For example, if you are making a queen size quilt with 4 by 4 in (10 by 10 cm) wide squares, then you would need to create a block of squares that measures 60 by 80 inches (150 by 200 cm). For example, couples entering into marriage in the 1950s would have had an expectation that marriage was for life and traditional gender roles were the norm, but by the 1980s, all of this had changed.

Functionalist sociologists tended to define the family as consisting of two parents in a committed relationship living together with their children. The organisation is a loose, international affiliation of individuals who have a stated goal of trying to achieve peace and love on earth. For example, children may or may not regard half-brothers and step-sisters as a part of their family, they may lose contact with one parent after divorce, and yet retain contact with all grandparents. To my mind these ‘cut across’ those above: for example within many of the above categories, there is also cultural variation by ethnicity and sexuality, and the domestic division of labor.Most of the time, this illusion bursts like a soap bubble and the partners must first become aware of the contradiction between imagination and reality. As the European climate became colder around this time, the incidence of the use of bed quilts rose, and so developed the practice of embellishing a simple cloth through the creation of pattern and design, alongside the development of decorative quilting.

Patchwork is most often used to make quilts, but it can also be used to make rugs, bags, wall-hangings, warm jackets, cushion covers, skirts, waistcoats and other items of clothing. Newly married couples without children, for example, have a different family life to those whose children have achieved adult status. It seems that this was the lot of single parents in the Victorian era – seperated from their children and both sent to workhouses. The rest of this introductory post explores how the concept of ‘the family’ has been used by different sociologists, and aims to get you thinking about what the family is.

The number of married families remained stable between 1996 and 2018, but have declined quite sharply in the last four years to 2022.