History of Quilts A quilt was one of the first examples of recycling. Traditionally, they were made out of "leftovers" - clothes that were too worn, scraps from making clothes, fabrics from feedsacks. They were almost strictly utilitarian in nature, not decorative. The insulation in the quilt, "batt" is the proper term, might have been an old blanket or quilt too worn to be used, raw wool or cotton, and some examples have been found that contained newspaper!
Today, quilts aren't nearly so utilitarian. Most are made of new materials, mostly cotton fabrics, with cotton or polyester batts. Sometimes fancier fabrics - wools, silks and velvets - are used and wool and silk batts are available.
The term "to quilt" is the process of joining a layer of fabric, an insulating filling, and another layer of fabric together. First, the top is "pieced" - smaller pieces of fabric are joined together to make a larger piece of fabric. This may be done by hand or by sewing machine. There may be a very particular design and color layout or it may be totally random depending on the fabrics that are available and the skill level of the maker.
Once the top is "pieced" it is layered with the batt and a backing. The backing can be as simple as a bed sheet, or can be pieced using leftover fabrics. When the three layers are sewed together, that is "quilting." Quilting can be done by hand or by machine. And once the quilting is completed, the edges are finished.
Quilting was very popular up through the 1930's. The Great Depression helped keep it alive. But after WWII and all of the fancy man-made fabrics that came out, the art of quilting died down. The revival of quilting came about w/ the USA's bicentennial. And since the mid/late '70's, the industry supporting quilt makers and their craft has exploded. Quilts are still used on top of beds, but there is a large growth in the "art quilt" side of quilting. With the availability of printing photographs on fabric, embellishing with metallic threads and beads, using fabrics from all over the world, quilts have taken on a new life!
submitted by Cappy Phillips
- creator of 2005 trophy quilts
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