Quilt Care Frequently Asked Questions

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Question : How do you store your quilts.

Answer: When I finish each quilt I build a special shipping and storage tube for it. The tubes are heavy cardboard, with plywood ends. A smaller cardboard tube goes from top to bottom inside. This is covered with cloth, so the quilt doesn't touch the cardboard. The quilt is rolled around the inside cardboard tube, then wrapped in cloth. The rolled quilt is slid into a length of plastic tubing and the whole thing is slid into the large cardboard tube. I feel this protects the quilts both during shipping and while they are being stored. Since all my tubes look similar, I put the name of the quilt on the outside of the tube, so I can locate it when I need it. When one quilt sells, the tube can often be recycled for a new quilt.

Sono tubes can be purchased at many lumber yards. You can also get them from concrete contractor supply places (look in the yellow pages). They are used as concrete forms. Shipping tubes can also be purchased from Yazoo Mills, Inc.

Coming soon!!! Instructions for making a shipping / storage tube. Check the internet store under instructional brochures.

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Question: How do you ship your quilts.

Answer: I ship my quilts in the same tubes (See Question #1) I use for storing them. I almost always ship by UPS ground.

Coming soon!!! Instructions for making a shipping / storage tube. Check the internet store soon under instructional brochures.

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Question: How do you hang your quilts in your studio?

Answer: In my studio I have a series of tracks installed in the ceiling. They are the same tracks used to hang sliding closet doors. The little wheelie things that are usually attached to the doors and slide in the tracks have screw holes in them, so I just run an S hook through the screw hole and through the hole in the quilt rod, and have an instant sliding quilt hanger. Most of my S hooks are homemade from those cheesy white shirt hangers you get from the dry cleaner these days. The closet tracks come in sections about six feet long, and the thing you have to be most careful of is to exactly align the ends of the sections. My contractor didn't necessarily "get it" and on some of my tracks I have to get up on a ladder and guide the wheelie things over the seams between the tracks. Before my tracks were installed, they were painted white to match the ceiling.

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Question: What kind of rods do you use to hang your quilts?

Answer: My rods are made from either flat aluminum bar stock (for quilts up to 54") or steel pipe (for larger quilts). In the past, some of my rods were also made from flat wooden lattice strips. Wooden rods are thicker than aluminum, and need to be cut, sanded, and painted to prevent acids in the wood from damaging the fabric. Consequently I seldom use wood.

The aluminum bar stock can be purchased at a large hardware store or home center. I usually get 1 1/2" bar for the top rod. This will work well for quilts up to about 54". The advantage of aluminum bar stock is that it is clean, light weight, very flat, and does not need to be painted. It is easy to cut with an inexpensive hack saw. I smooth up the cut ends with a file, and use an electric drill to drill a hole in each end that is large enough to slip over the head of a "8 finishing nail. The disadvantage is that the aluminum is expensive, so I get a little testy when shows do not return them with my quilts.

For quilts over 54", the aluminum tends to bend, so I switch to galvanized steel pipe, which is used for electrical conduit. It is also clean, relatively light weight, and does not require painting. It can be cut at home with an inexpensive hand-held pipe cutter. It will hold most quilts up to about six feet without sagging. It can be drilled with your electric drill, but you may need to drill small "pilot" holes first.

For very wide or very heavy quilts (such as my High Tech Tucks quilts) I use steel plumbing pipe. You can get "black pipe" which is relatively inexpensive. It is covered with the worst sort of nasty black grease, and needs to be cleaned and painted before you use it. You can also get galvanized pipe, which is more expensive, but does not need to be painted. These pipes need to be cut with a heavy duty pipe cutter, so I usually pay extra to have it cut to size at the hardware store. Since my shipping tube will probably not be as long as the rod, I usually have the rod cut in half, and two of the ends threaded at the hardware store. Then I buy a connector, so the two ends can be screwed together to form the full length rod. I am able to drill this pipe with my electric drill, but I need to drill very small holes first before enlarging them to fit over the head of a "8 finishing nail. A drill press works better if you have access to one.

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Question: I notice that you use bottom rods in most of your quilts. Why?

Answer: Generally speaking, I don't mind if quilts and other kinds of textile art waffle a little when they are hung. They are after all textiles, and "waffling" is a characteristic of many textiles. For my own quilts, however, I feel that the overall look is very finished and "tailored", so I like them to be square and to hang straight. I use a thin rod, usually 3/4" aluminum bar stock, in a narrow bottom rod pocket. This is not to add weight, but just to make sure the bottom is straight across.

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Question: How does light affect your hand dyed fabric?

Answer: Those who have studied the light-fastness of fabric report that the fabrics hand dyed with fiber reactive dye have slightly more light-fastness than the average comercially dyed fabric. They will definitely fade with prolonged exposure to UV rays, but will hold up a little better than most commercial cottons under the same circumstances. If I am going to be installing a quilt in a commercial setting where the light filtration is questionable, I usually spray the quilt with "Quiltgard" UV protective spray, made by Blue Magic Products, Inc. This is carried in some quilt shops. It used to be called Blue Luster Fabric Protector. The last supply I got was from the Great American Quilt Factory in Denver. possibil@ecentral.com This is like sunscreen for your quilt. If it is exposed to enough light, it will still sunburn/fade, but it takes much longer to start.

The quilt should never be hung where direct sunlight will reach it at any time of the day. If flourescent lighting will be shining on it for many hours per day, the flourescent tubes should be covered with a UV shield.

The only time I have noticed any fading in my studio was when I used to work in my house, and my fabric was stored on open shelves in a room with a large south facing window. The sun would shine on my shelves for several hours each day all winter. There was some fading along the folds of both my commercial and hand dyed fabric in that room. I have not observed any fading since moving to my new studio, where I have 48 full spectrum flourescent lights, but no direct sunlight.

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