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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

What To Do With All These Quilts?


I'm blessed with a growing business and for the last year have had some growing pains.  What to do with all the "stuff".  Bolts of fabric, more patterns, Fat Quarters and bundles.  It's a nice problem to have, and I'm not complaining.  I'm in the process of renovation to accommodate all these goodies, and I'm just not coming up with a good plan for storing quilts I don't use very often.  Mostly holiday quilts I made years ago.  So, I'm wondering... 

What you do with your quilts?  

How do you store quilts you don't use or display in your home regularly?  

Any advice would be appreciated, and I think many others would benefit from your ideas!  



Guess what's coming soon??  

Another Pocket Patchwork Sew-Along!!  

This will be short and sweet and use nothin' but scraps.  Details will be posted right here in a couple of weeks, and it will be over before the holidays.  So....get ready for a little stash raid!! 

20 comments:

  1. Hi there: your quilts are beautiful. In your shop/studio perhaps a couple of wooden old fashioned ladders could be used to display your quilts in themes within your fabric. I don't have that many but I do have a good size bookcase in the quest room. They make for excellent morning coffee conversation when my company wake up from quilty dreams. Happy redecorating. Debra

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  2. I have quilts on top of an older entertainment center that I also store quilts in. I have them on chairs, couches, racks, beds. And I try and switch them around so that they all get used. Right now I believe there are about 62 quilts in my house and two to stitch the binding down on. Oh, I have lots of family that are waiting for their inheritance!!! :) Laura V.

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  3. I haven't been quilting long enough to have enough finished quilts to have this problem Pam ...shame!!...Yaay another sewalong, I'll be in for sure - thank you!

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  4. I haven't been quilting long enough to have enough finished quilts to have this problem Pam ...shame!!...Yaay another sewalong, I'll be in for sure - thank you!

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  5. We display quilts on an old ladder in the family room, some folded and placed in a basket on it's side on the entertainment center, folded at the foot of the bed, in an armoire, and in a blanket chest. We are having a quilt distribution at Christmas when all of our children and grandchildren will be here. Your quilts look so good all stacked up and I do appreciate your problem.

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  6. Good question! I have many finished quilts also and have them displayed over chairs, beds, and walls. Nancy Martin has a good book, "At Home With Quilts" for more ideas. When not in season I store mine on a spare double bed so they can lay flat. I am now contemplating on giving some away so others can enjoy.

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  7. My extra quilts are rolled up and on a shelf in what used to be my Linen/towel closet. 4 shelves FULL. Bigger ones are in the bottom of the closet, stored in a matching pillowcase. YES, I'll be stash digging for another SAL.

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  8. Why don't you send all those quilt to the refugees camps in North Africa. The United Nations have cut the daily money amount to 80 cents Euro. How can you live on that????? Those are the forgotten humans. They don't know how to live thru the next day and we think about "What to do with a quilt"
    Yours sincerley, Birgitt from Germany

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  9. I keep all of my Christmas quilts in a bench that has storage under the seat. And I hate to admit this, because it's a bone of contention with the hubster, but I use our guest bath as a quilt storage room. All of the really big ones hang over the shower rod and the rest are piled on the toilet, counter top and folded in bins. I think there are even a few plastic tubs of quilted items in the bath tub. I guess I need to clear some of this stuff out also, but at least no one can use that bathroom so I don't have to clean it!

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  10. Hi Pam - Set them free! I am currently giving away 6+ quilts a year...for me the process of creating is the important part and folks love to get them I am finding. Co-workers who are retiring, friends w/newborns, friends @ the holidays, etc. Even simple table toppers/runners seem to be welcomed. Cathie

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  11. I had my husband make a cabinet out of a large old window. I have that in my closet and that's where I store all my Christmas Quilts. I can still admire them all folded up and the sun light can't get to them.
    Donna

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  12. Love the ideas of previous commenters. Lucky me, hospice in my county does a quilt auction every fall and I just took them a baby quilt. I have most of my quilts stacked on two guest beds. When guests are here the extras go in the closet. I have some on the walls and others folded or draped here and there. I, too, have an old ladder with quilts on it - mine is in my dining room. I get lots of compliments on it. My intent was to send some of my quilts off with my children but the two out of school aren't really settled yet. I make quilts for all my grand nieces and nephews within their first year of life and I'm playing with giving quilts to my siblings and nieces and nephews who are interested. That might have to wait until my children have first dibs. I think it is important to have our quilts out for view and use. Otherwise, they become meaningless to our family.

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  13. I have most of mine stored in old free standing cupboards and pie safes. I have two ladders for seasonal displays, a long drapery rod for full and queen size seasonal display in my family room. Quilts on all three beds and always one on the back of couches for using with nap time. Wall hangings and table toppers are rotated almost every other month.

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  14. I roll my quilts and tie with ribbon, fabric strips or twine. Some are stored on top shelves in closets, some are in large baskets standing up in them and some are in old trunks which have been lined with laundered fabric or acid free tissue paper. The rolling technique seems to give better access when they are needed and, for me, appear to take up less space.
    Jane

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  15. I store my smaller quilts in baskets and stackable trunks. My larger ones are layered on a quilt ladder and over backs of chairs and sofa. And then I fold them and put them on top of bookcases and china cabinets.

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  16. For small quilts that are displayed during certain months I use clip hangers and have them in a closet or hanging on a clothes rack and then throw a nice sheet over the rack in the closet they are hung according to the season and holidays so easy to find as they are taken down they are moved and hung at the end that way they are always in order to the calendar. a full closet is nice to have as I can hang more than one on the clip hanger usually in pairs works great

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  17. Yay, another quilt a long. Looking forward to that, as always. Storing quilts, well, having been quilting for only just over one year, I don't have a whole lot of quilts yet. Of course, counting the ones from friends, that equals quite a few in my collection. Some are lying over a chair back, and have been thinking of buying a modern reproduction of a quilt rack floor-standing holder. For now, some are stored in those clear, moth-proof, archival safe storage bags :)

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  18. My husband has made me quilt ladders and quilt racks out of cribs they are in different rooms in our house I probably have about fifty or more displayed I am a quiltaholic I have made so many quilts too numerous to count I have three girls and three granddaughters so you can guess how many I have made for them My passion in life

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  19. I do lot of things with my quits...I have a wrought iron towel bar I hung up high in the hallway to hang a folded quilt.I drape some over our Headboard & footboard of our bed..I use some as tablecloths, I like when they drape down.. I have some over the backs of our recliners & sofa..and I store the ones I'm not using in my Hutch.
    Debra in Ma.

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  20. I hang my tops while they are waiting to be quilting and then folden in the closet.

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