I thought I would show you some more of my grandmothers flower basket blocks. Along with them I would share another of my quilt philosophies that obviously came from my grandmother.
Every little scrap has value. "Waste not - Want not." She would piece together the smallest little scrapes to make a larger scrape. That way she could cut out her pattern. The backs of her quilts were often scraps pieced together to make a larger enough
h piece of fabric to back a quilt.To the left is the back of the block to the right. I enlarged it a bit so that you can see some of the scrap piecing to get enough to cut her pieces.
So Finn, can you spot the little piecing?
Need a hint? look at the light lilac side pieces.
The point on the right has 3 pieces as does the one on the left.
Tthe fabric is 30's but the stripe might be 40's.
The reason I believe the stripe pieces are from the 40's is:
1) note the difference in color.
2) the dye is not just on the surface of the front of the fabric.
3) note the darker line between the purple stripes & the white stripes. Typical 40's print.
The block to the right is all 30's fabric. From the texture I believe the leafy type print may have been floor sake fabric. My Grandmother, as many of that era, used floor sacks. She also used the feed sacks from the animal feed. She would scrub off the makers logo with bleach and a scrub board.
Finn, from the front can you see where it has smaller pieces. Look at the bottom background strip.
Again I must mention, my grandma was pointed. I did not inherit that trait.
I will post some more of these blocks in another post.
5 comments:
Hi Rae, thanks for stopping by my blog, I had bookmarked yours to visit again, but haven't gotten around much just lately..*VBS* Seems either Blogger is acting up, or my eyes are, LOL, one or the other or both.
These blocks from your Grandma Minnie(I assume) are really neat. It is easier to see the "joins" in these than the other batch you showed. I have to say, I am sooooo impressed with how tiny her sewing stitches are. I can imagine that her hand quilting must have been equally wonderful..! Just amazing stitches.
I would guess that much of what she used was either feed sacks or flour sack. I have several that were the size that held 25 pounds of flour. They are smaller than you would think. And then there were the muslin with printing, that help 10 pounds of white sugar.
Flour and feed sack often has a tell-tale clue, in that they were sewn up by machine with a chain type stitch. It left quite big holes along the longest sides. If you hold the fabric up to the light, often you can see the holes. And dress yardages that were sold back then were of a tighter weave and higher thread count.
I'm not lucky enough to have all this quilt history in my family. It's truly a blessing that these still exist and you have them and know who made them..*VBS*
Hi, Rae ...
I followed you from Finn's place. I sure enjoyed looking at your projects. I have been a bit stalled lately with school and life.
I think we are moving the sewing again so I am not ape bonkers to grab into a new project.
Hope to be able to stay in touch.
Best wishes,
Cindy B.
Finn has us both thinking old family quilts and our parents. My folks were born in 1911 and 1912. So interesting that we have such simular backgrounds. Really enjoy your site.
You are so lucky to have blocks that your Grandma made!
Thanks for looking at my old quilts and adding your ideas. I don't know anything about old fabric and see what you mean about the texture of the background fabric. And this was nothing but farm land then. Katie
Post a Comment