PATCHWORK

the piecing together of shaped bits of fabric. This craft, practiced since early Egyptian times, was extremely popular in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, when it was used for dresses, wall and bed hangings, and ecclesiastical decorations. Patchwork quilts, usually featuring geometrical patterns, were designed in America by early settlers for utilitarian reasons. The quilts became especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries and remain a folk art in 20th-century America.