quilting

/kwil"ting/, n.

1. the act of a person who quilts.

2. material for making quilts.

3. a heavily padded wrapping, as for fragile cargo.

[1605-15; QUILT + -ING¹]

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Process of stitching together two layers of fabric, usually with a soft, thick substance placed between them.

The layer of wool, cotton, or other stuffing provides insulation; the stitching keeps the stuffing evenly distributed and also provides opportunity for artistic expression. Quilting has long been used for clothing in many parts of the world, especially in the Far and Middle East and the Muslim regions of Africa. It reached its fullest development in the U.S., where it was at first popularly used for petticoats and comforters. By the end of the 18th century the U.S. quilt had distinctive features, such as coloured fabric sewn on the outer layers (appliqué) and stitching that echoed the appliqué pattern. Patchwork patterns proliferated in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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▪ decorative arts

Introduction

      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 sculpture museum in Usella, Italy. 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.

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.

 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. (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 (McKim, Ruby), achieved national fame. Other 20th-century designers included Marie Webster (Webster, Marie), 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.

The quilt revival

      The 1970s marked a quilt revival, thanks in part to the nostalgic interest in crafts generated by the American Bicentennial. Often cited as a major influence was a 1971 exhibit, “Abstract Design in American Quilts,” curated by Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, in which vintage quilts, many of them Amish-made, were displayed like modern art. “Art quilts” soon joined the quilter's vocabulary, typified by work from Michael James, Jan Myers-Newbury, Nancy Crow, and others. These quilts, which escaped the practical constraints of quilts intended for use, were displayed in venues such as the biennial Quilt National exhibition in Athens, Ohio.

      Bonnie Leman's Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, founded in 1969, was the first quilt-dominated magazine. Others soon followed, including Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts, Quilt World, and the American Quilter. The latter promotes the American Quilter's Society, founded by William and Meredith Schroeder in 1984, with an annual contest and show in Paducah, Kentucky.

      The International Quilt Festival, founded by Karey Bresenhan in 1974, holds an annual conference in Houston, Texas. Other groups include the American Quilt Study Group, National Quilting Association, Quilt Heritage Foundation, International Quilt Association, and Alliance for American Quilts. Many state and local guilds actively promote quilting for education and charitable purposes.

      Museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of American Folk Art display quilts from their collections. Regional museums and collections include the American Textile History Museum and New England Quilt Museum, both in Lowell, Massachusetts; the Museum of the American Quilter, Paducah, Kentucky; the International Quilt Study Center, Lincoln, Nebraska; the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, Colorado; the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, California; and the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook, Oregon.

      Quilters have competed for recognition ever since the 19th-century county fair. National quilt contests of the 20th century, notably the 1933 World's Fair quilt contest sponsored by Sears, Roebuck and Company and the 1977 Bicentennial contest sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine, have contributed to interest in quilting and brought forward national teachers like Jinny Beyer. (Beyer, Jinny)

      By the 1980s timesaving tools and techniques, especially the rotary cutter and strip piecing, began changing quilting. Television personalities such as Georgia Bonesteel, along with the shows Simply Quilts and Quilt-in-a-Day, provided quilt history and instruction. Innovative techniques developed by art quilters such as Caryl Bryer Fallert as well as those specializing in more traditional work, such as Nancy Martin, Ami Simms, and Judy Martin, reached an international audience through books, conferences, and the Internet.

      Interest in quilting is not confined to North America; Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan have flourishing quilting communities. American quilts are collected and copied worldwide as folk art and textile art.

Additional Reading

For general information, see Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America (1935, reissued in slightly abridged and corrected form, 1988); Averil Colby, Patchwork Quilts (1965, reprinted 1988); Carleton L. Safford and Robert Bishop, America's Quilts and Coverlets (1972, reissued 1985); Patsy Orlofsky and Myron Orlofsky, Quilts in America (1974, reprinted 1992); Dennis Duke and Deborah Harding (eds.), America's Glorious Quilts (1987, reissued 1989); Jeremy Adamson, Calico and Chintz: Antique Quilts from the Collection of Patricia S. Smith (1997); Amelia Peck, American Quilts and Coverlets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1990). Specific aspects of quilt history are discussed in Cuesta Benberry, Always There: The African-American Presence in American Quilts (1992); Marsha L. MacDowell and C. Kurt Dewhurst (eds.), To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions (1997); Penny McMorris and Michael Kile, The Art Quilt (1986, reissued 1996); Merikay Waldvogel, Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression (1990). Marianne Fons and Liz Porter, Quilter's Complete Guide (1993), is a comprehensive guide to quilt making.

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