New Quilt box advise

Annie, I'm not a member of our mad chemist committee here (although I would enjoy their company). That said, let's just not use tissue paper. Some of it contains something (?) that will cause brown spots and eventually holes. Old cotton sheets work quite well and if you've laundered them, rinsed them lots and added some sunshine, you will know that they won't harm your quilts. Polly

"annie, england" Whilst on holiday this week I picked up a lovely old blanket box to

I agree with Polly -use cotton sheets. Maybe an old blanket in the bottom, as protection. The tissue paper has to be acid-free, and you could probably order it online some place, but why bother when sheets work just as well or even better. The wood is likely oiled or even stained, and your quilts shouldn't be stored in direct contact.

I'd love to see a photo of your treasure box! Roberta >Annie, I'm not a member of our mad chemist committee here (although I would

Third the cotton sheets.

Even if it is unfinished, oak is a very acid wood and long term contact is not going to be good for fabric.

NightMist

Ditto here, cotton sheets, rinsed and rinsed and rinsed again. if it was a cedar lined chest, you may get a way with storing them without the sheets, but would have to "air" them out every month or so.

amy in CNY

I fully admit to being unorthodox, and am glad there are no quilt police out there! Here's what I do with quilts not currently being used -- I put them on a bed in the large guest room! I go ahead and make the bed the regular way with sheets -- bottom sheet and top sheet

-- and then add the quilts one at a time all spread out with no folds. On top of all that I add another sheet, and finally the bedspread. Thus, all the quilts are out of the way, not folded, not stored where they're likely to be stained, and protected from dust and light. When I need to use that room for guests, I remove the pillows and the bedspread, and then take the extra top sheet and all the quilts, roll them all together in a large sausage-roll, and stash them in a closet. When the guests have gone I remove, wash, dry, and replace the bed sheets, unroll the quilts and sheet, and top it all with the bedspread. Works for me!

That's a perfect way to store them Mary. And if someone ever wants to see your quilts, you can easily have a bed turning to show them off!

I have my ufos stored like that too ! The quilt tops are all nice and flat on a bed ! Someday I'll get them bordered and quilted. I want to take the bed down but for a few reasons I'm having a hard time doing so. First of all it would give me a lot of room in this small spare bedroom for a good sewing room ..not cramped as it is now. But the bed is a twin size...and high...and I can set an ironing board right beside it and it is perfect when ironing fabrics or a quilt top -- both the bed and ironing board are level with each other. Under the bed I've got great storage for batts and , as I mentioned, the top is the best place to store quilt tops !!

Thanx for your replies. I really like the idea of these finished quilts layered on a bed but sadly I don't have a spare bed to do that on. We use one room as hubby's office, the other is a 'storage' (? Junk dump?) room and we only have a small sofa bed for visitors in the spare room.

Most of the old/spare sheets I have are poly cotton rather than pure cotton -would that be alright????

Annie, England