There are a variety of definitions of what makes a quilt, an Amish Quilt.
- For many people, an Amish quilt is any quilt that uses any combination of the traditional quilt block patterns and only uses solid dark fabrics ranging in color from red to blue to green on the color wheel.
- For some others, Amish quilts encompass all quilts that Old Order Amish use in their homes. This broadens the first definition to include Amish “summer” quilts that typically have a white background and a traditional block pattern made with solid color fabrics ranging from red to green.
- Another definition, is that an Amish quilt is any quilt made by Old Order Amish ladies (Amish men do not make quilts). Amish ladies make quilts with printed and solid fabrics, and traditional block patterns as well as non-traditional designs. Most of the quilts that they make to sell would not be appropriate for them to use in their own homes. A little broader version would include quilts made by Mennonite ladies as well.
- A much broader variation of this last definition: An Amish quilt is any quilt that is similar to the quilts made by Amish and Mennonite ladies.
While all these definitions have merit, we use the first definition here. Where appropriate though, we may say that a non-Amish quiltincorporates Amish colors, or a traditional Amish block pattern.