18th Century Wholecloth Quilts

Last updated: Feb 25, 2024

Johnson defines a quilt as “a cover made by stitching one cloth over another with some soft substance between them.” These 18th century wholecloth quilts (unlike pieced quilts or patchwork quilts) are generally made of a single material on the top, though many use a different material for the lining. Since there are many extant wholecloth quilts in the 18th century, and they’re all of fairly similar manufacture, I’m grouping them by the type of fabric on the uppermost layer.

Several quilts are inditialed and/or dated using the same sort of cross stitch as laundry marks. Some 18th century wholecloth quilts were upcycled into clothing, especially women's quilted petticoats.

Wool

Printed Cotton and/or Linen

Silk

Linsey-woolsey

White Linen (Whitework)