[Mid] Medieval Quilts (fwd)

        In looking through old mail, I see this topic has been raised here
before...

        ~Krysta Sutterfield / Lady Shandra
                What was the best thing _before_ sliced bread?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 22:16:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: LISA108@delphi.com
To: sca-middle@dnaco.net

To Chastity, from Lady Sarah Davies, greetings -

Lord Lyle FitzWilliam passed your e-mail along to me. I'm a quilter of
fifteen years' standing and (as far as I know), the only person in the East
to receive a Manche for quilting. The following is a little information on
period quilting and patchwork, but I'd be happy to supply more details if
you need them.

First, quilting dates from at least the 1st century A.D. and was definitely
practiced in Europe. There are three Sicilian bedquilts surviving from the
1390's, plus both Japanese and French arming doublets from the 14th/15th
centuries. Medieval quilting was usually done in the backstitch, not the
running stitch, because the available stuffing was usually lumpy raw cotton
and it was easier to use the backstitch.

The running stitch gradually became more popular and completely superceded
the backstitch by the early 17th century. Quilting was used on clothing
(there's an ivory carving from the 14th century showing St. Joseph wearing
a quilted tunic, plus about a dozen Turkish caftans of quilted silk and a
quilted doublet from the late 16th century) and bedcoverings. The
backstitch works up very nicely in both a stiff silk (I'd recommend silk
taffeta or dupioni, not China silk - it's too thin and slippery to mark the
design) and in linen. My favorite batt is the Warm 'n Natural cotton batt,
and I'm about to try an organic cotton batt that's pretty close to period
materials.

As for patchwork - yes, it's period. About a dozen patterns, includding
Nine Patch, a variation of Irish Chain, strip piecing and Star of Lemoyne,
definitely date from before 1600. I can send you details about the patterns
if you're interested, but you'd be safe wearing a gown in One Patch or strip
piecing from about 1300 on.

Lady Sarah Davies mka Lisa Evans
LISA108@delphi.com
From: LISA108@delphi.com
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From: Krysta Sutterfield <ksutterf@freenet.columbus.oh.us>
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Received on Tue Jan 6 20:51:38 1998