Those would not be quilts. Quilts are a sandwich of a top layer of woven fabric, usually pieced together in a design, a layer of batting, which may be sheet cotton or sheet polyester, and a bottom layer of fabric, quilted together with an often intricate design of thread. It is an old method of making use of scraps of fabric left over from other projects.
What you may be referring to is an afghan, which is typically crocheted yarn, not knitted. Both crocheted textiles and knitted textiles are total pet hair magnets.
No, I think they are different in shape, purpose, and often fabric. A quilt or comforter is meant to provide warmth, and typically drapes a bit over the bed, but not all the way to the ground. A bed spread is meant to protect the other bedding, keep dust from getting under the bed (or at least hide it from view), and to make the room look tidy. It is usually a thin fabric that doesn’t offer much warmth, and it drapes (almost) all the way to the ground on both sides of the bed and at the foot of the bed. Quilts and comforters usually feel nice (comforters might be encased in a washable cover that feels nice) whereas bad spreads are often stiff and have a coarse texture, the better to hide any dust that falls on them.
I also think bed spreads are mostly obsolete, and quilts have always been ornate, so one wouldn’t want to hide it under a spread.
I have a bedspread on my bed but I sleep on top of it. I worked nights for 11 years and slept in most of my clothes, because I would keep having to get up to answer the door when my husband wasn’t home. We’ve been retired for almost 7 years now and I’ve never gotten out of that habit. I just have a blanket over me and wear whatever T-shirt or sweatshirt I wore that day. There are brand new sheets on my bed that I’ve never slept on!
I suspect this different may be regional. When I looked up a comforter on Google Images. I saw what my parents and grandparents always referred to as a “bedspread” which did go to the floor. When I looked up “bed spread,” I saw something I’d never seen before: a thin sheet that went to the floor on all sides. It seems that we just use “comforter” and “bedspread” synonymously here, albeit not the same as a quilt. Perhaps this is part due to the decline of what you refer to as a bedspread. Or maybe we just wanted ours to also be functional.
I seem to remember Mallard living somewhere near me (here in northwestern Arkansas), so perhaps he also has a different usage for those words.
I also note that, to me, a quilt is not only thinner, but tends to be made with rougher material. But that may be my own idiosyncrasy, as all my quilts are homemade from previous generations, using scraps for the top layer. And they often have other decorative bits.
What I always called a bedspread or comforter is usually a softer material, and often single colored or patterned the same throughout, at least, on one side. It’s not made with patchwork. I think of those that look like sleeping bags, though both sides have the same material that is usually only used on the inside of sleeping bags.
There are many quilters in my family. There is huge variability in the fabric used. We have some baby blankets that are made with flannel and are very soft. The batting (the inner material) is also variable. It can be cotton, synthetic, or even wool. Generally a quilt would be similar in size to a comforter rather than a bedspread.
Comforter: puffy object that hangs down about to the bottom of the top mattress.
Duvet: Cover for comforter
Bedspread: thinner, and hangs down much farther, often to the floor.
Counterpane: imma have to look that one up
I don’t sleep under my bedspread. I sleep on top of it, wrapped in a not too heavy soft blanket. When I travel and stay in hotels, I sleep on top of the bedspread wrapped in the extra blanket I usually find in the closet.
I like sleeping wrapped in a blanket. I tend to go both hot and cold at various times during the night, and it’s so easy to loosen the blanket if I’m feeling overheated and to wrap it tighter if I’m cold. And it’s cozy.
I tried doing this with a puffy comforter, which seemed like it would be pleasant, but it was too hot. On really cold nights, I wrap up in two blankets.
Yeah, I sleep on top of a bedspread, over a fully made bed. I sleep in an unzipped sleeping bag, winter or summer weight as conditions dictate, on top of the bedspread.
It may be an age thing rather than a regional thing - my kids ( in their thirties) have probably never seen a bedspread except maybe in a certain type of hotel and my grandfather ( who was born in 1910) would have probably called a comforter or duvet a bedspread. Another difference between a comforter and a bedspread is that a bedspread covers and is tucked under the pillow(s) but a comforter does not cover the pillows.
Apparently the old-timey term “counterpane” is virtually synonymous with “bedspread” meaning top cover that goes nearly to the floor, although not the narrower definition of a protective heavy covering no one sleeps under. I last encountered that term when I was a child and my grandmother read me from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. “The Land Of Counterpane” was one of them – an ill boy pretending his bed was a landscape.
We had that book but I don’t remember that one. I just remember the swing and the shadow. Anyway, the worst fever I ever took was one time I was 13. I underwent a fever dream which was a semi-awake hallucination. My bed became a battlefield between two armies. My pillow was a hill that one army charged down to attack another army on the “plains.” They fought a ghastly war. My head was hurting and I found it all very unpleasant.
I wouldn’t touch an hotel bedspread if I could avoid it. I know what people do on hotel beds, and any component of the bedding that isn’t freshly laundered isn’t coming in contact with any part of me. The spreads are to keep the bedding underneath clean from dumped luggage and feet-up-shoes-on types.
I advise anyone considering sleeping on/under the bedspread to bring a black light for a thorough inspection.
I also wouldn’t walk bare-footed on an hotel carpet, as they are regularly sprayed with insecticides to keep the flea/beadbug/lice populations at bay. Slippers or at least sock, folks.
I was taught to fold the bedspread down to the foot of the bed when sleeping. I’m honestly not sure why - I mean, during the summer you don’t want that extra warmth (mom always bought the heavier, quilted spreads) but during the winter that weight and warmth are quite welcome.
We have a similar spread on our bed nowadays - and we do use it for warmth this time of year. Since our bed has no footboard, it would simply get kicked off the bottom of the bed and trampled if we tried folding it out of the way.
I’ve always disliked the comforter version of bedspreads. Now, they look nice, and the comforters are pleasant to sleep under, but you’ve got nekkid pillows (just in their pillowcases) on top, unless you use shams that match the comforter - then you have to pull the sham off, or grab other pillows from somewhere, or use them still sham-covered and drool all over the decorative shams.
As far as the definition of bedspread vs comforter: the way I grew up (which, therefore, is The One Truth): a comforter just covers the top of the bed with relatively little overhang on the sides and bottom - and thus is not enough to cover the pillow area; the pillows rest on top of it. A “quilt” is like a comfortor, though much less poofy - more like a thick blanket. We did not own any quilts, and the first comforter I ever owned was one I bought for myself at college.
A bedspread is something that is intended to cover the mattress entirely (perhaps including the box springs), and is long enough that you can fold the top lip down, place the pillows on top, and fold the top back up to completely cover the pillows. It can be a heavy material, often quilted (and if so, the underside is typically something fairly scratchy that you would NOT want against your skin), or it can be somewhat thinner; we still have three bedspreads we bought during our college years, that are simple fabric (with some kind of slender rib every inch or so).
When I was a kid the bed setup consisted of sheets, a blanket, and a bedspread. You didn’t want to sleep under the bedspread, as they were thin and decorative- not comfy. They were similar to the table cloths that were popular back then.
Later we had quilts, afghans, and comforters. I haven’t owned a bedspread like we used to have at home.
. I’m not a very crafty person.