Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them (13 page)

Quilts, as known and used to-day, may be divided into two general classes, washable and non-washable, depending upon the materials of which they are made. The methods for constructing each class are the same, and are so very simple that it seems hardly necessary to explain them.

The name quilt implies two or more fabrics held together with many stitches. Webster defines a quilt as “Anything that is quilted, especially as a quilted bedcover or a skirt worn by women; any cover or garment made by putting wool, cotton, etc., between two cloths and stitching them together.” The verb, to quilt, he defines as “To stitch or to sew together at frequent intervals in order to confine in place the several layers of cloth and wadding of which a garment, comforter, etc., may be made. To stitch or sew in lines or patterns.”

The “Encyclopædia Britannica” is a little more explicit and also gives the derivation of the name, quilt, as follows: “Probably a coverlet for a bed consisting of a mass of feathers, down, wool, or other soft substances, surrounded by an outer covering of linen, cloth, or other material.” In its earlier days the “quilt” was often made thick and sewed as a form of mattress. The term was
also given to a stitched, wadded lining for body armour. “The word came into English from old French
cuilte
. This is derived from Latin
culcitra
, a stuffed mattress or cushion. From the form
culcitra
came old French
cotra
, or
coutre
whence
coutre pointe
; this was corrupted into counterpoint, which in turn was changed to counterpane. The word ‘pane’ is also from the Latin
pannus
, a piece of cloth. Thus ‘counterpane,’ a coverlet for a bed, and ‘quilt’ are by origin the same word.”

Broadly speaking, from these definitions, any article made up with an interlining may be called a quilt. However, usage has restricted the meaning of the word until now it is applied to a single form of bed covering. In the United States the distinction has been carried even farther and a quilt is understood to be a light weight, closely stitched bedcover. When made thicker, and consequently warmer, it is called a “comfort.”

The three necessary parts of a quilt are the top, the lining or back, and the interlining. The top, which is the important feature, unless the quilting is to be the only ornamentation, may be a single piece of plain cloth; or it may be pieced together from many small pieces different in size, colour,
and shape, so as to form either simple or fanciful designs. The top may also be adorned with designs cut from fabrics of varying colours and applied to the foundation with fancy stitches, or it may be embroidered. The materials may be either cotton, linen, wool, or silk. The back is usually of plain material, which requires no description. The interlining, if the quilting is to be close and elaborate, must be thin. If warmth is desired a thicker interlining is used and the lines of quilting are spaced farther apart. The design of the top and the quilting lend themselves very readily to all manner of variations, and as a result there is an almost infinite variety of quilts.

For convenience in making, nearly every quilt is composed of a number of blocks of regular form and size which, when joined together, make the body of the quilt. Each of these blocks may have a design complete in itself, or may be only part of a large and complicated design covering the whole top of the quilt.

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HARRISON ROSE

This quilt is at least 75 years old. The rose is pieced of old rose and two shades of pink; the stem and leaves are appliqué

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DETAIL OF HARRISON ROSE, SHOWING QUILTING

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QUILTING DESIGNS

(
a
) Single Diagonal Lines
 
(
b
) Double Diagonal Lines
 
(
c
) Triple Diagonal Lines

There is a radical distinction between the verbs “to piece” and “to patch,” as used in connection with the making of quilts. In this instance the former means to join together separate pieces of
like material to make sections or blocks that are in turn set together to form the top of the quilt. The pieces are usually of uniform shape and size and of contrasting colours. They are sewed together with a running stitch, making a seam upon the wrong side. The quilt called “Star of the East” is an excellent example of a pieced quilt in which a number of small pieced sections are united to form a single design that embraces the entire top of the quilt.

Patches are commonly associated with misfortune. The one who needs them is unfortunate, and the one who has to sew them on is usually an object of sympathy, according to a wise old saw: “A hole may be thought to be an accident of the day, but a patch is a sure sign of poverty.” But patch quilts belong to a different class than the patches of necessity, and are the aristocrats of the quilt family, while the pieced quilts came under the heading of poor relations.

However, this term is a misnomer when applied to some pieced quilts. Many of the “scrap quilts,” as they are called in some localities, are very pretty when made from gay pieces—carefully blended—of the various shades of a single colour. The stars in
the design called “The Unknown Star” are made of a great variety of different patterns of pink calico, yet the blending is so good that the effect is greatly heightened by the multiplicity of shades.

Pieced quilts make a special appeal to women who delight in the precise and accurate work necessary in their construction. For those who enjoy making pieced quilts, there is practically no limit to the variety of designs available, some of which are as intricate as the choicest mosaic. The bold and rather heavy design known as “Jacob’s Ladder” is a good example of the pieced quilt. Another is the “Feathered Star,” whose lightness and delicacy make it a most charming pattern. The pieced quilt with one large star in the centre, called by some “The Star of the East” and by others “The Star of Bethlehem,” is a striking example of mathematical exactness in quilt piecing. In quilts made after this pattern all the pieces must be exactly the same size and all the seams must be the same width in order to produce a perfect star.

The French word “appliqué” is frequently used to describe the patched or laid-on work. There is no single word in the English language that exactly translates “appliqué.” The term “applied
work” comes nearest and is the common English term. By common usage patchwork is now understood to mean quilt making, and while used indiscriminately for both pieced and patched quilts, it really belongs to that type where the design is cut from one fabric and applied upon another. “Sewed on” and “laid quilts” are old terms given to appliqué or patched quilts.

The distinction between “pieced” and “patched” quilts is fittingly described by Miss Bessie Daingerfield, the Kentuckian who has written interestingly of her experiences with mountain quilt makers. She says: “To every mountain woman her piece quilts are her daily interest, but her patch quilts are her glory. Even in these days, you women of the low country know a piece quilt when you see one, and doubtless you learned to sew on a ‘four-patch’ square. But have you among your treasures a patch quilt? The piece quilt, of course, is made of scraps, and its beauty or ugliness depends upon the material and colours that come to hand, the intricacy of the design, and one’s skill in executing it. I think much character building must be done while hand and eye coöperate to make, for example, a star quilt with its endless tiny points
for fitting and joining, but a patch quilt is a more ambitious affair. For this the pattern is cut from the whole piece and appliquéd on unbleached cotton. The colours used are commonly oil red, oil green, and a certain rather violent yellow, and sometimes indigo blue. These and these only are considered reliable enough for a patch quilt, which is made for the generations that come after. The making of such a quilt is a work of oriental patience.”

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ORIGINAL ROSE DESIGN MADE IN 1840

The maker was lame, and only able to walk about in her garden. Colours: red, green, pink, and yellow

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PINEAPPLE DESIGN

Colours: red and green

“Appliqué work is thought by some to be an inferior kind of embroidery, although it is not. It is not a lower but another kind of needlework in which more is made of the stuff than of the stitching. In appliqué the craft to the needleworker is not carried to its limit, but, on the other hand, it calls for great skill in design. Effective it must be: coarse it may be: vulgar it should not be: trivial it can hardly be: mere prettiness is beyond its scope: but it lends itself to dignity of design and nobility of treatment.” The foregoing quotation is from “Art in Needlework” by Louis F. Day and Mary Buckle. It is of interest because it explains how appliqué or “laid-on” needlework ranks with other kinds.

After all the different parts of a quilt top are either pieced or decorated with applied designs, they are joined together with narrow seams upon the wrong side of the quilt. If a border is included in the design it should harmonize in colour and design with the body of the quilt. However, in many quilts, borders seem to be “a thing apart” from the remainder of the top and, apparently, have been added as an afterthought to enlarge the top after the blocks had been joined. In old quilts a border frequently consisted of simple bands of colours similar to those found in the body of the quilt, but more often new material entirely different in colour and quality was added when greater size was desired. Many old quilts were three yards or more square, generous proportions being very essential in the old days of broad four-posters heaped with feather beds.