Monday, I showed you my big finish for the week, my Fire Escape Quilt. I'm linking this up with AmandaJean or Crazy Mom Quilts, Finish it up Friday party. I just bought her book yesterday, and am loving it!!
I though it'd also be fun to show you the quilt that it's "replacing". This is the first quilt I made for my younger son, about 6 years ago. I took the top picture today, the bottom, 6 years ago. Seeing Leah Day's post about how to fix holes in quilts yesterday was very timely, as this quilt also has a small hole.
Considering the years of laundering it's taken and years of use, though, it's in really good shape, so repair it, I will, then it gets to be "retired". That leads to the question, how DO you retire a quilt? For sentimental value, I want to keep it, but is there a good way to store it anyone can suggest? I'm getting to the point where I also have many extra quilts in the house that need to be stored properly. I got to admit though, I'm running out of storage space. How do you decide to give a quilt away, or keep it for the long term? What do you think quilts want to do during retirement? Do tell!!
When I made a new quil to replace the really worn out couch quilt, I took the old quilt and folded it over the dog crate which lives in our living room. Now it looks better than it did as just a dog crate sitting in the living room. I have a couple other old quilts hanging over the backs of chairs and others folded over the end of the guest bed.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think quilts are made to be used, so just putting them on display (unless they're something incredibly fancy) isn't what I'd do. My only regret is we have a quilt that an older relative made and its seams are too fragile now to use as I'd like, as seeing it always makes us think of our relative, and having it in the cupboard means we don't see it. If that makes sense. I have a bunch of crocheted and knitted afghans my mom made or I got from my grandmother or Doug's family and they just don't go with anything, but I refuse not to use them - at least when I'm cold I drag them out - it's like a hug!
ReplyDeleteNice finish!!!! It's a lovely calming quilt and will do nicely for a boys bed! Retired quilts are hard to do something with. What about hanging it on a wall in the room? or folded at the end of the bed (for when real comfort may be needed). You could always find a long narrow empty wall (end of a hallway) and hang folded quilts on rails all down the wall, with maybe 12" of each one showing.... I may have to use that idea... too.
ReplyDeleteI really need to learn to store quilts properly also. Mine are folded in the linen closet. I wonder about storage in a cedar chest. I really love useing all of mine, but some out grandmothers made should be stored, probably. I love to give quilts away, but I usually have someone in mind when I'm making the quilt. I make the ones I'll keep with that in mind.
ReplyDeleteBy the way I tagged you in a bloggers game. It has been fun participating and I thought you might enjoy it.
http://createinthesticks.blogspot.com/2012/11/ive-been-tagged-fun-blogging-game.html
Happy Day!
Thanks for all of the insightful comments! A lot to think about :-)
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