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The thread went from how to clean vintage quilts the proper and safe way to getting them appraised.
If the quilts are 1940s as you stated, they are vintage not antique. Are they hand-stitched or machine-stitched? Are the patterns rare or unusual? Are they common patterns that were expertly hand-stitched? If you don't know enough to determine these things then, by all means, hire a certified quilt appraiser before safely washing them as outlined above.
The thread went from how to clean vintage quilts the proper and safe way to getting them appraised.
If the quilts are 1940s as you stated, they are vintage not antique. Are they hand-stitched or machine-stitched? Are the patterns rare or unusual? Are they common patterns that were expertly hand-stitched? If you don't know enough to determine these things then, by all means, hire a certified quilt appraiser before safely washing them as outlined above.
When I suggested having the quilts "appraised", I (and other posters) meant to have the condition/soiling of the quilts appraised by someone knowledgeable in vintage/antique fabrics, not appraised for value. Modest, rare, mass produced, or not, if the object is sentimental to the owner, it's monetary worth doesn't mean much.
I was an antique sampler dealer, so I’ve learned a bit about other old textiles along the way.
What is your goal with these quilts? Do you want to use them? Sell them? Pass them on to relatives? One flaw in the old quilts is that they are usually too small for modern beds, but they look nice stacked on a shelf or at the end of a bigger bed.
Nobody wants a smelly old quilt, but many fabrics of a certain era were made with dyes that will run. Unless you think you have a museum quality quilt, I would just gently wash in cold water and hope for the best.
My 80+ year old friend has her family quilts from Missouri, made by her grandmother. She gave some to a museum in Missouri, has displayed the rest in her own home, but her children are not interested in them much.
This is what I and other antique dealers do for vintage and antique quilts and other fabrics:
1. Air it out. Lay it out in the sun. The sun is a natural sanitizer and deodorizer. This may take a couple of hours or longer depending on how badly it reeks. Best done in spring and summer months.
2. Check for damage and make repairs before washing.
3. Test for colorfastness. Wet Q-tips with cool water and gently rub one on each color. If it passes this test, proceed to no. 4.
4. Wash the quilt in cool water in a bathtub with mild detergent that has no dyes or perfumes. Most dealers use Oxiclean or Biz and add about 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar. Gently agitate. You may have to rinse and repeat the cycle if it's very dirty.
5. After rinsing, gently squeeze out as much water as you can and roll the quilt in several towels to absorb more of the water.
6. Air dry, preferably outdoors.
I've washed many vintage quilts. I would add, rinse, rinse, rinse. You should be able to drink the final rinse water. If you don't rinse enough, brown stains will appear on the lighter parts of the quilts when they dry, and then you have to start all over.
I used to use a non-chlorine, all-fabric bleach but it is hard to find any more.
I intend to actually use the quilts in our home, and I know they are small for conventional beds as a blanket, but they would look nice as coverlet-style bed dressings, I think.
They are all hand-stitched, pieced quilts, made by my husband's great grandmother and her sister in law; for sure between 1930 and 1988 ( at age 89 she noted in her journal she was starting a quilt!) perhaps one is older, as in 1920's. They don't have that horrid reek of old stuff, and they are not "dirty" in the usual sense, but they do have nicotine residue and tobacco odor from being in a house of smokers for over 50 years and the fold lines have the heavy dark brown staining that quilt-people and antiquers will recognize as when fabric buts up agains cardboard or wood products for many years. Its these brown areas that are my main concern at the moment.
A quilter friend of mine had recommended a product called "Restore", and I've been looking for it around here, but so far no luck. Is anyone familiar with this product and if so, is there a brick and mortar outet you know where I might find it?
I intend to actually use the quilts in our home, and I know they are small for conventional beds as a blanket, but they would look nice as coverlet-style bed dressings, I think.
They are all hand-stitched, pieced quilts, made by my husband's great grandmother and her sister in law; for sure between 1930 and 1988 ( at age 89 she noted in her journal she was starting a quilt!) perhaps one is older, as in 1920's. They don't have that horrid reek of old stuff, and they are not "dirty" in the usual sense, but they do have nicotine residue and tobacco odor from being in a house of smokers for over 50 years and the fold lines have the heavy dark brown staining that quilt-people and antiquers will recognize as when fabric buts up agains cardboard or wood products for many years. Its these brown areas that are my main concern at the moment.
A quilter friend of mine had recommended a product called "Restore", and I've been looking for it around here, but so far no luck. Is anyone familiar with this product and if so, is there a brick and mortar outet you know where I might find it?
Yeah, you mentioned that the quilts were stored in cardboard boxes in a house of heavy smokers. Cardboard is porous and I suspect the stains are from smoke and nicotine seeping in. It's common.
Your friend probably meant to say "Restoration". It's a textile cleaner.
Thanks again for all the input, but I sort of made up my own cleansing solution and thankdfully it has turned out to work just fine so far.
I did quite a bit of researching on my own after seeing the price of "Restoration", and after perusing numerous quilting forums and quilt care sites, I came up with this: I couldn't find Ivory laundry soap at all, so I got some bars of Ivory soap and grated about 3 TBS of shreds, put that in a gallon jug of very warm water and shook it until the flakes disintegrated ( and that takes quite a while since Ivory soap still floats!!!) I poured that mix into the tub as it was filling with cool water, and then added another jug of very warm water, this time with 2 TBS of washing soda, and continued running water until the quilt was covered. I sort of swished the water to disperse the soap, and every so often I would push the quilt under water and swish it a little to release the gunk in the fabric. I soaked it for 5 hours with this solution, drained the tub, used my jug with plain water and the running water to actively rinse the quilt, then re-filled the tub to cover the quilt and soaked it twice more for about 2 hours each time, rinsing between. Then I turned the quilt over, rinsed again and soaked it for 3 hours. It is a labor intensive endeavor, for sure, but the worst of the stains did improve significantly, and I didn't have any color runs or other problems. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the nicotine stains came out- the overall brownish haze is completely gone, but the badly stained fold lines are still there- much lighter, but not gone.
So...if you can't find or afford the Restoration product, some washing soda and "home made Ivory Snow flakes" may work for you. I will certainly have to work on the fold marks before the quilt can be used, but my MIL once told me tht she used to rub a bar of Ivory soap on tough stains, so I think I'll try that next- just wet the bar and rub the fold marks and see what happens.
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