A quilt on the bed, draped across the couch or hung on a wall are familiar uses for this textile art, but there are other ways to incorporate the beauty of quilts in your decor.
"Quilted fabrics can be used to make curtains for windows, shower curtains, slipcovers, duvet covers and bed skirts," says Wilma Cogliantry, who, with her husband, Jim, owns Christian Lane Quilts in Berlin, Conn. "We've quilted fabric for customers and designers who use it to make drapery panels, sunblocks, custom boat interiors and wind screens." One design company purchased lightly quilted fabric from her to "wallpaper" a Victorian-style home in
Carolyn Johnson, who has had a quilting business at her 18th Century
"I like having my work around me," says Johnson, who teaches classes and sells fabric in her shop, Carolyn's Quilting Bee.
Johnson hangs quilts by sewing a sleeve onto the back of the finished quilt, then inserts a dowel and the dowel hangs from brads inserted into the wall. "This spreads the weight of the quilt along the wall," she says. "I hate to see [quilts] put up with pushpins."
Marilyn Gattinella, owner of the Close to Home shop in
Gattinella says that even a quilt that's beyond repair might have a section or sections that can be framed or made into a garment or pillows.
Quilt shop owners agree that taking apart an old quilt, or even finishing an old quilt that might have been started decades or longer ago, should not be done without expert advice. All recommend having the quilt examined and, if it appears of real antiquity, appraised.
(For tips on care and cleaning of old and new quilts, see the Web site of McCall's Quilting magazine athttp://www.mccalls quilting.com.)