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Quilt Storage, continued…
Before life ran away from me (again), I said I’d add more pics of my new quilt storage. Previously, the quilts had been flat on the bed, which was great for the quilts but not so good if you wanted to use the bed (which meant moving about 30+ quilts I think…I really ought to count how many I’ve made, shouldn’t I?). Anyway, remember the tubes which I covered with batting and muslin? Next, you roll your quilt on the tube; For most of my rolls, I have two or three quilts per tube:
Quilt rolled on tube
Next I made a muslin tube/sleeve (I just used the serger, left the seams on the outside). I cut 1 1/2″ wide strips of pretty fabrics (or rather, the “why did I buy these 14 years ago? fabrics”), folded them wrong sides together and serged to make ties. I placed a tie about 4 inches down from either end of the tube/sleeve, and spaced about 14-16 inches apart down the center.
Quilt in musling sleeve, tied
Slide your rolled quilt inside the sleeve; it is easier if you place a plastic bag over the end of the tube that goes in first. Since both ends of the tube are open, you can just slip the plastic bag off the end once the quilt is inside. I cut the muslin the length of my tubes (54″) plus about 2-4 extra inches (for gathering at the ends) by about 22 inches wide. If you have 40-44 inch muslin, just cut down the center to whatever length. The completed tube is large enough to accomodate several quilts rolled on one tube. Once inside, make a tuck at the long seamline to fold excess muslin neatly and tie. For the moment, I have safety-pinned a post-it-note with the contents of each roll to the end of the muslin tube so I can identify what is where…I’ll do something nicer eventually.
Under the bed, I have two tall-lamp-moving boxes (only one in this picture, added the second one later), plus some under-bed storage boxes from Target. The quilts that are rolled on the tubes are in the lamp-boxes (in this picture, just to the right of center) and over on the far left. The second lamp-box went on the far left.
Rolled quilts and boxes under the bed
You can see swimming pool noodles, which are great for shipping quilts rolled–lightweight, soft, cheap if they are lost. The blue thing on the far left is a long-skinny bag I made from canvas to carry my make-shift PVC-pipe quilt display stand (too heavy for air travel, but was cheap and works great for anywhere I drive to teach or lecture).
On the right you can see two storage boxes; there are two even larger ones in back. I bought these for about $15-18 each (ouch!) at Target. The largest boxes (in the back, not visible) are 42 inches long on the inside, meaning that some of my quilts that need to be carefully folded and not rolled (the Bijagos Warrior quilt, for example, is padded and thick, so doesn’t roll well, and the Autumn on the Village Green has cut copper leaves on it!) can fit inside with only horizontal folds.
My teaching samples are on the small side–26 wide or narrower. I made several carrying gizzies (I’ll do a post on them some day….) and roll my class samples on them. They are all in one box for easy access when packing to teach. Finally, small quilts like my journal quilts (both the smaller 8 1/2 x 11 inch ones and the larger 17 x 22 inch ones) also fit inside these boxes. I asked the conservators and textile specialists on the quiltart list, and the consensus was that as long as the actual quilt doesn’t touch the plastic…line with acid-free tissue or cloth…and you open the boxes periodically to refresh the air… that it is fine to store in boxes (which will also protect them from smoke damage should there be a smoke incident). And when the bedskirt is down (not tucked up under the duvet), I don’t see the stuff!
Some day I’ll have my dream studio with a massive wall-long closet. The doors will be design walls, I’ll have storage rods on the back for the quilts, and all sorts of cool things. And I’m going to make laminated tags using business card software with a picture of each quilt to replace the safety-pinned post-it note with the roll contents. In the meantime this works quite well for me. I’ve been under the weather (number one son brought home evil germs and shared…), and yesterday I luxuriated in lolling on the bed in my sunny studio with a book…for about 20 minutes. Sigh. It was nice while it lasted. Then I got to play mom-taxi. Several times.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Thanks for the great storage info! I took a Christmas quilt off the wall yesterday and wasn’t sure how I would store it. Now I know! I don’t have a lot of quilts, especially big ones, but your method will come in handy for the ones I have.
I was in the middle of posting about my fat quarter storage when your post came into my Google Reader. We must have been on the same wave length!
Have a great weekend.
D~~~
January 24th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Great storage ideas! I’m in the process of a major studio cleaning…I’m hoping to be a bit more organized than I’ve been (especially lately!)
January 27th, 2009 at 5:42 am
Thanks for the great, New Year’s Info and much better than all the dieting articles in magazines on the news stands this time of year!! Can see a future quilt magazine article there for next year!
I happen to have one of those heavy duty tubes (don’t know where I got it) so I’ll definitely get busy and get my quilts stored properly.. I don’t have a dream studio either and you’d be horrified about how the quilts are currently stored so I’ll get busy soon (hope before years end) and get my storage system set up. Thanks again for the great picture tutorial!!! Being a visual person, those pictures really help!
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
[…] protected with a buffering layer of cloth. Large quilts are rolled (blogpost about that here and here) and tucked into boxes under the […]