AUBURN - American history was covered with the kind of warmth only a quilt could provide during the American Quilt demonstration held Saturday at the Seward House.

A small group of women circled the well-lit table, examining the quilts as if they were rare coins. Each one was flipped back to reveal a new quilt underneath, and a new piece of history.

“We are going to review 225 years of history in about an hour and a half,” said visiting speaker Kristie Rhoback at the outset.

First was an 1830 Whole Cloth quilt, a plain design made with three strips of white cloth and only notable for its stitching. It served as contrast to what was to come.

“There's a lot of emotion in keeping or giving away quilts,” said Rhoback, who is textile curator at Amherst Museum. “They're very feminine, and very sentimental and artistic.

“Some of them tell a family history, using scraps of fabric from relatives clothing. Others show changes in development of technology, politics and social forces. Historically, they served as a canvas for women to express their political beliefs when they didn't have a political voice.”

An 1875 quilt was uncovered to reveal a Wild Goose Chase pattern of vivid indigo blue and white - colors that symbolized the temperance movement.

Jacob's Latter patterns on one quilt symbolized the Underground Railroad.

“May the points of our needles prick the souls of slave owners,” abolitionist and quilter Sarah Grimble said with her quilts, according to Rhoback, who explained throughout history quilts were utilized at fund-raisers for such causes as the abolition and temperance movements.

A 1902 quilt, stitched by 7- and 8-year-old boys in Buffalo, had patches of red and white depicting buffalo, birds and the Temple of Music, where President McKinley was shot.

“I came because I'm helping a friend who does Civil War re-enactments,” Cassandra Austin, of Skaneateles said.

The pair started a quilt about two years ago, and looked in a book that said the stitches of that time were a quarter inch apart.

“Now look,” she said, following a quilt sewn during the war with her finger. “They're a half inch. I knew the book was wrong.”

Cecile Buck of Skaneateles and her daughter, Carolyn, were there, out of an “appreciation of the history.” They told the group that when they cleaned out an aunt's house, they found a Crazy Quilt started by Cecile's great-grandmother.

“The patches were divided among family members. We have ours in a frame,” Cecile said.