but I didn't check those out. It might also be useful to google the mother's name. The more unusual the name, the easier the search.

If you have a death or birth date, and place, then you can seriously search any local records for that person. From what I hear, some of the local records (civic and church) are pretty comprehensive in the US.

I haven't got the time (I must unfortunately work in order to eat and have a roof over my head) to do this family history stuff in any detail, but it can be very interesting and surprising. Just by carefully checking through my late mother's papers (tons of them), who never threw away anything (electricity bills go back to 1951!) I found out quite a lot of things about my ancestors that she never mentioned to me.

Please, post here if you find out anything about that old quilt. I bet I'm not the only one who finds this sort of research fascinating.

Lorchen

Wow, where can we go to get information like that?
eileenkny

Lorchen, are you a geniologist? That was a quick response!
Lynn

The timing put Maybelle in her teens and she would be in a twin bed. Ship of dreams would kind of be her dreams for Maybelle or Maybelles dreams for her self since she was becoming a young lady. Just an idea.. Cheryl

It looks pretty typical of 1930s fabric.

Pat in Rockport, TX

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/stanislaus/cemeteries/turlock-xyz.txt

Scroll down and you'll find birth and death dates for Maybelle.

Lorchen

I recently discovered that a good friend had an antique quilt in the trunk of her car. Of course, I got it OUT of there right away, and now we're trying to gather some information about it to pass along to her son and granddaughter. However, there is no label, and all we have to date it are the recollections of my friend of stories told to her by her father and Aunt Maybelle. We would like to have more information to put on a label, and we need the name of someone in northern California near Stockton who could help us restore and preserve it. I've posted four pictures on my profile page, "Personal Photos."

The quilt was made by Hilma Youngquist in Nebraska for her daughter, Maybelle, sometime around 1915-20. The fabric suggests a small girl child, but the size indicates it was for a small single or twin bed rather than a crib (Maybelle was born in 1915).
It's made of seven rows containing four squares (although they are really 8'X10" rectangles), separated by 3" sashing. I found a similar pattern in BlockBase (EQ) under the name "Little Ship of Dreams," but it said the pattern wasn't printed until 1931, which is later than I thought. The boat is pieced with a fairly standard print of yellow rose patterned cotton, which is repeated in the sashing. The sail of the boat is a print containg juvenile looking pink and green giraffes with little ladybugs, quite distinctive, and I think easier to date. The whole thing is hand pieced and tied with yellow embroidery thread. I don't know if this quilt would have any monetary value, but the value in family history is great, so we need to get it documented before the little information we have is lost.

If you know someone in or near Stockton, Sacramento, or the Bay Area of California who can help us, please send it to me via email. If you think you can help answer some of our questions, I would really appreciate comments and suggestions.
Thank you!!!