storing quilts – Snuggles Quilts

Tips for Displaying and Storing Quilts

So, you make quilts of all sizes. Most of them you give away to family members, cherished friends or to charity organizations. But what about the ones you keep? How do you display those? How do you store the ones that you don’t have on display? This week I will talk about displaying your quilts, including some unique display ideas and tips on how to store the quilts you are not displaying. So let’s get started!

Quilt Display

The easiest quilts to display are large quilts, like lap quilts. Besides a quilt rack, you can drape them at the end of a bed or over the back of a couch and you’re done, right? But, here are a few other ideas that I have used. One of my favorite is hanging the quilts from a ladder, whether it’s an old one or one made for that purpose.

This ladder has only one quilt on it, but I could probably fold it differently and add a few more quilts.

Here’s another ladder that I hung from my wall to display some of my antique quilts. The ladder is old so I sealed it and there are pillow cases under the folded quilts to protect them even more from the wood.

Since these are antique quilts, I have the ladder hanging in a hallway where they are protected from direct sunlight. Be sure to think of that when you are displaying any treasured quilt. Direct sunlight is not their friend!

I’ve also been know to drape large quilts over chairs or hanging out of baskets.

Finally for larger quilts, I found an old drying rack (left) at a garage sale that is perfect for quilts. Just like with the old ladder, make sure to seal the wood and drape a pillow case or a sheet discreetly underneath to protect the quilt further. I also found a unique towel rack (right) at a garage sale that I hung on a wall to drape a quilt.

Now on to smaller quilts like wall hangings. From large to small, there are so many fun ways to display these around your house. An easy way to hang wall hangings is using curtain rods. A lot of the curtain rods you find in stores like Target or Wal-Mart are also adjustable size, so it’s easy to find the right fit for your quilt.

First, here’s a mini tutorial on hanging sleeves that your wall hanging will need for you to hang it. An easy way to put a sleeve on a quilt is to do it at the same time as when you attach the binding like I did on this quilt below:

First, I cut a strip of fabric 2 1/2″ wide with the length 2″ shorter than the width of the wall hanging. This quilt is 24″ wide, so I cut the strip 2 1/2 x 22″.

Next, hem the short ends of the strip.

Now, lay the strip on the back of the quilted item aligning it with the edge and pin in place. So, when you attach the binding to the front, the top of the sleeve will be attached. Then, you turn under the bottom edge of the strip and pin in place so you can hand stitch this while hand stitching your binding to the back (last photo).

Now that you have the hanging sleeve on your quilt, here’s some of the fun ways to hang them. First, by a curtain rod:

You can also use the hanging sleeve to hang the quilt from quilt hangers, yard sticks and even dowels affixed to an old drawer!

Caring for and Storing Quilts

Here are some tips to keep displayed quilts in good shape.

Display them out of direct sunlight to prevent fading
If the quilt is folded or rolled for the display, unfold or unroll them periodically and refold them another way. This will prevent creasing the quilts in one place.
Use a soft brush attachment on your vacuum to carefully brush off dust, etc. from the surface of a quilt hung on a wall. Be sure to use the lowest suction setting to keep from damaging fibers and seams.
Rotate quilts you have displayed so quilts that are precious to you are not exposed to the everyday household elements all the time.

That last item in the tips, rotating out quilts you display, gives arise to the need for storage. For large quilts, you need to start with folding them. Here’s a few tips.

Begin by laying out the quilt you want to fold on a large flat surface and make the first fold on the bias:

And then continue bias folds until you have a square:

Folding on the bias puts less stress on the fabric fibers so any creases that happen while it’s folded this way will smooth out easier. Straight folds create heavier creases that could be permanent if the quilt is folded for too long.

The other way I fold quilts is in thirds. The following photos will show how that is done.

Some dos and don’ts for Storing:

Do not store them in the basement or attic of your home where the temperature and humidity is not at ideal levels.
Do not stack too many folded quilts on top of one another.
Do not store quilts in plastic containers or bags. Plastic can trap moisture which could develop mold that will stain quilts.
Do use clean white sheets to cover a stack of quilts for protection.

Now what you you do with the smaller quilts like wall hangings and table runners? For these quilts I use clip hangers that are made to hang skirts and pants. This makes them storable in a closet anywhere in the house.

A final tip: It’s a good idea if a large quilt has been stored for over 4 to 6 months to pull it out and re-fold it or take it out to display. They important thing is to keep checking on your stored quilts to make sure they are holding up.

So that’s all for this week. Share your display and storage tips for all of us to learn from and you will be entered into a drawing for my new pattern, Kaleidoscope:

The drawing will be on Monday, November 22nd. Good luck!

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Spring Cleaning for Quilters!

Hi! It’s finally spring! Believe it or not, you should do a little spring cleaning in your sewing area. In this post, I will give you some tips on things you can do. Also, I have included some quilt storage tips for those quilts that you do not have on display all year round. We need to take care of them when we display them and when we store them! So let’s get on with it.

Spring Cleaning Tips

Tip #1: Go through your fabric stash. If you look closely, there are probably pieces of “what was I thinking when I bought this” fabric. You know you’ll never use it, but throw it away? No way! Gather your sewing friends together and do an exchange. Someone in your group will love what you don’t anymore. Another option is to donate fabric to your guild or church for making community comfort quilts. This way, you will know the fabric goes to a good use.

Tip#2: Notions and threads. Organize your notions and threads so they are easier to get to and you know where everything is. Seems like a simple thing to do, but many times I have ended up with a drawer or two that was a jumble of threads, needle packs and extra scissors and rotary cutters. One thing I like to do is use everyday items for organization. Like this $1.00 mug holder found at a garage sale. Perfect for my scissors and cutters!

Once you have those organized, then it’s on to the rulers.

Tip#3: Use a pegboard to hang rulers next to your cutting table! I found this at my local home improvement store.

If you don’t have a dedicated sewing space, you can use hangers to store your rulers in a closet. Here are two different examples below. In the photo below is a hanger that is designed for ties or scarves. You can loop a jump ring or some kind of hook through the ruler hole and then hang them. On the far right is a skirt or pant hanger. You can clip your rulers to these and hang them.

Cleaning and Storing Quilts

Now onto caring for your quilts. If you are like me, you like to display some quilts around the house. But they will get dirty. Here are some tips I have found and have used with good results. The methods you use to clean your quilts will be a personal choice based on how important the quilt it to you. These tips are NOT for antique or family heirloom quilts. It’s best to consult a textile preservation expert for those quilts that are very old with weaker seams and fibers.

The main thing is to be careful with any type of cleaning.

Tip#1: Light cleaning – For wall quilts that can collect dust or cobwebs, use the soft brush attachment (like pictured below) for your vacuum cleaner and, on the low suction setting, brush across the surface of the quilt.

Do not use any kind of attachment that has moving parts like a pet hair attachment. Those moving parts can possibly catch on the fabric or the seams and cause damage. If the wall quilt has picked up a musty smell or another smell from the room it is in, it can be aired out by placing it outside (in a shady area) on a clean sheet. For cleaning large quilts, lay it out on a flat surface and vacuum with the soft brush attachment. They can also be aired out using the same method as a wall quilt.

Do not shake quilts like you do for rugs since that can weaken seams.

For cat or dog hair, I use the lint rollers made for clothes. Gently rolling these across the surface of the quilt will pick up the stray hairs without damaging seams.

Tip #2: Washing – If you must wash a quilt, be sure to use a gentle soap. Wash on gentle and I throw in a few Shout Color Catcher sheets in case I’m worried about a fabric that might bleed. Be cautious of this if you are not a pre-washer of fabric. If you do not pre-wash and you are unsure of a fabric in the quilt, I would advise against washing.

If you do wash it and need to dry, it’s best to air dry it. You can put it in the dryer for 10 minutes or so on “air fluff” setting to get the dampness out. Then lay the quilt out on a clean sheet on a flat surface to finish. Never hang a quilt on a clothesline which can put stress on the seams. Also, do not wring out a quilt.

Tip #3: Storage – First, it’s a good idea to learn how to fold a quilt in a way that is the least damaging to the seams and fabric fibers. This is for large quilts. To begin, lay the quilt out flat and make a first fold on the bias:

The next 3 photos show the next 3 folds to make to end up with your quilt folded and protected:

Even though the bias option is the best, the other way I fold quilts is in thirds. The following photos will show how that is done. The first two folds:

And here are the remaining folds:

For smaller quilts, I like to hang them from clip hangers in an unused closet.

Some final thoughts on storing quilts

Do not store them in the basement or attic of your home where the temperature and humidity is not at ideal levels.

Do not stack too many folded quilts on top of one another.

Do not store quilts in plastic containers or bags. Plastic can trap moisture which could develop mold that will stain quilts.

Do use clean white sheets to cover a stack of quilts for protection.

Two other ways to store quilts is to roll them or to drape them over extra beds. Rolling large quilts may be difficult for storage since there would need to be a large space to store those rolls. But rolling them is a good way to avoid any creases from folding, so if you have the storage space, consider doing this.

If you drape them over guest beds, be sure they are not in direct sunlight that could fade a quilt. If there is direct sunlight into that room, you can cover the stack of quilts with a clean, white sheet to protect them.

Finally, when I have quilts that have been stored for longer than 6 months, I like to pull them out and refold them or switch them out with ones that are displayed.

I hope these tips have been helpful. I’ve shared these tips throughout the years, but I find it’s a good thing to do some reminder posts on this. We all want our quilts to look as good as the day we made them, don’t we?

Until next time….

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

My Tips for Storing Quilts

We all need to store quilts at one time or another if we own a lot of them. Unless you have several bedrooms with guest beds where you can layer them, you’ll need to fold them for storage. I’ll give you tips on folding the quilt and then some on the best way and place to store them. Leave a comment and be entered in a drawing for a free pattern!

Folding Quilts

Let’s begin by laying out the quilt you want to fold on a large flat surface.

Make the first fold on the bias:

Next fold:

Finally the last two folds:

The other way I fold quilts is in thirds. The following photos will show how that is done.

First fold:

Next fold:

Next two folds:

If you need the folded quilt to be smaller, you can now fold it over two more times.

Now, I did not have any for this demonstration, but I usually use acid free, colorless tissue paper stuffed in the folds to soften them.

Some dos and don’ts for Storing: