Product Code Database
Quilting is the process of joining a minimum of three layers of textile together either through stitching manually using a Sewing needle and yarn, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. An array of stitches is passed through all layers of the fabric to create a three-dimensional padded surface. The three layers are typically referred to as the top fabric or quilt top, batting or insulating material, and the backing.
Quilting varies from a purely functional fabric joinery technique to highly elaborate, decorative three dimensional surface treatments. A wide variety of textile products are traditionally associated with quilting, including bed coverings, home furnishings, garments and costumes, wall hangings, Quilt art, and cultural artifacts.
A quilter can employ a wide range of effects that contribute to the quality and utility of the final quilted material. To create these effects, the quilter manipulates elements such as material type and thickness, stitch length and style, pattern design, piecing, and cutting. Two-dimensional effects such as can be achieved through aesthetic choices regarding colour, texture, and print. Three-dimensional and sculptural components of quilted material can be manipulated and enhanced further by embellishment, which may include appliqué, embroidery techniques such as shisha mirror work, and the inclusion of other objects or elements such as pearls, , buttons, and . Some quilters create or dye their own fabrics. In contemporary artistic quilting, quilters sometimes use new and experimental materials such as plastics, paper, natural fibers, and plants.
Quilting can be considered one of the first examples of upcycling, as quilters have historically made extensive use of remnants and offcuts for the creation of new products.
The sewing techniques of piecing, appliqué, and quilting have been used to create clothing and furnishings in various parts of the world for several millennia, and a wide range of unique quilting styles and techniques have evolved around the globe.
The earliest known quilted garment is depicted on the Ivory carving figure of a Pharaoh dating from the First Dynasty. In 1924 archaeologists discovered a quilted floor covering in Mongolia, estimated to date between 100 BC and 200 AD.
In Europe, quilting has been part of the needlework tradition since about the fifth century. Early objects contained Egyptian cotton, which may indicate that Egyptian and Mediterranean trade provided a conduit for the technique. However, quilted objects were relatively rare in Europe until approximately the twelfth century, when quilted bedding and other items appeared after the return of the Crusaders from the Middle East. The medieval quilted gambeson, aketon and arming doublet[1] were garments worn under or instead of chain mail or plate armor. These later developed into the quilted doublet worn as part of European male clothing from the fourteenth to seventeenth century. The earliest known surviving European bed quilt is the Tristan Quilt, which was made in late-fourteenth century Italy from linen padded with wool. The blocks across its center are scenes from the legend of Tristan. The quilt is The Tristan Quilt in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Accessed 5-2-2010 and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Quilts made without any insulation or batting were referred to as summer quilts. They were not made for warmth, but to keep the chill off during cooler summer evenings.
Beginning with the children's story Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (1989), a legend has developed that enslaved people used quilts as a means to share and transmit secret messages to escape slavery and travel the Underground Railroad. Consensus among historians is that there is no sound basis for this belief, and no documented mention among the thousands of slave narratives or other contemporary records.
Contemporary quilters such as Faith Ringgold utilize quilt making to tell stories and make political statements about the African-American experience. Ringgold, originally a painter, began quilting in order to stray away from Western art practices. Her famous "story quilts" utilize mixed media, painting, and quilting. One of her most famous quilts, Tar Beach 2 (1990), depicts the story of a young African-American girl flying around Harlem in New York City.
Bisa Butler, another modern African-American quilter, celebrates Black life with her vibrant, quilted portraits of both everyday people and notable historical figures. Her quilts are now preserved in the permanent collections at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Art Institute of Chicago, and about a dozen other art museums.
Another distinctive style of Native American quilting is Seminole piecing, created by Seminoles living in the Everglades. The style evolved out of a need for cloth (the closest town was often a week's journey away). Women would make strips of sewing the remnants of fabric rolls together, then sew these into larger pieces to make clothing. Eventually the style began to be used not just for clothing but for quilts as well. In 1900, with the introduction of sewing machines and readily available fabric in Seminole communities, the patterns became much more elaborate and the style continues to be in use today, both by Seminole women and by others who have copied and adapted their designs and techniques.
Ralli quilts are traditionally made in Pakistan, western India, and the surrounding area. They are made by every sector of society including Hindu and Muslim women, women of different castes, and women from different towns or villages or tribes with the colors and designs varying among these groups. The name comes from ralanna, a word meaning to mix or connect. Quilts tops were designed and pieced by one woman using scraps of hand-dyed cotton. This cotton often comes from old dresses or shawls. Once pieced, the quilt top is placed on a reed mat with the other layers and sewn together using thick, colored thread in straight parallel lines by members of the designer's family and community.
American artist Judy Chicago stated in a 1981 interview that were it not for sexism in the visual arts, the art world, and broader society, quilting would be more widely regarded as a form of high art:
The Modern Quilt Guild has attempted to define modern quilting. The characteristics of a modern quilt may include: the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work.
The Modern Quilt Guild, a non-profit corporation, with 14,000 members in more than 200 members guilds in 39 countries, fosters modern quilting via local guilds, workshops, webinars, and Quiltcon—an annual modern quilting conference and convention. The founding Modern Quilt Guild formed in October 2009 in Los Angeles.
QuiltCon features a quilt show with 400+ quilts, quilt vendors, lectures, and quilting workshops and classes. The first QuiltCon was February 21–24, 2013 in Austin, TX. QuiltCon 2020 was held in Austin, Texas, February 20–23, 2020 and featured 400 juried modern quilts from quilters around the world.
Most geometric quilt block designs fit into a "grid", which is the number of squares a pattern block is divided into. The five categories into which most square patterns fall are Four Patch, Nine Patch, Five-Patch, Seven-Patch, and Eight-Pointed Star. Each block can be subdivided into multiples: a Four-Patch can be constructed of 16 or 64 squares, for example.
A simple Nine Patch is made by sewing five patterned or dark pieces (patches) to four light square pieces in alternating order. These nine sewn squares make one block. (2025). 9781617452314, C&T Publishing. ISBN 9781617452314
The Shoo Fly varies from this Nine Patch by dividing each of the four corner pieces into a light and dark triangle. (2025). 9781617452314, C&T Publishing. ISBN 9781617452314
Another variation develops when one square piece is divided into two equal rectangles in the basic Nine Patch design. The Churn Dash block combines the triangles and rectangle to expand the Nine Patch. (2025). 9781617452314, C&T Publishing. ISBN 9781617452314
The Prairie Queen block combines two large scale triangles in the corner section with the middle section using four squares. The center piece is one full size square. Each of the nine sections does have the same overall measurement and fits together.
The number of patterns possible by subdividing Four-, Five-, Seven-, Nine-Patches and Eight-Pointed Stars and using triangles instead of squares in the small subdivisions is almost endless.
Hand quilting is the process of using a Sewing needle and yarn to sew a running stitch by hand across the entire area to be quilted. This binds the layers together. A quilting frame or hoop is often used to assist in holding the piece being quilted off the quilter's lap. A quilter can make one stitch at a time by first driving the needle through the fabric from the right side, then pushing it back up through the material from the wrong side to complete the stitch; this is called a stab stitch. Another option is called a rocking stitch, where the quilter has one hand, usually with a finger wearing a thimble, on top of the quilt, while the other hand is located beneath the piece to push the needle back up. A third option is called "loading the needle" and involves doing four or more stitches before pulling the needle through the cloth. Hand quilting is still practiced by the Amish and Mennonites within the United States and Canada, and is enjoying a resurgence worldwide. Machine quilting is the process of using a home sewing machine or a longarm machine to sew the layers together. With the home sewing machine, the layers are tacked together before quilting. This involves laying the top, batting, and backing out on a flat surface and either pinning (using large safety pins) or tacking the layers together. Longarm quilting involves placing the layers to be quilted on a special frame. The frame has bars on which the layers are rolled, keeping these together without the need for tacking or pinning. These frames are used with a professional sewing machine mounted on a platform. The platform rides along tracks so that the machine can be moved across the layers on the frame. A longarm machine is moved across the fabric. In contrast, the fabric is moved through a home sewing machine.
Tying is another technique of fastening the three layers together. This is done primarily on quilts that are made to be used and are needed quickly. The process of tying the quilt is done with or multiple strands of thread. Reef knot are used to finish off the ties so that the quilt may be washed and used without fear of the knots coming undone. This technique is commonly called "tacking." In the Midwest, tacked bed covers are referred to as comforters.
Quilting is now taught in some American schools. It is also taught at senior centers around the U.S., but quilters of all ages attend classes. These forms of workshops or classes are also available in other countries in guilds and community colleges.
can be used in the process of piecing together a quilt top. Some quilters also use a home sewing machine for quilting together the layers of the quilt, as well as binding the final product. While most home sewing machines can be used to quilt layers together, having a wide throat (the space to the right of the needle mechanism) is useful to manipulate a bulky quilt through the machine when the throat is both high and long.
Fabric markers can be used to mark where cuts should be made in the fabric. Marks from specialist fabric marker wash out of fabrics.
Quilting rulers are usually square or rectangular measuring instruments with length measurement and degree angle markings along multiple edges.
Longarm quilting can be used to make larger quilts. Larger machines can be leveraged so that the quilter does not have to hold the fabric. Some specialist quilt shops offer longarm services.
Machine quilting needles are very sharp in order to readily pierce layers of quilt and properly sew together the quilt top, batting and backing.
Hand quilting needles are traditionally called betweens and are generally smaller and stronger than normal sewing needles. They have a very small eye which prevents any extra bump at the head of the needles when you are pulling through the thread.
Pins can be used in many different combinations to achieve similar results.
Thimbles provide protection to fingertips.
Specialist quilting threads come in many types, including different weights of thread and different materials. Cotton, polyester, and nylon threads are used in different forms of quilting.
Rotary cutters revolutionized quilt-making when they appeared in the late 1970s. Rotary cutters simplify the process of cutting even slices of fabric.
Basting spray is a temporary aerosol glue that can be used to spray the layers of a quilt together, so it stays in place whilst being sewn. It is a specially formulated glue that will not clog a sewing machine, and is a much quicker basting method than hand basting.
Quilting templates/patterns come in many varieties and are generally considered the basis of the structure of the quilt, like a blueprint for a house.
Bias binding or bias tape can be made from strips of quilt fabric or purchased as quilt binding. It is used in the last stage of making a quilt, and is a method of covering the edges of the quilt.
|
|
