What artifact from "Everyday Use" becomes a focal point for the family members' different views of their heritage?

The family quilts become this focal point. Wangero (Dee) has already claimed several items that Mama and Maggie still use regularly so that she can "do something artistic" with them. She is treating heritage like something that is past and, moreover, like something that she can hang on the wall and show off. However, for her family, heritage is something that they put to "everyday use." Such a notion is horrifying to Wangero, and she exclaims,

"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts! . . . She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."

And Mama replies that this is exactly what Maggie ought to do with the quilts. She's been saving them for a long time with no one using them, and they were made to be used—not to be decoration. Mama doesn't understand why Wangero would hang them on the wall and why that is any better than Maggie actually using the blankets, even if they fall apart. For Wangero, the blankets are important because of what they represent to her: a heritage with which she is trying to reconnect (although in a somewhat misguided way). For Maggie and Mama, the quilts are important because of the family stories that go with them and because they can be used to keep warm. Their "everyday use" combined with the way they keep the family's heritage so near is precisely what makes them valuable.