Lack of age, mediocre quality limit value of quilt

Dear Helaine and Joe: I am sending you a picture of a quilt and would like to know the name of the pattern. The only information I have is that it came from North Carolina.

Sincerely yours. — S.F., Oakman, Ga.

Dear S.F.: At their best, quilts are works of art created by women — and men — who had (or have) a great sense of graphic design and the ability to do exquisitely detailed needlework. At their least attractive, quilts are just something to keep a person warm on a cold winter's night.

Originally, quilts were made primarily to achieve this latter purpose and were necessary pieces of household equipment to keep a family warm in a house that had no central heating system and was usually inadequately heated. In their day, quilts could be the difference between life and death.

In addition, quilts are the embodiment of our ancestors' devotion to thrift — the notion that nothing should be thrown away that might have a use later. Patchwork quilts in particular were made by piecing together scraps saved from old clothing and other textile items that were worn out or no longer usable for their original purposes.

Homemakers generally made two kinds of quilts. One kind was for everyday use, and these tended to be rather plain and ordinary. The other kind was for company or special occasions, and these are the ones that exhibit the best designs and needlework. Interestingly, the everyday quilts tended to get worn out, while the company quilts got little use and have often survived to this day in relatively good condition.

The quilt belonging to S.F. is an applique quilt, meaning that it was made by cutting out the design and applying it to a fabric background. This particular quilt appears to be a very, very distant cousin of the highly regarded Hawaiian quilts that feature naturalistic designs centered around tropical vegetation executed in one color and then appliqued to a white background.

Hawaiian quilts often have a sort of kaleidoscope look, and the quilt in today's question hits the cord but misses the mark. On this piece, the flower is in red with green leaves, and it has been suggested that this might be a poinsettia and that the quilt with its red and green color scheme might have been created with Christmas in mind.