the opening lines:

"To all dispersed sorts of Arts and Trades
I write the needles prayse (that never fades)
So long as children shall begot and borne,
So long as garments shall be made and worne.
So long as Hemp or Flax or Sheep shall bear
Their linnen Woollen fleeces yeare by yeare;
So long as silk-worms, with exhausted spoile,
Of their own entrailes for man's game shall toyle;
Yea, till the world be quite dissolved and past,
So long at least, the Needles use shall last."

It is interesting to read what Elizabeth Glaister, an Englishwoman,
writes of quilts in England:

"Perhaps no piece of secular needlework gave our ancestors more
satisfaction, both in the making and when made, as the quilt or bed
coverlet. We have seen a good many specimens of them, both of the real
quilted counterpanes, in which several thicknesses of material were
stitched together into a solid covering, and the lighter silken or
linen coverlets ornamented with all sorts of embroidery. Cradle quilts
also were favourite pieces of needlework and figure in inventories of
Henry VIII's time.

"The real quilts were very handsome and the amount of labour bestowed
on them was enormous. The seventeenth century was a great time for
them, and the work of this period is generally very good. The quilting
of some of them is made by sewing several strands of thick cotton
between the fine linen of the surface and the lining. When one line
was completed the cotton was laid down again next to it, and another
line formed.

"A sort of shell pattern was a favourite for quilting. When a
sufficient space was covered with the ground pattern, flowers or other
ornaments were embroidered on this excellent foundation. Perhaps the
best results as a work of art were attained when both quilting and
flowers were done in bright yellow silk; the effect of this colour on
a white ground being always particularly good. A handsome quilt may be
worked with a darned background. It is done most easily on huckaback
towelling of rather loose weave, running the needle under the raised
threads for the ground.

[Illustration: PRINCESS FEATHERS

Made in Indiana about 1835. Colours: soft dull green and
old rose]

[Illustration: PRINCESS FEATHERS WITH BORDER

Notice the maple leaf inserted in the border. Colours:
red and green]

"A very effective quilt in quite a different style is made in applied
work on unbleache