The Humble Quilt or The Pharaoh’s Quilted Mantle?

As a child I was often told stories of my grandmother hand-sewing clothes for her 13 children. Back then some foods and household goods like flour, sugar, and animal feed were sold in cloth sacks usually made from cotton. She would use these to make dresses for the girls and shirts for the boys. She would also use cloth sacks, worn out clothes, old linens, and whatever other fabrics she could find to make quilts to keep her family warm in cold weather. Eventually, she was able to afford an old Singer treadle machine. I remember it was made of solid cast iron and the treadle table base and legs were also cast iron. By the time I came along she had retired her machine and relocated it to a back bedroom where she stored her homemade canned goods made from her very own kitchen garden. (My favorites were her canned pickles and peaches.) That was the most intriguing room in the house because in it were stored an array of trinkets, gizmos, and gadgets aplenty! It was the room I liked to sleep in when I visited her. The bed even had an old quilt on it that she had made a long time ago. I fondly recall building quilt forts and having fantastical adventures, reading books, and snuggling with kittens under that quilt. Visiting grandma, helping her in the garden, and running wild in the fields, those truly were the good old days. So, thinking of grandma and quilts got me interested in learning more about where quilts originated. Turns out people have been quilting at least as far back as ancient Egypt! Imagine that!

From what I have been able to glean, the earliest evidence of quilting traces back over 5,000 years ago to a carved statue of an Egyptian Pharaoh wearing a quilted mantle. Quilted floor coverings and garments have been discovered in Mongolia and across the Middle East from around 100 BCE to 200 CE. During the Middle Ages in Europe around the 12^th century knights wore quilted garments underneath their armor for padding and protection. From then on people were making decorative quilts for bedding and clothing.

Today we quilt to remember the past, to honor the brave, create pieces of art, stitch stories of castles and dragons and enchanted shoes. To provide warmth, to give comfort, to show our love. To offer condolences and encouragement. We quilt to celebrate new life, and old life, and everything in between. We quilt to be remembered by those we love. And perhaps even to leave our own personal mark on the future. Quilts can last for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years! We never know how far our quilts will travel or how many lives they will touch.

To all the historians, the artists, the quilters, and all people who sew (whether for pleasure or necessity) and to all the grandma’s all around the world. We see you. We honor you. We love you!

My Grandma and Grandpa pictured below…❤