You may be a confirmed “quilt fan” and have a chest full of beautiful coverlets and yet be eager for one more handsome pattern; or you may be just on the verge of attempting your first quilt. At any rate, you surely cannot be indifferent to the charms of patchwork – that simply isn’t being done! This wholesome revival of quilt making which is so thoroughly sweeping the country is far more than a fad. One would hardly call Monticello or Mount Vernon “Vogueish.” They are the very soul of American art and dignity, and are being more appreciated as such every day. A wing chair, tilt-top table, a four poster, or a highboy may be real Early American or a faithful reproduction. They are the sort of furnishings best loved by the home makers of our land today who appreciate the rich background of beauty and tradition bequeathed to us by Colonial forefathers. The American wing of the Metropolitan Museum is not a fad, and neither, we vouch, is quilt making.
So if you are making a quilt, and it is taking many hours of your time, do not consider them as spent in some fancy work craze such as sealing-wax jewelry one year and painted plaster casts another. You are making a thing of beauty, let us hope – something useful, beautiful and enduring. Quilts with straight seams such as may be run on the sewing machine are always easiest to make, and by the way, No. 80 thread, machine stitched, gives about as soft a seam as No. 50 hand done. That’s a trick worth knowing for the busy woman. Nearly all of the quilts shown do work out in straight seam work. Even such elaborate designs as the Log Cabin, Palm, Zig-Zag or Lone Star sew straight this way.
Others, such as Noonday Lily, Rolling Star, Fish Block, or Sunbeam, have to have a piece fitted in, but this is not so difficult for anyone who sews, and some of the designs are well worth the extra bother. Some applique quilts are included throughout the book for those who prefer this form of handwork and the lovely effect it gives. Almost always the “Bride’s Quilt” was an applique and there are many gorgeous ones in antique collections, bearing testimony of countless hours in their planning, placing and stitchery. We can not show many such in a book of this sort as applique designs are usually so large. For instance, the rose and bud motif of our “Rose Cross” might be used in a Rose of Sharon. No design has more versions than this same romantic Rose of Sharon – all are the built up rose flower with leaves, buds and stems, but arrangements vary in varying localities, and almost all are lovely.
We have patterns on two, a simple and a more elaborate later Rose in special patterns. This was by long odds the most popular “Bride’s Quilt” pattern, its significant title coming down from the love songs of Solomon. “I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys. As the flower among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away! For the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come!” Sounds like a June wedding with roses, valley lilies – or do you think it suggests elopement? To some Colonial girl with imagination it meant a quilt!
But I’m rambling with romance. Getting back to technicalities and patterns there was a difference between the “piece” quilts and “patch” quilts. And, contrary to what you might expect, the patch variety was the aristocrat and the pieced the poor relation. For “patch,” sometimes called “sewed on” or “laid work,” meant the appliques and required new cloth bought especially, while piecing used every vestige of left-over material, whole parts from worn garments, bits of finery or blanket or traded scraps from friends – anything to piece together to make warm covers for the beds. But “piece” quilts have come up in the world. Such lovely patterns have been evolved from squares, triangles, diamonds, and strips that now women buy handsome materials as some practical husband remarked, “just to cut all up and sew back together!” However, a finished quilt is worth all the price of material and work expended, as well as unsympathetic comment endured. This last is rare; usually we are due for admiration if not envy, from the time the first well- planned block is made until the fine old quilt wears out in service, a generation or two later.