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Kit Quilts

Kit quilts have been commercially available in the United States since around 1900. Kits facilitated the easy use of a pre-designed appliqué pattern through die-cut pieces of cloth, basted appliqué blocks, or cloth pre-printed with blue ‘cut here’ lines. Appliquéd kit quilts often featured a floral motif with a central medallion layout. Kit quilts experienced their heyday from the 1920s through the early 1940s. Like other quilts of the Depression Era, they were often executed in the pastel colors such as lilac, baby blue, pale yellow, pink, and mint on a white or cream-colored ground. The designs of quilt kits were also influenced by the Colonial Revival aesthetic.

Quilt kits in this period were marketed through magazines, catalogs, and newspapers. Their ease of use and their mass-marketing lead Carrie Hall in her highly influential 1935 book, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt, to write, “In the ready-cut quilts offered for sale are seen the effects of this hurrying age in which we live.” Kit quilts, while less popular than in the early twentieth century, are still available in most quilt shops today. Contemporary kit quilts often feature designs depicting popular icons, such as Disney animated film characters.

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