Quilting has been used for generations to make snug bedding and heavy rugs to keep homes warm. Patchworking as a quilting method was born out of necessity, lack of money and the need for bedding meant that old and scrap pieces of material were used to create a useful item. This developed into a legitimate quilting technique with the quilting patterns becoming more complicated and technical. Women began cutting up material in order to make the increasingly popular patterns and to create a colour theme. Patchwork projects became popular across the world and each quilting community created their own design from the popular Amish quilts through to the fabulous colour mixtures of the simple quilts from Gees Bend.

Items like the Gees Bend quilts have become very collectable because of the amount of time and skill that went into making them. These quilts represent both extreme poverty and community, theirs is truly an art form created out of necessity. The intense poverty that surrounded this cut off community meant that they papered their walls with old paper a fact that was well documented in a series of images by Arthur Rothstein.

Scraps for Patchwork
Patchwork is a style of quilt that was made from requirement particularly within the poorer areas where large sections of material were used for making clothing and the scraps that were left over were used for producing items for the home. Even though the items made with the scraps were not made to be seen by the general public they were made in intricate patterns to conceal the fact that they were made from various kinds of small pieces of material. The quilts that have a huge amount of different materials in them are known as crazy quilts but even they have a certain level of colour co ordination and were taken up by the upper classes when they became popular in the 1880s with some women purchasing already prepared fabrics as many of them do today!

It is fairly obvious why so many areas needed to use these techniques in order to create important linen for the home. Some of the more elaborate quilting patterns were created in the poorer communities because they has less access to expensive materials or large pieces of fabric because these were used to create clothing and it was the scraps that contributed to the quilts. The Amish community use a huge range of quilting designs that they use particularly for the outside community where they use a lot of appliqu to create beautiful country scenes that appeals to the consumer market. The quilts they make for their own community are much more simple and are created out of subtle quilt fabric. Patchwork projects in areas like Baltimore were a different activity, the fabric was often bought for the sole purpose of making a quilt and they were given as presents with a group of people contributing to the overall quilt. These quilts were used more for decorative purposes and were therefore a more frivolous endeavour and often involved buying new material rather than reusing pieces from previous projects.

Patchworking requires great talent, in order to make the finished article a harmony of colours and designs the quilter has to be able to see the larger final picture. It takes years of practice to be able to create a balance of colours and give the quilt an overall unity without the patterns and colours clashing.

Quilting patterns were handed down through generations and then out into the wider area, where they started to define the community and the style and role that quilts had in the individual societies and they continue to do so today.