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Quilt Myths

Did your fifth great-grandmother create a quilt? While you might like to think that she did, history shows that she probably didn’t. The Website, America’s Quilting History explains why, based in part upon the book Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths (Hobbies - Needlework & Quilting):

By about 1840 the textile industry had grown to the point that fabric was readily available to most families. Only then did quilting become a common way for American women to express their creativity. Interestingly it was after quilting became a widespread activity that somehow the idea that quilting was common in colonial times became a romanticized myth. In truth, “Quilts of any kind were rare in New England in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and it is unlikely that New England women were making quilts in any number until at least the 1750s.”

The myth that quiltmaking was the rage during America’s colonial period was reinforced by the “colonial craze” that gripped the public during the 1920s and 1930s. Everything from colonial furniture to the accoutrements that accompanied that furniture was in demand. In fact, most colonial women spent more time spinning and weaving cloth for clothing, as light to sew by and materials to create quilts were sparse.

As a result of this belief, many quilt buyers today still are duped into purchasing “colonial” quilts that were made in the mid-twentieth century rather than in the sixteenth century. To learn more about quilting myths, visit America’s Quilting History site, or make an investment in the book, Quiltmaking in America: Beyond the Myths (Hobbies - Needlework & Quilting).

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