How do you use your quilt?

In the 1970's my use to buy old quilts on printed photographies. The store selling the old quilts would take pictures, have them developed and sent by mail a stack of pictures that my mom would choose from, place her order and receive the quilt, she still has, fifty years later, the quilts around the house.

This was happening in Riverton Wyoming where I grew up, quilts are an heirloom in the USA, in France not so much, most people don't even know what the word "quilt" is.

I am a big fan of Star Trek, watch the latest episodes of Star Trek Discovery on Netflix, and one of the scene talks about a quilt. I watched the show Sweet Magnolias, the girls wonder what they are going to put on the wall of their new spa, and one mentions a "quilt". Lots of American shows that I watch will have a quilt on the bed or on the couch. That warms my heart up as a quilt gives a notion of wellbeing, of comfort.

In France, my feeling is that quilts are not considered as something to be used every day. Most of the quilts end up in a drawer or in a closet. Mine are on my couch, on my seats, on my bed. Visitors hesitate to sit on them, saying they don't want to sit on something so "precious". That makes me laugh, because it is precious and I did spend time making them, especially the quilting part as I tend to do all my quilting by hand.

Funny how different nationalities perceive the use of homemade objects differently, some will see it as something that needs to be used, others as something to be kept away.

Now I must admit that not all my quilts are going to be sat on!! Some quilts that i have pieced by hand will be put on the side of an armchair, and if someone sits in that place, the quilt comes off!!

When my quilt top is finished and that I am moving on to the quilting part, I always ask myself if it si a quilt for a bed or a sofa, or a quilt just for the decor. The reason for that is the batting. There are different types of batting, in France we have an artificial batting that is very light called "nuage" ("cloud"), you get why it is called that way!!

But there are other batting such as bamboo that keeps very warm, that is the one I use when I know that the quilt is going on a bed.

The more fluffy battings are for quilts that I want to give some visual effects to, they are also the ones that I will potentially hand quilt.

If I am going to have it machine quilted, then I use a very flat and thick batting, those are great for quilt to be used as a play area for children.

What ever the use of the quilt, I believe it is the best way to keep us warm on our bed or on the couch.

Where do you keep your quilts?

Have a good Christmas, but stay safe.

Emmanuelle