What a long way we have come since then! In those times mothers taught their daughters how to make a quilt and they would spend many hours crafting quilts either for immediate use or to be part of their trousseau.
The first quilters swapped patchwork quilts patterns amongst themselves and so the same design would become known in a region because people did not travel very far. The advent of newspapers made a big difference because then free quilt patterns would appear in newspaper columns and so each pattern would reach a much wider audience.
Gradually people began to have more free time to pursue hobbies and methods of communication improved enormously so that anyone could learn how to make a quilt even if they did not have a quilter in their family. Not only quilt designs but free quilting patterns became widely available quilting being of course the stitching designs used to hold together the three layers of a quilt.
Anyone who has looked at vintage quilts will be amazed at the intricacy of the quilting patterns used. These were all the more remarkable because all the quilting was hand sewn at that time. Now that machine quilting has become widely accepted, free quilting patterns can be found on the internet and in books so that it is possible to search for patterns for the main design and then match these with filler designs from a completely different source.
Another benefit of machine quilting is the way that quilting stitches can now be used as part of the quilt design itself, giving shading to an animal to create a three dimensional effect or adding a colour shading to represent clouds in the sky, for example. This has led to a completely new branch of quilting art quilts where quilts can be made that depict extremely life like landscapes, seascapes and even animals and people.
It would not be possible to create quilt patterns for art quilts because they are so individual, but through the medium of the internet it is possible to gain ideas and inspiration by looking at quilts many thousands of miles away.
Quilt exhibitions are another great way to find ideas for quilts hundreds of quilts made by experts displayed together in one hall. How the early quilters would have loved an experience like that.
The first quilters swapped patchwork quilts patterns amongst themselves and so the same design would become known in a region because people did not travel very far. The advent of newspapers made a big difference because then free quilt patterns would appear in newspaper columns and so each pattern would reach a much wider audience.
Gradually people began to have more free time to pursue hobbies and methods of communication improved enormously so that anyone could learn how to make a quilt even if they did not have a quilter in their family. Not only quilt designs but free quilting patterns became widely available quilting being of course the stitching designs used to hold together the three layers of a quilt.
Anyone who has looked at vintage quilts will be amazed at the intricacy of the quilting patterns used. These were all the more remarkable because all the quilting was hand sewn at that time. Now that machine quilting has become widely accepted, free quilting patterns can be found on the internet and in books so that it is possible to search for patterns for the main design and then match these with filler designs from a completely different source.
Another benefit of machine quilting is the way that quilting stitches can now be used as part of the quilt design itself, giving shading to an animal to create a three dimensional effect or adding a colour shading to represent clouds in the sky, for example. This has led to a completely new branch of quilting art quilts where quilts can be made that depict extremely life like landscapes, seascapes and even animals and people.
It would not be possible to create quilt patterns for art quilts because they are so individual, but through the medium of the internet it is possible to gain ideas and inspiration by looking at quilts many thousands of miles away.
Quilt exhibitions are another great way to find ideas for quilts hundreds of quilts made by experts displayed together in one hall. How the early quilters would have loved an experience like that.
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