Question

I am almost 60 years old. I have a quilt that was made by my paternal grandmother and her mother sometime in the years before I was born (1953). I don’t know how many years – it could have been they did this in the 1930’s or as late as the 1940’s. Would this quilt be considered old?

I keep it in a trunk that I have. Is there something special I should do to preserve it? It looks like new still as it’s not been used at all. I have a lot of other quilts, too, that were done by my mother-in-law but they were done in recent decades. There *is* one that is older that she inherited and didn’t make herself. I don’t use these quilts.

They are folded and inside individual pillow cases and stacked on each other on top of an antique wash stand of some sort that she had. My house is small with just our one bedroom and bed and the grandkids are on/in that bed sometimes so I just keep old stuff on there that I don’t care about. Some day these quilts will belong to those kids. 🙂 Anita.

Answer

Yes, it would be considered “old”.

The best way to preserve your quilts is to keep them clean, out of sunlight and it sounds like you’re already doing this. I wouldn’t stack them as the weight of the quilts can cause permenant creases to the folds of lower quilts.

Keep them out of reach of the grand kids and any pets and you should be OK. You might want to make notes describing anything you know about each quilt and keep the notes inside the quilts. This way, when you’re gone, the children will have the record.

Hope this helps.

Regards Tiffany.