Prairie Quilts | Caring For Our Quilted Legacy

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Caring For Our Quilted Legacy
If your antique quilt is a museum piece, has historical significance, or great interest to collectors, it's a good idea to leave your quilt in original condition to preserve its historical integrity and value. But for most of us, quilts are a legacy we want to preserve and hand down from one pair of loving hands to another. Quilt historian Jenny Yearous of the State Historical Society of North Dakota gave us some advice on how to care for and preserve our antique quilts and family treasures. Click on any picture for a larger view.

Many of us have inherited or purchased old, unfinished quilt tops and blocks. When completing these quilts, Jenny advises using only cotton thread and cotton batting. Polyester is a very stiff, hard fiber compared to cotton. When used with older fabrics, polyester can act like a brillo pad rubbing away at older, weaker fibers and wear them out. You can see in this photo that the polyester batting used in finishing this 1910 quilt top is causing the fragile fabric to disintegrate, especially along the fold lines.

Some disintegration of old fabrics is inevitable. This dotted fabric, for example, is losing its dots. Early black dye was very corrosive and is eating away the cotton fibers of this fabric. Further, the polyester batting used in this quilt is also accelerating the problem by scrubbing away at the fabric from the inside causing further deterioration of the black areas. Many old dyes are light sensitive so store old quilts away from direct sun.

If there are loose seams in your quilt, Jenny's advice is to carefully hand stitch them using cotton thread. Leaving open seams will cause them to continue unraveling and leaves flaps that can catch, causing tears in the fabric or quilting stitches. Don't use your sewing machine on old quilts. Machine stitching can perforate weak fabrics and batting causing further damage.

Many old quilts have stains that have accumulated over time. Unless the stains are extremely unsightly, Jenny recommends that they be left in. Never use a stain remover on antique quilts - there's no telling what it will do to old fabric. If the quilt is very grubby, hand wash the quilt in a bathtub with a mild soap such as Orvis, rinse thoroughly, roll in towels to squeeze out as much water as possible, and spread it flat to air dry.

Silk fabrics have not survived well, largely because of the way in which they were manufactured. At the time, the rustling of silk was a prized characteristic and chemicals were added to the fabric to enhance the sound. Unfortunately, it eats away at the threads causing the characteristic "shattering" you see in this crazy quilt. If you want to preserve the remains of shattered fabric, Jenny recommends silk crepaline, an extremely sheer fabric that can be laid over the damaged fabric and carefully stitched down. It will hold the remnants in place and keep it from further disintegration. Another option to to carefully replace the ruined pieces with vintage fabric from the same era or a faithful reproduction print.

Here's an interesting dilemma - what do you do about well-meaning but ham-handed repairs? A previous owner of this lovely 1900s crazy quilt covered over shattered silk patches with 1950s polyester. Jenny said it's a toss-up. On the one hand, keeping the patches preserves that part of the quilt's history. On the other hand, some repairs are a real eye sore. In those cases, removing the patches restores the integrity of the original.

Jenny's final words of advice to all quilters: document, document, document. Make labels for all your quilts and record as much information as you know each one. Sew the labels on using sturdy cotton thread. Don't depend on word of mouth and oral history to preserve irreplaceable data.

Maker's name including maiden name

Date and place of birth

Date quilt was made (approximate)

Who the quilt was made for

Some quilters have made detailed scrapbooks that will be passed down with the quilt.

Photographs of the maker

Photographs of the quilt including a current one to help document the colors of fading fabrics

Identifying where specific fabrics came from (for example: a piece cut from grandmother's Sunday dress, from a bolt special ordered from Boston)

Stories associated with the quilt

Previous owners

Repairs that have been made