A History of Quilts

Though the story of this quilt remains hidden, it peaked Waldvogel's interest in learning the "who, what, when, where and why" behind quilts. She looks at quilt history in an expanse of the past 200 years, divided into four, 50-year segments — those quilt made in the era up to Civil War; those made from the era of the Civil War up to 1900; those made from 1900 up to World War II; and today's quilts. In the 1980s, Waldvogel became involved with documenting quilts in the state of Tennessee. Here are some examples of quilts from the past.

In the 1930s, textiles were scarce, and scrap quilts were the order of the day.

QUILT HISTORY Pop Quiz
Try your hand at quilt history with this true-false quiz!

True or False: Visible machine quilting devalues a quilt.
FALSE — Waldvogel says it often makes a quilt more interesting. Sewing machine stitching was introduced in the 1840s and became popular in the 1870s in middle-class American homes. Machine stitching seen on antique quilts can help to date them.

True or False: In the early days of quilting, quilt tops were made at home but many quilts were quilted at quilting bees.
TRUE — Waldvogel says she used to think that quilting bees were a romantic notion that came about during the 1930s. Since then, she's seen evidence to the contrary in writings about "quiltings" or quilting parties from the early 1800s on. These were popular events and people documented them by writing about them.

True or False: Only women made quilts.
FALSE — Waldvogel says though the majority of quilt have historically been made by women, there are several examples of quilts made by men in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Albert Small and Charles Pratt are two examples of male quilters from this era who won prizes for their quilts at state fairs.

True or False: Crazy quilts were made prior to 1875.
FALSE — The first examples of crazy quilting, with its elaborate embroidery and outline stitching, appeared in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The 1880s and 1890s saw the crest of crazy quilt fervor.