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The Plain Needlewoman

~ Quilt Study, Sewing, Vintage Textiles, Collecting quilts and other old odds and ends.

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Monthly Archives: June 2015

Collecting the Pieces

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by mcinnesjanette in Old Quilts, Scrap quilts

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

1930s quilts, Antique Quilts, Fabric Study, feed sacks, hand quilting, old quilts, The Donnellys

Basketweave Quilt circa 1930s to 40s

Basketweave Quilt circa 1930s to 40s

In times past when home dressmaking was a common practice and many a mother was kept busy stitching clothing for her often large family, scraps of cloth would have accumulated quickly from her endeavours as she produced dresses, shirts, nightwear and linens for her household.

No scrap would have been wasted and fabric would have been collected from worn out clothing, household linens and feedsacks. These fabrics would go into the scrap basket to be put to good use for the making of patchwork quilts. The ‘scrap basket’ represented the fashions of several years and would often include older pieces than what was typical of the era the finished quilt would represent. As any-one who has a collection of sewing scraps knows, we seldom get to the bottom of the basket. One quilt leads to another and the scrap pile continues to evolve.

Detail of Basketweave quilt showing a collection of fabrics both plains and patterned.

Detail of Basketweave quilt showing a collection of fabrics both plains and patterned.

Whether the quilts demonstrate artistry in the arrangements of design and colour or the effect of the design is pure chance, scrap quilts made from a collection of fabrics will always be my sentimental favourites.

A beautiful feedsack backing.

A beautiful feedsack backing.

Scrap Fans, Circle of Friendship or Around the World.

Scrap Fans, Circle of Friendship or Around the World.

The Around the World Quilt, (which has many other names) came to me from the collection of Bernie and Eileen Donnelly. It is a beautiful quilt which they purchased at an exhibition of old and rare North American Quilts and Canadian Quilts by John Leach at South Yarra, Victoria in 1995. It was stated that the quilt was made by Old Order Mennonites from the area of Elora and Unionville in Southern Ontario Province in Canada.The quilt has quite a heavy batting, which is lovely on these cold Winter nights. Eileen commented that the quilter used an exceptionally clever arrangement of the small fans. The yellow setting squares in the sashing tie in with the yellow bases of the fans. The fans are appliquéd onto the block with very fine machine stitching (probably a treadle machine was used). The quilt is hand quilted and has a feedsack backing.

Feedsack backing.

Feedsack backing.

Another quilt that contains many scraps and displays an artistic use of colour is this gorgeous Fan Quilt from the 30s.

Fans with red.

Fans with red.

The quilt is very typical of the Depression era. When I purchased this quilt it had never been washed although it does have a sleeve for hanging on the back, so I presume it has been displayed at some point in time. The simple design of the Fan becomes a very sophisticated quilt with the placement of red in the centre of the nine tiny blades that create the fan. The quilting further enhances the effect created when the fans have been arranged by the maker to create an illusion of another design.

Detail of Fans and arrangement of blocks.

Detail of Fans and arrangement of blocks.

Hand quilting detail

Hand quilting detail

My Scrap Collection includes many different fabrics, many of them bought at op shops including woollen material which I use for rug hooking. When I saw this darling little bear pattern in the Spring Edition of Primitive Quilts and Projects, I just had to make it. I found some heavy coating scraps in the wool trunk and made my version of Roly Poly. I just adore the paper hat.

Roly Poly.

Roly Poly.

Happy fabric collecting, Warmly Janette, The Plain Needlewoman.

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Recent Posts

  • (no title)
  • Cathedral Window Quilt circa 1930s
  • Marjie”s Star Quilt
  • Australian Crazy Quilt
  • Clarence Valley Coverlet No. 2

Recent Comments

mcinnesjanette on Marjie”s Star Quilt
Lowana Radel on Marjie”s Star Quilt
Jill on My Wagga Quilt
mcinnesjanette on My Wagga Quilt
Sherry on My Wagga Quilt

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Categories

  • 19th century Madder Fabrics
  • antique fabric
  • antique quilts
  • appliqué
  • Australian Quilts
  • Cathedral Window Quilts
  • Christmas
  • Crazy Quilts
  • Cumbria
  • d'oyleys
  • Doll Quilts
  • Double Pinks
  • English Quilts
  • Feed Sack
  • hand piecing
  • hand quilting
  • handquilting
  • hexagons
  • Mary Brooks Picken
  • Mending
  • North Country quilts
  • old fabrics
  • old quilt tops
  • Old Quilts
  • old sewing books
  • Paper Piecing
  • Postage Stamp Quilts
  • Quilt Collections
  • Quilt Restoration
  • Quilt Stories
  • quilting projects
  • red and green quilts
  • Red and White quilts
  • Redwork
  • Repairing old quilts
  • Scrap quilts
  • Sewing machines
  • Signature Quilts
  • Singer Sewing Manuals
  • Spider Webs
  • stitching
  • Stripe Quilts
  • Strippy Quilts
  • Trip Around the World
  • Turkey Red
  • Uncategorized
  • vintage quilts
  • Waggas
  • Welsh quilts
  • Yo-Yo quilts

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