Mastery: Which Stitch?
Whether making a shirt, a dress, a quilt, or a tailored coat, choosing the right stitch for the job was critical to making something stand up to its purpose. Learning to sew included learning what stitch best suited each part of a project.
Quilt makers employed different stitches for different techniques. In garments, stitches varied from seam to seam.
Quilt blocks, clockwise from upper left:
Pieced block: Most piecing is done with a running stitch.
Appliqué: Most appliqué is done by folding over the applied piece and whipstitching it to the ground fabric.
Hexagon: Hexagons are folded and basted (large stitches) over paper, sewn to adjoining hexagons with a butting seam as invisibly as possible, and the paper removed.
Quilting: Once the top, bottom, and filling layers are assembled, they are connected with a running stitch.
Broderie Perse: The appliquéd fabric is not folded under; buttonhole stitches in tight formation cover the raw edges.
Pieced Quilt Block, 1888, cotton, gift of Josephine Atley 89.25.3
Hexagon Quilt Fragment, 1820-1830, cotton, gift of Agnes Stone Dawsey, 85.57
Appliqué Quilt block, cotton, 1840-1850, gift of Elizabeth Ward Brooks, 86.75.5
Quilted Fragment, 1750-1780, silk and cotton, DAR Museum, 92.254
Broderie Perse Quilt Block, 1830s, cotton, Private Collection