Should I actually use my quilts?
09-05-2013, 04:20 AM
#192
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: North Wales UK
Posts: 2,028
I have just printed off that lovely quilt poem as one of my pupil's made a lovely double size quilt as a wedding gift and is so worried it will end up folded in a cupboard! Thank you for posting it.
09-05-2013, 04:21 AM
#193
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 674
Erma Bombeck had a few good words on this subject. I'll bet if you googled it you'd find it. She said if she had known, she would have had people over, even if her carpets were threadbare, if she had known, she would have used her best lingerie, used her gift perfumes, her mothers quilts. She had cancer at an early age and these were the things she wished she had done. Pretty profound. She was an excellent writer which gave it more impact.
09-05-2013, 04:30 AM
#194
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 674
My former mother in law made a quilt that to this day I never saw. From knowing the perfectionist she was, I'm sure she did an outstanding job on it. She made this for her daughter who was a little girl at the time, and then put it in the closet. I heard about this quilt a few years ago from her daughter. This woman passed away recently and her daughter finally got the quilt. However, who knows how it held up in the closet and she never saw her daughter enjoy the quilt and now her daughter has the memory of the quilt her Mom made that was just too good to be given to her by her Mom, but was good enough to be given to the closet.
My dgd got a quilt and used it and used it. It was strings by the time we went on a vacation and it somehow got left behind. Of course it was thrown out and she was devastated. But what memories we can track through mimi.
09-05-2013, 04:45 AM
#195
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Ohio
Posts: 3,712
Mine are well used ! I even use them outside on the ground , the dogs use them , I don't make them to sit somewhere till I die and then my uncaring family toss them out along with my craft hoard, I seen what was done with my mother in laws things, to the land fill it all went so mine are well used.
09-05-2013, 05:46 AM
#196
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 5,920
Yes, Yes, Yes! Use all your quilts and use them up. If they remain "protected" they will never hold fond memories and will just be something to sell when your family has to break up your worldly goods. I think of quilts like the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, they long to be real. In order to be real, they have to be loved. No one loved a closet quilt that couldn't be touched.
09-05-2013, 06:15 AM
#197
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Elsmere, KY
Posts: 619
When I was younger and received something "special" such as expensive perfume, etc., I would put it away and not use it because if I used it up, it would be gone and I wouldn't have it any longer. One day as I was dusting all these "special, unused items," I had an epiphany. By saving them and not using them, it was like I didn't have them at all. I decided that very day that when I received something special, I would use it and enjoy it.
Quilts are special items to be used and enjoyed. If you have them tucked away in your linen closet, do you only enjoy them when you clean that closet? Wouldn't it be more rewarding to have them out where you and your loved ones could enjoy them everyday of your lives? The only quilt in my house that doesn't get used (yet) is the show quilt I made earlier this year because I intend to enter it into a few other shows. After that, you better believe it will be put on a bed to be seen and enjoyed.
Quilts are special items to be used and enjoyed. If you have them tucked away in your linen closet, do you only enjoy them when you clean that closet? Wouldn't it be more rewarding to have them out where you and your loved ones could enjoy them everyday of your lives? The only quilt in my house that doesn't get used (yet) is the show quilt I made earlier this year because I intend to enter it into a few other shows. After that, you better believe it will be put on a bed to be seen and enjoyed.
09-05-2013, 07:12 AM
#198
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: South Florida
Posts: 5
The old saying and story goes that a woman was given a beautiful and expensive lingerie - She kept it in her dresser for "a special occasion" - her husband buried her in it! - Use your quilts - make sure the people you give them to use them - they get better with use and age, I believe - people will cherish your gift if you insist they use them ( I have to insist, because so people are afraid to use them because of the time spent)
09-05-2013, 12:59 PM
#199
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 9,568
I use quilts. I am a bit selective about some of them because my husband rough houses with the dogs on things and they usually don't fare too well so quilts aren't allowed on the floor. I do, however, always remember my father coming home after his mother died and they cleaned out her house with stacks of hand decorated linens and even a full size quilt that had never been used. He said that his mother had also put away most of the gifts that we'd sent her over the years in the boxes with the cards and never used them. He gave the linens and quilt to my mother and said "Don't you dare put these away to save. They were made to be used, so use them". I've always followed that advice in my own life. Use and enjoy the beautiful things you have.
09-05-2013, 02:19 PM
#200
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: The Finger Lakes of upstate NY
Posts: 3,466
First, I've washed quilts lots of times without discernable fading. No staining, either, but am not sure what would stain them on a bed?
Either way, I'd rather have them USED, seen and enjoyed - even if they get stained or fade - than packed away in a closet.
Either way, I'd rather have them USED, seen and enjoyed - even if they get stained or fade - than packed away in a closet.
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