It is always good to understand the history of quilting and designs of patchwork. It can be quite boring, but it can be informative as well. Apart from that you will appreciate the quilts more once you know that how far they have traveled since their inception. The art of quilting is dated back to when the Chinese were around. In Europe its evolution can be contributed to women, who realized very quickly that in the cold weather the Quilt can be very useful as a soothing cover. As compared to America, when the quilt was brought up the Europeans, the history of quilting includes the craftiness. But in those days there was a sacristy of clothes was there so the old clothes were used as the arrangements to make the quilt. The stress was more on the practicality or the usage of it and not much importance was given to the design and aesthetic aspects. Slowly the usage of quilt increased and that forced the business to come up with brighter designs and look and feel aspect of it.
The patchwork quilts that are available today are made from the scraps of clothes otherwise the clothes are brought in especially for it. As of today just any other cloth cannot be taken to make the quilt. First the purpose of the quilt is found and then the clothes related to that is searched. The stitching of the clothes has also come up by leap and bounds. The design is based on the quilt block. This patchwork designs are the building blocks of the quilt. These blocks are then stitched together to create the face of the quilt. The designs can be random and the colors which are used, the designs are made have their own meanings. Apart from the quilt block the rest is made of batting and also of backing material, which is based on the quilt type. These are also put together and stitched. The quilting process can be complementary to the patchwork or it can be a new one. So based on the skill of the artist how the quilt may be made. Also, with the advent of the new technology the manufacturing of quilt can be more users specific.
Also based on the existing patterns, just the block of patchwork can be put together to create a new quilt. On the ground level there are basic ways in which the quilt can be made, one is manual and the other is using the machine. Some people have the view that the history of quilting which was based on the hand stitched quilts is getting lost because of the usage of machines. As they say, hand made quilt are the class part. On the other hand, the usage of machine can create different quilt designs which are complex. The time taken to create these are also far less as compared to hand made quilts. That’s the basic advantage of usage of machines for creating the quilts.
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