light fastness

Jack, there's a tiny quilt shop that opened about a year ago in Mobile, Alabama. In their store window they exhibited an exquisite quilt of bright colors all of postage stamp size. It was quite lovely. In no time at all it became a dreary, ruined nothing. Our most treasured quilt is the Hug we were blessed with from rctq after Hurricane Katrina. It is a fine line we walk to enjoy it and protect it. I'll be very interested in a 'fastness' report. Meanwhile, we will keep the blinds closed to sunlight damage. Polly

DD did a 'color fastness' test for her 7th Grade Science Fair Project. Sent fabric squares (from the same bolt) to different lower 48 states and Alaska. She asked them to put it in a south window for the fall and winter. (appx 18 yrs ago so I don't member 'xactly the results) thing that stands out the most---Deep South was the WORST and Alaska/MI tied for the least amount of fading. (I don't remember which state--GA, FL ?) ALL had some fading and it was an 'even' fading....some faded more along the top and some along the bottom. Red faded much more so than the navy blue.

Found it to be an interesting project and the LQS gave her as much fabric as she thought she needed as He was interested in the results.

Butterfly (I remember her going to Regional with it)

If it's a quilt to be displayed, rather than used, I'd frame it in matte glass (otherwise known as "archival glass") ...

Several stores carry "UV fabric protectant" spray and wash-in treatments. I don't know, though, how good they are, or if they're recommended for constant use next to skin. They're made for use indoors as well as out and supposedly are safe for human exposure on upholstery (hubby naps on our living room set - which was treated for UV - and it's not bothered him, that I know of).

Here's what I found in a quick Google search:

FWIW, back in the "old days" you had to treat artwork after creating it to protect it from harmful UV exposure. Nowadays, most papers/substrates come pre-treated. Perhaps one day, they'll do the same for fabric (other than fabrics for outdoor use). Maybe if enough people complain, they'll find an answer and label bolts of *quilting* fabric (since they do label "outdoor dec fabrics," IIRC the last time I went shopping for those) ...

HTH! Connie :)

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975

The Virginia Quilt Museum has special glass it the windows that is supposed to keep the displays from being faded by the sun light. I think that there used to be a yellow film put over windows to do the same thing. If I remember my NDE training we used yellow glasses, to protect our eyes , when we used UV lights to detect cracks. Isn't it the UV light that fades the fabric? They use special glass in picture frames to keep the pictures from fading, don't they? Maybe it is a coating that is on the glass. I was told that my eyeglasses are UV resistant.

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA

Every dye is different, but generally UV is worse.

The Scottish National Gallery has a great collection of Turner's watercolours which they only display in January, that being when sunlight is weakest. I'm sure they're using all the filtered glass they can and it's still not enough to protect watercolour pigments.

That's important for people who've had cataracts removed, since the lens of the eye is a natural UV filter and everything goes blue and blurry when it's gone in a high-UV setting. Doesn't matter much for the rest of us.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote: >> I was told that my eyeglasses are UV resistant.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, UV may be a factor in the development of cataracts, so UV resistant glasses may be a good idea for all of us.

Julia in MN