LC350 Town Crier
The story of quilts
Wikipedia defines quilting as the “process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either by stitching manually with a needle and thread, or mechanically by using a sewing machine. An array of stitches is passed through the layers of fabric to create a three-dimensional padded surface. These layers are often called a quilt sandwich because of having an upper and lower layer of fabric and a thicker layer in the center.”
The roots of quilting stretch back centuries, and they played an important role in the survival of people in harsh climates. Quilts were filled with wool, feathers, cotton, leaves – whatever was available.
The history of America can be seen in the history of quilts. When pioneers set off for a new life in the United States, many carried with them the great tradition of quilting. Many families came to America armed with quilts, some purely practical, and others providing sentimental memories of past lives; of families and friends left behind, many never to been seen or heard from again. Fabric was expensive and hard to come by in the early colonial era. I have often thought what early pioneer women would think of the modern quilters who buy yardages of fabric, only to cut them into small pieces, and sew it back together into patterns, when they saved every scrap of fabric they had until they could sew a decent sized piece for a quilt top! One of the earlier quilt patterns was Nine Patch, which consisted of 9 small squares sewn into a 3 by 3 grid, making a larger block (many young ladies learned this patch sewing by the fireplace). When they had enough blocks, they would sew them all together for the quilt top, then take on the task of quilting the layers together. When blankets could no longer be patched, they were used as batting in the quilts. Many women had roughly constructed quilt frames which they would hoist to the ceiling with rope to have them out of the way until needed. As communities grew, women would get to together around the quilt frame for a quilting bee, to gossip, trade news and sewing patterns, and to finish off a quilt by the end of the day. Many hands make light work.
In the late 1700’s Rhode Island became the country’s innovator in the spinning and weaving of yarn and textile manufacture. Moses Brown had assembled a plan that he thought would change making fabric by hand to using waterpower, but he didn’t know how to use the looms. Samuel Slater, who was an indentured apprentice in England’s textile mills, left England for the United States in 1789, bringing all those secrets with him. One year later he and Moses Brown were running the first successful water-powered cotton mill. Over several decades mills were established all over New England, with Slater and his sons running them. His first wife, Hannah Wilkinson, invented two ply thread, and was the first woman to receive a United States patent. Soon the spinning, dyeing and cutting of cloth were done under one roof. Because the process became so efficient, the cost of fabrics plummeted, and the mills became victims of their own success.
Samuel Slater’s success blossomed out into nearby Fall River, which became the city of “hills, mills, and unpaid bills.” Cotton was king in Fall River. Fall River mills processed bales of raw cotton from the south, which were delivered by steamboats into the city. Immigrants came from all over the world to work in over 100 Fall River mills, creating microcosms of ethnicity throughout the city. It is reported that at one point the mills employed over 30,000 people. Until the Civil War. Then the south created embargoes on the cotton, causing many mills in the north to close, or move to the south. By World War I, most of the mill were closed.
Spinning and weaving of the fabric was not the only innovation during those years. Dyes and special printing presses created beautiful patterns, changing quilting in many ways. Whole cloth quilts appeared, with no piecing involved. The women would just quilt patterns into the whole cloth, sometimes follow the pattern printed on the fabric, and sometimes drawing patterns on solid fabric. At first the looms produced narrow fabric, and several pieces would have to be sewn together to make the top large enough. But as looms became larger, the fabric could be used as is.
Pioneer women used fruits, berries, bark, moss, insects, etc. to add color to their yarns and fabrics, and as you can imagine, this made for a drab product. The innovative use of chemicals to enhance the adhesion of dyes produced much brighter colors, but many that were dangerous to the population. Green was a difficult color to dye, often being dreary, and fading quickly. Scheele’s green (poison green) used arsenate as a mordant, which caused many illnesses and deaths (especially when it was used in food dyes and candy during the holiday season). It was also widely used in paper, medicines, and toys. Because of the difficulty in making bright green clothing, it was a sign of wealth to have anything that color. Artificial flower makers were soon becoming fatally ill. Several of the upper echelon who had Paris green wallpaper in their boudoirs also died. Paris green was banned as late as 1960.
Turkey red, imported from Turkey and India, was made from the root of the madder plant, and needed a long, laborious process to produce the bright and lasting color. It was necessary to soak the fabrics in lye, olive oil, and sheep’s dung. This color was often used in making traditional patchwork quilts.
Chrome yellow was also a popular, but toxic color since it was made with lead chromate. This color faded and dulled over time and was replaced by the equally toxic cadmium.
By mid-eighteen hundred quilts were becoming a pastime for American women who had time for handwork. Several construction styles were used, including stenciled quilts, applique, whole cloth, and strip quilts, medallion quilts, and even the lowly patchwork took on new looks. The friendship quilt and the album quilt were finding popularity.
Many quilt patterns took on powerful symbolism, much of it political. Patterns such as Missouri Compromise, Bull Run, Union Star, Burgoyne Surrounded, Lincoln’s Platform, Whig Rose, Democrat Rose, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too, etc. expressed the political feelings of the maker. Travel also provided quilt patterns such as Road to California, Philadelphia Beauty, and Virginia Star. The Log Cabin pattern, with a red or yellow square in the center representing a fire in the hearth, remains popular to this day, often because it could be made with lots of scraps left over from other projects.
The 8-pointed star motif was inspired by the Star of Bethlehem and represented faith in God. This is a difficult quilt to piece, so it also represented the maker’s expertise in sewing. Some quilters were so devotional that they deliberately sewed a few imperfections to reflect human frailty.
There is much controversy surrounding quilts being used in the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves flee to the northern free states. There is no doubt that this system existed, with many Quakers being at the forefront, but the use of quilts as signs along the way is controversial. Some of the “quilt code patterns” suggested were the Monkey Wrench, which would tell slaves it was time to gather up their supplies for their trip; Bear Paw told them to follow the same trail a bear would to find food and water in the mountains; Bow Ties would tell them to dress more formally or disguise themselves; Drunkard’s Path suggested that a slave should move in unpredictable directions so they were not that easy to follow. A safe house could be found at the sign of a Log Cabin quilt; the Big Dipper would be the north star, or the “drinkin’ gourd’ that they should follow; and also, the Flying Geese pattern would point them in the correct direction.
The Bicentennial in 1976 caused a huge resurgence in anything colonial, especially quilt making. Millions of yards of reproduction calicoes and other “colonial” type fabrics were available to the home sewer (again Rhode Island was at the forefront with Cranston Print Works providing much of the fabric), although most were not 100% cotton which is preferred now. Fabric shops held classes, church and municipal groups made commemorative quilts documenting community history ,and charity quilt fundraising abounded.
Since then the innovations in quilt making are astounding: rotary cutters, specialty threads, all types of batting, clever rulers, templates, stabilizers, cutting mats, marking tools, etc., to say nothing of the amazing sewing machines that pretty much do anything you could imagine (although I am still holding out for one where you could drop the pattern and fabric into the machine and the finished product would appear!)
In the year 2000 a wonderful book based on the Rhode Island Quilt Documentation Project was published. “Down by the Old Mill Stream” is a treasure trove of information, history, and quilts! One of the editors of that book was Dr. Linda Welters, a professor in the textiles department at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Welters heads the graduate division. LC 350 is proud to present a lecture by Dr. Welters on National Quilt Day, March 15th, 2025, at the Little Compton Community Center from 2 to 4 p.m. Dr. Welters will speak about this state project and the history of some of these wonderful works of art. Three of the quilts from Little Compton mentioned in the book, now in the collection of the Little Compton Historical Society, will be available to view:
A whole cloth quilt, circa 1800, cotton top, linen back, 104 x 106, hand sewn and hand quilted in an interlocking circle pattern. The back is made from old linen sheets embroidered with ASA 6. These markings enabled the housewife to rotate sheets, allowing for even wear. The uneven coloration of the linen is a clue that the sheets were made from locally grown flax. This quilt descended from the Bailey family.
Whole cloth quilt, circa 1800, wool calamanco top (note: calamanco is a wool fabric thinly glazed by pressing the cloth between hot rollers, by surface rolling with a stone, or by applying wax to the surface.) This quilt is 97” x 90” and was hand quilted,9 stitches to the inch. From the estate of Bessie Gray.
Star of the East or Evening Star, Signature quilt, circa 1847-1852. Cotton top and back. Hand pieced and quilted, 7 stitches to the inch, 94” by 94”. Signed in indelible ink. 85 names and 85 stars (61 full stars and 24 half stars). Many of the names on this quilt include the Church family but other surnames included are Bailey, Barker, Borden, Briggs, Brownell, Burgess, Cargill, Cornell, Dwelly, Grinnell, Hunt, Jenney, Knapp, Munroe, Peckham, Pond, Salisbury, Simmons, Taylor, Thurston, Tompkins, and Wilbour.
This event is one of the many events in a yearlong celebration of Little Compton’s 350th Birthday.
Free and open to the public.