American Quilts

american quilts

Quiltmaking began in the Middle East as padded armor lining. The idea was brought to Europe where quilts became popular for adding extra layers to clothing and bedding to increase their warmth.

American quiltmaking began as a way to recycle worn cloth into bed coverings. Pioneer women pieced together scraps of fabric that were sewn together into multi-colored textures, shapes and patterns to form what was called 'crazy quilts'. As fabric became more readily available, instead of odd shapes, square and rectangular pieces would be laid out first to create the desired design.

Although quilts had a functional purpose as bed coverings, they were also equally important as display. Early bedrooms frequently possessed only one piece of furniture, namely, the bed, and the quilt displayed upon it was the central motif. Before 1750, quilting was the universal form of needlework in America, practiced in all households by all females old enough to hold a needle. Even after economic circumstances eased somewhat, girls were still taught to sew even before they were taught to read—there are many beautiful quilts made by girls younger than ten years old. Making quilts, though a necessity, was virtually the one area in which women could express themselves creatively—a woman worked on her quilt in the evenings after she had done the day’s chores. The importance of quilts in women’s lives is best expressed in the statement of one 9th-century farm woman: “I would have lost my mind if I had not had my quilts to do.” Women reserved their “best” quilt for guests of honor or special occasions, and, when it was on the bed, drew the curtains to prevent fading.

Ladies worked on small blocks of a quilt, then got together in a Quilting Bee session to complete the full quilt with other women In gave the women the opportunity to visit while they worked together to finish the quilt.

Quilts were made in three ways: pieced, appliquéd, or by the use of quilting stitches alone on a solid color background. The majority of quilts were “pieced”; for economic reasons small pieces of fabric were joined edge to edge to make up the top of a single layer of fabric. The designs the quilters developed reflected their environment, as well as the religious and political concerns of the times. A young woman’s first quilt was usually made from long strips of fabric stitched together across the width of a bed. These designs often are framed with a border made of long, narrow strips of cloth or small pieces stitched into squares and sewn together.

Since the process of piecing makes curved designs very difficult, most pieced quilts have straight edge designs found on squares, rectangles, triangles, or diamonds. These geometric designs are often pieced into “blocks”. A common quilt block is 9”x9”. (The sampler quilts provided are made up of 9x9 blocks.) A standard double-bed quilt is six blocks across and seven blocks long. The quilt is usually increased by adding decorative strips and binding between blocks.

Each block pattern has a different name (see more in activities below). Each quilt is commonly named by its maker using the patter as inspiration (e.g. A log cabin pattern quilt may be named “Kristin’s Winter Cabin”.)

Quilt fabrics were usually one color with elaborate stitching. Intricate stitching became expensive so people began to cut out designs to be sewn onto the main fabric. This was the beginning of appliqué.

Besides the top designed layer, quilts have two other layers: the padding for warmth and the backing. The padding or filling in early years was made of cotton batting, bird feathers, or other warm stuffing materials. All three layers are held together by the “quilting,” that is, the tiny stitches which go through all three layers and contribute their own design to the quilt.

questions:

• Do you have anyone in your family that quilts? If so, what type of quilts do they make? Are they used for bedding, blankets, decoration or another reason?
• Individual quilt blocks with names are provided in the cabinet. Show each block pattern and discuss the different names of each pattern. Can the children see how the names relate to the pattern? Does the same pattern in different colors still look the same? How do colors change the block pattern?
• What color is used more than any other color? Why is the background all one color? Hint: to give unity and rhythm to the work.
• Name some other ways the quilter gives unity to her work. Hint: repeated colors, repeated patterns, uniform quilting (stitching) across the quilt.
• How many blocks are in the quilt?
• What type of geometric shapes or designs do you see? Is there symmetry in the quilt? Do you think you need math to make a quilt? Hint: measuring, angles, shapes.

activities:

Bring in quilts from home to show to the students. We also have two example quilts in the cabinet to be used for this session. Each quilt is a “Sampler” with different patterns in each square. We also have quilt block squares with the associated name of each pattern - it's neat to show them the differences and how the same pattern looks very different when different colors are used. Here's Kristin presenting them below:

Give children the name of the quilt block pattern they are using (e.g. Irish Chain). Have children color or make one and then give it its own name (e.g. one colored in red, white and blue could be American Chain). They can also come up with a quilt name (e.g. Kristin’s Purple Chain). Below a child is holding the quilt she's been making with her Grandma and coloring her block (while holding her quilted pillow she brought in for the lesson).

Provide the children with pieces of cut scrapbooking or other patterned paper to design their own quilts. The colorful paper can be pasted onto a white sheet of paper. Emphasize the use of geometric designs to create individual blocks. You can also provide each child with a quilt template and let them design their own quilt by coloring it to their liking.

Name the Quilt Block game – make copies of the game for each child. Children can then match the name to the quilt block. PDF file of this game is provided below.

links/Resources:

Quilt Design