Gathering materials for the creation of lappendeken can be likened to the long artistic tradition of mosaic facades. As quilters "begged", in quilting bees, for scraps of fine cotton, silk and chintz to patch together, so did artists before them collect both naturally-formed and precious stones, or tessarae), to make their mosaic masterpieces. Here were objects that would have otherwise gone to waste, discarded, or never considered valuable, given new purpose, form and meaning.
Mosaic | Rust, Jesse | V&A Search the Collections
An example of a 19th century mosaic artwork, using pieces of coloured glass.
Christ Pantocrator mosaic from Hagia Sophia, the "Deësis mosaic", c. 1261.