I love feedsack quilts from the 1930s. As their name suggests, feedsacks were used for flour and other grains and the patterns on them are colorful, happy and whimsical. I've restored two such quilts already. The first one was purchased at an estate auction by my sister. A close friend of the family died and after spending hours in the heat at the auction, I decided to head home. My sister stayed and ended up getting me a 1930s tied (yarn used to tie the backing, batting and top together) quilt for $5. It needed a lot of repair, new batting, and new backing. This took me awhile, but it was a cheap way to get into this era of quilting. I did, however, develop a significant collection of vintage and reproduction 30s fabric.
The second quilt I restored was a bit closer to home. I found it in my dad's old construction van. It was full of holes, but I could tell it was from this same era. I washed it and showed it to my mom who said it was made by my grandmother. This quilt was also tied, but I knew this time I wanted a quilted quilt. It was virtually the same pattern as my first quilt. I repaired it, but then, whimped out and had the quilting completed by a family friend who has a professional quilting sewing machine.
Now I'm on to my third quilt. The top was given to my by my sister-in-law. Her grandmother, Pearl, made it and after her grandfather, Shorty, died this fall, everything was up for sale in an estate auction. This 1930s feedsack quilt top is a Double Wedding Ring pattern (see above photo) and she bought the top for $5o.
The first step to finishing this quilt was tracing on the quilting pattern. I plan to personally hand quilt this one! So, I designed my own quilt pattern, and with the laminated pattern under the white parts of the quilt, I used a water-soluble quilt pencil and simply traced the pattern on the fabric.
Because the quilt was a perfect square (80"x80") with scalloped edges, I had to add a border to it to extend the length of the quilt and create a finished size of 90"x108" (queen size). This sounded relatively simple, well, actually it didn't. I knew it was going to give me some problems. I made four strips, sewed them together, and my measurements were a disaster. The border (imagine a frame around a painting) was way way way too long and too narrow in the width. What did I do wrong? I took it all apart and remeasured. I figured I needed to cut 10" off each strip. So I did that. First major error. Now the width strips were too short and for some reason, I was even shorter on the length strips. I call my father- not wanting to admit defeat, but wanting this thing to be right. He did some crazy calculations, pushed the living room furniture out of the way, and several pieces of masking tape later we had the whole thing on the floor laid out. Soon we realized I needed to cut two totally new strips. Ok, I did that. I should mention that because this fabric is 100% cotton, I cut the strips, and washed, bleached, and dried them. I laid the strips on the floor with the other two and they are about 8" short. What the hell? They shrank.
I ended up sewing the old and new strips together and trimming off the ends. I had an additional seam now, but oh well. I taped the entire fabric border to the floor and pinned the quilt top on it. Then it was on to the sewing machine. I used a chevron stitch (error proof) to applique the quilt top onto the pre-assembled border.
I will post more photos when I get the backing, batting and top basted together and begin to actually quilt this thing!
