we were going
to be frankly 'poor' and cover our beds with plain patchwork, made up
hurriedly and quilted in simple 'fans' in plebeian squares, as poor
folk who haven't time for elegant stitches did theirs. So I used the
old quilts, making their fine stitches in intricate patterns serve for
the design in a 'white spread,' turning the white muslin lining up. A
beautiful white spread it made, too, I realize now, more fully than I
did then, though I now would know much better than to turn the
wonderful applique stars and flowers and wheels from view. Strange, is
it not, that we relinquish so much of life's best joy and pleasure
before we know what actually is good?" This fashion prevails to-day,
in some instances insisted upon for sanitary reasons, but it has lost
to us many of the finest examples of quilting that existed because
where there were no coloured patterns to relieve the white expanse,
the quilting had to be perfect. If you have a white quilt treasure it,
for competent quilters are no longer numerous and few there are who
can reproduce it.

CHAPTER V

HOW QUILTS ARE MADE

It is only in comparatively recent years that many articles of wearing
apparel and house furnishings have been manufactured outside the home.
One after another, spinning, weaving, shoemaking, candlemaking,
tailoring, knitting, and similar tasks have been taken from the
homekeeper because the same articles can be made better and cheaper
elsewhere. The housewife still keeps busy, but is occupied with tasks
more to her liking. Among the few home occupations that have survived
is quilting. With many serviceable substitutes it is not really
necessary for women to make quilts now, but the strange fascination
about the work holds their interest. Quilt making has developed and
progressed during the very period when textile arts in the home have
declined under the influence of the factory. More quilts are being
made at the present time and over a wider area than ever before.

Quilts, as known and used to-day, may be divided into two general
classes, washable and non-washable, depending upon the materials of
which they are made. The methods for constructing each class are the
same, and are so very simple that it seems hardly necessary to explain
them.

The name quilt implies two or more fabrics held together with many
stitches. Webster defines a quilt as "Anything that is quilted,
especially as a quilted bedcover or a skirt worn by women;