Layers of Meaning

Timeline: Quilts Pre-History - 1800s

Quilt History Timeline

Often the discussion erupts of how long quilting has been around and what it was used for. The assumption is that quilting was born of necessity; that it grew out of patching, mending and utilizing small scraps of leftovers. This may very well be the beginnings of quilting. What is known however is the presence of quilts that were fine enough to be interred with a significant figure (royalty?) and have come to us, preserved in the burial artifacts.

The first one, 5,500 years ago: "35th century BC An ivory carving, found in Temple of Osiris at Abydos in 1903 and currently in the collection of the British Museum, features the king of the Egyptian First Dynasty wearing a mantle/cloak that appears to be quilted."