This post may contain affiliate links. Read the full disclosure policy here. The history of quilts began long before European settlers arrived in the New World. People in nearly every part of the world had used padded fabrics for clothing, bedding, and even armor.
With the arrival of the English and Dutch settlers in North America, quilting took on a new life and flourished. The term "quilt" comes from the Latin culcita , meaning a stuffed sack. The word has come to have 2 meanings. It is used as noun, meaning the 3-layer stitched bedcovering. It is also used as a verb, meaning the act of stitching through the 3 layers to hold them together.
A quilt is a cloth sandwich, with a top, which is usually the decorated part, a back, and a filler in the middle.
Under the general term of patchwork are of 3 different types of quilts: 1 the plain or whole cloth quilt, 2 applique quilts, and 3 pieced or patchwork quilts. The quilt, as we know it in America, was originally a strictly utilitarian article, born of the necessity of providing warm covers for beds. Quilts were also used as hangings for doors and windows that were not sealed well enough to keep out the cold.
The earliest American quilts, made by English and Dutch settlers, were so intimately connected to everyday life of the early colonists that no record of them exists.
During the early years of American colonization, most Colonial women were busy spinning, weaving and sewing the clothes for their family, so had little time for artistic quilting. Commercial blankets or woven coverlets were more likely to be used, but during difficult times, when money was scarce or imported textiles limited, many Colonial women had to become creative in their use of materials on hand to keep their families warm during the cold seasons.
Those early settlers could not afford to simply discard things when they wore out; necessity required they carefully use their resources. Therefore, when blankets became worn, they were patched, combined with other blankets, or used as filler between other blankets.
These were not carefully constructed heirlooms, rather they were functional items for the sole purpose of keeping people warm. Only in later years, when fabrics were being manufactured in America and were more affordable, freeing women from the work of making their own yarns and fabrics, did the more artistic type of quilting become more widespread.
In the years between and thousands of quilts were pieced and patched, and many of them are preserved. Many of these quilts were so elaborate that years were spent making and quilting them. It is no wonder they are cherished as precious heirlooms and occupy honored places in homes and museums.
Those early quilts provide a glimpse into the history of quilting as well as the history of the United States. Whole cloth quilts, broderie perse and medallion quilts were popular styles of quilts made during the early s. The whole cloth quilt, also known as counterpane, is usually made of single pieces of material on the top and back, and the decoration is obtained by means of padded or corded quilting in more or less elaborate design.
The applique quilt, or "laid-on" quilt, usually has a top made of whole cloth with smaller pieces of contrasting fabrics cut into shapes or forms that are applied or stitched down. These quilts were considered more elegant than the humble pieced type.
Applique for quilting came into favor around the mids and reached its climax about Only the wealthy could afford the expensive imported fabric and had the leisure time for this type of quilt making that displayed the fine needlework of the maker.
The earliest settlers had no labor or materials to spare so they typically found the simplest, most expedient solutions to problems. This focus on functionality was exhibited in their architecture, tools and household furnishings, as well as political and social institutions. The block-style pieced quilt was an example of this functional approach to design.
Once again, the history of quilts mirrored that of the developing country. Machine quilting, despite the development of the sewing machine in the midth century, is primarily a feature of the 20th century.
Machine quilting has gained popularity today when more women have less time for such labor-intensive activities as quilting. The purpose of quilting is to both secure the three layers of the quilt so that it does not shift over time and to provide a decorative element to the finished project. Traditionally, quilting stitches are made with white thread or in colors to match the fabric. The goal in quilting is to take small even stitches. The average is seven to eight stitches per inch. However, stitches have been recorded up to twenty-two stitches per inch.
Good quilting takes practice as well as skill. Various hand-quilting techniques are used by traditional quilters. Utility quilting is a repetitive design, such as a grid, that is stitched across the entire quilt without regard to the patchwork design. A type of repetitive design that is common is called fan quilting which results in a series of concentric arcs being quilted across the patchwork.
Many quilters self-quilt or outline their patchwork. In this technique the quilter follows the lines of the patchwork, quilting a quarter of an inch from the seam line.
This technique can be used in conjunction with fancier quilting methods. For example, in quilts where patchwork blocks are set next to plain blocks, the quilter might outline the patchwork and then quilt a feathered wreath or pineapple in the plain blocks.
A more recent form of outline quilting is a technique quilters call in-the-ditch quilting. This technique requires the quilter to stitch directly in the seam line. Today most quilters stitch around the outline of their design only once. In the 19th century quilters often used double or triple lines to emphasize their quilting motifs.
When a quilter chooses to use fancy quilting that results in identifiable design motifs, such as feathers, flowers and cables, the background is sometimes filled in by a secondary design or filling pattern. This was especially common in the 19th century. Grids and parallel lines are common secondary designs.
Secondary designs that are closely quilted are called filling patterns. Stipple quilting is such a technique. Quilting stitches are placed very close together in a random pattern. The result is that the background appears to pucker. Although this technique is still practiced today by a few dedicated quilters, it was most popular in the s. From about to the end of the Civil War, stuffing and cording techniques were popular.
These techniques gave quilting designs more texture by inserting additional padding. For example, quilted grapes might be stuffed and quilted vines might be corded to provide the quilt with an added dimension. Stuffed and corded work today is often referred to as trapunto , the Italian word for quilt. There are basically two ways to use these techniques. The first method requires that the quilt be stuffed before the quilting is completed.
A coarse background is attached directly to the back of the quilt top using small stitches. Small bits of cotton are then worked through the course background fabric. Cotton yarn or cord can be run through a tunnel that is created by the stitching. Once these steps are completed the batting and the back of the quilt are added on and the quilt is quilted in a normal fashion.
The second method of stuffing requires that the quilt be quilted first. After the quilt is quilted it can be stuffed working from the back. Stuffing can be inserted through the back fabric by working the threads apart or a small cut can be made in the backing, allowing the quilter to insert the necessary stuffing.
Before a quilt can be quilted it must be prepared. One of the critical points of preparation is marking the quilt top. The top is marked along quilting lines to provide guidelines for stitching. After a quilt design is chosen, marking the quilt is done before the top is basted to the batting and the backing.
Although many products are on the market that can be used to mark quilt tops, many traditional quilters continue to use a pencil. The idea is to mark the pattern on the top in a way that the lines are visible and useful for the quilter but will not show after the quilt is completed. Therefore, when a quilt is being marked it is important to avoid scratching the fabric or making a line that is too harsh.
Templates are used to define the quilting pattern. Traditionally, templates are made from cardboard or recycled plastic such as the top of a coffee can. The quilter uses a template to trace the pattern onto the quilt top.
Rulers and yardsticks can be used to mark grids or outline patterns. There are many methods of transferring designs into templates. A simple method is to use a piece of waxed freezer paper that is placed over the desired design. Since the waxed paper is translucent the pattern can be traced onto the paper. Place the paper, waxed side down, on a piece of cardboard and press with a hot iron.
This transfers the design to the cardboard which can then be cut out and used as a template. The template is then placed on top of the quilt, and the quilter uses a pencil to trace around the design. More sophisticated patterns can be drawn on a piece of white paper using a dark ink. The pattern can then be placed under the quilt top. With light fabrics the pattern should show through, and the quilter can trace over the design. The quilt marker uses the phrase "give a little, take a little.
Like quilting, good quilt marking is a product of practice as well as skill. Marking a border can be difficult. While some were made by necessity, others were made to mark specific life occasions, such as a birth or wedding, or, like the Chapman quilt, were perhaps made for a dowry. Although closely linked to quilting, patchwork is a different needlework technique, with its own distinct history. Patchwork or 'pierced work' involves sewing together pieces of fabric to form a flat design. In Britain, the most enduring method is known as 'piecing over paper'.
In this method, the pattern is first drawn onto paper and then accurately cut. Small pieces of fabric are folded around each of the paper shapes and tacked into place also known as basting, this uses long, temporary stitches that will eventually be removed.
The shapes are then joined together from the back using small stitches called whipstitches. If quilting is often associated with warmth and protection, patchwork is more closely associated with domestic economy — a way of using up scraps of fabrics or of extending the working life of clothing.
Unlike quilting, patchwork remained a predominantly domestic, rather than professional, undertaking. Not all patchwork was produced for reasons of economy, however. There's evidence that some of the patchwork quilts in our collection used significant amounts of specially bought fabrics and these quilts have been attributed to middle-class women making these objects for pleasure rather than necessity.
There was also a tradition of military quilts, sewn by male soldiers while posted overseas in the second half of the 19th century. The Museum initially collected examples of patchwork because of the significance of the fragments of textiles, rather than the works as a whole. As a result, our collection charts the use of the fine silks and velvets of the 17th and 18th centuries through to the cheap cottons manufactured during the Industrial Revolution.
The largest number of patchwork quilts in our collection date from the 19th century. During this period, intricate designs were used to portray a number of different motifs — from scripture and biblical scenes, as seen in Ann West's coverlet , to scenes of world events and even playing-card designs, as seen in a bed cover dated to — This kind of patchwork was so popular that several examples were displayed at the Great Exhibition of During the same period, patchwork was promoted by the likes of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry as a skill that should be taught to female inmates — a means of providing the prisoners both employment and allowing time for reflection.
Patchwork saw a broad decline over the 20th century, but was adopted by the fashion industry in the s as a 'look' associated with hippie culture, not just a technique.
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