The term Provençal quilting, also known as boutis, refers to the wholecloth

quilts A quilt is a multi-layered textile, traditionally composed of two or more layers of fabric or fiber. Commonly three layers are used with a filler material. These layers traditionally include a woven cloth top, a layer of batting or wadding, a ...

done using a stuffing technique traditionally made in the

South of France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

from the 17th century onwards. Boutis is a Provençal word meaning 'stuffing', describing how two layers of fabric are quilted together with stuffing sandwiched between sections of the design, creating a raised effect. The three main forms of the Provençal quilt are matelassage, piqûre de Marseilles ( also known as Marseilles work or ''piqué marseillais''), and boutis. These terms, along with

trapunto ''Trapunto,'' from the Italian for ''"to quilt,"'' is a method of quilting that is also called "stuffed technique." A puffy, decorative feature, trapunto utilizes at least two layers, the underside of which is slit and padded, producing a raised ...

are often debated and confused, but they are all forms of stuffed quilting associated with the region.

History (pre-17th century)

Stuffed quilting, or

, was known in Sicily as early as the 13th century.The Tristan Quilt
in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Accessed 5-2-2010 One of the earliest surviving examples of trapunto quilting is the 1360-1400

Tristan Quilt The Tristan Quilt, sometimes called the Tristan and Isolde Quilt or the Guicciardini Quilt, is one of the earliest surviving quilts in the world.Sicilian quilted linen textile surviving as two fragments, representing scenes from the story of ''

Tristan and Isolde Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...

''; one part of which is housed in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and the other in the

Bargello The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People), was a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy. Terminology The word ''bargello'' appears ...

in Florence.

Techniques

Matelassage

The first whole-cloth stuffed quilts to be made in the southern region of France were matelassage quilts in the mid-17th century. These sandwiched a layer of

wadding Wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile (a bullet or ball), or to separate the propellant from loosely packed shots. Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it ...

between two outer layers of fabric, which were then quilted together using a

running stitch The straight or running stitch is the basic stitch in hand-sewing and embroidery, on which all other forms of sewing are based. The stitch is worked by passing the needle in and out of the fabric at a regular distance. All other stitches are ...

. Matelassage quilts were successfully exported from the South of France to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Piqûre de Marseilles

Skirt in cotton marcella, imitation quilting, 1830-1840 (cropped)

Also known as corded quilting, Marseilles work or piqué marseillais, this technique was developed in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

in the early eighteenth century, and became an important local industry. The two layers of plain fabric are stretched together without wadding, and intricately stitched together using

backstitch Backstitch or ''back stitch'' and its variants ''stem stitch'', ''outline stitch'' and ''split stitch'' are a class of embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual stitches are made backward to the general direction of sewing. In embroid ...

, or after the mid-18th century, the more swiftly achieved running stitch. There were narrow channels in the embroidered design through which fine cord or rolled fabric was threaded using a special needle to create a three-dimensional effect. In the late 18th century the

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

cotton industry developed a mechanised technique of weaving

double cloth Double cloth or double weave (also doublecloth, double-cloth, doubleweave) is a kind of woven textile in which two or more sets of warps and one or more sets of weft or filling yarns are interconnected to form a two-layered cloth.Kadolph, Sara J. ...

with an enclosed heavy cording weft. The resulting imitation Marseille quilts became an important industry for Lancashire from the late 18th to the early 20th century. These textiles are also known as

marcella Marcella is a Roman cognomen and Italian given name, the feminine version of Marcello (Mark in English). Marcella means warlike, martial, and strong. It could also mean 'young warrior'. The origin of the name Marcella is Latin. Marcella may refer ...

, one of a number of variations on the word "Marseille".

Boutis

Boutis quilts, as they are known today evolved in the 19th century from the earlier Provençal quilting techniques. They represent a simplification of the Marseille technique where the motifs in the quilting are larger and the stuffing bulkier. The boutis quilt may feature various images and symbols in its design, such as religious symbols, oak leaves, flowers, fruits and berries, animals, and

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (), from Latin ''cornu'' (horn) and ''copia'' (abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers ...

; it might also include naive motifs drawn from the maker's personal life. The term "boutis" is now widely used as a general term for all forms of Provençal stuffed quilting, with ''La Maison du Boutis'' (The Boutis House) in

Calvisson Calvisson (; Provençal: ''Cauviçon'') is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region in southern France. It lies between Nîmes, Montpellier, the Cevennes and the Camargue and has a strong Protestant history. Geography Calvis ...

acting as a museum dedicated to traditional Provençal embroidery & quilting techniques. The special

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

needle used for stuffing the motifs is also known as a boutis.

Sources

External links

La Maison du Boutis
The Museum of Boutis in

. (in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Provencal quilts Embroidery Quilting Textile arts of France