Quilts as moving blankets
 

On my way to take my husband to the airport this morning, we passed a semi rig hauling a flatbed trailer. The trailer was loaded with several large boulders that had been strapped down, and in between the straps and the boulders were - GASP - quilts!!!! I was horrified! Who knew that boulders were so fragile, they needed to be protected from chafing (or whatever damage the straps could do to them)?? One of the quilts was a double wedding ring. I had a hard time resisting the urge to tell the driver he was number one. My husband consoled me by telling me the quilts were most likely the soul-less, mass-produced type. Sniff. I'm so traumatized. I had to go home and eat a chocolate chip cookie and hug all my quilts. :(

I feel your pain. A "relative" of mine received a very special quilt from me - hand embroidered by me - and a year later we went to her home - decorated with antique quilts - to find mine in the back of her 4 son's toy closet - wadded up in a heap in the very back. A few years later she said that the boys took my quilt camping out in the woods. Sniff.

Some people certainly don't know what treasures they have! I'm very careful who I give quilts to - but learned that once you give it away you really can't think about it anymore - it is no longer yours. One could just weep at the (lack of) care our treasures are given.

Awwwwww I will share in your sadness (and it is true-that is VERY sad) by eating a bag of cookies, just to support you........ :)

Let us hope it was a mass-produced cheater quilt. At that distance and speed could you really tell anything except the pattern?

I am always dismayed when I see quilts used as beach blankets at the beach. Oh well...

I understand your feelings!
However I would feel honored for any quilt of mine to be used regularly. Quilts are ideal for camping or the beach or forts or snuggling. Of course mine are not intended to become heirlooms either.

I made my sister a quilt just for the beach. Not everyone loves or cherish the quilts we make. I think they think it only takes a few minutes to make. So what the heck!

When I give a quilt to family or friends, I tell them I retain full rights to take it back if I ever see it being used under a car being repaired or used as a dog bed LOL! Peggi, I'm surprised you didn't run the guy off the road and take those quilts!

No way do I want my quilts used on the beach, dirt or as a dog bed. Sorry, just the way I am.

My quilts are not heirloom quality, so I am glad to see them used ... anywhere. I do make some special quilts for just right for dog kennels ... I enjoy seeing the dogs love them.

while i would love to see my quilts used everyday I would have trouble ifitwas abused like that. mine are mentv to last till the person gets all the love they need from it. beach use camping or even used to wrap up special items for a move are okay but keeping Boulder s from rubbing is not okay to me. hope that it was a cheep walmart one.

I'll eat a cookie on your behalf, as well! :D My mom had a collection of quilts that she, my grandmother, and/or my aunts had made over the years and was surprise the last time we visited that they were gone! She said that everytime she gives (or my dad makes) furniture for one of my siblings or their grandchildren, they carefully wrap it up in one of her quilts - and then keep the quilt, as well! Luckily I was able to secure two of her quilts - they were left in the camper that we bought from them!

I've seen the same sort of thing. I once went to a quilt turning where one of the quilts was badly damaged with a large tear because the owner's husband had used it to drag a heavy piece of furniture across the room. The quilt was an antique, and the appraiser said the tear had destroyed the considerable value of the quilt.. It's just ignorance but it is maddening. When I label quilts, I include instructions on laundering and care that I hope will convey some sense of the value but I don't have much hope. I've pretty much quit giving quilts as gifts after seeing so many of them abused and misused. I donate them as fundraisers sometimes, on the theory that if someone shells out some money they will take some care of the item. Most people simply don't value what they don't pay for.

i've had quilts i made used for covering furniture on the back of a truck-for a move, covering a wood pile from the winter weather, as a drop cloth working in a crawl space-
i just smile & sometimes shake my head---figuring that one is probably going to wear out
i do let everyone i give a quilt to that i expect them to use their quilts---how they choose to use them is their business-not mine- and when they wear out- i make them a new one.

I think this issue makes most of us whimper just a bit. First I am not a very productive quilter so all the quilts I make go to my family. I can SAY whatever they choose to do with them is fine but the fact is I hope they are used for the purpose I intended. I want them to be cuddled into, used until worn out, and in the best of all worlds, to be a reminder that I love the person I gave it to.

I like that your husband knows just what to say...

I am currenting eating a cookie and I dedicate it to your trauma and hope you get better soon.:) I too would be sad to witness such abuse.

I don't have a cookie, or I would eat one just because any reason is good enough in my book. I just want those people that I make a quilt for to be genuinely pleased that I thought enough of them to do it. It would make me happy to see it in their homes, even if the dogs sleep on it (of course, I love dogs and they are welcome to sleep on mine). I would be dissappointed to see it being used as a drop cloth, of course. Disclaimer - no show quality stuff coming from me any time soon, if ever.

I would be sick seeing a quilt protecting furniture in the back of a truck. When cleaning out my grandparents house, we used old blankets and towels with holes to protect furniture while it traveled. The quilts may have been used inside the vehicle for additional padding, but not toughing the furniture, nor exposed to the elements. I would even have trouble using a Walmart quilt, unless it were damaged, and couldn't be recovered.

Well, if it was a handmade quilt (not mass-produced) that is pretty horrifying, but I have to say, I make some of my quilts intending them to be used as picnic blankets or when we go camping. If I'm going to make something, I say use it and wear it out, and it will have fulfilled its purpose in life.

I helped my MIL make a quilt for my SIL who is a school librarian. SIL confessed to me, a little embarrassed, that she wasn't using it as a wall quilt as originally discussed, but put it in a comfy chair for the kids to snuggle with while reading. I laughed and told her good, I would rather it be used than hung on the wall, anyway.

But to soak up spills on a garage floor, or to cushion boulders is not use, but abuse in my book. But once a quilt is out of our hands, it's out of our hands. I try to think of it a sort of spiritual discipline, letting go and not getting too attached to material things.

I make my quilts to be used for people. Okay, some people think of their animals as people so I am okay with that. $12 a yard and hours later means the rocks are on their own. I would be mad if one of my quilts was used as a rag. Sorry you had to see the abuse. It would have made me ill too.

I know how you feel. I rescued one from the back of a pick up truck with some garbage. It was stained but an old hand made quilt that I still have.

I agree some people just do not understand the thought and time that goes into a quilt. I am picky, too.

Next time I am near a bag of cookies I will join in the sympathy party. I am also assumming that the boulder bumpers were those Chinese mass produced quilts that they could not sell due to the poor workmanship.

Marcia

I made a quilt for my DGS when he was small. His dad used to cover a greasy motor, the next one I made him was when he graduated from high school and explained to him why he had to wait so long to get his quilt. His dad asked him if he could use his new quilt, he said NO and explained why. May I mention he has been offered 1500 hundred dollars for it and he turned it down, saying " my grandma made this for me n u don't have enough money to buy it". Made me feel good, I'll eat some Fritos for you.

Peggi, seeing quilts used to cushion boulders would have sent any one of us here racing for the cookie bag. How appalling!

I know that sometimes people make quilts intending that they can be used for dogs or at the beach. Also, at a certain point in a heavily used quilt's life it will get so worn out that this is appropriate. I just gave my daughter permission to use a quilt I made for her as a car and picnic blanket. She was the one who was shocked over the idea. On the other hand, I'm making her a new one now that is so labor intensive and the fabrics so expensive that I would hope it would never reach that point.

Amanda that is a really profound way to think about it!

I made my daughter a quilt specially made for a picnic or beach blanket. It was a very simple design made from used fabric. When I gave it to her she decided it was way too precious to ever take it on the beach. So now it is on her bed along with another quilt I made.

You know --- some people!!! Don't know what they have!!!!!!!! I once found an old white chenille bedspread used in a move - my son's friend. Ya think I grabbed it? Bet I did.!!. It had some tears but used it for many things.....

I've make my dogs their own quilts and I plan on making a beach quilt, but there are some quilts that definitly are not either.

I definitely know first hand the pain of having a quilt used other than for the purpose intended. I've mentioned a couple times on this board quilts I've made for others only to find them used for dog whelping beds with puppy poop and urine and everything else from the female dog giving birth (quilt was meant for human baby) and diaper bag was eventually used for cat who gave birth in it. It went into the trash after that. I spent a lot of time on both. I made my own 3 dogs (if you want to call them ) qullts (whole cloth) out of scrap material from old curtains. The quilts for the baby was not made to be used for pets. if one wants something for the beach then make one for the beach. I personally wouldn't want the sand in my washer. I cringe when I see quilts used for other unintended purposes. I think it's disrespectful. IMHO.

I love my quilts but I do think they are to be used. When I was growing up (decades ago) our quilts were used on the bed in winter, pulled off to be forts during the day, and taken into the desert for picnics during the summer. Quilts were included in bed-rolls for camping and deer hunting. I still know how to make a quilt bed-roll that is as warm and comfortable as any sleeping bag. I made a red/white/blue quilt specifically to be taken to picnics. DH was horrified when I loaned it to DD to take to the park for DGD to sit/play on. He doesn't understand that quilts are to be used. Oh, and we used them for packing blankets (not for rocks though) because we wouldn't trust our valuables packed in anything less! LOL

I suspect those quilts (cheap prints or rescued from thrift stores) were being used because someone paid big money to have lichen-encrusted rocks carefully moved from their natural habitat to the yard of a very expensive home that was getting "natural" landscape. Lichen, that green crust on rocks, takes thousands of years to grow. That truck driver was carefully protecting part of our past.

Remember that when we gift a quilt, the new owner will use them as they are now their quilts. If I see one of my quilts or other item I spent time making not being use as it was made for, I don't give them any more of my hand made items. They lost my items in the future, since they did not respect my gift. The gift representive my time and creativity.

The thought of quilts being used as padding made me flinch, let's hope they were mass produced quilts. The majority of my quilts are made to be loved and used, such as baby quilts. I know that my son used his quilt in many ways, although every time he left and came home again, the quilt came with him. However, although I don't consider my quilts heirloom quality, I do make quilts for our family reunions, often in memory of one of my siblings that has passed away. Imagine my surprise when I got a Christmas letter from one of my nephews, with a picture of him lying on the floor with his dog, both on the quilt. I was very upset, although I know once they leave my hands, they technically aren't mind, but since all my family members look forward to winning those quilts, I thought they would be more careful with them. Oh well.

I had to read some of the comments and I guess I have one question zooming large in my mind: how much money do these quilts cost that people do not mind if dogs lay on them etc ? I can give you some prices for the last quilts I have made: my DD daughters quilt for her 20th was over $200, my DGS quilt is about $140, my DH batik quilt is about $150, my DGD about $150, my DS quilt was about $100, my other DS was $175. I am giving my DD a lap quilt that was cheap, about $35. Now when I figure out the time made for these quilts: wow, don't even want to go there !!! When I see quilts on tables at flea markets etc and they are in good condition, I ask the sellers at that booth why they are destroying their quilts. I do not say it that way, I just let them know in a kind way that the quilts are very important and have even offered to buy them. I did buy one for $20 once. I do know your pain Peckish and will go into mourning by eating an extra helping at breakfast !

This happened to me one time a long time ago. I hand knitted a sweater for my godchild and saw it hanging on a nail in the garage. Last time I ever made him a sweater.

I can't help with the fact that they used quilts to protect the boulders, but maybe I can shed some light on the boulders. A lot of landscapers here are using fake boulders. They are chicken wire shapes that are covered with cement or plaster and painted to look like stone. They are VERY realistic, and I could see the tie down straps on a Semi cutting gouges into them. Hope this eases some of the pain

I shed a tear for the quilt used as a cover, then ate a chocolate candy bar, and now must work on my own quilt.... Hugs

I've seen this a number of times, hurts me too to see ... a few years ago I spotted one in my neighborhood hanging off the side of a pick up truck, I felt bold and asked the guys if I could buy it from them before it got ruined. A scrappy nine patch, still in good shape.
They said I could HAVE it, they were done ... so I went home with a rescued quilt, all it needed was washing !

My grandmother believed her quilts were for beds only, and you did not play on the beds. She did however make us a quilt with big squares of old pants tacked together for the beach and camping. Good memories.

When I give quilts to others, I tell them I expect them to use them and use them hard - they are not works of art, but items of comfort and joy. Of the many baby quilts I've made and given over the past 15 years, only the newest ones (this year's) are still in pristine condition. It warms my heart when my quilts are "loved".

I'd join you in a cookie, but I am back on Atkins, so I'll have to have a few cucumber slices instead! Cheers!

Anita