e of the quilting or patchwork of France with them.
While needlework was taught at a very early date in the convents of
Quebec, it was apparently only the more fanciful kinds of embroidery.
As a protection against the biting northern winters, the early French
settlers sought protection under furs, which could be obtained quite
readily in the great woods. To secure more bed clothing, it was very
much easier to engage in a little hunting than to go through the
laborious processes of piecing and quilting. To both Spanish and
French, the new world was strictly a man's country--to adventure in
and win riches upon which to retire to a life of ease in their native
lands. With them, therefore, the inspiration of founding a home and
providing it with the comforts of life was lacking; and without such
inspiration the household arts could never flourish.

The English and Dutch planted their colonies along the coast from
Virginia to Massachusetts with the primary object of founding new
homes for themselves. With them came their wives and daughters, who
brought along as their portion such household comforts and
conveniences as they possessed. Under their willing hands spinning,
weaving, and the manufacture of garments began immediately. Their
poorly heated log houses made necessary an adequate supply of bedding
and hangings for protection against the winter cold. Substantial,
heavy curtains, frequently lined and quilted, were hung over both
doors and windows and were kept closely drawn during the bitter winter
nights. In the more imposing homes were silk damask curtains with
linings of quilted silk to keep out the drafts of cold that swept
through the rooms.

In Massachusetts in the early colonial days quilted garments,
especially petticoats, were in general use. It is a curious
circumstance that we owe this bit of information largely to the
description of runaway slaves. The Boston _News Letter_ of October,
1707, contains an advertisement describing an Indian woman who ran
away, clad in the best garments she could purloin from her mistress's
wardrobe: "A tall Lusty Carolina Indian Woman, named Keziah Wampun
Had on a striped red, blue and white Home-spun Jacket and a Red one, a
Black and quilted White Silk Crape Petticoat, a White Shift and also a
blue with her, and a mixt Blue and White Linsey Woolsey Apron." In
1728 the _News Letter_ published an advertisement of a runaway Indian
servant who, wearied by the round of domestic dru