Posted 11 years ago
sparker326
(10 items)
I was given this quilt by my grandmother. My great grandmother made many quilts over the years, but all were lost in a 1953 house fire except this one. My grandmother said this was an everyday quilt and the "nice" ones were upstairs in storage when the house burned. This quilt was on a bed or something and someone managed to save it. Is there a way to find out when this quilt was made or what the pattern is? The back of the quilt is white and must have been feed sack material, because Purina Milk Chow is stamped on it in several places. There are several places in the quilt that need to be repaired and some staining on the back of it. I want to find someone to restore it, if at all possible. Thanks so much!
What a wonderful old quilt and great story! It's amazing the things people can do with fabric bits and pieces. There are so many gorgeous patterns and designs being made today that are kept in storage or on display and considered works of art. But for me, quilts like this are more valuable than the most artistic, and elaborate ones around. It was made from what was on hand and made to keep loved ones warm. There is no way to put a price on that. I'm sorry I don't know an actual pattern name, but it appears to be what is called a "string quilt". "Strings" were bits and pieces of fabric left over from other uses, or what was left of clothing that was worn out or beyond repair. There is a strong tie to string quilts and hard economic times. Many were made in the south after the civil war, and later during the Great Depression for example. Patterns are quite varied because they were governed by the size of the strings of material available. Google string quilts and you'll find the rich history of quilts such as this one and perhaps even a name for the pattern. Thanks for sharing this! :-)
Thank you! I like these types of quilts best too! It is amazing to me the ingenuity people had before we became a "throw-away" society. I find it very sad how disposable everything is now.
I just saw this post from years ago and wanted to respond to answer questions about it’s style.
I watched my own grandmother make these quilt tops on her foot-operated Singer sewing machine. She let me have fun jobs like oiling the internal mechanism and all moving joints, dusting all the iron scrollwork, organizing the 4 drawers of the cabinet, and even sewing a little.....what fun for a little girl!!!
If Granny needed a certain item from the sewing machine drawers, she just had to ask me to get it since I knew all about the colorful and fascinating contents!
But back to this quilt:
Ladies would cut a perfect squares of newspaper.
Then, from the scrap bag, tear or cut strips of fabric of whatever width and length they could get from that scrap.
After she had a pile of strips, she would sew a strip across the center diagonal fold of the newspaper; the object of the first strip is to establish the diagonal pattern.
Then subsequent strips were sewn on, sewing thru the cloth and newspaper.
After enough strips were sewn on to cover the paper totally, she would press it, then cut along the edge of the paper to trim off the protruding ends of the fabric strips.
The result was a perfectly square “quilt square”.
After making enough to cover a bed, the squares were sewn together. The newspaper was torn off easily after the sewing.
The newspaper functioned to keep everything square (fabric can have a bit of stretch in it which is not good if you are trying to maintain equal squares).
I have one of my Granny’s string quilts.
The backs were made of the flour sack fabric like this post mentions or muslin fabric which was very inexpensive and just plain white or off-white (unbleached muslin is off-white).