The history of quilt materials is almost as varied and fascinating as the history of quilt names. For instance, our chintz may be traced back through various family connections and changes of name to the “India Chinces” brought over from India by the East India Trading Company. This very fine cotton material was charmingly designed in much the same motifs of Paisley fame. The Persian influence, particularly the “Persian Pear” which women called the “pickle pattern” or “gourds,” peacock feather designs, with pineapple, pomegranates and certain exquisitely unreal but lavish flowers all bespeak the Oriental influence. Chintz came both glazed and unglazed.
Imported “unglazed chince” became English made “Flowered Callicoe,” and then there came a day when the British sheep and flax farmers framed legislation making it unlawful to produce or wear this cotton stuff so beloved of the feminine heart! This stringent law raised such a storm from the ladies that in due time the ban was modified to a tax, but still unpopular. A few of these taxes on tea, stamps, etc., you will recall bore the fruit of real history on both sides of the Atlantic.
There is a long list of woven cloths advertised from 1715 on, “Demities,” “Fustians,” “Muslings,” “Cambricks,” different sorts of “Duck,” “Lawn,” “Searsucker,” “Pealong” the ancestor of longcloth and Nankeen who begat “Blue Denim”! All of these and many more found their way into patchwork but the dearest and most suitable of all was calico. An author who treats this history in full, writes that “the mainstay of the patchworker was from 1700 to 1775 callicoe, from 1775 to 1825 calicoe, and from 1825 to 1875 calico!”
The great majority of quilts are usually made of wash cotton materials, although silks are sometimes used in such patterns as Log Cabin, Grandmother’s Fan, or the Friendship Ring, where one’s friends are called upon to help furnish beautiful bits to make the patterns as variegated as possible. Woolens, even good parts of worn garments are excellent for the heavy type of coverlet, and such designs as Steps to the Altar, or Grandmother’s Cross are suitable. Woolens are so apt to be dull, “practical” colors, that it is imperative to have some certain unit of red, bright green, orange or such in each block.
While cotton broadcloth, percales, or fine gingham, the calico prints and such, are used with muslin for wash quilts, many women maintain that soft satine really makes the most gorgeous quilt of all. When the time comes to quilt you will know why we stress soft materials and why lustrous satine which catches light on every little silk-like puff between quilting designs is so beloved.