TNA LR 9/132, 1703, ‘Receipt of Richard Shedford for the cost of a bed, blankets and quilt purchased by Mr Soley.
TNA PROB 11/580/334, 30
June 1721, ‘Will of Richard Morgan, Quilt Maker of Saint Olave Silver Street,
City of London’.
TNA HO 47/22/9, 10 April 1798, ‘Report of J Adair on Elizabeth Taylor, convicted at the Denbigh Quarter Sessions, on 5 April 1796, for stealing a feather bed, blanket, quilt and other items, value 10/-, property of Mary David.
While references to quilting can been traced back to the
Middle Ages, references to patchwork
quilts do not appear in English or Welsh records until the eighteenth century.
A
patchwork quilt is a variant form of quilting in which paper patterns are used to cut different
fabric shapes which are then pieced together to form the top layer.
One of
the earliest known patchworks is the 1718 silk patchwork coverlet held in
the Quilters’ Guild Collection. While quilting was considered a professional
skill at this time, patchwork was a ladies’ leisure pursuit, using
expensive silks and printed cottons which were cut from paper templates
(another expensive commodity) following the mosaic patchwork method.
The Quilters’ Guild Collection - Detail
from 1718 Silk Coverlet
Simpler
and cheaper fabrics were used by the lower classes whose quilts had functional purposes, although the design and making of
them acquired different cultural relevance across time and place.
Quilt V&A 1797 - maker unknown
Patchwork was deemed a suitable activity for female convicts on board transport ships.The Lord Sidmouth was one of three
convict ships carrying female prisoners from England and Scotland to New South
Wales in 1822/23. As a result of T. Bensley’s 1821, ‘Third Report of the
Committee of the Society For the Improvement of Prison Discipline ...’ a
set of rules was recommended by the Ladies' Association for female prisoners at
Newgate. These Rules were probably already in place by the time the Lord
Sidmouth was ready to set sail in 1822, as demonstrated by the following
extract from the journal of ship’s surgeon Robert Espie:
7
September 1822 at Woolwich. Mrs Pryor came on board and completed all her
arrangements having given each of the women a quantity of patchwork and other
articles to employ them during the voyage. (TNA ADM 101/44/10, folio 6).
Extract from the Third Report of the
Committee of the Society For the Improvement of Prison Discipline ...’
Possibly because of the scarcity of resources in the early settlements of North America and Australia, the ability to recycle old and scrap material into colourful quilts meant that quilting became, and still is, a popular art form in those countries.
Melbourne, 2014
An exhibition of
patchwork was even the subject of an anti-terrorist investigation in 1980. An entire file (TNA WORK 12/866) is given
over to security issues raised when Kilkenny Design Workshops proposed mounting an
Irish Patchwork Exhibition in the Fine Rooms of Somerset House, being one of 90
events planned to take place in London during February
and March 1980 under the umbrella programme, ‘A Sense of Ireland’.
Now it's my turn - C18thGirl, 2015 - work in progress.
And if this has whetted your appetite to make a patchwork quilt, here’s how - courtesy of Angharad Jones …
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