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These 3 articles are intended to provide insight into understanding why quilts have such an emotional impact upon our lives. Why is it that such common objects covering millions of beds often have warmed many more millions of hearts. Why are quilts cherished?
Type, or Name or Style - How are quilts classified?
Quilts are handmade objects so varied and historically rich that nearly all methods of classifying them soon bog down. There are so many variables that can describe a quilt that types and names and styles cross groups to form subsets within subsets.
Is a particular quilt to be classified by the construction method, by its age/historical era, or perhaps its cultural influence/variation? Maybe it can be classified by its patch shape, its design, its pattern, possible political influences, its utility, or by a future style and method that is evolving in the 21st century.
Even if the quilt features being considered have a consistent look over many decades, duplicate names for the same design often exist. Conversely the richness of quilt history has created multiple design variations for a single name.
Three Jacob’s Ladder block quilt with variations by color selection and piecing.
This block pattern is also called Road to California, Underground Railroad and Stepping Stones.
The following is a fairly comprehensive list of quilts types reflecting the rich tapestry of historic quilt names, styles and construction methods.
Appalachian quilts
Biblical quilts
Nine Patch quilts
Postage Stamp quilts
Red Work Embroidery quilts
Baltimore Album quilts
Log Cabin and its many variations
Album or Friendship block quilts
Civil War quilts
Political Message quilts
Commemorative quilts
Bargello style quilts
Center Medallion quilts
Broderie Perse printed fabric quilts
Seminole Indian piecing
Sashiko stitching
Amish style quilts
Slave made quilts
Patriotic quilts
Utilitarian quilts
Whole Cloth quilts
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African American quilts
Wedding quilts
One Patch quilts
Charm quilts
Crazy quilts
Applique and Pieced Quilts
Americana quilts
Hawaiian quilts
Cathedral Window Quilts
Origami type folded fabric method quilts
Tied quilts
String quilts
Yoyo quilts
Mariner’s Compass quilts
English Paper Piecing method quilts
Foundation paper piecing method quilts
Miniature Quilts
Art quilts
Mixed Media quilts
Computer generated designs
Quilts made from Inkjet printed fabric
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Quilts a Living Tradition
T he passages in italics in this article are quotations from Quilts A Living Tradition by Robert Shaw, 1995, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. Beaux Arts Editions.
"Historically, quilts were a source of solace and a creative outlet for many women. Quilts can be especially revealing about women's feelings and perceptions of themselves, sometimes telling stories and carrying emotions that cannot be as effectively expressed by more literal means.
Quilts are powerful symbolic objects that stimulate the imagination and evoke for many a lost and innocent America of small towns, closely knit families, moral integrity, neighborly concern and charity. That this America is mythic only emphasizes the power of the quilt as symbol and metaphor. Quilts touch our deepest longing for ourselves and for our children, opening direct channels to our emotions, hopes and dreams as only great art can. Quilts can carry family memories from generation to generations. Quilts are also symbols of relationships, especially the primal and nurturing relationship between mother and child. They are the most intimate of objects, created out of love and care, metaphorically wrapping the sleeper in the warmth and concern of the maker's affection, promising comfort, protection and peace through the night's dark uncertainties. Quilts receive our dreams."
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Traditional Quilts - Our Perspective
 Quilts4U fits into the long continuum of the quilting tradition as one of the many talented interpreters drawn to the emotional source of this universal community. Quilts4U offers “modern” interpretations of traditional patterns, fabrics and techniques. Inspired often by a traditional pattern as the focal point of the design process, our hand dyed cotton fabrics are chosen to highlight and enrich the traditional design elements. Careful attention to all details of the construction process further enhance each quilt. And finally, traditional quilting by hand, sometimes with fine yarn, further strengthens the bond with historical quilt makers. Not all of the traditional quilts from Quilts4U are hand quilted. The more modern design interpretations are quilted on our Bernina sewing machines.
Our quilts share an historical niche
The Traditional Quilt Collection by Quilts4U is inspired by the quilting tradition. Quilts4U remains rooted in tradition’s core qualities plus finds new ways to push the boundaries. Our interpretations are spectacular, sometimes very powerful, sometimes playfully restful. |
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