What is a quilt

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What is a quilt?

• A quilt consists of three layers a top, a filler
  (batting), and a backing. These layers, held
  together with a running stitch (the quilting),
  create pockets of insulating air, which make a
  quilt warm.

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History of Quilting
                                                
                   

• Quilting has a long history evolving from Ancient
  Egypt through the Middle Ages not only in Europe
  but also in many other cultures. During these
  periods quilting appears to have been used
  primarily for clothing.

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History of Quilting

• Quilted petticoats were among the first quilted
  items made by New England women. Diaries and
  other early documents refer to quilted petticoats
  simply as "quilts." Quilts as we think of them
  today were called "bed quilts." Displayed under
  open-fronted skirts, elaborately quilted
  petticoats were fashionable throughout much of
  the 18th century.

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History of Quilting

• Women's dresses did not have sewn-in pockets in
  the 18th and early 19th centuries, and women wore
  separate pockets tied around the waist, under the
  skirt. These pockets may have been made to match
  a quilted petticoat.
• When fabric scraps were relatively few, women
  pieced them into small useful items, including
  pockets. They were pieced in simple designs,
  usually in squares that made efficient use of
  scraps with little effort.

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History of Quilting

• New England women often kept their pins, needles,
  and thread in a small, roll-up sewing kit called
  a "housewife." These items were usually made with
  calico scraps.

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History of Quilting

• Quilt-making started in Europe in the early
  1700s, and immigrants brought the skill to the
  United States, where it started catching on in
  the late 1700s.

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History of Quilts

• One of the first quilting styles brought to
  America by immigrants was that of the subtly
  elegant whole-cloth quilt. The beauty of these
  solid white or colored quilts comes from
  elaborate, closely quilted designs that bring
  texture and shadows to the piece.

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History of Quilting

• The most popular images used on these whole cloth
  quilts were grape clusters, swags, cornucopias,
  and baskets of flowers. In these items, however,
  only the design elements were stuffed, rather
  than the entire item being interlined with
  batting.

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History of Quilting

• It is mentioned in diaries that comforters, or
  "comfortables, were common in New England by the
  1820s. The layers of a comforter are not quilted
  together, but are simply attached at intervals by
  a single stitch that is tied off and clipped.
  They offered as much warmth as quilts but were
  much quicker and easier to make.

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History of Quilting

• Fabrics were often very expensive because they
  were printed by hand
• One person often printed the dye and another the
  mordant which is the chemical that set the dye.
• Great care was needed to position the blocks so
  that the design stayed properly aligned.

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History of Quilting

• For New England women, quilting was an important
  way of "gathering up the fragments," By the 19th
  century, quilts were often made of bits of
  worn-out clothing and scraps left over from
  sewing.

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History of Quilting

• "Patchwork" is an English technique, practiced
  since at least 1700. Originally it meant mosaic
  patterns such as this one, created by stitching
  bits of fabric over paper templates and then
  whip-stitching the pieces together, edge-to-edge.
  The paper was usually removed before the batting
  and backing were applied.

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History of Quilting

• By the early 19th century, most New England
  quilters preferred to piece their designs without
  paper templates.
• One popular early design was to arrange the
  piecing in stripes, as seen in this quilt.

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History of Quilting

• This quilt appears to have been made from the
  scraps of old clothing.

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History of Quilting

• Piecing fabric in block designs probably began in
  England, but Americans developed such a great
  variety of pieced-block designs that this style
  is now identified as distinctively American.
  Before about 1825, stars were among the most
  popular designs used in New England pieced-block
  quilts.

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History of Quilting

• New England women often had help from friends and
  relatives in completing a quilt. "Quiltings" were
  generally small gatherings--a few neighbors
  enjoying an afternoon of stitching, chatting, and
  possibly tea. Occasionally, they were larger
  affairs, "a real festival," with young men
  invited afterwards for an evening meal,
  dancing--and an opportunity for courtship.

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History of Quilting

• Many quilts were created for marriage or
  friendship.
• Often times when people moved away a quilt was
  given with notes or signatures embroidered on the
  quilt

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History of Quilting

• Eventually Copperplates with images were used and
  pressed onto cloth.
• Then rollers were used commercially and fabrics
  were printed in a shorter amount of time allowing
  for fabrics to be priced cheaper.

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History of Quilting

• By the 1830s, British and American textile mills
  were producing millions of yards of inexpensive
  fabrics every year. With this abundance of
  textiles, household scrap bags yielded an
  ever-growing selection of colorful cotton prints
  for pieced quilts.Increasingly, pieced calico
  prints became a tradition of the countryside, in
  rural communities that held many of their own
  opinions on what was attractive and "in style."

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History of Quilting

• There are many designs for quilt blocks.
• Pieced-block designs typically begin with a
  square that is symmetrically divided by either
  straight or curved lines.
• Before 1850, quilters usually designed their
  squares with simple grid-like divisions of four,
  nine, or sixteen equal "patches," giving rise to
  the terms "four-patch" or "nine-patch" block.

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History of Quilting

• Quilters trace patterns and cut shapes that fit
  like a puzzle to create quilt faces.

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History of Quilting
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Agnes Irwin 3rd grade quilts
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