Creativity, labour and resourcefulness have prompted the production of patchwork quilts for five centuries. Quilting, the stitching of padding and fabric to create layers of insulation and three dimensional texture, goes back much further wherever in the world it gets cold.

Traditional patchwork reveals the formal structures and rhythms that women down the centuries discovered on their laps and at their fingertips – by cutting and combining and rotating shapes; or simply by stitching pieces of cloth right sides together and opening them to create a new shape that straddles a seam.

A patchwork quilt with graphic structure, virtuosic improvisation, scale and crafted details that give pleasure up close is good enough to hang on the wall. In the mediaeval period tapestries ‘clothed’ a room and helped to keep in the heat; a patchwork quilt does the same. And it invites touch.

In the same way that structures can be ‘lagged’ to reduce heat loss, quilted layers have been used since ancient times to conserve the warmth within rooms or under the covers.

On the bed, a patchwork quilt signifies labour and aesthetic judgment and it yields superb weight and comfort. It’s a cosy additional layer of bedclothes in the winter and a perfect single layer in the summer. High-quality materials, accomplished design and uncompromising handcraft can give patchwork quilts heirloom value.

Thrift has driven the re-use of fabric scraps and worn-out clothing as design elements that developed into complex patterns and compositions combining utility with beauty.

You make patchwork by sewing multiple smaller pieces of cloth into a larger whole. It isn’t a quilt until you’ve stitched it into a sandwich with a backing sheet and a layer of filler between the patchwork top and the backing. This is ‘quilting’. Quilting can be accomplished on a sewing machine, or by hand, stitch by painstaking stitch.