Quilts

30th January 2022

(music)

Liz: Hello and welcome to Bread and Thread, a podcast about food and domestic history. I’m Liz

Hazel: And I’m Hazel. We are two friends who studied archaeology together and love making things, and also food, that may or not be historical. So, what have you been up to?

Liz: So, I have got hold of some 5 inch bamboo DPNs

Hazel: Oh yes

Liz: So I am making gloves for the first time

Hazel: That sounds fiddly

Liz: It is. It was worse with the 10 inch DPNs, that double pointed needles, for the people that don’t know

Hazel: Mm-hmm

Liz: ‘Cause they’re just clanking around and swinging about when you’ve only got two or three stitches on each needle

Hazel: It does make you look really cool though, because it’s impossible to work out what you’re doing if one is not a knitter

Liz: I mean, I think it still looks cool doing it with the shorter needles

Hazel: Yeah

Liz: But it’s also, you know, possible

Hazel: Oh right, yes, yeah, absolutely

Liz: Because I’ve attempted gloves before with the 10 inch ones, and just given up when I got to the fingers. It’s too much needle to manage

Hazel: (laughs) Yeah, doing small things on double point needles is tricky

Liz: But now I’ve got fancy bamboo ones

Hazel: How many fingers have you got?

Liz: I made one glove, but I think there’s a glitch with the pattern

Hazel: Ok

Liz: ‘Cause the thumb ended up mostly attached to the hand, and way too short

Hazel: Ah

Liz: But I have learned that if I replace one tiny bit of the pattern, ‘cause it says next three rounds, if I just change that to next round, suddenly it’s fine

Hazel: Mm-hmm. Oh, nice

Liz: So I have fixed the pattern

Hazel: Yes!

Liz: And also added a basketweave cuff, because I cannot be stopped

Hazel: (laughs) That sounds really cool

Liz: And also because it’s a massive ball of aran wool, so I can make a matching basketweave hat and scarf it I want to

Hazel: Oh yeah!

Liz: Whereas the original cuff was just garter stitch, and that’s kind of boring

Hazel: I dunno, I like a garter stitch. I’ve got an appreciation for it

Liz: Not for a hat and scarf though

Hazel: I do understand that there are many shall we say more exciting ones out there

Liz: Yeah. Have you been making anything?

Hazel: No a lot, honestly. I’ve been pretty tired for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been on a placement in a hospital, so I have been getting up very early, and by the time I get back it’s kind of dark, and I’ve been doing a lot of new things, and learning a lot of new things, and being in a different town, new environment, so I haven’t really had the energy to do anything. But I did, I brought craft stuff with me, and I’ve done a little bit of, I’ve done a little bit on my quilt, so, going fine, I’ve collected a couple of new fabrics for it

Liz: Ooh

Hazel: And done a little bit. It’s nice. I try and always do a little bit in the evening, ‘cause it, it’s nice to work on a personal thing, because it reminds you that you are also, also have a personality outside of what you’re doing all day. But what I’m doing all day is cool, because I’m studying hand therapy at the moment, so I’m learning a lot about the hand, and a lot about good joint positioning, which I feel is relevant to craft, so yeah

Liz: You’ve got access to all the premium stretches now

Hazel: (laughs) Pretty much. I mean, there is also a lot of information out there for free, if you just go on youtube and search for ergonomic knitting, or crochet, or whatever, you will find a lot of helpful stuff, so yeah, would recommend doing that. It’s always good to warm up your hands before you start doing anything delicate and stuff, but yeah, that’s pretty much it

Liz: That’s cool. So yeah, I believe it is your turn today

Hazel: It is! And I am actually gonna be talking about quilts. I think it is about time

Liz: It is that time of year

Hazel: It is that time of year, snuggly, and also you know that thing where you get super into one thing, and then you do a podcast episode on it. I’m sure everyone

Liz: You mean like the tea episode, and the soap episode?

Hazel: Yeah. I’m sure everyone can relate to that, you know?

(both laugh)

Hazel: But yeah, so I started a quilt and then I was like “ah, quilts!”, but I do actually have a little bit of history looking into quilts, and I have to say, there is a lot. You can kind of consider this quilts part one, I guess, because it is a big topic, and there’s a lot of aspects to talk about, so in this episode, I’m just gonna talk a little ‘bout, little bit about quilting in general, and then a few kinds of quilting techniques from different places in the world, and then a couple of notable quilts

Liz: Notable quilts?

Hazel: Oh yeah, there will be notable quilts

Liz: I didn’t know there was such a thing

Hazel: Absolutely. Well, one of the first ones, actually, and I’ll send you a picture, so pictures that we talk about on the podcast can be found at our twitter, at breadandthread, and I promise they will be (laughs)

Liz: Yeah, can normally be found on our twitter

Hazel: Yeah, I’ll queue it up straight away. So this in the picture I’ve just sent you, Liz, and anyone else, if you can’t wait for the twitter and you want to look it up, it is called The Tristan Quilt. This is a quilt that is dated to the later half of the 14th century

Liz: Oh, so it is mediaeval

Hazel: It is a mediaeval quilt from Sicily

Liz: That’s so cool!

Hazel: It’s currently in The Victoria and Albert Museum. It’s called The Tristan Quilt because it shows a few scenes from mediaeval legends, and one of them is the legend of Tristan and Isolde

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: And it’s made using a technique called trapunto, which is an Italian technique where you stuff certain areas of the quilt from the back, so it’s in relief, there are certain parts of it that are in relief, which is just really cool, because I did not realise that quilting was such an old technique, really

Liz: Yeah

Hazel: So I’ll come back to this quilt in a little bit, but just for a little bit of background on quilting. So, patchwork and quilting are sometimes words that are used interchangeably. They’re not the same thing. Patchwork is when you are sewing the little bits of fabric together, patching things together to make a bigger fabric, and quilting is when you have two or more layers of fabric, normally a top layer and a bottom layer and something in between, whether it’s a layer of padding, or people would use old clothes, old fabrics, things like that, and you stitch through all of those layers to bind all of those layers together. That’s quilting

Liz: I guess that makes sense, ‘cause I’ve never really thought about it, but, when you say the word quilt, what immediately springs to mind is the big patchwork American ones

Hazel: Exactly, and they are often used together, so you can have a big patchwork quilt that is really really common, and, yeah, that’s the, probably the most popular kind, the kind that would come to mind, would you say. Famously a big part of American cultural history, and also British as well, in a smaller way, and also in many other cultures as well. But a quilt and a quilted object are different things. Quilting, the technique, has come to be associated with quilts. So, a quilt is the thing that you put over your bed

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: And quilting is also a technique in itself. So, for example, there were the quilted jackets that you would wear underneath your armour in various parts of history as well, so whatever you’re quilting doesn’t have to a quilt, and then it’s still used today in clothing, like those quilted winter jackets that you can get

Liz: Aww, those are cosy

Hazel: Yeah. So, quilting as a technique may be older than the mediaeval period, but, as with a lot of things, this is where we start getting surviving examples. So quilting seems to have emerged around the mediaeval period, or at least that’s when we start finding examples, and it’s pretty much all over the world. So some of these techniques may be older, but we start getting quilts, capital-q Quilts, the object, from around the mediaeval period, so like The Tristan Quilt from mediaeval Sicily, in the technique trapunto, and that is one of the oldest ones that are around, but there’s also a few different quilting techniques from around the world, and I’m gonna talk about just a couple of them, because there are many more, but, like I said, to cover it in one episode would get a little bit lengthy. So, I did get a little bit of information from a book published by the V&A, called Patchwork and Quilting, which covers many different patchwork and quilting techniques, which is very interesting, but yeah, so I’m gonna talk about a couple of them. One of them is becoming a bit more well-known in the west, I believe, but is a very old technique in the Indian subcontinent, particularly associated with the Bengali region, and it’s spelled K-A-N-T-H-A. Mostly I’ve seen it pronounced kantha in English sources, but I believe it’s actually pronounces “kanta”. So this is a method of quilting that can involve, it can involve patching, but they are embroidered quilts

Liz: Ooh

Hazel: And they are absolutely beautiful. So it’s a method of quilting that incorporates embroidery and coloured threads, often, to make these incredible designs, so I’m gonna send you a picture of one now

Liz: Oh that’s very pretty

Hazel: Yeah. These were often made, and still are made, to use up old clothes and things, just like most quilts everywhere are, so you can put, in the middle layers, you can put old fabrics, old clothes, and then it would be stitched through in pattern, and they can be geometric patterns, for example in the Muslim regions they would often be geometric patterns, but they can also be very elaborate, they could also be created for a particular purpose, rather than just using up old stuff, so for example the one I’m gonna send you now. I just felt like this episode in particular needed a bit of visual aid

Liz: Oh wow

Hazel: Yeah, so for reference, the first picture I sent is a kind of geometric almost flower pattern, and then the second one is this colourful scene

Liz: It’s got things!

Hazel: Yeah, with people on it, and animals, and plants, and beautiful borders round the edge

Liz: Is it a specific scene that’s being shown?

Hazel: Yeah, I think so, but I’m not sure if it’s a scene from mythology, like The Tristan Quilt, or if it’s just a typical scene

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: But it’s just amazingly intricate. So this craft, interestingly for a culture where textile work, professional textile work, is often a mans profession, these are very much a domestic thing, and the making of them is more associated with women, so

Liz: For home rather than for sale?

Hazel: Yeah, so that you see a lot with quilts, because they’re a domestic item for the home, in the same way that in mediaeval Europe, in Europe, knitting, professionally, would be a mans job, but done in the home it’s very much a womans job

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: Although I guess it depends where you are in Europe. Anyway, that’s a whole other thing, let’s not get into knitting

Liz: That’s a different episode

Hazel: Yeah, this is a different episode. Yeah, so the word kantha apparently means something like rags, patched cloth, so referring to the technique used to make it, but also the object, like the word quilt, and I’ve seen records of people talking about they remember these quilts all being hung to air around the household, colourful hangings and stuff, and they remember their grandmothers making one, so they are still produced. They are, the handmaking technique, as with so many crafts around the world, I think, is less done in the modern day, and there are a lot more commercially produced ones available, and they’re starting to become a bit of a trendy thing in the west, as well, I think, very watered down versions

Liz: That makes sense

Hazel: Yeah, definitely

Liz: It’s the sort of thing Europe likes to do

Hazel: As always. But, from what I can gather, it is, the craft is still alive in the region, and people are getting interested in making them again, which is awesome. So there’s also…and if anyone has anything more to add to that, that was just a very quick overview, then please do tweet us or write in. Now I’m gonna hop over to Japan, where we have the technique of sachiko, which is very well known now, I think, and that is also a quilting technique, although it doesn’t have to be done through various layers of fabric, it can be done just through one, because it, as well as being a quilting technique, it’s used as a way to strengthen fabric. So if you’re doing it on one layer of fabric, it’s not just decorative, it also is a way to strengthen the fabric

Liz: That’s wild, because that’s also why quilted toilet paper is a thing

Hazel: Oh! I did not even know that, that is awesome

Liz: Obviously I am not comparing

Hazel: (laughs)

Liz: To toilet paper. I just think it’s interesting

Hazel: Yeah, that structure would make sense, absolutely, which is funny, isn’t it, ‘cause you would think that, putting holes in it, it wouldn’t be as strong

Liz: Well yeah, if you’re embroidering something at all you’re just stabbing it over and over

Hazel: Mm-hmm. Ok. So there we have an embroidered sachiko object, and yeah, so it’s often said that it’s a mending technique, which it absolutely can be, but it’s also a way of strengthening the fabric, and sachiko embroidery is done in geometric designs, which, again, are absolutely beautiful, and it’s done with the running stitch, so a very basic kind of stitch, but actually

Liz: Yeah, that’s just the first stitch you learn, isn’t it

Hazel: Yeah, yeah, so it’s incredible, it’s just that basic stitch, but there is so much artistry to it, and so much craftsmanship that turns it into this amazing technique. Sachiko is often mentioned with the word boro, which is a mending technique, and that’s also quilting, so stitching through lots of different layers of fabric, and in the V&A book there is a picture of this absolutely gorgeous working jacket, from around the 19th century in Japan, and it’s just…I’m gonna see if I can find…I found the picture. Ok, this is absolutely gonna be on the twitter, but I will describe it for the listeners. So, it’s just somebody’s old work jacket

Liz: Oh wow

Hazel: It was originally dyed with indigo, which was a dye that often used by

Liz: I was just thinking that it looked like denim

Hazel: Yeah, yeah, indigo was often used by working people in Japan, because it was a dye that was easy to get there, and sachiko is traditionally done on indigo coloured fabric in white thread. So this is just someone’s old working jacket, that has been patched with new layers of fabric, and had them quilted in, and over the years it just builds up and builds up, until you have this, all these layers of fabric patched together, but because they’re all at different levels of fading, and they’re at different…it creates that patina that is absolutely beautiful, and so this object, that is just someone’s work jacket, we’re looking at today and being like “that is a work of art”. So, the way I’ve heard it described is that sachiko is a strengthening embroidery technique, and something becomes boro. So boro can be many layers of sachiko embroidery on fabric, so many layers of mending, but you can’t really start from scratch and make something new, because it has to build up until it becomes boro, which I like. It’s not necessarily something that is made, it’s something that becomes

Liz: That is, yeah there’s…there’s almost like a spiritual thing, isn’t it

Hazel: Mm-hmm

Liz: Just thinking about how you get in Japanese mythology things like if a cat lives to 100 years it then gains magical powers, and things like that, and if objects last long enough they gain spirits

Hazel: Oh wow

Liz: And it just reminds me of that whole concept, of it becoming something else while still staying the same thing

Hazel: Mm-hmm

Liz: I think I’m explaining myself badly

Hazel: (laughs) Yeah, and I like that it becomes more beautiful as it ages, and then gets worn, and mended. Yeah. Apparently often the more mended bits would be on the inside, because of course if you’re an actual peasant in the countryside, you wanna be trying to make it look not that mended

Liz: Yeah

Hazel: So the more patched bits, or the bits that were, you know, if they had a bit more fabric to work with, they would put it on the outside, and then all the little patchy bits would be on the inside, but, again, now 100, 150 years or so later, we’re looking at it going “oh my gosh, that’s beautiful, that’s amazing”, so yeah, I guess that’s a changing viewpoint of looking at things. You can now, sachiko is very popular now as an embroidery technique, both in Japan and outside of Japan. It’s another thing that became a bit of a quote-unquote trend, although, again, a lot of the things that are being labelled sachiko are not necessarily that, but you can get sachiko thread, that is specifically designed for that, and it doesn’t have…it’s traditionally done on indigo fabric, but it doesn’t have to be, you can use coloured threads, so it’s kind of evolving a little bit as an art form at the moment, and I’ll try and find some good practitioners, Japanese practitioners of sachiko to link to in the podcast, so that people can get a bit of an idea, but yeah, you can get sachiko needles, which are longer, because, yeah, you make the stitches by sort of rocking in and out of the fabric rather than making the individual stitches, and you can get the special thread for it, so those materials are available to try it out

Liz: That’s cool. So is it more of a curved needle then, or

Hazel: No, they’re straight needles

Liz: Ok. Sorry when you said about rocking in and out I was imagining medical stitches

Hazel: Mmm (laughs) Ouch. No, it’s sort of, you’re sort of controlling the needle with one finger, kind of like how you do traditional hand-quilting as well, you’re sort of controlling the needle with one finger, and it’s going in and out of the fabric, and you make quite a few stitches before you pull it through, which is a lot faster than doing it stitch by stitch. So, I’m going to talk a little bit about patchwork now, more in a European sense. So, there are a few…there are different kind of quilt, and as we go into the 18th and 19th centuries there are lots of different kinds that are popping up. One of the very traditional techniques in Europe, and then later also because of colonialism in North America and Australia, is paper piecing, which is where you…that’s what I’m using to make mine at the moment. So that’s a technique originating in Britain, as far as I know, and that’s where you have shapes cut out in thick paper or card, usually geometric shapes, and you then cut out your scrap of fabric, and you wrap it around the paper and stitch it down. So you cover the paper, and you tack it in place, and then you get a couple of your pieces and you whipstitch them together, so you’re using the paper almost as a mould for your pieces

Liz: Ok, that’s interesting

Hazel: Yeah. I have to say, it’s really relaxing as a technique, and it allows you to get the same shape every time, and then afterwards you remove the paper, so you’re left with just this beautiful geometric patchwork top, and you don’t have to quilt patchwork, you can make just a patchwork coverlet or something. So for example the one that I’m sending you now, which actually is not a quilt, so I guess that’s a little bit naughty, but this was made by a lady called Lucy Boston, who was an English novelist, but also quite well known now for her quilts, in the 20th century, and that was all made using paper piecing, so she’s got this hexagonal shape, and she’s covering all the pieces and sewing them together. So that’s a paper piece quilt, and that was quite popular in the 19th century as a technique, because it’s quite simple to do, so whether you are…it doesn’t matter what class you are, you’re gonna be able to do this with just scraps. A lot of people would have their family scrap box with offcuts from dressmaking, old clothes, you know, things that had a rip in them, they just go in the scrap box, and eventually you accumulate enough that you can put them all together into a quilt top. And so this technique become quite popular. It doesn’t take up a lot of effort, you can just do it at home in the evenings. Fairly portable as well

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: ‘Cause you have these small bits, and you can just carry them around

Liz: A lot of people use just old papers and cards and things for the paper. So I inherited some stuff from my great aunt, that included a bunch of the fabric shapes made up ready to be stitched together, and the papers being cut from old birthday cards and Christmas cards and stuff like that, so there have been some of these quilts that were found half-finished, and they still have the papers in, these old papers, and bits of newspaper sometimes, which is really cool from a domestic history point of view

Liz: Definitely

Hazel: Yeah, yeah

Liz: I feel like using newspaper will also allow you to date it quite well when you find it

Hazel: Yes, definitely. So, you would have these amazing scrappy quilts that would be very thrifty, be made from whatever fabric they could find, and would still look amazing, because quilting could do that, or you would get fancy ones where it was a hobby for the more well-to-do lady, who might go out and buy fabric specifically to be making a patchwork quilt, and would have the design in mind from the beginning, and I do actually…oh, that’s why. I forgot about this. We recently found, and this was kind of the catalyst for the quilt episode as well, we recently found a patchwork quilt that my granny made me when I was a baby, and she passed away soon after I was born, so I never really new her, but she made me this cot quilt, and it’s all hand-quilted, and it’s lovely, and I do have a picture of it on my phone, but I didn’t transfer it, so i will put that up on the twitter. Yeah. So we also have a couple of others that she made. One of them is this massive double-rabbit wedding ring quilt which is, again, hand-quilted, which is amazing

Liz: Is double wedding ring and established pattern?

Hazel: Yes. There are, especially in North America, there are a lot of named quilt patterns, so yeah, you’ll get things like flying geese, double wedding ring, tumbling block. They can have quite evocative names sometimes, yeah. Bear claws. And some of these are quite old patterns, and some of them are newer as quilting’s become such a big hobby, but some of the older ones are the more geometric ones. There’s quite a lot of Victorian tumbling blocks patterns. That’s when you have a four-sided shape, and you can, depending on where you place the light and dark fabrics, you can get almost a 3-D effect

Liz: That’s cool

Hazel: It’s…yeah. I’m not gonna talk about that this episode, but you can get on to art quilting and all sorts. But yeah, this is a little cot quilt from my grandmother. It has pieces of…I showed it to my Mum, and she started pointing out the fabrics like “oh, I remember wearing that in the 70s, it was a maxi skirt, but then they went out of style” or “I remember, this was also one of my Mum’s old clothes” or something. Yeah, so that was lovely as a physical record of history, as well. So on the other end of the spectrum, away from the patchwork quilts, there are also wholecloth quilts, also known as north country quilts. These originate from the north of Britain, and from Wales. Let me just try and find a picture for you. So these, as you might expect, are quilts made from just one piece of fabric, they’re not patched, and the design comes in with the quilting

Liz: Ok

Hazel: There we go, that will do. Ok, so it’s a plain piece of fabric that you put on top, and that can be your old sheet, or whatever, if you were lucky enough to get new fabric you could use that. Because these were being made originally for, well, I guess as long as they’ve been made they have also been made for decorative purposes, but in most homes they would be also being made for the purposes of warmth as well

Liz: Yep

Hazel: And so while you’ve got all sorts of different types of design aspects, they’re all gonna be for a similar purpose. So here you’ve got a whole plain sheet of fabric, and that’s been made up into the quilt sandwich, as they call it, and then it’s just been quilted into a pattern, so your quilting can be not only functional, in a patchwork quilt you might just in lines across, and it’s enough to hold the fabric together and that’s that, but this is incredibly decorative, and it would be…there would be professional quilt designers as far back as the 18th century. People would be wanting to make these, but they haven’t really got the time or the inclination to design the whole thing, so they would go to a professional quilt-drafter, which they would give their fabric, and then the quilt-drafter would draw the pattern on the fabric, and then the person would be able to take it home and just do all the quilting themselves at home

Liz: That’s amazing

Hazel: Yeah. So I guess kind of like buying a printed kit today or something

Liz: Mmm

Hazel: Yeah, so, I mean some of these would take a really long time, but eventually you would get this absolutely beautiful piece. So that is wholecloth quilting, and you find quite a few of those from the regency period as well

Liz: It is very much that kind of aesthetic I think, the plain white with the then elaboration

Hazel: Yeah

Liz: ‘Cause you get a lot of stuff that is very plain stuff that has a lot of things done to it

Hazel: Mm-hmm

Liz: Rather than getting more different colours in the actual construction

Hazel: Yeah, I guess it fits in with the whole classical aesthetic

Liz: Yeah. Especially the one that you posted, with the vine-looking bits in the corners

Hazel: Yeah, it has these inner circles, and then these organic looking designs, and a lot of them involve stuff like the twisting vines and the chains, and things like that. So yeah, really really intricate. They don’t have to be so intricate, but they certainly can be. So another notable quilt now, I’m going to try not to run on too long, but I’ve just got a couple of notable quilts to finish on. The first one is The Changi Quilt. So I found out about this quilt when I was volunteering on a museum project when I was about 17. My Mum signed me up for it, and then I was like “hey, I actually really like museums”

(both laugh)

Hazel: And it was a…we were creating this exhibition about make-do-and-mend during World War 2, and I came across the story of this quilt. So, the background to this quilt is the Japanese occupation of Singapore in 1942, and during this time all of the people who were living there from allied countries were sent to prison camps, and one of these was at Changi Prison, on the east end of the island of Singapore, and the women and children were separated into a different part to the men, and they weren’t allowed to communicate except very occasionally, and the women’s side decided to make this quilt. So apparently in the camp there was a little girl guide group that was set up, to have the young girls have something to do, and they were teaching them patchwork using old bits that they had, bits of thread and fabric that they could find, and they decided to make this quilt as something that they could give to their loved ones on the men’s side, and they got, so they got permission to do this from the guards, because they were like “(dismissive noises) It’s just a quilt, what are they gonna do?” And they managed to get hold of this material. They were using material cut from sacks of rice, and each person was given a six-inch square, and was asked to embroider their name and anything they wanted onto this square, and then the squares would all be joined together and made into a quilt that they had permission to send over to the men's side. So this quilt, after the war, was given to The Red Cross, and they still have in in their museum in London. It was discovered in the 1960s in a drawer, and since that it has become quite famous. So this quilt has essentially a lot of secret messages on it, there are national symbols, so there’s one that has the Welsh flag and daffodils

Liz: (laughs)

Hazel: And some words in Welsh. So they found out that one way to send messages was by writing in Welsh and Irish and Scottish Gaelic, obviously languages that the guards wouldn’t recognise. So yeah, there’s the daffodil, thistle, the harp, lots of different national symbols. One person has, one woman has got away with embroidering the letters GR, for King George

Liz: Sure

Hazel: Which is quite impressive. But they’re in flowers, so, you know. There’s a lot of national symbols, there’s a V for victory, there’s the Swiss flag, and, yeah there’s just…each of these squares has a personality. There’s the rose of England, someone’s stitched in the words “Changi Hotel”

Liz: Naturally

Hazel: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then there’s also, because these women were from several different places, not just Britain, there’s other national symbols, so there were people from Denmark, Australia, New Zealand. Yeah, so they managed to make all of these different squares with coded messages in them, and everyone embroidered their name on it, and then that was sent over, and then

Liz: That’s really nice

Hazel: Yeah, and later on it was discovered, as I say, and it’s now in the Red Cross museum, which I’m not sure how to get to, but it would be really cool to visit that. We did, in that exhibition I was part of, we explored the idea of conveying as much meaning as you could using a small square of fabric, and that was quite interesting

Liz: Hmm

Hazel: Yeah. So going across the Atlantic, or I guess the Pacific, with it being Singapore, I don’t think any modern discussion of quilts would be complete without mentioning Gee’s Bend, Alabama, which is an artistic community that has got a lot of attention recently, but has been producing these incredible quilts for decades. So Gee’s Bend is a rural black community in Alabama, and it’s quite isolated, and there is this local tradition of making these incredible quilts, and they are…I’m gonna send you the link to this whole website, which will also be on the twitter, so you can see what I mean, because they are incredibly distinctive. They’re very modern art style. So, this website that I’m gonna link to has pictures of many of the quilts, along with the name of the maker, and there are also quite a few interviews and articles that you will find if you search for Gee’s Bend quilts

Liz: These are really pretty

Hazel: They are amazing. So, these are made, again, mostly by women, and, according to one of the interviews that I saw, they were originally just a thrifty thing people were using, as people have done all over the world throughout history. They were using whatever scraps they could find to make something that they could hang across their window, or on their bed, you know, useful items

Liz: Mm-hmm

Hazel: But, you know, because bread and roses, we don’t just want useful items, we want interesting colour as well, so this style of quilting developed, which is very very modern actually, and I really would encourage everybody listening to go and look up these quilts, and have a good look through them, because they’re very striking, and very interesting use of colour, and in this interview most of the women that made these didn’t really consider themselves artists, you know? They were just doing something they enjoyed, it passed the time, it made something useful, they were following a local tradition, but they didn’t really consider themselves artists, as many people who practice domestic quote-unquote crafts don’t, until these were, and I hesitate to use the word “discovered”, but there has been a lot of

Liz: Brought to public attention

Hazel: Sorry?

Liz: Brought to public attention

Hazel: There we go. Yep. These quilts have received a lot of attention in more recent decades due to newspaper articles. According to the New York Times they are “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced”, which is quite a description, and they’re now in the collections of art museums, they’ve been exhibited. The makers of the quilts are now able to sell their work and earn income through it, and I will actually link to that. I think it’s an etsy shop. Yeah, I think it is, so I will link to that. Yeah, so they’re now able to sell their work for a decent price, because of all the publicity, but yeah, the story of how these quilts developed is also really interesting, so yeah, do have a look at the interviews, if you like, as well. In fact, there’s a note on this page describing how, in the 1960s, community members became rooted in the civil rights movement, and because this community is on the river they would have to cross the river to go and vote, so local authorities reacted by cancelling the ferry service, making it even more isolated, and apparently it was during this period that a lot of the local women started a quilting bee that was a workers’ cooperative, so that’s another…not a single notable quilt, but many notable quilts

Liz: Mmm

Hazel: And I’m gonna leave it there for now, because there is a lot more quilting that I could talk about, but those are just a bit of an overview, so there may be a quilting part 2 at some point, but I’m gonna leave it there, because otherwise

Liz: Haven’t even touched on the AIDS quilt and things

Hazel: Just so many things, yeah

Liz: That is the one quilt I do know about

Hazel: Ok. Ah, yes, no I do recall that, now that you mention it, so that will certainly be…do you wanna do quilts part two?

Liz: Maybe. The next episode is one that was requested a while ago, so we could also do quilts part two after that

Hazel: I mean quilts part two can happen any time, but I’m just thinking at some point in the future there’s gonna be quilts part two, and many more notable quilts will be talked about

Liz: So, before we get into the local larder, you can contact us, like Hazel said, we do have a twitter, Bread and Thread, and also a tumblr, breadandthread, with pictures, retweeting/reblogging stuff, hints for future episodes, things like that

Hazel: We are also on youtube, Bread and Thread, where you can find video versions of the podcast, and, oh my gosh, where are we?

Liz: Email

Hazel: Email! breadandthreadpodcast @ gmail.com, please do email us any comments on the episodes, ideas, things that we missed out, things that you would like to see, or if you just want to shout about domestic history, we will shout with you

Liz: We’re also on patreon, where you can get access to a discord server where we also do a lot of shouting, about things we’ve made, things we’ve cooked, general history stuff, as well as monthly patron-exclusive recipes. And I think that’s it

Hazel: I think that is it. Let’s go to the local larder, what are we talking about?

Liz: I thought that I would talk about brown Windsor soup

Hazel: Well that sounds appetising

Liz: Mmm, doesn’t it just

Hazel: So what is it?

Liz: So it might be familiar to people who have read Poirot or seen the recent Around The World In 80 Days adaptation

Hazel: Ok

Liz: Because it pops up in both of those. Don’t know if it pops up in the book, I have not read it

Hazel: I have, but I can’t remember any soup, particularly. I don’t think i was paying attention to the soup

Liz: It’s right at the beginning. So, it was a fairly common soup in the early 1900s. In 1834, the royal chef, and future inventor of A1 steak sauce

Hazel: I’m sorry, what?

Liz: You heard me. Published a cook book with a recipe for soup á la Windsor, which was a white broth and noodle soup that apparently the king really liked. We’re talking George IV here

Hazel: Ok, when you say noodle, is this pasta noodle or noodle-noodle?

Liz: Vermicelli

Hazel: Ok

Liz: And you get soup á la Windsor showing up in various recipe books in the first half of the 19th century, often things like calves’ feet, oxtail, general stock heavy soups

Hazel: Ok

Liz: Apparently Queen Victoria likes soup á la Windsor a lot, but that was a white soup

Hazel: Ok. I don’t know how I feel about white soup

Liz: It generally had cream and wine in it apparently

Hazel: Ok, that’s not too bad

Liz: But yeah, later on we get brown Windsor

Hazel: Oooh (laughs)

Liz: Which is often thought of as a Victorian thing, but it was only really the white Windsor soup at that point

Hazel: Ok

Liz: But it shows up in menus in the 20s, and also…yeah, so it’s kind of unclear how old the brown variety is

Hazel: And what makes it brown?

Liz: It’s just more of a gravy type thing

Hazel: Ok

Liz: Rather than a consommé. But there’s one theory that people started calling the more gravy-type soups brown Windsor soup as a joke about a brand called Brown Windsor Soap

Hazel: Ah (laughs) That does sound like something people would do

Liz: But yeah, apparently it becomes this cheap, easy to make thing in cheap hotels. During the second world war it’s a staple in what are called British restaurants

Hazel: Uh-huh

Liz: Which were kind of community kitchens that would make big batches of stuff like this brown soup to feed people during rationing

Hazel: Ok

Liz: The writer P.D.James described it as tasting of gravy browning

Hazel: (laughs) So kind of just gravy

Liz: Yeah

Hazel: Gravy soup

Liz: It was one of the first Batchelor’s products

Hazel: Oh

Liz: Tinned Windsor soup

Hazel: Ok

Liz: With the tagline “a meal in itself”

Hazel: (disgusted noise) Is it though?

Liz: Sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

Hazel: I have to say, I’m not getting much of a flavour from this. I’m imagining just the taste of gravy, which, don’t get me wrong, I love gravy, but a whole bowl of it?

Liz: It’s gravy with chunks, if that helps

Hazel: Mmm I don’t think it does

(both laugh)

Liz: But yeah, once rationing ended it very quickly became…places serve this if they’re cheap and trying to seem not cheap

Hazel: Ok. I guess having the name Windsor in it makes it sound

Liz: Yeah, it’s the royal association

Hazel: Yeah

Liz: But it even shows up in Fawlty Towers

Hazel: Ok

Liz: As a joke about how they want to be a posher hotel than they are

Hazel: (laughs)

Liz: It’s kind of at the same time “we’re trying to be posh by serving brown Windsor soup”, but that is explicitly a cheap and gross dish

Hazel: Uh-huh (laughs) Ok, I didn’t realise it was still a thing then, ‘cause that was, was that the 80s?

Liz: 70s

Hazel: Oh, ok

Liz: But yeah, it does continue to pop up occasionally. It, slightly anachronistically, shows up in the unofficial Downton Abbey cookbook

Hazel: Right

Liz: And yeah, it just seems to have become, by the 50s, like I say, shorthand for really disgusting but nutritious food. It’s food of “this’ll keep you going” rather than actually wanting to enjoy your meal

Hazel: Ok

Liz: But there have been some attempts to modernise it, although one of these attempts I found is basically putting a roast dinner in a blender

Hazel: Um, ok. I mean, that’ll get you some kind of soup

Liz: Yeah, but at that point I feel like you should just make a stew

Hazel: Yeah, roast dinners take long enough to roast, why would you then blend it?

Liz: That’s just making baby food

Hazel: Purée of roast dinner

Liz: So yeah, that’s brown Windsor soup

Hazel: Ok, thanks for telling me about that, so I can avoid it

Liz: Yeah, don’t have nightmares

Hazel: I really hope this does not come back in style. Food hipsters out there, please hear me, do not bring this back

Liz: (laughs)

Hazel: Heston, I’m looking at you

Liz: So yeah, thank you for listening, I hope that your tastebuds haven’t all rebelled at the concept of brown Windsor soup, and we will be back in a couple of weeks

(music)