You have a beautiful quilt and have folded it over a chair or the back of a sofa.  It is noticed by everyone who comes into that room and is continuously complimented on…so you leave it as it is.  Being the focal point in a room.

Many people don’t buy a new sofa or chair for at least 10 years.  That quilt may be used but it is then immediately folded back up on put back where it has lived for so long.

One day, after a number of years in that same position, you pick the quilt up and look at it.  Perhaps you even take it to the iron because you’ve noticed the fold marks in it.

But the iron doesn’t fix the problem.

So you decide to wash and dry it.

But that doesn’t fix the problem, either – and it may have made the folded areas worse!

And you end up with a quilt with a permanent fold in it, something like this:

You have worked SO hard to share your quilt with others and to enjoy its beauty – but, you have also folded that quilt the same way for a number of years and now the threads in the fabric have been damaged and weakened and they will never recover.

For the sake of your quilt and all of the work that went into it, be sure you know how to take care of it.  Museums store their quilts on large cardboard tubes – usually received from carpet stores.  While that size of a cardboard tube is not really an option for a regular-sized home and it does not take into effect the fact that you want to show off your beautiful creation.

The next best things you can do for your quilt is to regularly (weekly) re-fold it.  There are other storage options available (see here), but for the home quilter, make sure you either re-fold the quilt or put a sleeve on the back and hang it on a wall.  These are the best ways of ensuring your quilt will be safe from folded damage, and will be passed on to the next generation!