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DETAIL OF HARRISON ROSE, SHOWING QUILTING

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QUILTING DESIGNS

(a) Single Diagonal Lines (b) Double Diagonal Lines (c) Triple Diagonal Lines

There is a radical distinction between the verbs “to piece” and “to patch,” as used in connection with the making of quilts. In this instance the former means to join together separate pieces of like material to make sections or blocks that are in turn set together to form the top of the quilt. The pieces are usually of uniform shape and size and of contrasting colours. They are sewed together with a running stitch, making a seam upon the wrong side. The quilt called “Star of the East” is an excellent example of a pieced quilt in which a number of small pieced sections are united to form a single design that embraces the entire top of the quilt.

Patches are commonly associated with misfortune. The one who needs them is unfortunate, and the one who has to sew them on is usually an object of sympathy, according to a wise old saw: “A hole may be thought to be an accident of the day, but a patch is a sure sign of poverty.” But patch quilts belong to a different class than the patches of necessity, and are the aristocrats of the quilt family, while the pieced quilts came under the heading of poor relations.

However, this term is a misnomer when applied to some pieced quilts. Many of the “scrap quilts,” as they are called in some localities, are very pretty when made from gay pieces—carefully blended—of the various shades of a single colour. The stars in the design called “The Unknown Star” are made of a great variety of different patterns of pink calico, yet the blending is so good that the effect is greatly heightened by the multiplicity of shades.