Marseilles Quilts

MARSEILLES QUILTS

A compound fabric consisting of two plain cloths joined together by a figuring warp to produce a pattern. Between the two cloths is inserted wadding weft of coarse yarn. A jacquard machine and heald shafts are required to weave the cloth. The healds weave the plain cloth, while the patterning ends are operated by the jacquard. Each pattern card serves for ten picks, viz., four picks of fine weft for the face cloth, four from the same shuttle for the back cloth, and two picks of coarse weft for wadding. The cloth can be woven from one beam, but two beams allow the tension on the stitching threads to be more correctly adjusted. The various qualities are termed 4-pick, 5-pick, etc., according to the number of picks woven for each jacquard card. One cloth is made 72 face ends 1/100's, 24 back ends, 20's, 40 face picks 32's, 40 back picks 32's, and 20 wadding picks 16's per inch, all cotton yarns. This cloth is an imitation of an Eastern fabric used as quilts, and made from a pure plain woven cloth, two pieces of the cloth being placed together one on the top of the other, and a thick cotton wadding placed between, the whole being stitched together by hand. Where no stitches were used the cloth bulged owing to the wadding between.