Panels for wall decoration

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DOUBLE NINE PATCH

Made in Ohio in 1808. Colours: blue and white, and beautifully quilted

The artistic needlework of the Christian era consists almost entirely of embroidery; no positive reference to patchwork or quilting being found in western Europe prior to the time of the Crusades. But with this great movement, thousands of the most intelligent men in Europe, urged by religious enthusiasm combined with love of adventure, forced their way into eastern countries whose culture and refinements of living far surpassed their own. The luxuries which they found in Syria were eagerly seized and carried home to all the western lands. Returning Crusaders exhibited fine stuffs of every description that roused the envy of all who obtained a glimpse of them. A vigorous commerce with the east was immediately stimulated. From Syria merchants brought into Italy, Spain, and France silks and cottons to supplement the native linen and wool, and also many kinds of embroidered work of a quality much finer than ever known before. As a result dyeing, weaving, and needlework entered on an era of great development.

Previous to the eleventh century so memorable in the history of the Crusaders, references to quilting and patchwork are few and uncertain, but from that time on these twin arts became more and more conspicuous in the needlecraft of nearly every country in western Europe. This is explained by the stimulus which was given to these arts by the specimens of appliqué hangings and garments brought from Syria, where the natives wrought for centuries the identical applied work carried into Palestine from Egypt in Biblical times by the Hebrews and the Phœnicians.

About the earliest applied work of which we have record were the armorial bearings of the Crusaders. A little later came rather elaborate designs applied to their cloaks and banners. Among other specimens of Old English needlework is a piece of applied work at Stonyhurst College depicting a knight on horseback. That this knight represents a Crusader is beyond question since the cross, the insignia of the cause, is a prominent figure in the ornamentation of the knight’s helmet and shield, and is also prominent on the blanket on the horse.

Noticeable progress in the arts of both quilting and appliqué was made during the Middle Ages in Spain. Spanish women have always been noted for their cleverness with the needle, and quite a few of the stitches now in use are credited to them. At the time of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, applied work had long been known. Whether it developed from imitating garments brought home by the returning Crusaders, or was adopted from the Moors, who gave the best of their arts to Spain during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, cannot be positively stated. However, it is worthy of notice that whenever the Christian came in contact with the Moor, a great advance in the textile arts of the former could generally be observed. This holds true even down to this day, our eagerness to possess the rugs of Turkey and Afghanistan, and the imitation of these designs in the manufacture of domestic carpets, being a case in point.