Full-color edition, 32 photos

Quilt Care, Construction and Use Advice: How to Help Your Quilt Live to 100, Full-color edition

By Barb Gorges

c. 2017

A comment by a Wyoming State Quilt Guild member inspired Barb Gorges to collect her quilt care columns written for the guild’s Patchwords newsletter into a 70-page book. Available online at Amazon, it’s titled “Quilt Care, Construction and Use Advice: How to Help Your Quilt Live to 100.”

The first two chapters, “Make” and “Test,” are addressed to quilters, explaining how to make a sturdy quilt, from choosing quality fabrics and avoiding chemical sewing aids to testing fabric dye stability.

The other chapter topics are useful to anyone who owns a quilt. “Use” and “Display” chapters delve into how to make beds with quilts, to how to hang quilts on the wall without stressing them.

The expected topics of cleaning quilts, “Wash” and “Dry,” are augmented by “Air,” a chapter that explains how to freshen quilts without the stress of washing.

In “Store,” Gorges gives some simple advice on quilt storage in the home, as well as showing what museum experts do. “Ship” is all about how to safely send quilts to shows and as gifts to friends and family.

“Appraisal” and “Insurance” chapters explain the benefits of protecting an investment in quilt ownership, but official valuation of quilts might also help future owners of a quilt value it more and protect it.

The best predictor of a long life for a quilt is explained in the last chapter, “Sign.” The maker’s signature and other information on an attached label might keep a quilt from becoming an anonymous piece of padding.

Gorges studied quilt care issues for 17 years while proprietor of Gorges Quilt Labels, distributing quilt care labels in every state. She has spoken about quilt care at quilting events in Wyoming and Colorado.

The book was edited by Jeananne Wright, certified AQS appraiser and antique quilt expert, with additional suggestions by Florence Brown, Jane Dorn, Edith Cook and Margot Joy.

Three editions of the book are available on Amazon: full-color eBook, budget non-color print (good for accompanying gift quilts) and full-color print.

Read sample pages at Amazon.com and at YuccaRoadPress.com and leave a review.

“My hope is that the greater number of knowledgeable quilt owners there are, the fewer premature quilt deaths there will be,” said Gorges, “but if quilts have been loved to pieces, what more could we ask for?”

Gorges lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she has been a member of the Cheyenne Heritage Quilters since 1989, taught 342 beginning quilters at Laramie County Community College and has sewn about 260 quilted objects, not including another 100 while previously residing in Miles City, Montana. She is a charter member of the Wyoming State Quilt Guild.