Translation for our UK readers, realised whilst walking around the Textile galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum with Maryrrf.

When most Americans say quilt, they mean patchwork. When a Brit says quilt, it can be anything from a Victorian patchwork bedspread to a 1970's polyester eiderdown.

The difference is in the meaning of quilt as verb or noun. To quilt in the UK means to secure a single backing fabric, filling or padding and decorative top fabric together using small, running stitches, often in the form of a pattern or design. They were very popular in the north (they're sometimes called Durham Quilts) where cotton was easily available from the mills. If you're lucky enough to have a dateable one from the 19th Century, you could have a valuable piece of work.

The fabric used is plain white or unbleached and the design is formed with the stitches. Paisley feathers, curled ferns and floral designs were popular. The pieces are stretched out over a frame and tacked together with a coloured thread. The design is drawn on the top in something that washes out. The thread used to stitch the design is the same colour as the fabric, and a small back or running stitch is used to secure the fabrics and filling together.

In the US, the decoration on the quilt comes almost exclusively from the patchwork blocks used to form the quilt, rather than any decorative stitching.

Limpit's Aunt started a quilt for her, with fabrics with New Zealand images on them, which I finished for her and she now has on her bed. It's made in the American style but with picture print 1/4 blocks rather than patchworked designs. They're easy to run up in a weekend with a sewing machine and someone to provide tea. It's the hand finishing that takes the time. Limpit's quilt was just sewn with a decorative thread around each block and a feather stitch decorative stitch on the quarters.

I suppose, as I have the wherewithalls and all, that I should think about making another quilt... maybe for when she hits her teens. That gives me 2 years minus 1 day, should be about time!

LTS