Why did people start quilting?

Question

For a project at school we have to find out why quilting started so if you know anything it would be helpful

Answer 1

Quilting has been around for centuries. Although the exact origins are not yet confirmed, historians know that quilting, piecing, and appliqué were used for clothing and furnishings all over the world. It is assumed that quilting originated in China and Egypt simultaneously. The earliest recorded quilted garment was found on a carved ivory figure of a pharaoh from the first dynasty and is dated to be from 3400 BC.

In the 11th century the Crusaders brought a form of quilting to Europe from the middle east. Knights used quilted garments under their armor for added comfort, warmth and protection.

Quilted bedding was introduced to Europe by the Romans who used a "culcita" or "stuffed sack", as their mattress. This idea was taken by medieval England and the "stuffed sack" was transformed into "cowlte" or a combined mattress and coverlet.

In the 15th century ,due to harsh winters which froze the rivers Rhine, Rhone, and Thames, Europeans developed the quilt making technique out of necessity.

The very first quilts were layers of cloth sewn together with a few strong running stitches. These primitive quilts resembled the thick and cumbersome pallets which were slept upon. Due to the difficulty in stitching the many layers together the quilting frame was invented.

Europeans could now stitch finer, more decorative designs, giving rise to the quilting art form. Seamstresses in France brought forward the appliqué, the Spanish were the first quilters to be asked to make ecclesiastical vestments, and in Italy Trapunto was born.

Meanwhile the Japanese were busy perfecting their own forms of quilting. A kind of crazy piecing known as "Yosegire", was used to decorate clothing, hangings and screens. It is thought this technique may have been the inspiration for crazy quilting in America and Europe.

Japanese women created magnificent robes for warlords and dignitaries using pieces of imported Chinese silk brocade, sewn together in strips. In 1639 the Japanese military imposed a total import ban, which forbade the merchant classes from wearing luxury fabrics. As a result the frustrated merchants developed an extraordinary mastery of indigo dyeing and printing. Sashiko (intricate webs of white stitching on cotton and linen) was also developed in Japan, and became a part of the samurai warriors garb.

The 19th century was a great quilt age in Europe and America. It was a time of quilting-bees, when the rural population would gather together and make one or more quilts in an afternoon. Women welcomed a chance to get out of the confines of the house while still doing something useful.

Answer 2

I started quilting because my son was about to graduate and I had all these Boy Scout badges. My mom said that it would be good to make them into a quilt. I did and loved doing it and the quilt turned out pretty good.
My Mom and both my grandmas quilted and now I am teaching my daughter who is 17.

Answer 3

Quilting was started by some frugal women trying to get the most out of their worn out clothes. In history clothing and material was very expensive so worn out clothing was put to use by cutting it up into smaller bits of fabric and collecting enough to make a quilt out of it thus giving the worn out clothes new life as a quilt.

Answer 4

One of my quilting books says the art of quilting was brought to Europe by returning Crusaders, and that quilted garments orginally were used for padding under armor. Most other sources I have seen say it was for warmth -- people needed heavy bedding in the days before central heating, and sewed layers of fabric together in pleasing designs for that purpose.

Answer 5

the chinese and romans both used quilted shirts that went under metal armour, and also earlier armor was just the quilted jacket with metal pieces sewn on the jacket. i guess after that they figured out that it was warm so they did it for coats and then eventually blankets, then patchwork came of the need for the lower classes to use up every scrap of fabric, if they worked sewing for the upper classes it was their perrogative to keep the smaller pieces of fabric left over.

Answer 6

Try Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilting

Answer 7

Women made their clothes and left over scraps were used to make essentials....nothing was wasted....times were tougher and people had very little.

Answer 8

I think it had something to do with their undergargarments and keeping them warm in the winter, but I'm not sure.

Answer 9

They needed something to keep them warm

Answer 10

4 fun as a hobby and to tell and pass down stories of a culture and things history