Creating Quilts With Scraps

The pioneer quiltmakers created most of their quilts from scraps, pieces of fabric left from other sewing projects or outgrown clothing that still had some sturdy material.  Generally they didn’t purchase lengths of fabric solely for the purpose of quiltmaking.  Even the backs of some of the quilts were made from larger pieces of fabric stitched together.

The quilt I made with my grandmother consisted of scraps, not any consistent fabric throughout.  The blocks were arranged in 4-patch design, but there weren’t many of the same fabrics.  Some of these were cut from patterned feed sacks which previously had held grain or mash for the chickens.  They were very common in the 1940s.

Well-known quilter, Roberta Horton, has a book, Scrap Quilts, the Art of Making Do. 

I received a notice in the mail today about a new book on scrap quilts, Creative Scraps, Quilting with Bits & Pieces by Jeanne Stauffer, to be released shortly by the House of White Birches.

Creative Scraps: Quilting With Bits & Pieces