Hawaii
Hawaiian quilting is said to have started when the wives of two chiefs were introduced to quilting by missionaries on board a boat. Hawaiians would not naturally have begun to quilt for domestic use, as quilts were not needed in the warm Hawaiian climate.
The missionaries showed the Hawaiians how to cut up fabrics into pieces and then sew them back together. This the Hawaiians found rather wasteful, as they were careful with all their resources and didn’t understand the concept of cutting up a large piece of material, only to sew pieces of it back together, and then be left with bits that couldn’t be used.
Eventually, the Hawaiians found a way of using their own clothing fabric (called tapa) which they folded to achieve 1/4 or 1/8 patterns, and they gave any waste pieces back to the missionaries for them to use in their own quilting. This tapa was from tree bark.
The unique nature of the Hawaiian quilting is clear in their use of local flora, and the spirit world as design influences for their quilts.
Conceptually, they used quilts to record their environment, their departed love ones, and their still to be born. Their quilts were also strongly about the Hawaiian identity and the identity of the individual members of their society.
The Hawaiian Gods, their rites and ceremonies, and their history, are all depicted in the wonderful Hawaiian quilts. Local events and major historical events were all beautifully detailed and preserved in their quilts. In fact, all their quilts have a story to tell, or a person to describe, or an act to preserve for posterity.
Quilts were not made in Hawaii just to keep the women busy or as a necessary domestic duty. Quilts in Hawaii are their history, and they predict the future too!
One of the few nations to produce famous quilts that were never intended to keep them warm at night, the Hawaiian culture and history has instead been retained beautifully. Quilts continue to be made in Hawaii, with new designs constantly emerging. Here, quilts are both the history and the future in a very unique and valuable way.
The United Kingdom
Clearly a colder climate than Hawaii, the traditions of ‘make do and mend’ were such that for centuries, cloth was very valuable and not to be wasted. Long before any mechanical cloth production, every piece of cloth was made by hand or with simple weaving frames. Anything so time consuming to produce could only be treated with care and considered to be of value.
Long before the first settlers arrived in America, British women, and men were involved in patchwork and quilting, both for home and commercial benefit. So the history of quilting in Britain goes way back.
There are records of padded clothing being made for soldiers to be worn underneath their armor to protect them from the metal, and also to provide warmth and comfort. And as far back as the fourteenth century, quilted fabrics were used as bedcovers and clothes.
There are examples of eighteenth century pieces of clothing that remain from noble and royal households. For example, an underskirt for a Scottish wedding is now part of the Heritage Collection of the Quilters Guild, and dated at 1764.
Although in the households run by nobles and royals, there were wonderful examples of luxurious and exquisite pieces of quilting, these were the minority. The very wealthy would import cloth from abroad and use it to display their wealth and social status.
Hence we see silks, satins, velvets, and printed Indian calico used in complex quilting, often as backgrounds to embroidered hangings and bed drapes.
These pieces would generally be made by professional craftsmen who would have been members of some of the early Guilds. Women would not generally have been employed on a commercial basis in this way until much later.
In the homes of the less well off, the quilting and patchwork traditions would have a much more utilitarian approach, and although some would be very cleverly designed and executed, the main concern was to provide warmth without too much expense.
The cottage industry was very much part of the northern England and Welsh tradition, and as such, there would be quilters undertaking work on a commission basis, and either selling directly to certain wealthier homes, or through an agent.
In Wales and some parts of England, there were also traveling workers. They would take board and lodging in a household and be required to provide new quilts for bedding, along with other stitch work in exchange for their keep.
In Victorian times, fashion dictated the use of lots of bright colors and contrasting black. Fabrics were more readily available and there was greater wealth available in the new middle classes. Drapery and bed coverings that had previously been seen only in the houses of the nobility were now emulated by the new professional and commercial classes.
Most girls of ‘good’ homes would be brought up to be competent, at the very least, with their needle and thread. So the practice of embroidery, patchwork, quilting, and appliqué was very much kept alive.
However, by the beginning of the twentieth century and the outbreak of war, things were beginning to change.
When war broke out, women found they had to work to help the war effort. This meant little time for hobbies, and rationing meant that everyone concentrated on getting enough food to feed the family and getting the domestic necessities. There was little time or energy for needlework as a hobby.
By the end of the 1940’s, things had begun to back to normal, the country was becoming more and more reliant on manufactured clothes and bedding. Factories had sprung up across the UK, and imports began subsequently to add to the large amount of manufactured goods.
Really it was the resurgence of quilting arising from the United States that helped Britain resurrect its quilting traditions. Now the Quilters Guild has a valuable role in supporting quilting in the UK. The Guild set up a British Quilting Study Group in 1998, and this provides invaluable support to the quilters of today with research and information.
British quilting has, however, never managed to equal the art of the American quilting traditions, and America has been entirely responsible for spreading the word and the work of quilting across the world as far as Australia, Japan, South Africa and Europe.
Were it not for America, the UK may have allowed its quilting history to fade away. Thankfully, however, it has helped to revive quilting both as a hobby and as an art form.
Australian Quilting
Women were given the materials and tools to make patch work quilts en route to their Australian destination so that they could sell them and be able to support themselves when they landed.
Sadly, only one of these appears to have survived, but it is clear that the British women brought with them the skills and traditions of quilting.
Quilting was thought to be a ‘suitable’ occupation for a lady, and the quilters soon began to put their work together at exhibitions, and a market in quilts was quickly established. The British traditions were retained, and quilting in Australia continues to respect and reflect the styles and patterns of the mother country.
However, for many years, Australian families were very poor, and generally the women were responsible for ‘making’ all the bedding, as well as all the clothes and household fabrics. In the absence of money to buy good cloth, the women used their initiative. They used old sacks, old grain bags and anything that could be used to give warmth. With luck, they would be able to find or get something to make a bed cover more attractive, and the sacks would be used as the wadding or batting. Old cloth would be cut and stitched either directly onto the batting, or as a face fabric, and whatever artistic talent the maker had would be used.
Later on it became commonplace to obtain old sample books from traveling salesmen. So many quilts were made with suit cloth, as well as old curtains, and what ever else was available.
Sadly, these days Australian women tend to be too busy to do a great deal of quilting. And of course, with the much more cheaply available goods, it’s now a time of buy new and throw away the old. Not like the old days, which epitomized the make do and mend motto.
Japanese quilting is renowned for the strong religious and spiritual influences. Quilts were highly valued and given as markers of respect to the emperors and ruling warriors.
The recipient of a quilt is being wished a long life, and the giving of quilting fabric is imbued with spiritual significance.
The Japanese have traditionally worn quilted garments, particularly jackets and house gowns. The most famous are the Yosegire patch work quilts from the 16th Century, which are made using fabric strips. These are still made and worn today, and provide both warmth and luxury. Now Japanese quilts have wonderful appliqué and embroidery, and have continued to be considered of great importance.
The French Tradition
As with the United Kingdom, the recent resurgence of interest in quilting is really a consequence of the way the American craft industry has captured the world since the 1960’s.
Although in a domestic sphere, there has always been quilting and needlework in France, this had largely been lost as an art form. The holding of a major exhibition in the 1970’s, which captured the imagination of many Parisians, and the opening of a quilting and patchwork shop in the center of Paris was the beginning of a new life for quilting in France.
Over the last thirty years, quilting has blossomed in France, and from being an obscure hobby, with materials and tools being hard to find, it has become an increasingly substantial business.
The design of quilts in France is, as you would imagine, of major importance. Both traditional and contemporary designs are very popular now.
Small and very intricately worked pieces have a particular beauty and are highly regarded.
The appliqué work, particularly the Baltimore style, and the patchwork form are really the most popular here.
The matelessage type of quilting is really popular. This uses a whole piece of fabric with the quilting lines drawn on, and then put together with a plain backing piece and central padding, and held taut on a frame for the stitching.
The top fabric might be silk or finely woven and printed cotton. The design markings are followed with a simple running stitch, but very finely sewn. The patterns are simple taken one by one, but the pieces are very densely sewn so the end product is a very rich and heavily worked.
These make wonderful bed coverings, and the style is used for cheaper manufactured pieces which have now gained a huge market across Europe.
There is a major annual festival, now in its 10th year, which succeeds in enticing over 17,000 people from all over the world. Over 800 quilts were exhibited at the most recent show, so you can see how seriously the French are now taking quilting!
The Piquré de Marseilles is also very famous, and was made from two pieces of fabric, and a back cloth and a fine silk or cotton front piece.
The pattern was worked with back stitch, and the filling was inserted between the needle holes. The patterns are not dissimilar to those of William Morris, famous for his Arts and Craft Movement in the United Kingdom.
The method was amended later on for ease of working, and running stitch used
instead of backstitch, and more padding used to fill out the areas between the patterns.
The stitching work is generally done in a contrasting color to the face fabric, and this type of quilting makes wonderful cushions and items of clothing, such as evening jackets.
The boutis evolved to show increasingly larger areas of pattern which could be done much faster. The name of this type of quilting comes from the Provencal for stuffing. The Provencal style was also part of this tradition, and local flora and fauna, as well as religious and romantic designs, were used, reflecting the interests and feelings of the young women quilters.
Later on, predominantly white cotton was used, and these beautiful pieces are famous for being as wonderful on the back of the fabric as on the face. The plain white bed covers, pillow covers and throws are sought after, and similar styles found in many shops like Laura Ashley in the United Kingdom. The style was also used for baby clothes and cot covers. The style, although without the padding, has also become a classic for good quality underwear.
Sadly, this style of work is less common these days, but fashion trends can always surprise, and it may be that it is making a comeback.
Although it’s known as a French Provencal style, it does apparently originate in Sicily at some point during the Middle Ages.
South African quilts
With a warm climate, you would not imagine quilts being necessary to keep warm. However, they are used to depict the history and the culture of South Africa.
There is, for example, a quilt made by Phina Nkosi, who works with the Zamani Quilting Sisters in Soweto. This group formed to try and help women who not only had to live in a racist society, but also a very sexist one. This group worked on the principle of self help, and established a women’s resource center. This quilt includes portraits of women she believed were part of the struggle for freedom in South Africa. The quilt is hung in the MSU Museum Accession, and was bought in conjunction with the South African Cultural Heritage Project. This museum has an extensive collection of quilts, and you can obtain more information by visiting their web site at
http://www.museum.msu.edu/s-program/mtap/Collections/sata.htmlThe United States of America and Canada
Perhaps the most well known quilting is from this region of the world. In the northern states and Canada, quilting has been part of a very strong tradition in domestic arts and crafts, ensuring American and Canadian families had both beautiful and functional fabrics in their homes.
However, it is most definitely the stuff of myth and legend that quilting was commonplace, either for practical or decorative reasons, in the early colonial times.
The original settlers worked hard and long, and there was little time spare for the artistic quilting that we mistakenly link to these early days. In these days, plain cloth and wadding would have been used to reflect the restrictive religious beliefs of many of the settlers for whom decoration was considered inappropriate.
These early colonial women would have to weave their own cloth, and undertake all the other domestic tasks – and apart from the fact that the men were considered above such humble work, they tended to be outside in the fields, tending the big livestock, and building or fencing.
Women’s lives were hard, and initially often lonely. They had poor access to civilization, often settling in isolated areas, with near neighbors possibly miles away.
Only later on, as families and farms became more established, and the community facilities developed, were women able to have the time and leisure to quilt. Even then it was largely in the better off homes where domestic help was brought in, that the lady of the house would do the decorative quilting.
Of course, women settlers would bring with them the skills learned from their families, so a variety of styles and patterns were imported via them to America. Nevertheless, there was only a very limited amount of fabric available in the early days, and it wasn’t really until the mid 1800’s that there was fabric available for quilting to be affordable.
Prior to this date, most families used
blankets – of varying quality and warmth, but nevertheless cheaper than quilts.
The colonial style underwent a resurgence in the twentieth century. The styles of houses, of furniture, and the soft furnishings, all became very popular, both in America, and abroad. The idea of ‘old colonial style quilts’ was part of the marketing done by magazines and manufacturers, but the quilts they were advertising were definitely made much later than they suggested, probably from the 1850s.
About this time, the manufacturing industry was becoming established, and women in America found they could buy materials. Those who had sheep for wool and grew cotton, could get the raw materials made up into fabric, and no longer had the hard, and time consuming job of weaving and fabric making.
This gave women more time for other things, among them of course, was quilting. So this is really the point in time where American quilt making really became a reality.
Patterns became available, and could be bought in magazines or in stores, but American women enjoyed using the patterns that their friends and family used, and pattern sharing was the norm, rather than buying new ones. These patterns became the traditional American quilting patterns that are still famous today.
Quilting was not an easy hobby for many women. Space in the homes of the majority was limited. The quilting frames were generally large enough for at least 6 women to work at, and initially were home made.
Most homes didn’t have spare space for the frame, so it would either be put together and then taken apart as needed, or connected to a pulley system and hoisted up to the ceiling when not being used.
The quilting bees that enabled women to get together were limited to the number of people who could fit in the available space around the frame.
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