10/08/2026
Did you know that quilts did not originate in America?
“Quilts and quilt-making are not only Southern traditions, but this method of textile-making for the home originates in cultures across the world and from as early as 3400 BCE. The oldest surviving piece of quilting is the Pazyryk Rug from Mongolia, circa 4th-3rd century BCE, and now on display in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.1
The Pazyryk Rug was not alone in ancient cultures, as the Egyptians quilted both textiles and garments. As Deborah Rogers writes in The Complete History of Quilting: A 5,000 Year Journey from Ancient Egypt to Your Longarm Frame, “Similar quilted artifacts have emerged from archaeological sites across the ancient world—from the frozen tombs of Siberia to the silk roads of China. But here's what's fascinating: these weren't luxury items. They were survival gear.”2
1. Pazyryk Paper,https://www.themagiccarpet.biz/media/pdfs/pazyryk_paper.pdf, Accessed August 7, 2026.
2. Rogers, Deborah, The Complete History of Quilting: A 5,000 Year Journey from Ancient Egypt to Your Longarm Frame, June 30, 2025, https://debsquiltstudio.blog/the-complete-history-of-quilting-a-5-000-year-journey-from-ancient-egypt-to-your-longarm-frame/ Accessed August 7, 2025.
The “Piecing the Past” quilt exhibition is in its last stretch and you only have time until October 25 to see this remarkable collection of quilts.
This exhibition is on view through October 25 and is sponsored in part by F&M Bank in connection with America’s 250th.
Read more in “Piecing the Past” article by Shana Thornton in the current issue of Second & Commerce and visit soon:
https://publuu.com/flip-book/939485/2587779/page/30
