Quilting Bees in Earlier Times

by Patricia L. Cummings

The American Quilting Party, Quilt Frolic, or Quilting Bee has been much celebrated in paintings, novels, and song. Often, it has been noted that there was much celebration at the end of the day, with social activities, dancing, and food. When did the tradition begin? This essay is prompted by an inquiry from a reader who would like to know if quilting bees were common in New England in 1787, and if quilting frames were used. To give more than just my own opinion, I turned to three books about Colonial Life and New England Homes.

Old picture-Quilting Bee in the Olden Time

Brief Mention

Daily Life in Colonial New England, by Claudia Durst Johnson (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 2002) was the first book to which I turned. I was disappointed to find that the author mentions quilts, only in the slightest way. She refers to them as home interior decorations, such as coverlets and other linens, made by women of the seventeenth century (1600s.) Clearly, this was not the kind of in-depth information I was after.

Alice Morse Earle's Classic 1898 Book

Next, I looked at Home Life in Colonial Days, written by Alice Morse Earle, in 1898, (Stockbridge, Massachusetts: Berkshire Traveller Press, 1974/1992). On page 273, the author speaks of stretching patchwork over a lining, (type of cloth unspecified). The quilters could then easily set around the quilting frame making their fancy lines of stitches. She adds, "I know of a ten days' quilting bee in Narragansett (RI) in 1752." In this case, it is hard to ascertain how she "knew" of this event.

On page 274 of the same book, there is mention of using the good parts of old uniforms that were not riddled with moth holes, as well as "well-worn" petticoats, and worn out flannel sheets, for creating quilts. Wool patchwork was done in New England, so that is no surprise, although it would seem that if "ladies" were going to sit and quilt together, they might choose a more worthy cloth for their efforts, than spent rags.

Earle exclaims that a silk quilt, made from a wedding gown when Esther Powel married James Helme in 1738, was among the nicest she'd seen. However, the quilt was not finished until 1795, and only then by a hired woman who toiled for six weeks, at the wage of twenty cents per week, plus room and board.

Closing In On Documentation

Turning to a third volume, we find additional information. Author Jane C. Nylander reveals in Our Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home 1760-1860 (New York and London: Yale University Press, 1993) that Abner Sanger recalled quilting parties as "early as 1778." She notes that Sarah Bryant's diary features six designs for quilting and she was apparently called upon with frequency to draw quilting lines for the quilts of others.

On page 229, there is a photo of a quilting frame from Historic Deerfield, Inc., a museum in Massachusetts. So, to answer my reader's question, quilting and quilting bees seem to have preceded and continued through and beyond the 1787 date in question, frames were used, and so were wool and silk (often recycled petticoats, that acted as warm additions to clothing during the days when winters were so cold and there was no central heating).

Post Note: Quilting bees were well established by 1820 and continued on into the 1860s and 1870s.

Click here to see a quilt entitled, "The Quilting Party" by Bertha Stenge.