How is quilting viewed around the world
 

So, the thread on the US Olympic Team Uniforms being inspired by the "American Quilting Tradition" got me thinking. I have seen quilters from other countries, but it seems to be a deep tradition here in the US. It makes me wonder how deep a tradition it is in other countries. Being in the US myself, I rarely hear of other countries who have historical roots in quilting.....so since this is an international site ;) what traditions do the other countries have?

While quilted garments and bedcovers are common around the chilly parts of the world, what was different in American quilting tradition was the piecing and applique. Of course, most of the world now has developed pieced and appliqued quilting movements. The UK had and has a long tradition of whole cloth quilts, many of them quite spectacular.

Bargello designs which were originally done in needlepoint were quite prevalent during the Elizabethan period in England. I know that many of us on the board just love to see Bargello Quilts!!

Here in Spain, quilting is not a traditional craft. Knitting, crocheting and embroidery are usual with strong traditional roots. Since ten years ago the patchwork, as quilting is known here, is trendy. Shops, local and on-line, are settling but the notions and fabrics are expensive, imported.

I'm a fairly new quilter but the handquilting has hooked me!!

I am assuming that "patchwork" quilting was what American quilting contributed to the art. The early settlers had to purchase all of their fabric from the "old country" before the textile industry was established in the "new world". The woman made the most of every scrap of fabric that was not made into clothing. They probably also used any usable scraps or leftovers from the garments they made to make quilts. Producing fabric in the home was a long and strenuous project. It might involve carding wool that you first had to shear from a sheep and wash before it was ready to weave into cloth. Home weaving required a loom and space to set it up. Growing and processing cotton or linen to make cloth was equally as labor intensive. Not a scrap of fabric would be wasted.

Like in Spain, quilting is not a traditional craft here either. Notions and fabrics are expensive, they all have to be imported. People call it patchwork here too or they just say 'blanket'.......

I used to do a lot of swaps Internationally and found there are many quilters world wide. But maybe quilting itself wasn't known in some Countries for eons, maybe only recently.

My SIS sister lives in Italy and she asked me to make a baby quilt for her. I was surprised when she told me that they don't have quilts in Italy, at least not where she is.

Here in Germany quilting isn't a traditional craft either, but today we have quite a few quilters here. As far as I know it started to become a hobby in the early 80th and the interest is still increasing. We don't have judged shows here like you have in US but from time to time you can find calls for entries for a competition under a special theme. I have always been very interested in the British quilt history and I have read several books about that.