Fabric Care and Keeping (Harriet Hargrave lecture)

Harriet Hargrave spoke on "Fabric Care and Keeping" at our monthly Estes Valley Quilt Guild meeting last night. She focused on the qualities of fabric used in quilting including: thread count, grain of fabric, fabric finishing, light fastness, wash fastness, crocking, and other aspects of fabric dyes. She showed the results of using various detergents/soaps, water temperatures, and chlorinated water on fabrics. She has done extensive research on these topics and has studies to back up her conclusions. She kept us riveted during her hour and forty-five minute talk. There was so much new information for me to absorb that I could hardly turn off my brain to go to sleep last night. She and her daughter, Carrie Hargrave (also a textile expert) are writing a six-volume course on quilt making and care and have almost completed the first volume.