Pioneer women and girls would gather at someone's house and everyone would work on sewing on a quilt. This was called a quilting bee. When they finished sewing the quilt, all the families would share a meal together and sometimes there would be dancing and games.

Quilts were used for covers on beds. Some quilts were stored in chests for the young girls until they were old enough to get married.

The pioneer women used scraps of old worn out clothes or scraps from material they used to sew their clothes. All these scraps were sewn together. The patchwork was sewn on top of soft wool or cotton wadding. Then a bottom layer was sewn on.

The girls had something in mind when they invited boys to the quilting bees. The girls had courting in mind.