Heathcote Valley Online

When I was very small I was tucked into bed at night with a pink silk quilt. I thought it was beautiful, but I didn't much like the reverse side. This was made up of small squares of different coloured materials stitched together. Most of them very strongly resembled the fabric that had made up some of my father's old work trousers and that didn't impress me at all. I suspected that the quilt was filled with layers of old blankets that had worn too thin to be used on their own. But this was war time.

With times being what they were during the war, I was very lucky it wasn't made with sugar sacks or flour bags. New cloth was hard to come by and even harder to pay for. Housewives used what they could find and were often amazingly resourceful. So I kept my quilt "sunny side up" and was grateful for its warmth in winter.

My mother was not the first or only woman in New Zealand or the world to use this method of re-cycling and insulation.  and not surprisingly it would seem it started with the Chinese or Egyptians or both. The oldest known piece of quilting to exist was found on a carved ivory figure of a pharaoh from the first dynasty and is dated to be from 3400 BC. In the 11th century the Crusaders brought a form of quilting back from the Middle East. Knights used quilted garments under their armour for added comfort, warmth and protection.

Although quilting no doubt arose out of necessity, when the economy improved the housewife still made quilts. No longer dependant on collecting a pile of scraps for her work, she could now choose fabrics, silks and laces for the specific purpose of making a quilt and some very beautiful work emerged.