If you have ever been lucky enough to own a quilt handed down to you from a grandmother, great grandmother, or someone even farther back in your family tree, you understand how fascinating and valued they are. Over the years many myths have grown up around this quintessentially American craft. Quilt museums have researched some of the most popular with some surprising results.
Quilts are one way to get an intimate glimpse into the country's early years. We have mental pictures of Colonial housewives lovingly sewing bed covers out of old scraps saved from former projects. It confirms our belief that early settlers didn't waste what little they had. There is a widely held belief that quilters helped runaway slaves by encrypting codes into their quilts that gave instructions for getting to the Underground Railroad.
A commonly held belief is that pioneer women kept scrap bags filled with remnants ready to be turned into quilts. This suits the notion that all pioneers were ingenious and did not mind the manual labor it took to create necessities for everyday life. In fact, pioneer quilters didn't use scraps, but whole cloth instead. The cloth available to them was expensive and imported. It took the Industrial Revolution to make quilting from scraps feasible.
A common assumption is that women in colonial times made quilts. This fits in with our picture of resilient early Americans making the most of the resources they had. It turns out that quilting during this time period was fairly rare. Textiles were too expensive to be cut up for scraps. It was not until mass production that material became affordable, and it made economic sense to cut scraps and sew them together for quilting projects.
Another common belief is that quilting is an activity exclusive to women. Even feminists have embraced the idea that quilts demonstrate the ability of women to make something out of nothing and to create a community through the common act of quilting. In fact, there are a number of men who are professional quilters and create unique quilting patterns. Their works are on view in museums along with their female counterparts.
Most people believe that quilting is an American phenomenon. America may produce the majority of quilts, and created distinctive traditions that were handed down from generation to generation. Some of the styles and designs were borrowed from Europe though. Mosaic patchwork design, seen in American quilts, originated in Britain. Quilted textiles dating to the first century have been found in Mongolia.
One of the most persistent myths surrounding the American quilting phenomenon is that it played a powerful part in the Underground Railroad. The belief is that quilters sewed code into their creations to guide fugitive slaves to safe havens along the their way to freedom. There seems to be no real evidence of this. Historians say it's most likely a folk tale derived from a particular family.
Quilts are universally loved. They are admired for their beauty and the stories they tell. Some of the most popular myths may not be factual, but that doesn't take away from the historical significance of the quilts themselves.
Quilts are one way to get an intimate glimpse into the country's early years. We have mental pictures of Colonial housewives lovingly sewing bed covers out of old scraps saved from former projects. It confirms our belief that early settlers didn't waste what little they had. There is a widely held belief that quilters helped runaway slaves by encrypting codes into their quilts that gave instructions for getting to the Underground Railroad.
A commonly held belief is that pioneer women kept scrap bags filled with remnants ready to be turned into quilts. This suits the notion that all pioneers were ingenious and did not mind the manual labor it took to create necessities for everyday life. In fact, pioneer quilters didn't use scraps, but whole cloth instead. The cloth available to them was expensive and imported. It took the Industrial Revolution to make quilting from scraps feasible.
A common assumption is that women in colonial times made quilts. This fits in with our picture of resilient early Americans making the most of the resources they had. It turns out that quilting during this time period was fairly rare. Textiles were too expensive to be cut up for scraps. It was not until mass production that material became affordable, and it made economic sense to cut scraps and sew them together for quilting projects.
Another common belief is that quilting is an activity exclusive to women. Even feminists have embraced the idea that quilts demonstrate the ability of women to make something out of nothing and to create a community through the common act of quilting. In fact, there are a number of men who are professional quilters and create unique quilting patterns. Their works are on view in museums along with their female counterparts.
Most people believe that quilting is an American phenomenon. America may produce the majority of quilts, and created distinctive traditions that were handed down from generation to generation. Some of the styles and designs were borrowed from Europe though. Mosaic patchwork design, seen in American quilts, originated in Britain. Quilted textiles dating to the first century have been found in Mongolia.
One of the most persistent myths surrounding the American quilting phenomenon is that it played a powerful part in the Underground Railroad. The belief is that quilters sewed code into their creations to guide fugitive slaves to safe havens along the their way to freedom. There seems to be no real evidence of this. Historians say it's most likely a folk tale derived from a particular family.
Quilts are universally loved. They are admired for their beauty and the stories they tell. Some of the most popular myths may not be factual, but that doesn't take away from the historical significance of the quilts themselves.
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