Storing and care of a quilt with crayon drawings?
 

This is a question for anyone with experience with quilts using crayon drawings in the blocks.. Our guild helps with enrichment classes at the end of the school year of our elementary school and we created quilts last year for the 3 grade levels using kid's handprints. Quilts have been hanging in the hallway all year long now and I'm thinking that we need to help figure out storing the quilts for the summer. Obviously don't want to wash in warm water, but would it hurt them to be put in a dryer on the air setting, just to get the dust out? Any information is greatly appreciated.

Oh my, that quilt is adorable!!!

so cute! (and what a great idea,too) Instead of putting in the dryer, what about laying a piece of netting or gauze over it and then vacumn (not the most suction setting). And then lay acid free tissue on it and roll for storage.

I agree with vacuuming. A net's not likely necessary as fabrics are newer, not vintage. I wonder if theses were " heat set" when made? At some point in future, they'll need deep cleaning.

Never thought about the long-term care of crayon colored quilts, but what a good question. Love the quilt from kid's handprints. What a great idea!

I've done blocks that are colored with crayon and then ironed to remove the wax and leave the die. Once they are heat set that way I've just washed and stored them like any other quilt. They aren't washed often, but so far I've not noticed any change to them.

Now if they were colored and not heat treated, I'd be very careful as just about anything could cause color transfer. When I heat set the ones I did, I got a lot of color on the pressing cloth at first. Once set, no more color comes out.

We still have the quilt my mom made for my first born daughter in 1957. She used crayons and pressed each block. It stayed beautiful after many washings. It is a treasure for my daughter as was my mom. I didn't know any different than to wash and dry as usual. I probably would do differently now. Not sure what to tell you about the care of these quilts
though.

Thanks for all the input. Now I know what to tell the school. The colors on the blocks are set. We ironed them until no more color was on the paper towels so they should be able to wash them gently when the need arises. We did only one this spring, as the other grade levels had done theirs last year. This is the school that I served as their librarian for 25 years, so it is near and dear to my heart.

MawMawB ... even though they have been heat set, I would still err on the side of caution.

In packing them away, I think I would insert a piece of parchment between the layers,
to prevent any transfer, in case some residue has remained.

Just In Case!

What a special quilt .... and a nice way for the guild to work with the school kids.