Q 01/05

What is the strip of fabric that wraps and finishes a quilt's raw edges called?

A) Sashing

B) Binding

C) Selvage

D) Border

Answer · why

B) Binding

Binding is added in the last stage of making a quilt, and strips cut on the bias stretch enough to follow curved edges.

Q 02/05

What is the soft padding layer sandwiched inside a quilt called?

A) Interlining

B) Batting

C) Interfacing

D) Backing

Answer · why

B) Batting

Batting, called wadding in Britain, fills the middle of a quilt; less wealthy Swedish quilters once used linen scraps, rags or paper mixed with animal...

Q 03/05

The word "quilt" traces back to the Latin culcita, meaning what?

A) A woven blanket

B) A stuffed cushion

C) A patch of cloth

D) A linen sheet

Answer · why

B) A stuffed cushion

Culcita meant a stuffed cushion or mattress, and Medieval Latin culcita puncta, a quilted mattress, also gave English the word counterpane.

Q 04/05

Which legend is shown on one of the earliest surviving quilts, a 14th-century linen coverlet now at London's V&A?

A) Beowulf

B) Roland

C) Tristan and Isolde

D) The Song of the Nibelungs

Answer · why

C) Tristan and Isolde

Its Tristan and Isolde scenes show Tristan fighting Morholt, the Irish champion who came to Cornwall demanding tribute from King Mark.

Q 05/05

One of the earliest surviving quilts, a 14th-century linen coverlet split between London and Florence, was made on which island?

A) Sicily

B) Sardinia

C) Crete

D) Malta

Answer · why

A) Sicily

Made in Sicily around 1390, it bears the three hunting horns of Florence's Guicciardini family, who kept one section until the Bargello bought it in 1...