Egyptian Patchwork
It seems that every time I look at a history book about quilts, I find that patchwork is even older than I thought. The most recent input comes from American Patchwork Quilts by Lenice Ingram Bacon. Lenice contends that patchwork consists of both piecing patches together and what we call appliqué. She asserts that the earliest tangible evidence of patchwork is found in Egypt as long ago as the time of the Pharaohs. The Museum of Cairo claims to have a piece that is made from gazelle hide and composed of beautifully colored pieces, and served as a canopy for an Egyptian queen about 960 b.c. The Egyptians developed processes for making fine wool, linen and cotton fabric, and discovered methods for dying these fabrics in order to create fine works of art. Their art preserved their history and religion and gives us an insight into their way of life and the things that were important to them. This type of patchwork is still popular in modern Egypt, and current pieces continue to use ancient designs and sacred emblems of the past such as beetles, scarabs, and lotus flowers.
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