quilting

quilting, sewing technique in which two layers of fabric, usually with an insulating interior layer, are sewn together with multiple rows of stitching. It has long been used for clothing in China, the Middle East, North Africa, and the colder areas of Europe but is now primarily associated with the construction of bedcovers and wall hangings.

Making a bed quilt is a multistep process that first involves creating a quilt top, usually assembled of blocks made by cutting patches then stitching them together or by appliquéing cut-out shapes onto a backing. See appliqué; patchwork. Batting, or wadding, made of cotton, polyester, wool, or flannel is layered sandwich-style between the quilt top and backing. The three layers are basted or pinned together, and the quilting design is marked on the top and quilted (sewn) in small, even stitches by hand, sewing machine, or commercial quilting machine. Quilting designs may be geometric or figural, and the quality of the quilt depends in large part on the fineness of the stitching and the matching of appropriate designs to the piecing. A quilt’s layers may instead be stabilized by being tied at intervals with thread, yarn, or narrow ribbon. The outer raw edges of the quilt are usually turned together or covered with a binding.

Early quilts

According to Robert Bishop’s and Jacqueline M. Atkins’s Folk Art in American Life (1995), quilting “became known in Europe during the Crusades, when it was learned that the Turks wore several thicknesses of fabric quilted together under their armor. In northern Europe, where the climate is often harsh…this technique offered warmth as well as protection, and it was rapidly extended to bedcovers and various forms of clothing.” Although small fragments of patchwork have been found in tomb excavations in Asia and the Middle East, the earliest existing quilts may be two large 14th-century wholecloth (i.e., entire, not pieced) Sicilian pieces whose whitework surfaces are heavily embellished with trapunto, also known as corded or stuffed quilting. One quilt is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the other in the Bargello Museum in Florence. Both feature scenes from the chivalric legend of Tristan and Isolde. The expertise displayed in these pieces indicates that they were part of an accomplished and highly evolved craft.

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Quilts in colonial America

North America’s strong quilting traditions undoubtedly crossed the ocean with the first immigrants: quilted garments and bedding appear in the crafts of many countries, including Holland, France, Italy, and England. Only the wealthy could then afford the elaborately block-printed and hand-painted fabrics and the palampores, or Tree of Life coverlets, shipped by sailing vessels from India. An examination of colonial American probate estate inventories reveals very few quilts, and those only in wealthier households. Most settlers relied on heavier loomed coverlets and “bed rugges” to protect them from the harsh climate. Richard Loe, commander of the emigrant ship Ark to “Mary’s Land” in 1634, counted among his possessions a “flock quilt,” as well as an “old sheete” and “rugg.”

Thrifty colonial women would have recycled precious fabric scraps to make and repair garments and bedding. However, the earliest surviving American quilts tend to be wholecloth calamancos, in which the glazed wool top, often of imported fabric, was layered with wool batting and a home-woven linen or linsey-woolsey back, then closely quilted in plumes and other decorative motifs. In following decades, these quilts included simple large-scale patchwork.

The golden age of American quilts

In the pre-Revolutionary American colonies, England and France supplied most if not all fabrics, although clothing and linens were often constructed at home. By the early 19th century, American-produced cotton fabrics were being manufactured cheaply in a large array of prints, helping to make pieced and appliquéd quilts more affordable, though many fabrics of wool, cotton, and silk were still being imported. The quilts from this period were often made in medallion style, with a variety of elaborate borders surrounding a patchwork centre. One printer of the late 18th century, John Hewson, specialized in printed motifs for medallion quilts.

By the 1840s a new style had emerged: the Baltimore Album or Friendship quilt, consisting of elaborately appliquéd floral and other figures, often with each block bearing a different design. (In the late-20th-century quilt revival, teachers like Elly Sienkiewicz repopularized the Baltimore Album style.) The multi-block floral appliqué remained a popular style throughout the 19th century, as did its contemporary, the signature, or album, quilt, in which each block was made and signed by a different maker and the quilt given as a keepsake, for example, to a bride by her friends, to the minister by the women of the congregation, or to a young man celebrating his 21st birthday.

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Pieced quilts remained popular, especially for everyday use. These were often quickly made, block by block, then quilted when time and materials allowed. Although the “waste-not” philosophy of quilting is well known, many quilts were also made from planned fabric purchases. Silk quilts were a popular choice, especially the Mosaic, a forerunner of the 20th century’s Grandmother’s Flower Garden, and the crazy quilt.

The invention of the sewing machine in the 1840s radically changed household sewing. Thanks to the pay-by-installment plan popularized by I.M. Singer, many had access to a treadle machine that quickly finished essential sewing, leaving time for more leisurely pursuits like embroidery and quilting.

The Great Depression of the 1930s popularized the feedsack quilt. Cloth sacks in which animal feed and flour and other staples were packaged were produced in a wide variety of cheerful prints. During this period quilters shared patterns from weekly newspaper columns like those from the Kansas City Star, which featured more than 1,000 designs from 1921 to 1961. One of the Star’s three illustrators, Ruby McKim, achieved national fame. Other 20th-century designers included Marie Webster, Anne Orr, and Rose Kretsinger. Companies like the Ladies Art Company, Aunt Martha, and Grandmother Clark offered patterns, supplies, and kits of precut fabric to the public.