Birthing Method on Antique Quilts
 

I was at Houston Quilt Festival last weekend and I was very surprised to see antique quilts that appeared to have been finished using the birthing method. There was one from the 1800's (I think) that was described as having "no binding". When I looked at it closely it looked like they had used the "birthing" method to finish it. I had no idea that quilts were made that way so long ago. The quilt I'm thinking of was also a summer quilt with little or no batting which makes sense for this method of finishing.

I wouldn't think they were, just folding the edges in was very common way of finishing though, I've even done it myself for a few. On the other hand there is nothing new under the sun

I agree with Kamala, they were most likely done with a knife edge finish.

I have a very old , hand quilted, quilt that looks like it was birthed. It’s very thin as well. I picked it up at resale.

Thank you, Kamala and Feline Fanatic. I'll bet they were done with the knife edge. I saw them on Sunday afternoon and my brain was in overload from 3 days of Quilt Fest. I didn't think of the knife edge. I just thought birthed.

I'm guessing knife edged too. They could be done either blind or with a blanket or other stitch which could be a contrast or matching tone.

But keep in mind, as soon as there were sewing machines there were people making quilts with them. You can have an entirely machine pieced and quilted civil war era quilt. We quilters (in addition to advanced tool using) are pretty darn clever and as they say, there's nothing new under the sun. Someone could have indeed been birthing quilts long before we would have thought of the idea ourselves :)

Um, am I the only one who doesn’t know what the “birthing method” is??? Someone please help???

Birthing is when you layer your quilt, stitch around 3 sides and/or partially around the 4th. Typically I start with the bottom inside out, the top right side up, and the batting on top.

You "birth" the quilt by pulling the inside out to get everything on the correct level and so the seams are all inside.

Ohhhh! Yes, thank you!! Interesting!!

the problem with the idea of birthing an 1800's quilt was the batting was hand carded and was only kept in place by the close quilting.
Eleanor Burns was the first person I ever saw using the birthing method on the old PBS quilting program. I've never seen one done that didn't have folds/pleats when quilted.