Many people imagine quilters in the Colonial period sitting around a fireplace quilting but actually there was not much quilting being done. Fabric was a luxury and women had very little free time for decorative arts. What we see in museums that have survived today are luxury items that wealthy ladies created. So come with me and step back into time when quilting got it's first start in America. Also we are going to learn how they pieced together batting.
Elizabeth Welsh 1830 - Brooklyn Museum Broderie perse
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The first example of Colonial quilting is broderie perse which means Persian embroidery. Fabric was expensive and printed fabric was imported. Fabric from India was the most desired and expensive. Only wealthy families that lived around ports had access to these beautiful fabrics that were printed in India and Europe. They had servants that did the everyday chores and cooking, which left them with time to entertain and enjoy decorative needle arts. Most of these young ladies were educated in these refined arts and displayed them around their homes.
Wealthy ladies would use the printed panel by cutting it up and appliqueing it to a larger cloth to make a coverlet. Usually they would use a very fine blanket stitch around the edges to sew down the pieces. When finished they would line the top with fabric and finish with fringe around the edges made from wool yarn. Sometimes they would be quilted with a light cotton or wool batting. This gave the wealthy women a chance to show off. This next video shows how to do this with your machine in a modern technique of broderie perse.
Wonderful large scale printed fabrics were quilted with out cutting them up. This was called "whole cloth quilting." Beautiful quilting was done on plain cloth with batting padding the quilt. If you could not acquire lovely printed fabrics, this was a way to be fashionable with your home. This type of quilt is still being made today to show off quilting skills. Here is an example of indigo wool whole cloth quilt from the 18th century.
http://www.quiltindex.org/...
During colonial times not many women had time to quilt. Fancy needle work was a pass time of wealthy women who had servants. Quilting was usually done on small items like vests and underskirts to be warn under clothing for warmth in the winter. Here is an example of a quilted petty coat with beautiful feather quilting.
http://www.quiltindex.org/...
So you are now wondering what did they have for bedding. They used woven blankets made mostly from wool. The wool was usually prepared for weaving and then given to a weaver to make. Families in rural areas, just wove their own. Usually the blanket was two pieces carefully sewed together and sometimes embroidery was added in the corners or edges. The woven cloth was brushed to make a soft fuzzy nape. Blankets were usually woven with contrasting strips at each end. They usually were done in green, blue, white and red dyed wool or linen yarn. Blankets were also traded for from the Indians who needed and wanted house hold items. Blankets were imported also from England and they were usually decorated in a compass rose in the corners.
Compass Rose
Traditional 32 point Compass Rose
Here is an example of a colonial blanket belonging to Amanda Winter. This home spun blanket that was embroidered in a different style than the compass rose blanket from England. This belongs to the New Hampshire Historical Society. Most likely this was from her wedding chest. Please take note of the stitching that is done to hold the pieces together in the blanket.
http://www.randomhouse.com/...
http://www.randomhouse.com/...
Home spun blanket with compass rose embroidered in the corner by the maker. Found in a rummage sale.
http://www.randomhouse.com/...
Bed rugs were more ambitious. Some was tuft like today's hook rugs but they were also embroidered all over on oven wool. The embroidery was in the crewel embroidery of blue yarn. Both of these were done in the late 18th century and copied the expensive English crewel tapestry work. Nice examples of home spun and fine needlework.
http://www.randomhouse.com/...
Close up.
http://www.randomhouse.com/...
Another example of bedding was a coverlet. The prepared yarn was taken to a carpet manufacture and then was woven on jacquard machine. These were usually found in home of the wealthy. Today they are highly collectible. They are still being made today by artisan weavers with modern techniques.
http://www.womenfolk.com/...
Jacquard looms in the Textile Department of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland.
Jacquard coverlet made by the Craig Family, Decatur County, IN. The object in this image is within the permanent collection of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Colonial or early back stitching quilting.
Running quilting stitch and Half back quilting stitch that was used in early quilting.
Batting or wadding was prepared by the quilter. She would wash and card cotton or wool. Wool would be washed several times to remove the dirt and oils from it. Cotton had to have all the seeds and leaves picked out of it before it was carded. Carding was done using to paddles with nails evenly spaced like a brush that was used to pull apart the fibers until they were blended and in a fluffy thick mat. This was the same thing that was done to ready fiber for spinning into thread or yarn. These pieces was usually not large and was put together in the quilt. I don't know if they were pieced together by sewing or just laid carefully out on the backing can very close quilting was done to hold it all together. Commercially manufactured batting wasn't made until mid 19th century. You can learn about the history of batting in this diary.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I was taught a technique of piecing batting together so there would not be any waste when I was young. There was always stories that went along with why this was done. In the early 20th century women was still carding their own in remote rural areas. All the trimmings was saved and used from commercial bats by the women I grew up around. The smallest pieces could be used in stuffing toys and larger pieces would be sewn together in lap quilting as you go. This is a hand technique that I still use today. I like the process of quilting and tend not to be in a big hurry to finish. Also the price of batting is very expensive now for a bed size quilt. I like to stick with one type of batting from the same manufacture. May favorite is 80% cotton and 20% polyester. There are several new types of batting made with different fibers that are new to quilting. My choice is because I live in a hot climate and this is a comfortable choice to sleep under.
I decided that I had enough scrap batting that I could use for my sampler quilt. Since this project is a quilt by section technique, it was an ideal way of using up this scrap. I have two bags of Fairfield Cotton Classic trimmings.
To sort all of this out. I use an ironing board and iron set on low. The temperature is just warm enough to smooth out the batting. I don't want to melt the polyester that is worked into the cotton. There is enough polly to make this batting easy to needle by hand. It is also soft and breaths so it is ideal for hot climates with cool nights. Polly you sweat under and cotton is too heavy. I use my rulers to measure out the size of the block with the pieces that fit together. I am only going to piece at the most 3 pieces together for my 16 inch block. In this next picture I have 15 blocks sorted out ready to stitch together.
I have chosen black thread and large stitches for illustration. This is a basic a modern taylor tack stitch that is used to add interfacing to suiting. There are times when iron interfacing will not work. You don't have to put a knot in the thread and you use one strand to stitch with. The two pieces are butted together and not over lapped so make a smooth seam. This is important if you were hand quilting. You start by inserting the needle away from you and take one stitch on one side. You can leave a thread tail.
Now you cross over to the other side and take the same stitch. Pulling the thread gently until the sides butt together.
Continue until you have finished the seam in completed. You can leave a tail at the end and no need to knot it. I use a smaller stitch for this. I usually do this in front of the TV using a tray for support. It goes fast and don't take too long.
This holds the pieces together and will remain that way. Quilting helps hold it in place. I rough cut the pieces and after it is sew together I will square it up to the size I need. If I need to I can pull the thread out of the first or last stitch so I don't have to cut through the thread and keep the tail. You don't need a long tail just enough so you don't pull the first stitch out while working with it.
In the illustrations earlier in this diary, Amanda Winter used it to decorate her seams in sewing the woven pieces together. I can't tell from the photograph what stitch was used under the red decorative stitch to butt the pieces together. The red thread was both decorative and helped hold together the pieces.
Most of us today have wonderful stitches on our machines that can be used to butt together batting with. The elastic stitch that goes back and forth is a good choice. Just set it at the widest and longest stitch length. I still like doing it by hand in a quilt like this. A charity quilt I would use my machine. I want it to feel like it was cut from whole pieces. There will be plenty of quilting on each block to hold it all together while washing. This is a good technique to know how to do in case you need to add a piece of batting to a special quilt.
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