History of Undies

Quilting As Symbol Of Community And Remembrance

Quilting is such a vast tradition in America that more than 15% of U.S. households represent the homes of quilters and many Americans have at least one room filled with quilts as bed coverings, clothing and table mats.

A quilt is more like a sandwich, as it consists of three layers: a decorative top, a filling and a backing. The filling is also known as batting and provides warmth to the quilt. At the beginning of this art craft, people used whatever they could in order to fill the quilt: dry leaves, corn husks, old letters. Nowadays in the modern quilt you will find natural or synthetic fibers. To make dyes to color their fabrics, old quilters used flowers, vegetables, barks, roots, nuts or dried insects.

The quilt tops are constructed in very different ways, although there is a traditional pattern. The traditional patchwork consists of “blocks” made by stitching together geometric shapes or curved pieces. The designs that are the end result of the decoative top are made by the way the blocks and the pieces of blocks are arranged.

The same is with the patterns of the quilts. These patterns come in an endless variety and they cannot even be classified. This is because the names of the patterns differ from region to region, from city to city around America. What is known as the Duck’s Foot in New York it is known as The Hand of Friendship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Some distinctive quilt designs are also assigned to some ethnic groups. African American quilts, for example, feature bold, asymmetrical patterns and large shapes inspired by African textiles. The women also produce story quilts as records of family events, traditions or as depictings of Bible stories.

And so quilts became a symbol of community and remembrance. They were used to strengthen family ties, to preserve memories of old friends, to mark notable events. In the mid 1800s mothers would make “freedom quilts” to mark the sons’ passing to maturity at the age of 21. Album quilts, on which signitures of those who contributed to blocks were stitched, were given to brides, to mourning families or to those who moved away. At the end of the 1890s, quilts were used as fund raisers. Whoever wanted to have their names stitched on a quilt had to pay a quarter or a dime and the money would go to those in need.They are also used to publicize certain diseases and raise money for those who suffer of these diseases or to fund the research for cures.

As seen, this long tradition of quilting is a long tradition of helping, remembering, of creating. And quilters create bridges between people and events, between present, past and future, between people and society. They are bridgers of hapiness and humanity.

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