Tracy Chevalier learnt the art of quilting as research for her novel The Last Runaway (2013) which tells the story of an English girl who emigrates to America in the 1850s. As she said in this interview, She says, “Quilting is a leisure activity these days but 150 years ago it was a necessity. Houses were freezing cold and people needed blankets to stay warm. My main character moves into a Quaker community but holds on to quilting as a continuity of her previous life in England. American women also sewed and she starts to characterise them by how they cut cloth and design their patterns. You are not meant to read the book and take up quilting – it’s just a common theme through the story.”