The words everyday use sound innocent enough, don't they? Of course, we know that these words are hurled as a vicious insult at the end of the story, so they're actually anything but innocent. But why does Walker use this volatile phrase as the title of her story?
Let's zoom right in on the line in which the phrase everyday use appears so we can try to figure out why it's so important that it got to be the almighty title of the story. When Dee finds out that her mother wants to give Maggie the quilts to which she's laid claim, she whines in protest:
"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." (66)
In Dee's view, Maggie's practical approach to the quilts, in which she actually dares to use them, makes her a backward troglodyte. Dee herself has a far superior sense of how to treat the quilts, as she intends to hang them up like works of art.
But the narrator shuts down in a hurry Dee's presumption that her superior artistic sensibility automatically entitles her to the quilts, instead defending Maggie's everyday use attitude, noting that she indeed hopes Maggie will go ahead and actually put the quilts to, um, use. And then the narrator actually gives the quilts to Maggie, sealing the deal.
(Note: The contrast between art and practicality that's played out in the story's central conflict is often noted by critics in discussions of the story; here's one example.)
In this way, the title reinforces the story's validation of the practical-minded, down-to-earth attitude about culture that the narrator and Maggie represent. Far from being a sign of stunted growth or backwardness, using the quilts in the way that the people who actually made them intended for them to be used, the story suggests, seems like a pretty smart way to honor and engage with one's heritage.