History of quilts

When one talks about quilts we often confuse it with shawls? Worn only to cover oneself from the
cold weather.

But the real questions are

What is a quilt? Just a fancy word for a shawls, is it what elite people use it and now millennial use it.

And its purpose of it?

One was the style that I know as a comforter where the layers are tied to
keep the layers from shifting or bunching. Another was a summer quilt
which was created without the warm middle material, resulting in a lighter
quilt for the warmer days.

Starting:

When we think about quilting the first image that pops up is an old women sewing
thread by thread in her shabby unkempt hut to make ends meet or thrifty pioneer
housewives piecing elaborate patchworks for their families; album quilts signed by
every member of a community as a gift for a departing mayor or pastor, or perhaps
raffled for a worthy cause; perhaps even a whole cloth petticoat worn by a colonial
dame as she danced with George Washington, or a brightly coloured scrap quilt
made by a grandmother or aunt during the Depression. But is that true?
Ironically Quilting can be traced back as far as ancient Egypt. In the British Museum
is an ivory carving from the Temple of Osiris at Abydos found in 1903 which features
the king of the First Egyptian Dynasty wearing a cloak or mantle that appears to be
quilted.
Evidence of quilt work was found in Asia in late BC and early AD years. Quilting
became evident in Europe during the 12th century when it was discovered that the
Crusaders wore quilted garments under their armor for comfort, warmth and
protection.

However, a recent discovery from Germany indicates that quilted objects may have
been known during the Dark Ages. A Merovingian tomb from the 5th century
contained a wool twill pall quilted with Egyptian cotton (Rogers). Although the pall
was obviously a luxury item, and almost certainly imported, it suggests that quilting
was established enough in the Mediterranean to be traded to the less civilized north.

The next evidence of quilting in Europe appears in a French poem of the

12th century, La Lai del Desire. It mentions a "quilt of two sorts of silk cloth in a check
board pattern, well made and rich" (Colby 1971) adorning a bridal bed. The
13th century German Parvizal also mentions a quilt on a bed in the Grail castle
(Eschenbach), suggesting that bed quilts were fairly common in aristocratic circles in
at least two countries. There is also a reference in a French inventory of 1297 to a
ship captain in Marseilles owning a courtepointe, later the French word for quilt
(Berenson).

Even used During WWI, women were urged to make quilts to save the blankets for
the men fighting over seas. WWII saw quilting as a way to raise funds for the Red
Cross with the creation of signature quilts. The signature quilt was created by selling
community store owners and citizens the opportunity to have their name
embroidered on a quilt for a small fee. The completed quilt would then be raffled off
to some lucky winner and the proceeds were used by the Red Cross to support their
efforts in the war. But what exactly is a “quilt”. The word quilt is derived from the
Latin culcita, meaning a padded and tied mattress similar to a Japanese
futon. Quilting is a needlework technique involving two or more layers of fabric,
usually sandwiched with padding of some sort, stitched together in a decorative
pattern. Dating from that time found in a Siberian cave tomb (Colby 1971). The
central motifs (primarily animals, with abstract spirals on the borders) are worked in
the backstitch, while the background is diamond quilted in a coarse running stitch.
Whether the Siberians developed quilting on their own or learned it from outsiders
they mastered the art of it.
Nowadays quilts are used not just as a layer of protection against the cold but also
as a style statement. Worn in seasons like winters and summers it is used for as a
coverage, accessory or a baby holder, it’s catching a lot of attention.
By Rifat.
http://www.quilthistory.com/quilting.htm
http://www.quilthistory.com/quilting.htm

https://www.ablockaway.com/long-history-of-quilting-explored.htm