How To Safely Clean An Old Quilt

They've been keeping Americans warm for centuries, and you likely accept at to the lowest degree one or two in your own home. Whether they're prize-winning showpieces or well-loved comforters, quilts serve as records of our lives—and those of our ancestors. If you're lucky enough to have an old quilt, proceed your heirloom in tiptop shape—and save its history—by following this sew-savvy guide.

Certificate Your Quilt's History

The offset pace in your preservation project is to document what you lot know about the quilt'southward history. Interview older family members: Does anyone know who fabricated or bought it, when and why? Where did the material come from (such equally former wearable)?

Research the patterns in your quilt and run across what they can tell y'all near its origins. The National Park Service'southward online Quilt Discovery Experience is a adept resource, as is Michigan State University'south Quilt Alphabetize. To research your quilt based on the fabrics used, consult a guide such as Clues in the Calico: A Guide to Identifying and Dating Antique Quilts by Barbara Brackman (EPM Publications). See "Estimating Your Quilt's Age" beneath for more information.

Write downwards your findings with an archival pen on archival newspaper and slip the paper into a polypropylene sheet protector. Continue this document with the quilt (or if you brandish the quilt, keep information technology with your photos of the quilt). Alternatively, yous can copy the information onto an archival cardstock tag and attach information technology to the quilt with a loop of white thread.

Be sure to take enough of pictures of the quilt, both overall and particular shots. Too inspect the cloth and seams for rips, moisture damage and insect infestation and photograph any damaged areas.

How to Clean Old Quilts

If your quilt is more than 50 years old, it should be cleaned only by a professional person conservator, if at all. Wash your quilt only if all dyes are colorfast and it doesn't accept whatever inked signatures. Never launder silk, wool, velvet or manus-painted quilts and do not machine wash or dry out clean your quilts.

Yous can hands clean a newer quilt with a vacuum cleaner. Lay the quilt out on a flat surface, and put a nylon stocking over the terminate of the nozzle or use a soft brush attachment earlier vacuuming. You lot also can air the quilt outside on an overcast solar day to remove clay and odors. If you lot're certain it won't bleed, run, tear, fray or fall apart, you can wash it passively in a tub and lay it flat to dry. But beware: Yous may do irreversible harm.

To kill insects and larvae, vacuum carefully and wrap the quilt tightly in heavy-duty plastic zipper bags or plastic sealed with duct tape. Freeze it at -ten degrees for 10 days. Thaw at room temperature to avert condensation, and then open and re-vacuum.

How to Store Sometime Quilts

The best way to shop — and display — a quilt is on an unused bed. Select a location that'due south protected from direct sunlight, heat sources and windows. Keeping pets and sun off the quilt volition extend the lifetime of the cloth.

If you want to display your quilt vertically, there are a few options. The Michigan Land University Museum Quilt Project'due south recommended options including mounting in a sealed frame or hanging from a rod. The latter is the easiest way to display a quilt in about homes. Add a four-inch-wide tube of unbleached muslin along the summit border of the quilt by stitching through all layers of the quilt with large, secure stitches. Seal a wooden dowel with polyurethane and insert the dowel through the sleeve to hang the quilt from the wall or ceiling.

Make sure your quilt is in a low-humidity, abiding-temperature area. Periodically balance hanging quilts to reduce stress on the textile. Never nail or tack a quilt to the wall, and remember not to pin annihilation to your heirloom as the pins can get out rust marks.

You tin can store your quilt in an acid-free box, wrap it in a slice of washed, unbleached muslin or fold it in a pillowcase. Never proceed it in a cardboard box or plastic handbag. If you desire to store information technology in a wooden drawer, first paint the inside with polyurethane varnish and later on it's dried, line the drawer with acrid-complimentary paper, cotton sheets or muslin. Refold the quilts a few times a year to avoid permanent creases. Smaller quilts tin can be rolled effectually a paper-thin tube wrapped in acid-free paper.

Specialty quilt boxes volition suit beefy quilts and protect them from dust and light. These economical, lightweight, corrugated polypropylene boxes also are moisture-resistant. Buy a box large enough for your quilt with lightly crumpled acid-gratuitous tissue padding the folds.

Estimating Your Vintage Quilt's Age

A quilt's fabric can tell yous a lot about its age. The earliest quilts were made of homespun cloth; print materials became common after 1820. Nineteenth-century quilts used cotton—calico, gingham, muslin and solids—along with wool and challis. Frontier women employed muslin, sacking and sample swatches. Victorian-era quilters incorporated expensive fabrics such as silk, taffeta, velvet and satin. By the mid-1800s, women were buying fabric specifically for quilting. During the crazy-quilt mania of the 1880s, manufacturers started selling bundled scraps. Some plow-of-the-century quilts incorporate feed or carbohydrate sacks and even silk swatches that were put in cigarette packs to encourage women to smoke.

Since sure patterns were common to specific groups, eras and regions, a quilt's design might give you clues about its creator. All Pennsylvania Amish quilts, for example, feature directly-border geometric shapes. Tiny patchwork pieces demonstrate frugality and patience—quilting was an early form of recycling, later all. When using design motifs to approximate a quilt'southward age, keep in listen that the fabrics might be a decade or 2 older than the quilt itself.

Family History Q&A: Expert Communication on Preserving Heirloom Quilts

Got a cover quilted by Grandma or Great-grandma? Textile conservationist Julia M. Brennan shares tips on caring for and displaying erstwhile (or new) family quilts.

Q: What makes heirloom quilts so special?

A: Quilts are a unique form of material, made of fabrics reflecting a certain time in history and a certain wealth or status. Women often made quilts to mark events or anniversaries; they might have monograms, names or dates. Passed downwardly from generation to generation, quilts become intimate parts of a family's history.

Q: Why practice quilts require special care?

A: Quilts are complicated. They're constructed in multiple layers, normally with batting or padding within, and fabrics of varying type, force and color fastness. Outer layers may have delicate embroidery, stitching, ribbons or other embellishments. Quilts are also usually large, making them tricky to manage.

Q: How can you lot safely clean a quilt?

A: Examine it for condition bug. Vacuum the front and back with a soft brush attachment and depression suction, if y'all tin, to remove surface soil, clay and insect debris. If the quilt is delicate, frayed, split, has a lot of surface embellishments or is a crazy quilt, I recommend belongings a piece of nylon mesh—such as a window screen—over the quilt as a protective screen while you vacuum.

Most dry cleaners don't have experience with heirloom textiles, and their cleaning process isn't gentle enough. Don't put a quilt in a washer or dryer. If you're certain it won't drain, run, tear, fray or autumn apart, you can wash it passively in a tub and lay information technology flat to dry out. Just beware: You may practise irreversible harm.

Q: What's the all-time style to store quilts?

A: Fan-fold the quilt and put crushed archival tissue between layers. Wrap it in tissue or clean cotton sheets. Don't utilize plastic, which traps moisture. Periodically refold the quilt in a different way to avoid permanent creases. Shop it in an acrid-costless box. If you're using a cedar chest or dresser drawer, line it with a clean cotton canvas as a buffer betwixt the quilt and the acidic wood. There's an instructional video on my website. Display a valuable quilt just on a limited ground and make sure information technology's not exposed to a lot of lite (natural or artificial).

Q: How can you preserve the story backside an heirloom quilt?

A: Interview older family members: Does anyone know who fabricated or bought it, when and why? Where did the textile come up from (such equally old wearable)? Copy the information onto an archival cardstock tag and attach it to the quilt with a loop of white thread—non a prophylactic pivot, which may rust. Take pictures of the quilt, both overall and detail shots, so you lot have another record of information technology.

Sunny Morton

A version of this article appeared in the May/June 2013 upshot of Family Tree Magazine.

Quilt Preservation Projects and Museums

Learn more nearly dating and preserving old quilts from these museums.

American Folk Fine art Museum
45 W. 53rd St., New York, NY 10019
(212) 265-1040

Museum of the American Quilter's Order
215 Jefferson St., Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-8856

New England Quilt Museum
18 Shattuck St., Lowell, MA 01852
(978) 452-4207
www.nequiltmuseum.org

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
1111 Washington Ave., Golden, CO 80401
(303) 277-0377

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles
520 S. First St., San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 971-0323

Shelburne Museum
US Route seven, Shelburne, VT 05482
(802) 985-3346

Virginia Quilt Museum
301 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, VA 22801
(540) 433-3818

Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts
N50 W5050 Portland Road, Cedarburg, WI 53012
(262) 546-0300

Last Updated: January 2021

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