A quilt kept folded the same way for years is under a quiet, constant strain, and always along the very same lines. Each time it is set down in that shape, the fibres at those creases carry the load, and load that never moves is load that never eases. Over the years the thread and the woven fibre at those folds grow weak, until one day they give way and the fold becomes a split.
The trouble is not the act of folding itself. Fabric can be folded countless times and come to no harm, provided the fold keeps moving. What wears a quilt out is the repetition of one fold, held in place month after month and year after year, so that a handful of lines carry all the stress while the rest of the quilt sits untouched.
Where you have the room for it, the kindest way to keep a quilt is flat and stacked, laid out at full size with a clean cloth draped over the top to hold off the dust and the light. Failing that, rolling is gentler than folding. Roll the quilt around a wide acid free cardboard tube, the sort found at the centre of a batting roll, and tie it loosely in place with strips of fabric rather than anything that bites into the surface. Rolled this way, the quilt carries no sharp creases at all.
When folding is the only option
- Change the lines once or twice a year: Take the quilt out every six months, or at the very least once a year, and fold it along fresh lines so that no single area is left to bear the strain for long.
- Try the diagonal: Folding at forty five degrees, bringing the turned corner into line with the corners of the blocks, shifts the stress onto the bias, an area that escapes the usual straight folds entirely.
- Soften the fold from inside: Run your hand along the inside of each fold rather than pressing a crease in from the outside, so the fabric settles into a soft curve with no hard edge.
- Let it breathe: Keep the quilt in something that lets the air move through it, a cotton pillowcase for instance, and never in a sealed plastic container where damp has nowhere to go.
Where a quilt should not be kept
A few places are worth ruling out from the start. Damp comes first, so cellars and any corner prone to moisture are best avoided, since damp invites mould and mildew into the fibres. Direct sunlight is next, as it breaks down both fibre and dye, fading and weakening the quilt in the same stroke. Heat does its own slow damage, so keep a quilt well away from lofts, heating ducts and radiators. Bare wood should never touch the fabric either, because the acids in timber leach out and stain it over time, so line any wooden shelf or chest before the quilt goes in. And leave the mothballs well out of it, since the naphthalene works away at the fabric the longer it sits against it.
For a quilt that carries personal or historic worth, it is worth going one step further. Roll lengths of acid free tissue paper and tuck them into every fold, so the fabric turns around them instead of creasing against itself. The finished bundle will end up far bulkier than you might expect, and that extra bulk is the sign the job has been done properly rather than a sign of anything amiss.
Give your quilts the courtesy of a changing fold, and they will still be whole for the hands that come after yours.
