Quilts are precious commodities. They are usually the hot item for auction at church bazaars. The ladies of the church, who spent months working together to create a masterpiece, beam with pride when the winner of the quilt is very excited about their prize.

Making quilts is a great home craft project that can create hours of enjoyment. If you’re just starting out, it would be best to find ladies in your community that have years of experience making quilts to help. Ask if you can join them on their next quilt project so that you can learn from them. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration if you do.

Do you find that your fabrics fray when you pre-wash them in your washer? Try cutting the corners at a diagonal before you wash them. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing a lot of your pieces come out of the wash with loose strings tangling the fabric together. You have to untangle them and clip all the extra string before you place them in the dryer or you’ll end up with more wrinkles.

If you have a quilt that is old and faded, you can restore some of its vibrant color by soaking it in a mixture of 1 gallon of water, 1 quart of buttermilk, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Then, wash the quilt in your washer with a mild detergent. You’ll notice a significant improvement in the brilliance of the colors.

Lastly, when you have pieces of fabric that you want to save for future projects, try wrapping them around empty toilet paper rolls. This will save you time because you won’t have to iron them. You can also put them in shoeboxes with like colors and mark them for easy finding later.