For centuries, quilts have been a source of creative expression and warmth to families, and a quilt patchwork pattern is probably among your most favorite.  The history of the quilt patchwork pattern is one that involves hard work, practicality and frugality, but is also a story of design and color.  The quilt patchwork pattern has been around since around the early 1700s, much longer than whole piece cloth quilts.  By definition, a quilt is padded material that is sandwiched in between a top fabric layer and a bottom fabric layer, and that has bound edges and is quilted or stitched to hold the interior padding together. 

Quilting in History
Although quilting as we know it and quilt patchwork patterns date to the early half of the eighteen century, quilting itself dates back as far as Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, when a top fabric, backing and batting were stitched together to form garments of different types, and in particular, underwear.  These quilted garments were used to provide warmth and padding for heavy armor that was used in battle.  With carefully quilted padding, armor was less cumbersome and not as painful to wear. 

Quilting Comes to the Colonies
With the arrival of the Colonist in the New World, so arrived quilts and quilting, but the quilt patchwork pattern had not yet evolved.  Early Colonial quilts were whole cloth quilts, which were expensive to make and quite time consuming.  The quilts that we think of as coming from the Colonial period were actually introduced a few centuries later.  Material for making quilt was in short supply, particularly among the lower working classes.  Clothing was used as long as humanly possibly, and when one could get absolutely no more wear out of an article of clothing, the scraps of it were pieced together roughly into quilts.  No piece of clothing was too worn to be discarded and thus, the patchwork quilt was born.  Born of necessity, of course, but as they say, necessity is the mother of all invention! 

Quilting in the 1800s
In the 1800s, the quilt patchwork pattern that we have come to associate with patchwork quilting was developed.  Cotton was a new material that was available widely and that was more affordable for a growing number of families.  But folks were still frugal, and they still valued old clothing as part of the makings of a quilt patchwork pattern!  Thus, old scraps and clothing found its way into many patchwork quilts throughout the nineteenth century. 

Quilting Bees and the Quilt Patchwork Pattern
It was also during this time that the quilting bee became popular.  The quilting bee allowed for women to get together, share patterns, and quilt together.  Oftentimes, a quilting bee was held before a wedding, when many women would get together and make a quilt for the bride and groom to be.  Some of these quilting bees involved each woman bringing a particular number of squares to put together to form a quilt patchwork pattern, or other styles and patterns were used. 

Despite its sordid history, the quilt patchwork pattern remains a staple in American society, and patchwork quilts are often counted among a family’s most treasured possessions.