To begin with , I want to say something as trite as it is important and that is, “Use the very best materials that you can afford for any and all handwork.” Extravagance is never smart, but good quilt materials are not expensive. It’s the sleazy ones, unreliable dyes and starched cloth that prove expensive in the end.
The grade of fabric is gauged by the number of threads per square inch, “68-72″ is a fair grade of percale, “80 square” is excellent, the weight we usually use, and some of the very fine imported ginghams run to “120 square.”
A firm weave is imperative where one is cutting small triangles and diamonds where part of each block must be bias. Imagine trying to fit bias sides of rayon crepe or voile onto squares and you can see how totally unfitted such scraps are for quilt making. Coarse linens, crash weight cretonne, and pongee unless deeply seamed ravel out too easily to be suitable. Romper cloth and any others that border onto ticking texture are too close weave and heavy to quilt well. Cheap ginghams will shrink enough to pucker in a quilt top. So to the firm weave must be added soft texture. “Buty chine” is a permanent luster satine of finest quality which we recommend for excellent results. The finest materials certainly do make the loveliest quilts.
The dye problem is mastered with a reasonable amount of care as “vat dyes” are usual in even very inexpensive goods. “Commercially fast” the dealer will say, which means with any reasonable care they will not run. Very few manufacturers will absolutely guarantee color, and where they do replace, they have told us it was often a case of substandard black thread which had spotted with washing. Quilts are naturally difficult things to launder. A wisp of silk undies may be in, out, and dry in next to no time, but a quilt with cotton filler, top and lining all stitched plumply together goes in for no such speedy procedure. When it gets wet it stays that way long enough to try colors to their limits. We have had quilt colors, yellows and reds “bleed” into the white and in subsequent tubbings clear again to white. For the “priceless” quilts we suggest the French dry-cleaning establishments.
The rather violent coloring of many heirloom quilts is due to their makers’ belief that only oil red, oil green and oil yellow were considered reliable enough to use. Sometimes indigo blue was admitted to this favored fast group.
The history of quilt materials is almost as varied and fascinating as the history of quilt names. For instance, our chintz may be traced back through various family connections and changes of name to the “India Chinces” brought over from India by the East India Trading Company. This very fine cotton material was charmingly designed in much the same motifs of Paisley fame. The Persian influence, particularly the “Persian Pear” which women called the “pickle pattern” or “gourds,” peacock feather designs, with pineapple, pomegranates and certain exquisitely unreal but lavish flowers all bespeak the Oriental influence. Chintz came both glazed and unglazed.
Imported “unglazed chince” became English made “Flowered Callicoe,” and then there came a day when the British sheep and flax farmers framed legislation making it unlawful to produce or wear this cotton stuff so beloved of the feminine heart! This stringent law raised such a storm from the ladies that in due time the ban was modified to a tax, but still unpopular. A few of these taxes on tea, stamps, etc., you will recall bore the fruit of real history on both sides of the Atlantic.
There is a long list of woven cloths advertised from 1715 on, “Demities,” “Fustians,” “Muslings,” “Cambricks,” different sorts of “Duck,” “Lawn,” “Searsucker,” “Pealong” the ancestor of longcloth and Nankeen who begat “Blue Denim”! All of these and many more found their way into patchwork but the dearest and most suitable of all was calico. An author who treats this history in full, writes that “the mainstay of the patchworker was from 1700 to 1775 callicoe, from 1775 to 1825 calicoe, and from 1825 to 1875 calico!”
The great majority of quilts are usually made of wash cotton materials, although silks are sometimes used in such patterns as Log Cabin, Grandmother’s Fan, or the Friendship Ring, where one’s friends are called upon to help furnish beautiful bits to make the patterns as variegated as possible. Woolens, even good parts of worn garments are excellent for the heavy type of coverlet, and such designs as Steps to the Altar, or Grandmother’s Cross are suitable. Woolens are so apt to be dull, “practical” colors, that it is imperative to have some certain unit of red, bright green, orange or such in each block.
While cotton broadcloth, percales, or fine gingham, the calico prints and such, are used with muslin for wash quilts, many women maintain that soft satine really makes the most gorgeous quilt of all. When the time comes to quilt you will know why we stress soft materials and why lustrous satine which catches light on every little silk-like puff between quilting designs is so beloved.
INTERLINING MATERIAL
The warmth of the quilt will depend upon the thickness and kind of interlining you use. If warmth is desired, have a thick interlining which means that the quilting lines must be farther apart. If the quilting is to be close and elaborate the interlining must be thin. When a bed cover of exceptional warmth is needed, use a comfort bat of cotton or wool. This will be too thick to push the needle through easily, making even stitches impossible. Instead of quilting, this coverlet must be tacked or tufted.
Cotton batting is most commonly used as interlining for quilts. One bat is enough for a quilt, unless it is over size. Four bats will make three extra sized quilts by using the length for width and piecing out the length. Sometimes a lightweight cotton blanket or flannelette is used, but the quilt will not have that soft puffiness that cotton gives. The best bat costs a trifle more but the finished quilt is a thing of beauty. If flannelette is used for padding, the breadths of cloth should be whipped together, as a seam will cause an ugly lump in the quilt. We never use sheet wadding as a filler for a cover that is to be quilted; it is much too stiff for easy work.
LINING AND THREAD
As to the lining or backing, colors are quite popular, lemon yellow, baby blue, or whatever tint harmonizes with the quilt top. White or unbleached were always used on the old- time quilts. But white or tinted, the lining must be soft, unstarched either wide sheeting or strips of 36-inch width inconspicuously seamed, to use with wash material tops. Satine is best with satine, while a silk quilt may be lined with wool challis, with a silk that will not cut out, or even with dark cotton chintz where a blanket interlining is used.
Thread is the only other “material”; this is usually No. 50 white for piecing, finer or in matching mercerized tints for applique. For machine piecing use finer thread, perhaps 70. Numbers 50 or 60 are the standard quilting threads, white in almost all cases, although quilting on fine satine is lovely in No. 70. A No. 50 crochet twist in colors is effective for quilting on silk or rayon comforts.
Workmanship should be, like materials, the “best you can afford.” This may mean machine stitching for busy women, or the finest of handwork which we prize so highly in heirloom quilts. Close stitches are imperative in quilt making. We certainly want no ripped corners where cotton will pop out, or pulled seams in our quilt top.
