A quilt is a type of bedding Bedding refers to the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for warmth and decorative effect. Bedding does not include the mattress, box spring or bed frame. Down materials are often used for warmth in bedding composed several layers generally combined using the technique of quilting Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system. Many are made with decorative designs, and some of these are not used as bed covering at all, but are rather made to be hung on a wall or otherwise displayed.

In addition to quilting Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system the quilt layers can be combined by tying. Tying refers to the technique of using thread, yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved or ribbon to pass through all three layers of the quilt at regular intervals. These "ties" hold the layers together during use and especially when the quilt is washed. This method is easier and more forgiving if the quilt is made by hand. Tied quilts are called, depending on the regional area, "lap", "comfort" or "comforter A comforter is a type of blanket. Comforters are intended to keep the user warm, especially during sleep, although they can also be used as mattress pads. Comforters are generally large and rectangular in shape, filled with natural or synthetic insulative material and encased in a shell/covering. Like quilts, comforters are generally used with a", among other names.

In British English British English, or UK English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English "as spoken or written in the British Isles; esp[ecially] the forms of English usual in Great Britain...", reserving ", duvet A duvet is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag traditionally filled with down or feathers, or a combination of both, and used on a bed as a blanket. Duvets originated in rural Europe and were made from the down feathers of the eider duck, known for its usefulness as an insulator may be used instead of quilt, wadding is another way of saying batting, and calico refers to muslin Muslin (English pronunciation: /ˈmʌslɨn/, or less frequently: is a type of loosely-woven cotton fabric, introduced to Europe from the Middle East in the 17th century. It became very popular at the end of the 18th century in France. Muslin is most typically a closely-woven unbleached or white cloth, produced from corded cotton yarn. Wide muslin, rather than to a fabric with a printed pattern on it.

Uses of quilts

• Bedding
• Decoration
• Armoury (see Gambeson A gambeson is a padded defensive jacket, worn as armour separately, or combined with mail or plate armour. Gambeson were produced with a sewing technique called quilting. Usually constructed of linen or wool, the stuffing varied, and could be for example scrap cloth or horse hair. During the 14th century, illustrations usually show buttons or)
• Commemoration (e.g., the "Twentieth Century Women of Faith" quilt on the Patchwork Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeat patterns built up with different colored shapes. These shapes are carefully measured and cut, straight-sided, basic geometric shapes making them easy to piece together page)
• Education (e.g., a "Science" quilt)
• Campaigning
• Documenting events / social history etc.
• Artistic expression
• Traditional gift

Types and traditions

United States

Amish

Amish The various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations that form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to adopt modern convenience quilts are reflections of the Amish way of life. Because the Amish people believe in not being "flashy" or "worldly" in dress and lifestyle, their quilts reflect this religious philosophy. They use only solid colors in their clothing and quilts. Some church districts limit the use of certain colors such as yellow or red because those are considered "too worldly". Black is a dominant color. Although Amish quilts appear austere from a distance, the craftsmanship is often of the highest quality and the stitching forms vigorous patterns that contrast well with the plain background. These traits appeal to a modern aesthetic; antique Amish quilts are among the most highly prized among collectors and quilting enthusiasts.

Baltimore album

Baltimore album quilts Baltimore Album Quilts originated in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1840s. They have become one of the most popular styles of quilts and are still made today. These quilts are made up of a number of squares called blocks. Each block has been appliquéd with a different design. The designs are often floral, but many other motifs are also used, such as originated in Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore , is an independent city and the largest city and cultural center of the U.S. state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding Baltimore County. Founded in in the 1840s, and are made up of blocks in which each block is appliquéd In its broadest sense, an applique or appliqué is a smaller ornament or device applied to another surface. In the context of ceramics, for example, an appliqué is a separate piece of clay added to the primary work, generally for the purpose of decoration. The word appliqué is a french word that, in this context, means "that has been with a different design. The designs are often floral, but many other motifs are also used.

Hawaiian

Hawaiian quilts A Hawaiian quilt is a distinctive quilting style of the Hawaiian Islands that uses large radially symmetric applique patterns. Motifs often work stylized botanical designs in bold colors on a white background are whole-cloth (not pieced) quilts featuring large-scale symmetrical appliqué in solid colors on a solid color (usually white) ground fabric. Traditionally, the quilter would fold a square piece of fabric into quarters or eighths and then cut out a border design, followed by a center design. The cutouts would then be appliquéd onto a contrasting background fabric. The center and border designs were typically inspired by local fauna. The most common color for the appliquéd design was red, due to the wide availability of Turkey-red Alizarin or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone is an organic compound with formula C14H8O4 that is historically important as a prominent dye, originally derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus fabric.^[1]

Log Cabin

Log cabin A log cabin is a small house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." "Log cabin" generally denotes a simple one, or one-and-one-half story structure, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less quilts are pieced quilts featuring blocks made of strips of fabric typically encircling a small centered square. Dramatic contrast effects with light and dark fabrics are created by various layouts of the blocks when forming a quilt top.

European quilts

The History of quilting Quilting, the stitching together of layers of padding and fabric, may date back as far as ancient Egypt, but the oldest existing example being a quilted linen carpet found in a Mongolian cave, and now kept at the Saint Petersburg department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Archaeology Section in Europe goes back at least to Medieval times. Quilting was done not only for traditional bedding but for warm clothing. Clothing quilted with fancy fabrics and threads was often a sign of nobility.

British quilts

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII's household inventories record dozens of "quyltes" and "coverpointes" among the bed linen, including a green silk one for his first wedding to Catherine of Aragon Catherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536), also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales. In 1507, she also held the position of Ambassador for the Spanish Court in England when her father found himself without quilted with metal threads, linen-backed, and worked with roses A rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native and pomegranates A pomegranate is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to between five and eight meters tall. The pomegranate is native to the Iranian Plateau, and has been cultivated in the Caucasus since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, India, the drier parts of southeast.^[2]

Otherwise known as Durham Durham is a city in the North East of England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county quilts, North Country quilts have a long history in north-east England, dating back to the Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The and beyond. North Country quilts are often "whole-cloth" quilts.

From the late 18th to the early 20th century the Lancashire The history of Lancashire is thought to have begun with its founding in the 12th century. In the Domesday Book , some of its lands had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The area in between the rivers Mersey and Ribble (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Once its initial cotton industry produced quilts using a mechanised technique of weaving double cloth Double cloth or double weave is a type of woven textile in which two or more sets of warps and one or more sets of weft or filling yarns are interconnected to form a two-layered cloth. The movement of threads between the layers allows complex patterns and surface textures to be created with an enclosed heavy cording weft, imitating the corded Provençal quilts made in Marseilles Marseille , formerly known as Massalia (from Greek: Μασσαλία), is a city in France, its second most-populous, behind Paris, with 852,395 residents as of 2007. It forms the third-largest urban area after those of Paris and Lyon with a population of 1,420,000 and the third-largest metropolitan area, also after those of Paris and Lyon, with a.^[3]

Italian quilts

Quilting was particularly common in Italy during the Renaissance The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the. One particularly famous surviving example, now in two parts, is the 1360-1400 Tristan Quilt, a Sicilian Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, comprising an autonomous region of Italy. Minor islands around it, such as the Aeolian Islands, are part of Sicily. Its official name is Regione Autonoma Siciliana (English:Sicilian Autonomous Region) quilted linen textile representing scenes from the story of Tristan and Isolde The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult (Isolde, Yseult, etc.). The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and and housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum , in The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2) and in the Bargello The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy in Florence.^[4]

Provençal quilts

Provençal quilts, now often referred to as "boutis", are wholecloth quilts traditionally made in the South of France Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi, from the 17th century onwards. Boutis is a Provençal Provençal is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence word meaning 'stuffing', describing how two layers of fabric are quilted together with stuffing sandwiched between sections of the design, creating a raised effect.^[5] The three main forms of the Provençal quilt are matelassage (a double-layered wholecloth quilt with wadding sandwiched between), corded quilting or piqûre de Marseilles (also known as Marseilles work or piqué marseillais), and boutis.^[5] These terms are often debated and confused, but are all forms of stuffed quilting associated with the region.^[5]

For further information, see Provençal quilts

Other nations

Bangladeshi Quilts

Bangladeshi quilts, known as Kantha Kantha is a type of embroidery popular in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, India. The use of kantha is popular in saris traditionally worn by women in Bengal, but any garment or cloth with kantha embroidery may be called a kantha garment, are not pieced together. Rather, they are two to three pieces of cloth (mainly used sarees) joined together for thickness. They are made out of worn out clothes (saris) and are mainly used for bedding, as a blanket. Sometimes they may be used as a decorative piece as well. They are made by women mainly in the Monsoon season before winter.

Tivaevae Cook Island quilts

Tivaevae Tivaivai in Cook Islands, tifaifai in French Polynesia is a form of art at which Polynesian women excel. Tivaivai means to stitch or sew and Cook Islands women make magnificent bed covers called tivaivai.The tivaivai are either made by one woman or can be created in groups of women called vainetini. The vainetini use this time together to bond, are also quilts made by Cook Island women for ceremonial occasions. Quilting is thought to have been imported to the Islands by missionaries. The quilts are highly prized and are given as gifts with other finely made works on important occasions such as weddings and christenings.

Ralli quilts

Ralli quilts Ralli Quilts are traditional quilts made by women in the areas of Sindh, Pakistan, western India, and in surrounding areas. They are just now gaining international recognition, even though women have been making these quilts for hundreds, maybe thousands of years; they make colourful Quilts, Table Runners and hand-embroidered cushions and pillows are traditional quilts made in Pakistan Pakistan (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪsˈtaːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریہ پاکِستان) (also the Federation of Pakistan), is a country in South Asia. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, is bordered by Afghanistan and and India. Ralli quilts are also called rilli quilts. Handmade ralli quilts are used as blankets and bedspreads. They combine patchwork, appliqué and embroidery. Parents present rallis to their daughters on their weddings as a dowry. The another kind of ralli quilt is sami ralli, used by the samis The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami , are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. Their ancestral lands span an area the size of Sweden in, jogis and gypsies. This type of rall quilt is popular due to many colors and extensive hand stitching.

Quillow

A quillow is a quilt with an attached pocket into which the whole blanket can be folded, thus making a pillow. Once folded into the pocket, it can be used as a cushion during the day and unfolded into a blanket at night.

Quilting technique

As an example, the quilt image above has 24 blocks arranged in a 4x6 pattern, set with dark sashing strips, corner stones in a contrasting color, an outside sashing strip but no border, and a multicolored binding. Click on the image to see these details in a larger view.

Quilts on display

In 2010, the world renowned Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum , in The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2) put on a comprehensive display of quilts from 1700-2010 [1].

Amongst famous quilts in history is the AIDS Memorial Quilt The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt, is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to and celebration of the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece of community folk art in the world as of 2009, which was begun in San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,977. The only consolidated city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles on the northern end of the San Francisco in 1987, and is cared for by The NAMES Project Foundation The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt, is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to and celebration of the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece of community folk art in the world as of 2009. It is periodically displayed in various arranged locations.

The Museum of the American Quilter's Society The Museum of the American Quilter's Society is located in Paducah, Kentucky. The museum houses a large collection of quilts, most of which are winning entries from the American Quilter's Society festival and quilt competition held yearly in April. The Museum also houses other exhibits of quilt collections, both historic and modern (also known as the National Quilt Museum) is located in Paducah, Kentucky Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River. The population was 26,307 at the 2000 census. Twenty blocks of Downtown Paducah have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum houses a large collection of quilts, most of which are winning entries from the annual American Quilter's Society festival and quilt competition held in April. The Museum also houses other exhibits of quilt collections, both historic and modern.

Many historic quilts can be seen in Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it at the American Museum in Britain The American Museum in Britain is based at Claverton Manor, near Bath, England, in a house, designed by Jeffry Wyatville and built in the 1820s on the site of a manor bought by Ralph Allen in 1758. It is now a Grade I listed building, and Beamish Museum Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, England preserves examples of the North East England North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Tees Valley . The main city in the region is Newcastle upon Tyne. Other towns in the area are: Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees and Sunderland quiltmaking tradition.

The largest known public collection of quilts is housed at the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Examples of Tivaevae and other quilts can be found in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in California also display traditional and modern quilts. There is free admission to the museum on the first Friday of every month, as part of the San Jose Art Walk.

The New England Quilt Museum is located in Lowell, Massachusetts.

In literature

• Ismat Chughtai wrote an Urdu-language story entitled "Lihaf" ("The Quilt", 1941) that lead to scandal and an unsuccessful attempt at legal prosecution of the author because it was about a lesbian relationship.
• The Quilter's Apprentice and many others by Jennifer Chiaverini
• The Quiltmaker's Gift and The Quiltmaker's Journey by Jeff Brumbeau, illustrated by Gail de Marcken
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
• Wild Goose Chase by Terri Thayer
• Old Maid's Puzzle by Terri Thayer
• How to Make an American Quilt (Fiction) by Whitney Otto
• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry uses the theme of a quilt to symbolize how the four main characters with vastly different backgrounds come to meet under one roof.

See also

• Quilting
• Crazy quilting
• Duvet
• History of quilting
• Southern AIDS Living Quilt
• NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
• Patchwork quilt
• Patchwork
• Tessellation
• American Museum in Britain: location of a large collection of historic American quilts in UK.
• Baltimore album quilts
• Mathematics and fiber arts

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