Pieces of Quilting History and Lore Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Quilting is a tradition that has been around for a long time, and has been popular all over the world. Which country is oldest known quilt from?

Answer: Egypt

The earliest recorded example of quilting can be found on a garment worn by a carved ivory statue from Egypt in 3400 B.C.. The oldest actual quilt still in existence is also from Egypt, from 980 B.C.. This quilt, held in a museum in Cairo is made from coloured gazelle leather. Ancient quilts dating from before the Roman Era have also been found in India and Central Asia.

2. Most quilting styles are "pieced" (made up of pieces of different fabrics), but in some traditional quilts, only one piece of fabric is used, and the pattern is made with the texture of the quilting stitches. What is the term for a quilt made of only one piece of fabric?

Answer: Whole-Cloth quilt

The beauty of whole-cloth quilts lies in the intricate textured designs stitched through the padding between the two layers of fabric. This style of quilting comes from 14th Century Italy and was very popular in France and England, but was also practiced in other parts of the world.

3. In Colonial America, pieced or patchwork quilting was used as a way to use up scraps of fabric.

Answer: False

This is a very common myth about the quilting tradition in Colonial America. Women in that time and place not only made their own clothes, but also had to spin and weave their own fabric. Since fabric was so precious, it was all used for clothing or for patching old clothing.

It wasn't until the 1850s, when commercially made fabrics were available that quilting became popular, and then it was only among the middle classes who could afford to buy the fabric and had the time available for such creative pursuits!

4. There are many traditional pieced quilt designs. The repeated motif is called a "block", and they are pieced together until the size needed for the bedcover has been reached. Which of these quilt blocks has a design that makes it look like the "odd one out"?

Answer: Cathedral Window

Nine Patch, Bear's Paw and Flying Geese are all designs based on squares and triangles. This means they're good patterns for beginners as all those straight lines are easy to sew. Cathedral Window is made up of lots of curves, just like a cathedral window, and is a very difficult pattern to sew. Since quilting patterns were passed on between friends, and paper was often difficult to come by, women would make up rough fabric copies of their favourite blocks and keep them as a record.

5. Piecing together a quilt as a memorial for departed loved ones has a long history. In 1987, a group of activists formed the NAMES Project Foundation, and began gathering quilt panels stitched together by people who had lost loved ones to AIDS. The AIDS memorial quilt continues to grow, and new panels are received every week. To the nearest 1000, how many 3' x 6' panels were in the quilt in January of 2003?

Answer: 45,000

The quilt is now way too large to be displayed in its entirety. Last time it was all put together, in October of 1996, it covered the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C., and weighed approximately 50 tons! These days, groups of panels are displayed around the USA and travel around the world to raise awareness of AIDS and raise funds for AIDS research and care organisations.

6. Differently patterned quilts were used as symbols to indicate safety or danger on the Underground Railway route North to freedom for African-American Slaves.

Answer: False

It's a very popular theory, but historians of both quilting and the Underground Railroad say it's not true. The theory requires each slave to have planned their onward journey, and to learn a ten-point code of the quilt patterns that were not even used at the time of the Underground Railroad.

7. There are many different quilting traditions in many countries around the world. One of my favourites is the Japanese style of quilting called Sashiko. Which of these statements best describes Sashiko quilting?

Answer: Dark blue cotton with abstract designs in heavy white stitching

Sashiko quilting began in the 18th century, when the wives of fishermen and farmers made warmer clothes by stitching a number of layers of fabric together using fine running stitches. The fabric was died with indigo root. The patterns of Sashiko have become more refined and established since those early days, and are often abstract designs based on traditional shapes of bamboo, waves and flowers.

8. Which opulent style of quilting became popular after a display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876?

Answer: Crazy Quilting

You don't have to be crazy to make this style of quilt ! The word crazy comes from the crazed patterns seen in cracked pottery glaze. These quilts use satins, silks, and velvets. As well as being pieced together from luxurious fabric, each seam is richly embroidered with stitches such as herringbone, blanket stitch and lazy daisy in coloured threads.

The overall effect is one of Victorian opulence!

9. Amish quilts are famous and older Amish quilts reach high prices at antique auctions. They are striking in their use of bold colours and plain fabrics. Why did the Amish not use patterned fabrics in their quilts?

Answer: Patterned fabrics were viewed as being too worldly.

The Amish did not start making quilts until the 1870s, quite a bit later than the rest of the community living about them, and initially the quilts were single colour whole-cloth quilts. This was because of adherence to the Amish principles of simplicity, practicality and humility in all things.

While many Amish communities came to accept the use of patterns by piecing together differently coloured pieces of fabric, patterned fabrics themselves were seen as being too worldly for the use of most Amish communities.

10. Quilted material was used as protective armour during the Crusades.

Answer: True

During the Crusades, warriors from England and Scotland noticed the leather quilted garments worn by Islamic warriors under their chain mail, or as armour itself. Even the horses of the Islamic armies had their own quilted garments. It wasn't long before worried wives of warriors from England and Scotland began protecting their husbands with some extra layers of quilted cloth as well.

Source: Author natsim

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor silverginger before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The craft of quilting has a long and interesting history. Take this quiz to see how much you know or to learn something new. P.S. You don't need to know how to quilt to answer these questions!

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