The enduring power of quilts: where art, heritage and home meet

The pink-and-blue patchwork quilt is hiding something.

At some point after it was made in the early 1900s, someone used it as a drop cloth for a painting project. (It’s OK to gasp. We did.) But the quilt’s present-day owner, Lisa Erlandson of Gainesville — a quilting instructor, collector and appraiser — still saw its charm.  “If you fold it just right and put it in a basket in your entryway, it looks perfect,” says Erlandson.

She paid $10 at an antique shop for that paint-spattered quilt. But she also buys quilts that are “breathtakingly expensive.” “It’s not about how perfect it is; it’s about how I connect with it,” says Erlandson, who owns about 400 vintage or antique quilts.

Whether passed down through a family or hunted like treasures, quilts bring color, beauty and stories into your home. They “really represent America’s textile history, but more than that, its cultural and social history,” says Dianne O’Connor, founder and CEO of Weston Table, which recently opened its flagship store in Dallas. She sources and sells a handful of old quilts each year, and she also has a personal collection passed down from her grandmother. “They have an incredible nostalgic appeal to them.” 

Quilts of the past were largely utilitarian, used and washed more than they were treasured or displayed. But there was always an undercurrent of beauty that has become more prominent over time. “When you can find them in extraordinary condition,” O’Connor says, “they are works of art.” 

The simplest definition of a quilt is “three layers held together with stitching,” Erlandson says. Quilting has been around since at least the Middle Ages, when the three-layer method was used to make both bedding and clothing warmer. 

Early American quilts were created for the same reason. And piecing together a quilt worked within economic restraints by using up remnants or repurposed fabric. 

Quilting served as a reason to gather: Early quilts were often made by more than one person. “It’s something that’s really missing today in our society,” Erlandson notes. “It seems like we’ve moved further and further away from community building.”

In the 1920s-30s, the United States experienced a quilting revival as commercial patterns became available, quilt shows were organized, and contest quilts were hung at events such as the World’s Fair. Beauty was beginning to hold its own alongside function, and patterns such as the double wedding ring, Dresden plate and flying geese became iconic. 

As a certified appraiser of quilted textiles, Erlandson is trained to assess both old and new quilts for insurance purposes and to determine market or donation value. She defines antique as older than 100 years and vintage as 25 to 100 years old.

When she started her work as an appraiser, most quilts she saw were antique or vintage. Today, the percentages have flipped; she sees about 20% older quilts and 80% new. Some quilters want to insure their work before sending it to a fair, contest or customer. Others like to have an appraisal to share when giving a quilt as a gift. 

The record tells the recipient that “this is something of value,” Erlandson says. “This is not something to wrap around furniture in a pickup when moving.” Points out O’Connor, “It’s an incredibly time-consuming art.”

If you’re in the market for older quilts, expect some age spots. Acidity in the batting can cause spotting, as can extended storage in cedar drawers or chests.

Mending tears is a personal choice. Erlandson repairs her own purchases as needed and also offers the service to others, while O’Connor prefers to leave the quilts as they are and handle with care going forward. “These are never going to be perfect items,” she says. “Even the mint-condition ones are flawed.”

For vintage or antique quilts, condition is the primary determinant of value. Add age to excellent condition and the value increases. Erlandson says a quilt from the mid-1800s that’s never been used or washed could be worth thousands of dollars. “And they are out there,” she adds. 

When O’Connor finds an older quilt pristine enough, she adds it to Weston Table’s offerings. “They don’t come along very often,” she shares — three or four a year. Hers are usually priced between $600 and $900. 

You can find used, washed and loved quilts for less, but it’s important to buy from a reputable dealer. The market tends to move quickly, says Erlandson, who has learned the hard way. “If you find one and fall in love with it, you should probably buy it right then, because it won’t be there when you go back.” 

Her favorite eBay dealer is Mark French, who Erlandson says is knowledgeable and patient with all her questions. She also regularly shops Cindy’s Antique Quilts and loves Julie Silber Quilts for both antique and graphic 20th-century quilts. 

Deborah Boschert of Lewisville followed a pattern to make her first traditionally pieced quilt in the 1990s. She was hooked and moved on to workshops and experiments with her own designs. In one class, Boschert learned an applique technique that she eventually combined with print making on fabric, now the hallmark elements of her art quilt collages.

“The main motivation was the creative process,” Boschert says. “I was more interested in ‘the doing’ of it. Bonus: You have this object at the end.”

Unlike traditional quilts, Boschert’s work was never meant to have a job on a bed or the back of a chair. She describes herself first as a textile artist. She tells people, “‘I create collage with fabric and stitch.’ And then, maybe, if I feel that they’re going to get it, I use the word ‘quilt.’”

But her work is an obvious descendant of the antiques also functioning as art now. “We just have such a core connection with cloth, and it can do so much,” Boschert says. “It moves in ways that are very different from paint.”

She loves the “intimacy and detail and texture” of quilting, the fact that a quilt can have impact from across a room and a whole different impact up close, when stitches and other details come into view.

And “it’s literally warm. Even if it’s hanging on the wall, it has that inherent quality,” Boschert says. 

Related: Bring personality to your walls with works by these Dallas artists

“First of all, there are no rules,” Erlandson says of putting a quilt on display. “If it’s yours, use it.” As soon as the words leave her mouth, she adds: “I don’t care how cool it would look on your back porch that faces west — that’s a bad idea.” The point is to “honor the quilt and enjoy the quilt,” Erlandson continues. Honoring it means preventing further wear or damage. But it doesn’t mean keeping it in storage.

When she got married, Erlandson started using a quilt made by her grandmother as a tablecloth. “Don’t eat spaghetti on it,” she says. “But you can use it.”

O’Connor uses inherited quilts as tablecloths, too. Many quilts can be washed, she points out (even if that’s very carefully and by hand). “If you have something, no matter how nice it is, you use it,” O’Connor says. That’s why she also put family quilts on her children’s beds. “I wanted my kids to be able to feel a little bit of their grandmother.” 

Drape a quilt over a sofa, place it at the foot of your bed, nestle it into a basket. “If somebody wants to pull it out, let them,” O’Connor says. Quilt ladders and quilt racks, both wall-mounted and free-standing, allow you to display single or multiple folded quilts. “Even folded and stacked in an armoire, they can be beautiful,” Boschert says.

Fabric sleeves can be attached to the back of a quilt so it can be hung on a rod or bar. If you don’t want to sew anything onto a vintage or antique quilt, you can use a wooden slat system that clamps around an edge to hang the quilt. 

Keep in mind that hanging a quilt subjects it to gravity. “The thread in a quilt that is holding all those pieces together is at least as old as the quilt,” Erlandson cautions. Leaving a quilt hanging too long is risky. Her rule of thumb is three months, maximum, then give the fabric and thread a break. It’s a good reason to own more quilts.

And yes, spreading one out across a bed is always a great idea — “so you can see the whole quilt in its glory,” Boschert says. 

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