Not the typical "feed sack"

I've posted before about how much I love finding unusual backing on my quilts.  The most frequent is a sack that originally held feed, sugar, flour or salt.

They actually can be helpful when trying to figure out where a quilt may have been made.  Often you need to be able to read backwards to figure it out!

Like this quilt that has a sack from a flour made in the western part of the U.S.A.

Sometimes it doesn't help at all...like the quilt that has Domino Sugar sacks for a backing.  (This I didn't even notice until I washed the quilt!)

Domino Sugar was sold everywhere in the U.S. when this was made...fortunately I know who the maker is and where she lived!  It is a S.C. quilt.

Imagine how excited I was to get a phone call from a fellow quilter telling me she has a box of old fabric bags that was looking for a home.  Since she knows I love old textiles she called me first!

What a grab-bag!  When most folks hear "feedsack" they think of the pretty bags sold in the 30's-40's here in the U.S.  The bags were used to make everything from clothing to toys to curtains!

The bags I got were a bit different.

They were all muslin and had advertising printed on them.

Some were simple

Others were very detailed!

This Holly one is my favorite...not sure what I will do with them but they do make great study pieces of a time when quilters couldn't or wouldn't go to a fabric store and buy large pieces of fabric to back their quilts.

Clean Quilt!

Well my latest "new to me" quilt is nice and clean...just in time as a new arctic blast is due to hit in the next 24 hours!  phew...we had two good quilt drying days in the middle of winter...for that I am grateful!

The quilt cleaned up nicely...the water marks, the rust stain, and the general haze is 90% gone.  I didn't want to soak it any longer for fear of either harming or fading the fabric.  I know it is clean and that is the main thing!

I also learn a lot about a quilt while I wash it.  The workmanship on this quilt is very good.  Most of the piecing is done by machine but the yellow circles I believe were appliqued down...at a minimum they were hand sewn.  I think applique because the seam allowance of the red and blue arc pieces is so much larger than the yellow seam allowance.

  I only really noticed that while the fabric was wet and the darker colors showed through.

Dry (and clean) feedsack backing

I also learned the backing was made from feedsacks.  There are at least 9 pieces of fabric sewn together to make the back.  The printing of the feedsack was only easily visible when the quilt was wet.

Wet feedsack back

Though I still cannot quite make out what it says!

This quilt will join my other quilts with circular motifs like this Mariner's Compass

And my "Pie" Quilt!

The Perfect Fabric

Unpacking is a good time to reevaluate some of my unfinished projects. There are those I just lost interest in (a Christmas table runner that just needs a binding but Christmas was over soooo....this may be a good one to resurrect!). There are others that I made for a specific class or workshop that came home in a plastic bag never to leave the back of a closet again (there are quiet a few of these.) And then there are projects that I needed just the right "something" to finish it...this photo is one of those projects.

I think I bought the Dresden plates at an antique show...though it may have been ebay. It was at least 12 years ago. Since they are from the 1930's what is an extra decade or so...) Anyway, I used ecology cloth which is a medium weight muslin that plays well with feedsack. I have a couple of feedsacks to use for the borders but I just don't like the flimsey yellow fabric in the center that is machine hemstitched appliqued. The rest of the block is hand done and to be honest I'm not sure the centers that don't have a seam allowance would make it for another dozen years. So way back when I went in search of the "perfect" yellow fabric to applique over the nasty center...perfect is hard to find.

So this project has spent many many years in a shoebox. It has traveled with me from Maryland to South Carolina, South Carolina to Georgia, Georgia to Massachusetts, Massachusetts to Gloustershire England, and England back to to Georgia again. If these blocks could get frequent flyer miles we could go to Houston next year for free!

Well hang onto your seat...I found the perfect yellow fabric in one of the most unlikely of places. My husband's closet. OK, it wasn't really his closet. It was a box of his clothes I was unpacking from the move. An old yellow cotton shirt. (Thank you Bonnie Hunter for this inspiration!) I thought about it for a minute - I hadn't seen him wear it in years...it is pretty worn around the collar...there is a button missinng...RIPPPPPP. This shirt is now fabric!!!! The perfect fabric!

So now I have another hand sewing project that should take me through until my sewing room is up and "fully operational" again. (fully operational is to be spoken like the emperor in Star Wars when he boasts about the "death star" - this is a wierd thing my DH has started doing when talking about my sewing room....)

Siobhan