the dull yellow of the background. Applied
designs of leaves tied together with ribbons, all cut from white linen
and stitched to the nankeen with white thread, made a quilt no wise
resembling the silken ones of earlier periods. This quilt may be
termed a forerunner of the vast array of pieced and patched washable
quilts belonging to the nineteenth century.

The embroidering of quilts followed the process of quilting, which
afforded the firm foundation essential for heavy and elaborate
designs. There were many quilts made of white linen quilted with
yellow silk thread, and afterward embroidered very tastefully with
yellow silk floss. Terry, in the history of his "Voyage to the East
Indies," made about the middle of the seventeenth century, says: "The
natives show very much ingenuity in their manufactures, also in making
excellent quilts of their stained cloth, or of fresh-coloured taffeta
lined with their prints, or of their satin with taffeta, betwixt which
they put cotton wool, and work them together with silk."

Among many articles in a list of Eastern products, which Charles I, in
1631, permitted to be brought to England, were "quilts of China
embroidered in Gold." There is a possibility that these quilts were
appreciated quite as much for the precious metal used in the
embroidery as for the beauty of design and workmanship. It was but a
short time after this that women began to realize how much gold and
silver had gone into all forms of needlework. They looked upon rare
and beautiful embroidery with greedy eyes, and a deplorable fashion
sprang up, known in France as "parfilage" and in England as
"drizzling." This was nothing more or less than ripping up, stitch
by stitch, the magnificent old hangings, quilts, and even church
vestments, to secure gold and silver thread. Lady Mary Coke, writing
from the Austrian Court, says: "All the ladies who do not play cards
pick gold. It is the most general fashion I ever saw, and they all
carry their bags containing the necessary tools in their pockets. They
even begged sword knots, epaulettes, and galons that they might add
more of the precious threads to the spool on which they wound the
ravelled bullion, which they sold." To the appreciative collector this
seems wanton sacrilege.

[Illustration: TUFTED BEDSPREAD WITH KNOTTED FRINGE

A design of very remarkable beauty. Over 100 years old]

[Illustration: UNKNOWN STAR

A New England quilt about 115 year