Quilting: An Age Old Talent

American and European quilting traditions started as a way of adding warmth and weight to garments under armor. The tradition diverged slightly from that beginning.

Some European, Victorian age, quilters used every scrap of cloth they had left over from other projects in piecing together what was know as a crazy quilt. Many of these were often used as decorative showpieces for their homes.

Of necessity, American quilters created quilts for a more utilitarian purpose. They made use of the material on hand, including feed sacks, in their fabric blocks to save funds. Many made a living at selling their quilts to unattached men, but the main goal was to provide warmth on cold nights for their families.

No single quilt design is more popular than the others. Religion, end purpose of the quilt, and region in which it is produced, often are influences in the choice of pattern. One interesting use to which quilt making was put was at a time when paper and ink were not readily available was the recording of history on a local, family and national level.

Quilts were also used to express caring and friendship to close friends. The friendship quilt was one used for such a purpose. Contributions of blocks or pieces of fabric would be made by a group of quilters to make a quilt for someone special to them. Once there was enough material gathered then the group would come together in what was known as a quilting bee, or circle to finish the quilt.

A signature or autograph quilt is another type of friendship quilt. Community, friends and family would autograph individual quilt pieces, which would be collected together for assembly into the quilt. An individual or a group of quilters would then sew it together for the commemoration of a significant event in the life of the one who is to receive it.

Not all autograph quilts were, or are, made for the purpose of friendship. Some were made with fund raising in mind. Signatures of important people would be collected on the quilt blocks, usually one apiece, and then the blocks would be made into a quilt to be raffled or auctioned off. At other times funds were raised by having the community pay a fee for the privilege of signing a block, or piece of fabric for themselves.

The crazy quilt design was another way that quilters could raise money for a good cause. They would write to famous people asking for clothing scraps to sew into their quilt. When they finished their quilt it would be auctioned off.

Thus those that practiced the art of quilting have found many more uses for their skills than just providing warmth or weight to clothing. Fund raising and remembrance also are an important part of the quilting tradition.