Their beauty keeps you snug in bed,
They were first patterns in someone's head!
They cover you with slumber sweet
And with their colors warm your feet!

Quilts have been around for thousands of years. Quilting is usually made of three layers, with padding the middle layer. Soldiers in the Middle Ages wore quilted coats under their armor for warmth, and women wore quilted petticoats!

Designs for quilts can be very different. There are quilts with geometric designs, blocks, or even pictures. The only rule about a pattern is that it must fit together like a puzzle, with all the pieces filling the space.

Quilts are judged on the basis of springiness, shape, texture, odor, density, and ability to hold weight. The oldest stuffing for quilts is feathers! If the feathers were too large, the quilt wasn't soft enough. If they were too small, they were not warm enough. The warmest quilts were made with a combination of goose and duck feathers, and down, which is the soft feather coating nearest the skin of the bird. Chicken and turkey feathers make poor stuffing!

Check the shapes you would like most if you could design a quilt!