I have been giving away some of my quilts to family members and charities. Just mailed off three the other day. Also,give to Quilts Without Borders for overseas children in need......good organization. I too would say wash the quilts several times. good for u for salvaging them.

I wonder if I'm the only person in the world who cannot tolerate the odor of Odoban! I tried it once and had to give the rest of it away.

Tide has a new product - Tide with Febreeze. Might be worth a try.

My thoughts are: They are basically ruined, so wash them. One thing that I use to freshen up towels, sheets, etc. is to add baking soda and vinegar to my washing machine when I wash them. I would use about 1/4 box of baking soda and a couple cups of vinegar.

This is also how I clean the garberator in the kitchen, which seems to get smelly.

Good luck. Let us all know how you make out.

amh

http://www.rockymountainquilts.com/index.php--I read about this lady, Betsey Telford-Goodwin in Yankee magazine. She hand washes all the found quilts that she retores. Perhaps you could contact her.

Oh how my heart went out to you in this entry. I have given quilts to my son and his family over the years, and one day when I was over at his house after a move (they are now divorced) there was one of my quilts in the packing quilts pile of rubble......

And then another time when I was accidentally over at "her" house, there were two quilts that I had personalized and made for their two kids in one of her trash piles. Needless to say, my son got a tongue lashing for his half of my discovery, and "she" will never see another quilt of mine at her address. Don't get on my s- - - list, huh?

Anyway, I don't know how I got off on this tear; but I commend you for wanting to clean these quilts up, and it sounds like you are doing the same thing I would do. It breaks my heart to see something like that happen.

Wash them by any means above and then hang them outside on your line or deck rail in the sun for at least two days, three is better, if they still smell then do all this again. You can hang them with the pretty side in...

It's really annoying to see how ungrateful people are. I had little interest in the quilts because I think it's trashy to squabble over dead people's belongings, but this person has a grasping, greedy mentality, and she got them. It was part of a pattern. When relatives died, she would start claiming they had told her they wanted her to have this or that item, and it would end up in her house. Or she would simply take things from other people's houses and then claim she had had them all along. Then she let it all disintegrate. Now she is clamoring for my mother's silver, while my dad is still alive. My mother's gold Rolex and wedding ring are gone, probably pawned. My grandmother's wedding ring is gone. Tons of gold chains. Family photos were stolen. I recovered some. Others were lost to mold.

She fooled a relative into paying for most of a house for her and then giving her a right of survivorship. We finally got her out last week. Today a mold remediation guy told us every wall would have to come out. She left a water leak open under the house for years. I'm not the world's best housekeeper, but some people defy belief.

Your story makes me really angry, but I guess decent people should be grateful for the lessons others teach us about themselves.

Sorry if I seem to be turning a forum post into group therapy, but this has been a remarkable experience!

I agree with Moonwork about not having them in my house because of the toxins leaching out from the drugs not to mention the mold and other contaminants you mentioned. Please do some research there are drugs that are so toxic that they can't be removed from fabrics. In one of my volunteer pursuits I work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and I've seen young children under 3 test positive for meth from being in the location where the parents were "cooking". The children were not able to bring any toys or clothes due to the contamination so please be careful.

how about some pictures when you get done? we would love to see the quilts that you put so much work into. thanks in advance.