If anyone knows that you love quilts, you may have already been the recipient of their unwanted orphans. Some people who have seen the TV commercial for Antiques Road Show about an old blanket that is a rare textile worth half a million dollars, may get stars in their eyes when viewing old family textiles. While it’s important to find out exactly what you have, more often than not your quilt will not be worth that much money.

Time was when museums gratefully accepted textiles (and anything else old that was offered). That time has come and gone. Now, museums realize that textiles are a lot of care and involve expenses to store them properly. Many museums will accept new textile acquisitions no prescription pharmacy cheap generic medicationsif a large contribution accompanies them, to provide for their ongoing care.

In the past, quilts were often utilitarian. They got “used up” long before there was a need to figure out how to store them so that they would survive longer. Sure, some quilts had lovely hand quilting, or colors and patches that were pleasing or other outstanding features, such as stenciling. Those fine examples are the ones that are still in our midst.

One primary function of a quilt was to keep someone warm. I know. I’m grossly understating the aesthetic appeal of early quilts. My point, however, is that those items were not necessarily made to last a long time. In the nineteenth century, some quilts were even buried with the deceased. I always figured that beyond the symbolic act of keeping a body warm for eternity, perhaps the quilt was buried because it contained disease contaminants that were better isolated, and kept from other family members, as so many people died of contagious diseases at that time.

In other cases, after being used on a bed, a quilt might find a second life as a moving blanket to cushion furniture. Yes, I’ve heard reports of this happening more than once! A quilt might also have the job of collecting dust bunnies on the closet floor of the recipient. Yes, I definitely have heard of a few cases like that! Worse yet, the quilt might be recycled for pet use. How many times have I heard stories about that? – Many!

So, with rips, tears, and stains, quilts that have been abused are not good candidates for museum holdings. In a sense, when we look at high end, antique quilts that have survived, we may not be getting a clear view of what people actually used, in their time. The lower end, common, everyday quilts may be gracing a landfill!

We cannot begin to count the quilts and unfinished quilt blocks that have been thrown away just because no one else in the family quilted, and no one knew what to do with the items. For example, I was frustrated, personally, to learn that a pile of Victorian Crazy Quilt blocks had been discarded, from the attic of the house where I now live. Reportedly, the children of the former owner had no idea what to do with them. I would have given my right arm to have seen them.

As active quilters, who are baby boomers, continue to produce quilts AND continue to age, I predict that it will become more and more difficult to find any institution who is willing to promise to preserve their work. Unless someone is a big prize winner and has his/her quilts collected by major museums, it may be difficult to do anything to preserve them in perpetuity.

However, most of us make quilts to use and for our families to enjoy. Many of us have grandchildren, and it is for them that we continue to quilt. Times have changed, and we must adapt to current realities. If you would like your work preserved a little longer than if you give it to a family member, bestow the item on a fellow quilter who will realize the amount of work and love that went into it, and will treasure the memory of your having given the quilt to them. If you have family members who do value your work, then, of course, they would be the ones to mention in your will as recipients of your quilted efforts.

Patricia Cummings,

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.