The purpose of quilting is to secure all three layers of the quilt from shifting over time and to provide a decorative element to the finished project. Traditionally, quilt stitches are made with white thread or in colors to match the fabric. The purpose of quilting is to have small, even stitches. As a technique, quilting has been used for a wide range of objects, from clothing to intricate objects such as pins.
Along with mosaic, quilting is most often associated with its use for bedding. But bedspreads aren't just practical objects. The quilts in our collection have been preserved for many different reasons, whether sentimental or commemorative, as examples of sewing skills and techniques, or even because of the specific fabrics used in their designs. The quilt, as we know it in the United States, was originally a strictly utilitarian item, born out of the need to provide warm covers for beds.
Quilts were also used as hangers for doors and windows that weren't well sealed enough to keep out the cold. The first American quilts, made by English and Dutch settlers, were so intimately connected with the daily lives of the first settlers that there is no record of them. The quilt originally served a strictly utilitarian purpose. People have been making quilts for a long time.
It can be traced back to ancient Egypt. A carved ivory figure of an Egyptian pharaoh dating from the year 3400 BC. C. Shows the oldest known quilted clothing.
Medieval knights wore quilted garments under their armor for comfort, warmth and greater protection. In the early days in the United States, quilts were made to provide warmth at night and to cover doors and windows to help reduce cold. The history of quilting, the stitching of layers of padding and fabric, can be traced back to 3400 BC. For much of its history, quilting was primarily a practical technique for providing physical protection and insulation.
However, decorative elements were often present as well, and many quilts are now mostly pieces of art. I have been sewing carefully since I started making quilts. The step quilt is used to remove the body from a nursing home, hospital, or home of the deceased person. Many families have commented on the loving touch it provides to such a tragic and sad time in the lives of survivors.
Quilting, a sewing technique in which two layers of fabric, usually with an insulating inner layer, are sewn together with multiple rows of seams. It has long been used for clothing in China, the Middle East, North Africa and the colder areas of Europe, but now it is mainly associated with the construction of bedspreads and wall tapestries. Quilting is a technique by which layers of fabric are sewn together, usually to make a warm quilt. Quilting can be done in many ways, but often a quilt frame is used to stabilize the layers, whereas a quilter or group of quilters uses needle and thread to sew a continuous stitch through all the layers on the quilt surface.
Hand quilting was a common practice until the 1980s; in the 21st century, many quilters used sewing machines or long-arm quilting machines to sew the layers. Sometimes quilt stitches follow a decorative pattern; other times they are made in a basic grid format simply for their functional fastening purpose. Some quilts use quilting techniques to keep the filling uniform, but this type of stitching is not for decorative purposes and does not convert a quilt into a quilt.
