History of Quilting an Introduction to Quilting for the Beginner

While the history of quilting is fraught with manyadvance from the crude patchwork designs to the
examples of possible origins dating back as far asmore unique quilting block styles, such as this nine
biblical times with the story of Josephs 'Coat of Manypatch quilt called a shoo fly. While there are many
Colors', it is generally agreed that the more traditionalhundreds of variations of the nine patch quilt, the shoo
American/European had it's start with the patchworkfly is great quilting for the beginner to start out with. As
quilts in the 1780's. Patchwork quilts in essence werefor the history of quilting the shoo fly nine patch quilt, it
quilting for the beginner, in that scraps of cloth wereappears first around the 1870's. You will notice that
sewn together to provide clothing and blankets as athere are two basic shapes, a square and a triangle
matter of scarcity and necessity.which will both be important permanent rotary cutter
The very first patchwork quilts used for blankets weretemplates that will be used in quilting other nine patch
layers of cloth sewn together with a few strongquilts for beginner to expert. The shoo fly is named
running stitches. These primitive patchwork quiltsafter a child's rocker having the seat built between two
according to the history of quilting resembled the thickflat sides cut in the shape of an animal.
and cumbersome pallets which were slept upon. DueNever before in the history of quilting, have the
to the difficulty in stitching the many layers together thetechniques used for this pattern been used for quilting
quilting frame was invented.with the beginner in mind. Most experienced quilters will
Progress in technology deeply affected the numbertell you when they did their first nine patch quilt like the
and styles of patchwork quilts made during the middleshoo fly, they learned how to cut a square in half
years of the 1800s. The industrial revolution, the turningdiagonally once or twice in order to get their
point in the history of quilting brought about the mosthalf-square triangles. However, this method is not
dramatic change as textiles came to be manufacturedaccurate mathematically and with one wrong move,
on a broad scale. This meant women no longer had toyou could wind up with two (2) or four (4) different
spend time spinning and weaving to provide fabric forsizes. It is difficult to place the ruler diagonally in the
their family's needs. By the 1840s the textile industryexact center of each corner while preventing the
had grown to the point that commercial fabrics werematerial from moving or splitting apart, when having to
affordable to almost every family. As a result quiltingcut twice on the diagonal.
for beginners became widespread.Every quilter knows that cutting strips are not always
Another major shift in the history of quilting was in thean exact science. Sometimes it is hard to read the
style of patchwork quilts made. Although a few earliersame measurement time after time, and to continually
quilts were made in the block style, quilts made up ofhave to re-align the edges as the material starts
blocks were uncommon until around the 1840s. With sogetting off the mark after so many cuts. When I did
many fabrics being manufactured quilting for beginnersmy own first nine patch quilt, I would often open up the
created their blocks with a delightful variety of fabrics.strip only to discover that I had a "wave" in the middle
During this period the invention and availability of theof the strip from inaccurate folding. It was after many
sewing machine contributed to the history of quilting. Inyears of trial and error that I came up with these
1856 The Singer Company started the installment planexclusive techniques and quilting secrets that will have
so that more families could afford a sewing machine.you quilting your own award winning nine patch quilt in
Many patterns were created with the beginning quilterno time.
in mind. By the 1870s a good many households ownedThere will be no guessing games when it comes to
a sewing machine. This affected patchwork quiltsetting shapes together, as you will cut all the points
making in two ways. First of all women could makewith the permanent rotary cutter template material for
clothing for their family in much less time, leaving moreeasy piecing, which eliminates the "dog ears" and
time for patchwork quilt making. Secondly they couldmakes the margin of error practically non-existent. You
use their sewing machines to make all or part of theirwill also be able to slash your preparation time in half
patchwork quilts. More often the sewing machine wasso you can have more time and greater satisfaction to
used to piece nine patch quilts but occasionally thecreate more beautiful quilts.
patchwork quilting was done with the sewing machine.©Copyright 2007 Unique Quilter a subsidiary of
This made it possible for quilting for the beginner toNeo Fortunes, Inc.