Description
Though the art of quilting probably dates back before written history, the first reference to the “textile sandwich” in America doesn’t appear until the end of the seventeenth century. Quilts and quilted wearing apparel had been famed elsewhere for centuries as insulators against both cold and heat. For the colonists who first arrived on these shores, homemade quilts were a necessity. Imported fabrics were costly and took months to arrive from England or the continent. Housewives made their own, and since the process was long and arduous, no scrap of material was ever thrown away. Painstakingly accumulated and pieced together, they became coverings for the family’s beds. Mr. and Mrs. Orlofsky trace American quilts from the oldest known surviving pieced quilt, made about 1704, to the work of contemporary quilters.
Much more than history is included in this invaluable book. For owners of antique quilts there are guidelines to help establish the age of such antiques and the section of the country where they were made. Techniques, tools, fabrics, and dyes are exhaustively described. Every known type of quilt is discussed and pictured: Commemorative, Sampler, Album, Autograph, and more. (Even a bizarre specimen called Kentucky Coffin Quilt. In the center of the quilt is a fenced-in cemetery containing burial plots. Around the border of the quilt are coffins, each with the name of a family member inscribed. As each died, his or her casket was moved to the burial ground in the center!)
Patterns and their infinite variety of names (often for the same basic design) are illustrated and talked about.
On the practical level, the Orlofskys have included careful instructions for cleaning and caring for heirloom quilts, and for displaying them as wall hangings.
Quilts, as their value as “collectibles” attests, are beautiful as well as functional. Not content with augmenting their text with more than 300 magnificent illustrations of unusually fine examples of the quiltmaker’s craft, the authors have listed museums and restorations all over the United States where notable quilt collections are on public display.
In good preloved condition, minor damage including a very small tear and slight creasing only on the dustjacket.