Where do quilts come from

Where do quilts come from?

A quilt is made of cotton, wool, or linen fabric. Before that quilt could keep you warm, sheep had to be raised and cotton or linen had to be grown. Then the fibers had to be washed, carded, spun into thread and dyed, and then the thread was woven into cloth.

This is a cotton boll.

To see how cotton is made into cloth:
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilson/pp/su98/cotton2.ht

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, by Deborah Hopkinson

     Look at the picture on the title page.
                     Do you see the rows of cotton plants? Who is working in the cotton field?

     Look at the picture opposite the first page.
                      Notice the large bags that Clara and Young Jack are carrying. What is their use?
                      How does a cotton ball feel? How much does it weigh?
                      Estimate how many bolls of cotton it would take to fill a bag as big as you are.

sheep.jpg (5751 bytes) Wool from sheep is also used in making cloth.

Warm as Wool, by Scott Russell Sanders
Why was the wool so important to the Ward family?
"Charlie Needs a Cloak," by Tomie dePaola

At the Shelburne Museum there is a weaving shop
http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/nfweavingshop.html

To see all sorts of spinning wheels amd weaving looms like the one Mrs. Ward had: http://www.ashford.co.nz/productsF.htm

The thread and cloth must be dyed to make the beautiful colors. In the colonial days, berries, nuts, and plants
were used to make colors.

To learn about the history of natural dyes and to see instructions for making your own dyes from onion skins,
tree bark, and fruit and spices from the grocery store:
http://www.watson.org/rivendell/botanynatdye.html

What colors look good together?

The Log Cabin Quilt,
by Ellen Howard
Why were the colors in Grandma's quilt so important?

The Primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They form an equilateral triangle on the color wheel.
Secondary colors are the ones made from the primary colors: orange is made from red and yellow;
green is made from yellow and green. What is the secondary color that is made from blue and red?

Analogous colors are the colors next to each other on the color wheel. They just naturally go together because
they share a color in common.

Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. Opposites attract attention.

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