For The Love Of Quilts

I love handmade quilts, they are a masterpiece of the heart. Many of the quilts of yesterday took a lifetime to make. Perhaps the mystical part of quilts—the aspect that makes them almost human—is the countless hours of work and devotion it took to create them.

Beyond their beauty and usefulness, quilts possess a magic that will never die, for all of life's hopes and fears, loves and hates have been sewn into them. A partial unraveling of quilt history reveals that the oldest example of patchwork, a canopy for an Egyptian queen, dates back to 960 B.C. In the earliest quilts, grass and leaves or feathers were used for the filling. After the top had been meticulously pieced together, the three layers were assembled and laid over a quilting frame supported by legs, sawhorses, or chair backs. In the South, the quilting frame was often suspended from the ceiling. The layers were then joined together by quilting, the running of stitches through the three layers of material.

The origin of quilts are somewhat sketchy. The name derives from the Latin meaning "stuffed sack." I imagine the quilt maker stitching away at her labor of love and perhaps wondering where it will be years after she (or he) is gone. Some quilts hold layers of meaning, others are stitched just for the job of keeping warm. Our job, if we own one of these treasures, is to lengthen their life by protecting them to the best of our ability. A few enemies of our treasured quilts include light, dirt, humidity, heat, insects, and pressure, among others.

Never put any quilt in direct light, whether natural or artificial. I have had a couple of my quilts fade due to the sun and though I still love them, they can never be returned to their freshly made, colorful splendor. In antique quilts the fabrics were either colored with natural dyes or the "new" synthetic dyes, which began to be used toward the end of the 19th century. With few exceptions, most of these dyes were not very color-fast, which is why we see greens that have faded to yellow or dull blue, purples that have faded to tan, and blacks have disintegrated the fiber completely. Even today, the dyes currently available can fade fairly rapidly when exposed to light.

Before you put a quilt in storage, take time to clean it. Bugs like to eat food stains and spray starch. Be sure to take care of any problems before storing your quilt. Usually, just a good vacuuming will take care of any problems. Place a 12" x 12" square of screening (with the edges covered with masking tape) over your quilt and gently use a hand-held vacuum to remove surface dust. Consider wet cleaning only as a last resort and realize that it will deteriorate your quilt to some extent. Be sure to consult some knowledgeable sources before attempting to wash an antique quilt. Never have your quilt dry-cleaned; the chemicals used can be very harsh to the fibers and are never completely removed.

Never store your quilts in plastic bags. Textiles need to breathe. When excess heat and moisture build, mildew will inevitably occur. Once the quilt is spotted with mildew, it is very difficult to remove the stains. Instead, if you need to store your quilts in a closet or other enclosed space, wrap them in clean, un-dyed, un-bleached muslin. Be sure to remove them from storage every three to six months. Spread them on a flat surface and air them out, first on one side and then the other. I like to hang mine on quilt racks and let them have their turns at displaying their loveliness. While you have the quilt out, be sure to inspect for signs of bugs or new stains.

When you return the quilt to storage, fold it in a different way. If you had folded it in half last time, then fold it in thirds this time. Don't crush your quilt and fold it as little as possible. When you fold it, do it so the backing is on the inside. The most wrinkles will occur on the inside of a fold. You can minimize the wrinkles by cushioning the folds with crushed, acid free tissue paper or a roll of muslin.

Enjoy the wonderful quilts you have stitched, inherited or adopted, but be sure to care for them so other generations will be able to enjoy them too.