Ancient relics give us hints of quilted items in early China, Egypt, India and Persia. For example, a carved ivory figure of a pharaoh of the Egyptian First Dynasty, circa 3400 B.C, appears to be wearing a quilted mantle, probably ceremonial attire. An Egyptian leather canopy quilt from 980 B.C., preserved now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, is considered the oldest surviving example of antique patchwork.

Other than this type of preserved images very little remains as evidence of early quilting except in the written word dating from 13^th Century and on.

The earliest form of quilting consisted of a few stitches to hold the three layers together at important points. These firm anchor stitches came to be known as counterpoints or quilt points and account for our current words ‘counterpane’ and ‘quilting’.

The earliest mention of ‘Quilt’ in the Oxford English Dictionary (1290):

“Maketh a bed of quoiltene and of materasz”.

Encyclopedia Britannica offers the following on the origins of the quilt:

“Probably a coverlet for a bed consisting of a mass of feathers, down, wool, or other soft substances, surrounded by an outer covering of linen, cloth, or other material. In its earlier days the quilt was often made thick and sewed as a form of mattress. The term was also given to a stitched, wadded lining for body armor.”

Quilts are described in a variety of spelling formats from cowltes to qwhilteq. The word is derived from Latin culcita, a stuffed sack, mattress or cushion. The word quilt seems to have come into the English language from the old French word cuilte. This in turn, is derived from the Latin word culcitra, which was used to describe a stuffed mattress or cushion. From the word form culcitra came the old French word cotra, or coutre. From whence comes coutrepointe: This was corrupted into counterpoint, which in turn was changed to counterpane. The word pane is also from the Latin pannus, a piece of cloth. Thus counterpane is used to describe a coverlet for a bed. Counterpane and quilt are by origin the same word.

Whether the art began in India, Persia, or Egypt, it is believed that the crusaders discovered it in the Middle East, and brought it back to Europe and the British Isles in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. By the fourteenth century, because of the drastic change in the weather patterns, quilted garments and quilted bedcovers became a way of life. (continue reading on the history of quilting by Kateryn de Develyn – Notes on Historical Aspects of Quilting www.kateryndedevelyn.org/Quilting.pdf)