Hello Everyone!

Hope you’re having a great start of the week, weather is so nice here, after a very hot week, this week looks nicer and with some rain.

Today, weather is so nice, fresh and a little windy, I thought I would take two of my large quilts for a sun bath.

I was reading a few blogs about how to take care for your quilts, I found a few great advices, must of them advice not to wash quilts often.

I could listen many of you saying, “oh, that’s not good”, not to wash quilts often, it goes against all rules for a healthy and clean house, and I must say, I like more and more to live in a clean and well organized house, I find easier to be happy in a clean house.

But let’s talk about how to take care of our quilts and why it’s not a good idea to wash them often.

To make a quilt is not an easy job, I might say to make a quilt is an art work, it can take lots of time to finish a quilt, it can go from a few weeks to months and even years.

I must add here, it doesn’t matter if you do the quilting by machine or by hand, quilts are a piece of art when you finish them. And I will give more credit when you made hand quilting on your quilt. It will take more time to finish it.

Bed clothing should be wash every week, and a good advice is to have a few bed clothing sets, so after you wash a set, you need to fold it carefully and place it on your linen closet to rest for a week the least, this is made to let the fibers to rest. I never knew about it, but any cloth fiber need some time to rest and be always in shape.

Quilts are made mostly with cotton 100 % fabric, I use to spend some time looking for the fabrics for my next project, when I find them, I try to get the best fabrics I can buy for it. This means I look for the best quality cotton fabrics for my quilts.

It take time to cut off all the pieces and ensemble each one of them to make the quilt top.

Lately I like to work with the best batting, I look always for natural fibers, cotton, linen and now there is also batting made out of bamboo. which it work very nice for hand quilting.

It takes me a few weeks to made the hand quilting.

After all this work to make a quilt and all the money and time I put on it, why I would put my quilt on the laundry machine and get it washed just like it?

A quilt on the laundry line is something so nice to see.

Quilts ale

There is a few ways to wash a quilt:

• To wash a quilt use only gentle quilt soap or a small amount of real soap, use cold water and a very short gently washing cycle.
• RINSE THOROUGHLY and rinse again.
• Wash every quilt separately
• Some people recommend to dry your quilt on a cold gently cycle on your dryer, I never do this.
• I let the quilt dry on a surface inside the house or outside in a cloudy day.

To wash your quilts by hand:

• Pre-dissolve a small amount of “quilt soap” in a bathtub with cold water, and place your quilt in, let it rest there for about 30 to 40 minutes.
• Gently move your quilt with your hands.
• Drain the water and refill the bathtub with more cold water, move gently again your quilt with your hands to rinse your quilt, rinse your quilt this way two or three times.
• After draining bathtub on final rinse, press your quilt with your hands for a few minutes to drain the water off your quilt.
• Air dry on a cotton bed sheet, flat on the floor, until complete dry

Another good idea to keep your quilt clean for a longer time, it’s to bring your quilt out for a half hour on laundry line. I prefer to do this method on a cloudy day.

One good advice,

• do not dry clean your quilt.
• Do not iron your quilt.

How often should I wash my quilts?

It is said, quilts that are use normally only need washing once a year, if you have pets or young children at home, more frequent wash will be a good idea.

How do you wash your quilts?

Alejandra