Women were given the materials and tools to make patch work quilts en route to
their Australian destination so that they could sell them and be able to support
themselves when they landed.

Sadly, only one of these appears to have survived, but it is clear that the British
women brought with them the skills and traditions of quilting.

Quilting was thought to be a ‘suitable’ occupation for a lady, and the quilters
soon began to put their work together at exhibitions, and a market in quilts was
quickly established. The British traditions were retained, and quilting in Australia
continues to respect and reflect the styles and patterns of the mother country.

However, for many years, Australian families were very poor, and generally the
women were responsible for ‘making’ all the bedding, as well as all the clothes
and household fabrics. In the absence of money to buy good cloth, the women
used their initiative. They used old sacks, old grain bags and anything that could
be used to give warmth. With luck, they would be able to find or get something
to make a bed cover more attractive, and the sacks would be used as the
wadding or batting. Old cloth would be cut and stitched either directly onto the
batting, or as a face fabric, and whatever artistic talent the maker had would be
used.

Later on it became commonplace to obtain old sample books from traveling
salesmen. So many quilts were made with suit cloth, as well as old curtains, and
what ever else was available.

Sadly, these days Australian women tend to be too busy to do a great deal of
quilting. And of course, with the much more cheaply available goods, it’s now a
time of buy new and throws away the old. Not like the old days, which epitomized
the make do and mend motto.

Clearly a colder climate than Hawaii, the traditions of ‘make do and mend’ were
such that for centuries, cloth was very valuable and not to be wasted. Long
before any mechanical cloth production, every piece of cloth was made by hand
or with simple weaving frames. Anything so time consuming to produce could
only be treated with care and considered to be of value.

Long before the first settlers arrived in America, British women, and men were
involved in patchwork and quilting, both for home and commercial benefit. So the
history of quilting in Britain goes way back.

There are records of padded clothing being made for soldiers to be worn
underneath their armor to protect them from the metal, and also to provide
warmth and comfort. And as far back as the fourteenth century, quilted fabrics
were used as bedcovers and clothes.

There are examples of eighteenth century pieces of clothing that remain from
noble and royal households. For example, an underskirt for a Scottish wedding is
now part of the Heritage Collection of the Quilters Guild, and dated at 1764.
Although in the households run by nobles and royals, there were wonderful
examples of luxurious and exquisite pieces of quilting, these were the minority.
The very wealthy would import cloth from abroad and use it to display their
wealth and social status.

Hence we see silks, satins, velvets, and printed Indian calico used in complex
quilting, often as backgrounds to embroidered hangings and bed drapes.
These pieces would generally be made by professional craftsmen who would
have been members of some of the early Guilds. Women would not generally
have been employed on a commercial basis in this way until much later.

In the homes of the less well off, the quilting and patchwork traditions would have
a much more utilitarian approach, and although some would be very cleverly
designed and executed, the main concern was to provide warmth without too
much expense.

The cottage industry was very much part of the northern England and Welsh
tradition, and as such, there would be quilters undertaking work on a commission
basis, and either selling directly to certain wealthier homes, or through an agent.
In Wales and some parts of England, there were also traveling workers. They
would take board and lodging in a household and be required to provide new
quilts for bedding, along with other stitch work in exchange for their keep.

In Victorian times, fashion dictated the use of lots of bright colors and contrasting
black. Fabrics were more readily available and there was greater wealth
available in the new middle classes. Drapery and bed coverings that had
previously been seen only in the houses of the nobility were now emulated by
the new professional and commercial classes.

Most girls of ‘good’ homes would be brought up to be competent, at the very
least, with their needle and thread. So the practice of embroidery, patchwork,
quilting, and appliqué was very much kept alive.

However, by the beginning of the twentieth century and the outbreak of war,
things were beginning to change.

When war broke out, women found they had to work to help the war effort. This
meant little time for hobbies, and rationing meant that everyone concentrated on
getting enough food to feed the family and getting the domestic necessities.
There was little time or energy for needlework as a hobby.

By the end of the 1940’s, things had begun to back to normal, the country was
becoming more and more reliant on manufactured clothes and bedding.
Factories had sprung up across the UK, and imports began subsequently to add
to the large amount of manufactured goods.

Really it was the resurgence of quilting arising from the United States that helped
Britain resurrects its quilting traditions. Now the Quilters Guild has a valuable
role in supporting quilting in the UK. The Guild set up a British Quilting Study
Group in 1998, and this provides invaluable support to the quilters of today with
research and information.

British quilting has, however, never managed to equal the art of the American
quilting traditions, and America has been entirely responsible for spreading the
word and the work of quilting across the world as far as Australia, Japan, South
Africa and Europe.

Were it not for America, the UK may have allowed its quilting history to fade
away. Thankfully, however, it has helped to revive quilting both as a hobby and
as an art form.

Hawaiian quilting is said to have started when the wives of two chiefs were
introduced to quilting by missionaries on board a boat. Hawaiians would not
naturally have begun to quilt for domestic use, as quilts were not needed in the
warm Hawaiian climate.

The missionaries showed the Hawaiians how to cut up fabrics into pieces and
then sew them back together. This the Hawaiians found rather wasteful, as they
were careful with all their resources and didn’t understand the concept of cutting
up a large piece of material, only to sew pieces of it back together, and then be
left with bits that couldn’t be used.

Eventually, the Hawaiians found a way of using their own clothing fabric (called
tapa) which they folded to achieve 1/4 or 1/8 patterns, and they gave any waste pieces back to the missionaries for them to use in their own quilting. This tapa was from tree bark.

The unique nature of the Hawaiian quilting is clear in their use of local flora, and
the spirit world as design influences for their quilts. Conceptually, they used
quilts to record their environment, their departed love ones, and their still to be
born. Their quilts were also strongly about the Hawaiian identity and the identity
of the individual members of their society.

The Hawaiian Gods, their rites and ceremonies, and their history, are all depicted
in the wonderful Hawaiian quilts. Local events and major historical events were
all beautifully detailed and preserved in their quilts. In fact, all their quilts have a
story to tell, or a person to describe, or an act to preserve for posterity.

Quilting is as old as the hills, and for many, has that wonderful combination of
domestic necessity, social cohesion, and craftwork and commemoration.

Quilting methods don’t vary enormously throughout the world, but the designs
are largely specific to a country, or a society, although the traditional American
patchwork designs have become loved world wide.

It is wonderful to have such a craft, which is a means of handing down traditions
amongst womenfolk mainly, and which has an end product that can both look
beautiful, and keep you warm at night.

An exception to this is of course the Hawaiian quilting tradition, which began
under the tutelage of the missionaries, and evolved into a means of recording
the Hawaiian beliefs and lives. Their quilts talk of their gods, their departed
spirits, the new members of their society yet to be born, and the main historical
and cultural events of their society. Their use of the beautiful flowers and the
love of their culture give Hawaiian quilting a truly magical and precious quality.
In colder climates, the quilting circle was an opportunity for the women to come
together, to talk over the major matters of the day and to provide invaluable
support for each other.

The new settlers in The United States of America were hardy and tough. Most of
them had to start from scratch. Homes had to be built, and furnished, and in
these days, nearly everything had to be grown or made.

Needlework was a very necessary skill for a woman. Without this, they would
not be able to make their clothes, and would not be able to make the soft
furnishings that not only ‘make a house into a home’, but are necessary for
keeping out draughts from windows and doors, and for keeping everyone warm
at night.

When societies became more established and there was money and time
available, the quilting circle would make quilts to commemorate certain events,
and together produce really large quilts that would adorn the walls of the
buildings that served as community centers.

And of course, the social network was invaluable. The older women would pass
on their skills as needlewomen, and designers of quilts and other crafts. More
importantly, they would pass on the invaluable knowledge about family life.
Childbirth, medicines for common ailments, cooking and how to grow herbs and
vegetables – this was the sub-text, and the very important function of the quilting circle.