History Of Quilting. Part 2

Certainly many were made later; when any North Country woman of a farming family shows you her collection of quilts made by her mother and grandmother, and even perhaps her great grandmother (that is to say they date usually from about 1850 to 1910), you are sure to find patchwork amongst them; in fact the patched quilts will probably outnumber the plain ones. The same is true of South Wales, though here the patchwork is generally of a cruder kind. Towards the close of the eighteenth century quilted clothing ceased to be fashionable and even the bed quilt gradually went out of use in most parts of Britain during the nineteenth century, as factory-made bed-covers of various kinds became cheaper and more plentiful. In particular the "marcella" quilt, machine-woven of white cotton with a raised design to imitate the effect of quilting, although it had not the warmth of a wadded quilt, probably did much to drive the hand-stitched quilt out of fashion at a time when machine-made implied novelty and smartness. As the hand-stitched quilt became less common the word 'quilt" began to be used for other kinds of coverlet. Patchwork covers in particular, because so many of them were actually padded and stitched in a frame, were often spoken of as "patchwork quilts" even when they were not quilted. The tremendous popularity of patchwork in New England has caused the word "quilt" there to become almost synonymous with "patchwork" or "pieced work". The meaning of the word "quilt" has been still further confused by some writers on embroidery who have used it to mean any kind of bed covering which is decorated with needlework; thus an "embroidered quilt" may be a counterpane embroidered on a single piece of material, having no connection whatever with the craft of quilting.

The designation "eiderdown quilt" draws yet another red herring across the trail. This, it is true, is a padded bed-cover but the technique of making it is quite different from that of quilting; the down cannot be treated in the same way as wool or cotton wadding because it would work its way out through holes made by the needle apart from the fact that its fluffy nature, in contrast to the fairly compact mass of the paddings used in quilts, would make it difficult, if not impossible, to stitch through. The evidence indicates that in the nineteenth century traditional quilting, ignored by the world of fashion, yet held its own in the cottages and farmhouses of England and Wales; but by about the middle of the century it was going out of use in many parts of the country although in some districts it was still practised, in communities which were isolated and not within easy reach of the shops where the novel factory goods were to be seen, and by people who were poor and must therefore be thrifty.

In South Wales and the northern counties of England it has persisted up to the present day. Possibly quilters could still be found in Scotland. I know of at least one old quilt of Scottish origin and have heard of a few quilters still at work there within recent years, and the general conditions would seem to be of the kind in which quilting was likely to persist. Mrs. Hake, in her book English Quilting Old and New (Batsford, 1937), told how her researches showed that traditional quilting was still widely done in south-western England up to about fifty years ago and similar enquiries might bring evidence to light in other parts of the country. In mid-Wales it was practised in many homes until sixty years ago, and some made it their living, according to a correspondent, ninety years old, of Rhayader (Rads.). But the evidence must be sought soon if it is to be found ; quilts which have fulfilled their comforting purpose for more than fifty years have come to a thin and tattered state. "It's gettin' a long way on its journey,” said an old lady apologetically as she displayed one such relic, with the padding showing through its worn covering. Moreover, since quilting came down in the world in the nineteenth century and thereafter had little prestige as handicraft until interest in it was revived in the last thirty years or so, the old quilts have not always been cherished by the younger generation. Mrs. Snaith (Northumberland) rescued from amongst the belongings of a neighbour who died at the age of ninety, a piece of exquisitely quilted blue silk, two hundred years old and probably intended originally for an underskirt; it had been roughly hacked into two strips, pieces had been cut out of it and it would have been thrown away by the old lady's relatives. Too often have old quilts been used as underlays beneath mattresses and thus been ruined by rust from the bed springs. In South Wales a panel from one of the quilted silk petticoats which were made in such numbers in the late nineteenth century and are now so hard to find was given to a church guild to be made into a banner! The rest, being moth-eaten, was thrown away. A quilter will appreciate and value the work of past generations, but her daughters, if they have never learnt the craft, will discard it as old-fashioned stuff. The provincial museums could do much to preserve valuable evidence of this fine traditional handicraft and might save from destruction not only quilts but also frames and pattern templates which come by inheritance into the hands of those no longer interested in them.

The National Museum of Wales preserves in its Folk Department at St. Pagan's Castle not only old quilts but also some good modern specimens, and did much to stimulate local appreciation of the craft by its exhibition, in the summer of 1951, of ancient and modern Welsh quilting. Doubtless the utilitarian qualities of quilting, its home-made warmth, helped to keep it alive. Many accounts of the materials used fifty years ago and more patchwork of tailors' and dressmakers' pieces, and rag padding, for instance show that in many homes it was essentially a thrift craft. But the humble craftswomen doubtless found the same satisfaction in creating and stitching their lovely patterns as any other artist finds in his work. As well as bed quilts and cradle covers, they quilted petticoats, which Welsh countrywomen, fishermen's wives on the north-east coast and Northumberland bondagers continued to wear in stiff, ample folds. Although quilts of the heavier kinds of " thrift" materials (which were particularly popular in Wales) were, necessarily, coarsely worked, finer work was still done when better materials could be afforded ; the framed certificates to be seen on cottage walls in Wales, recording awards for quilting at the Welsh industries exhibitions held in London in 1903 and 1904, and at the International Exhibition at the White City in 1911 (and probably others), indicate that even the wider, commercialized world did then perhaps through the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement recognize quilting as a fine handicraft, though little interest seems to have been taken in it generally.

But a few discerning women began to notice the beautiful work which was done so unpretentiously and thought so little of. Amongst others, Miss Alice Armes in County Durham and Lady Lisburne in Southwest Wales took pains to bring quilting to more general notice and to encourage the quilters. During the last thirty years a quantity of traditional quilted work has appeared in handicraft exhibitions and much has been written about it, but little research has been done to trace its history back through the dark ages of the last hundred and fifty years to the time when it disappeared from the fashionable world. This is an attempt to fill that gap and although it can at this date be filled only with scattered and sketchy pictures, these do throw some light upon the social history of our countryside.