Whirling Sugar Sacks

A few years ago, I bought a large collection of vintage flour and sugar sacks at an estate sale. Today's quilt features some of them, along with a few reproduction fabrics and natural muslin.

The Blue Wren die I used, Whirling Wheels, is very similar to 1930-1940 era blocks like Whirling Pinwheel and Spinflower. I enjoy reproducing antique quilt designs like my grandmothers would have sewed.

The pattern is easy to stitch, even with the curves. The center circle is appliqued using clear thread. I set the blocks on point, then added a 3” border.

Quilting with medium khaki thread, I used a circle ruler to sew large loops across the entire quilt to emphasize the movement of the wheels. Whirling Sugar Sacks is 48” square.

This one put a smile on my face! I have quilts in progress with two other new dies, plus at least twenty more on my ever growing to do list.

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6514 Whirling Wheels 10” block
Accuquilt
55553 Setting Triangles 10”
55032 Strips 3½”
55017 Strips 2½”

Keepsakes

I've always been a collector of stuff. One of my favorite acquisitions is, of course, fabric. Vintage fabric, like feed sacks or 36” wide cotton, makes me happy.

Today's quilt has me grinning from ear to ear. The block, Grandmother's Pride, was published as a Laura Wheeler mail order pattern sometime in the 1930's, 40's, or 50's. It is also called Empress.

I sent a request to Norma Grimmer at Blue Wren to make a die for this block and I got it last month from Australia. 

I chose feed sacks that coordinate with tomato red cotton and natural muslin to recreate this quilt that looks like those our grannies made. One of the sacks actually came from Granny Rose, the others I bought at estate sales. I added two reproduction fabrics. 

The blocks sewed together beautifully. I rotary cut the setting triangles around the outside. A homespun navy and blue tiny floral makes great backing and binding. With medium beige thread, I used a scallop stitch 1½” apart diagonally across the quilt. It measures 50” x 55”.

Keepsakes seemed the right name for this one. I like that my feed sacks are useful again, and that I can enjoy the family tradition of quilting. I'm pretty sure the grannies would be proud. Thanks Norma and Edward for helping me reproduce vintage quilts! (I have the fan block in progress.)

Blue Wren dies used:
6983 Grandmother's Pride 12” block
6720 Magic Strips 1” - 9½”

Thrifty Fifties Flour Sacks

Here's a classic design that makes a pretty quilt. Unequal nine patch blocks are simple, quick and easy to sew.

I chose a variety of navy and green prints from my collection of flour and sugar sacks and paired them with natural muslin and a navy calico sashing. I finally splurged and bought a 10” Qube Mix & Match set on sale last month and used those dies to cut the pieces.

For quilting, I used cream thread for a serpentine stitch horizontally and vertically, then switched to straight stitch across the large squares of the blocks. 

Thrifty Fifties Flour Sacks is 50” square, and has a vintage look and feel.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic this week...we are celebrating our 48^th wedding anniversary. Two kids born in the fifties fell in love after a blind date and are still happily married in 2021. Cheers to us!

Vintage Bows

Remember those sugar sack remnants from last week?

I couldn't wait to use them for this reproduction of one of my Granny Hill's quilts. The bow tie block is quick and easy in the 6” size. I added more feed sacks in yellow, red and green prints, including a scrap of Granny Rose's.    

Tan muslin squares alternated with the bow ties add to the traditional design. I framed it with two borders, a 2” navy and cream mini print and a 3” tan muslin on the outside. Vintage Bows finished at 53” square.

Vintage Bows

I quilted with cream thread using a straight stitch in a 3” grid. Backing and binding features the navy/cream print. Such a soft and cuddly Granny quilt! It looks and feels like an antique, even though I just finished it. Of course, most of the fabric IS vintage.

Accuquilt dies:
55000 6” Square
55772 6” Bow Tie
55818 Half Square Triangle (6” Bow Tie set)
55017 Strips 2½”
55032 Strip 3 ½”

Joy is

a day

spent

sewing

Sugar Sack Stars

Sugar Sack Stars - Katie Scarlett Designs

Well, here's the first quilt from the vintage sugar sacks I bought last month. Rose and blue prints suit this block perfectly. The only new fabric I used is natural muslin. The pink and blue solids and backing was from 36” wide yardage, not as old as the sacks but not new.

Sugar Sack Stars is made up of nine blocks cut with Blue Wren's Jackaroo Star die. I wanted a small 37” size to use as a wall hanging in my dining room, which is furnished with early 1900's tiger oak pieces. I decided to keep with tradition and quilt it with medium beige thread in a free motion meandering stitch.

I remember seeing similar designs in bed quilts made by my Granny Hill and also Jerold's Granny Rose. By the way, I added one of Granny Rose's sugar sacks to this one. There are many versions of the block, including Arkansas Traveler, Travel Star, and Cowboy's Star.

Women have used sugar sack material for years to make all kinds of useful items. Grain sacks were sewn into dishcloths, curtains, tablecloths, pillowcases, clothing, and of course, beautiful quilts.

I love reproducing antique quilts, so having authentic materials is a bonus. It was hard to cut into that first one, but I believe fabric is intended to be used. Don't worry, I've kept a few intact. And, I now have vintage scraps left over for my next project.

Blue Wren Dies used:
6369 Jackaroo Star 12”
6720 Magic Strips

Easy Does It

Last week I finished the first of two quilts that I pieced while we were camping. This tumbler design is a cute one, quick and easy to sew! Bright blue and fresh green with white and gray make it perfect for baby or springtime décor.

For quilting, I used white thread to straight stitch around each color layer. Two serpentine lines of quilting on the borders finished it off nicely. I used the larger white and blue dot fabric for backing. Easy Does It finished out as a 37” x 50” rectangle.

Accuquilt dies used:
55015 Tumbler 3½”
55054 Strips 4½”
55017 Strips 2½” (binding)

Fabric Sale Follow Up: Well, I finished washing, measuring, folding, and sorting my latest fabric bonanza. Final count for this amazing purchase was 176 flour and sugar sacks and 170 yards of quilting fabric, plus 37 hand stitched vintage quilt blocks.

It's all entered into my inventory spreadsheet, with swatches on index cards filed by color in my master notebook. If I didn't have this system in place, I'd never be able to find anything! As it is, I'm running out of space and storage bins, so I need to get busy stitching.  I'm not sure what to sew first but I already have dozens of ideas.

Yes, I know I am

a fabric lunatic...

Lately I am compelled

to give unwanted fabric

a new home.

Granny's Wash Day

Memories of sheets and housedresses hanging on the line at granny's house prompted me to design this adorable quilt. Some of the fabrics are 1950's vintage, from Granny Rose's collection of sugar and flour sack remnants. I added new pieces that would complement them, along with white muslin. 

Each four patch block is made up of chisel sections and triangles turned to create the design. This one didn't take long at all, since most of the colored triangles were already cut. I think it looks a bit like the dasher in an old time washing machine. 

A simple quilting pattern of even squares finishes off the vintage look. I used light yellow thread for the straight stitches. The backing is an old sheet of pale yellow with pink, blue, and yellow flowers.

I am lucky to have sweet childhood memories of summer days on the Tennessee farms of both sets of grandparents. And, luckier still to have Jerold's grandmother's fabric to use in my quilts. For more of my posts about Granny Rose, Granny Hill, and sugar sack fabric, click on those labels below.

Accuquilt dies used:
55735 Chisel 2¼” x 4½” finished
55147 Half square triangle 2¼” finished

Remember when

life was simpler,

and we didn't have a

care in the world?

Bits and Pieces

This colorful quilt uses some of the smallest pieces I've ever sewn into blocks. Talk about saving scraps...women of the 1930's would be proud.

When I got the spider web die for my birthday, I started cutting fabric remnants. Selecting different colors, I randomly stitched them together. Because of the tiny pieces and many seams, it took several days.

I used a natural muslin for contrast to showcase the web shapes. I chose a meandering stitch to quilt in free motion, with cream thread. Bits and Pieces is 36” x 48” in size.

I love the final product! The die is awesome for using up the smallest of remnants. It looks like an old fashioned quilt that my grandmothers would have made. I can't wait to make other versions with different background colors.

Bits and Pieces

It seemed like a perfect project to sew around Mother's Day. I thought about how women during the Depression years would have spent their time. They'd cut up old curtains, housedresses, shirts, and feed sacks to create a warm quilt for next to nothing, using faded blankets for batting.

Thankfully, I don't have to worry about saving every cent, although I do get a certain satisfaction out of using leftovers to make a bonus quilt or two. It must be my rural Southern thrifty dirt farmer roots showing.

Accuquilt die

55487 Spider Web 6"

Cottage Charm

What a sweet soft quilt made for a country setting. I cut scrap pieces in neutrals and brights with Accuquilt 3 ½” square and 3 ½”x 6 ½” rectangle dies. 

Making the modified log cabin blocks was my camping project, stitched on a portable machine while we were at Defeated Creek Campground in April.

I finished it off here at home, adding 2” sashing in a pale spring green. Backing is cut from an old soft floral sheet. I mounted it on my Flynn Quilt Frame, free motion quilting in a meandering pattern with tan thread.

Cottage Charm, 45” x 55” in size, could be the perfect accent to someone's shabby chic décor. Can't you see it in a log cabin or cottage, draped over a wicker chair or an iron bed?

Beautiful things

come together

one stitch

at a time

Lydia's Ladder

Lydia's Ladder

Today's quilt is my smaller version of one of Granny Rose's old quilts. It features 12" Jacob's Ladder blocks in a square 42" finished size. I used Accuquilt dies to cut the pastel prints, which went together quickly. 

This time I chose the backing/binding fabric first, then picked coordinating fabrics from my collection for the front blocks. I thought a lot about her while working, so I named this one Lydia's Ladder. I copied her quilting as well, using the Baptist Fan pattern. I did not hand stitch, but adapted the design for machine quilting on my Janome.

Baptist Fan machine quilting

Granny's original handmade bed quilt was being used as a furniture pad to wrap around things that needed protection. I rescued it from the basement of her daughter's house, even though it was stained, tattered and torn, probably past restoration. The fabric looks like feed or flour sack prints along with shirting and dress prints. I may use a few of the intact sections to frame or make pillow covers, so it will live on as another Useful Remnant.

Original Jacob's Ladder by Lydia Rose

Antique quilts have such a soft, worn quality to them from being well used. They were lovingly sewn by hand or on a treadle machine, washed hundreds of times, dried on a line in the sun, then folded into cedar chests to be passed on to relatives. They hold stories that we can only wonder about. For instance, I think this was one she made, but I can only guess. Her church quilting bee group shared fabric and made quilts together, so everyone may have stitched on it. Or it could have belonged to her mother since it was so worn. A labor of love anyway, passed down to my mother-in-law, then to me.

Will today's quilts will even last that long?  I hope they do, and that people continue to love them.  

“Quilts reward study. They can look great from 20 feet across the room, and then you get closer and there are little dramas. It doesn’t have to be intricate. It can be simple. It just has to be authentic.”  

Ken Burns, film maker and quilt collector

Vintage Fabric and Quilt Blocks

Oh my, what an awesome find! I've been sorting through a box of fabric and quilt blocks from my late mother-in-law's spare bedroom. Most of the fabric pieces are vintage flour and sugar sacks from the 1930's and 1940's that belonged to her mother, Lydia Fort Rose. They have been laundered, but probably only once. The holes on the edge from the bag stitching are still clearly evident and the colors are bright and true on sixty-plus year old fabric. A two yard cut piece has a paper tag attached with a tiny safety pin bearing the handwritten price of 59 cents per yard.  These are some of the same prints used in her quilts I wrote about several weeks ago.

The gorgeous completed quilt blocks are of varying sizes and designs. They may have been leftovers from a quilt or sampler blocks that she was trying out. Most of them are machine pieced, some hand stitched.  Paper pattern templates, pinned together with straight pins, are cut out of newspaper and paper bags. A pattern with instructions is printed on what appears to be a paper sack from a dry goods store. Two very tattered old quilts found in the basement are probably beyond repair. They do have portions which could be rescued and used for something once I air them out.

How cool is this? I am so excited that I can't even decide what to do with them. I have everything spread all over my sewing tables and design boards so I can take it all in. I want to preserve a few of the prettiest feed sack pieces. Then I could create a new quilt and make aprons, pillows, tote bags, or framed art out of the rest.

 

Some people want to inherit lots of money or real estate. While I won't turn down cash, give me vintage fabric, old quilts, pretty pottery, glassware, or antique oak furniture to cherish and I'll be a happy woman! 

Link to read more about feed sack fabric and Granny Rose's Quilts.   

Sweet As Sugar Vintage Apron & Feed Sack History

Grain, flour and sugar sacks have been put to use for years by thrifty women. They've been incorporated into quilts, used for embroidery samplers, and made into dishcloths, aprons, laundry bags, curtains, tablecloths, diapers, or dresses. I bought an antique sugar sack about a year ago with the intention of making an apron or a tote bag. While cleaning my sewing room this weekend, I was suddenly inspired to sew something. I may have been trying to avoid further cleaning. Anyway, I enjoyed a nice relaxing hour stitching up this vintage apron.

Feed sacks were originally made of heavy canvas for flour, sugar, meal, grain, salt and feed from the mill. They were reusable, with the farmer bringing an empty sack stamped with his mark or brand to the mill to be filled. How's that for recycling? This changed when mills began weaving inexpensive cotton fabric in the late 1800's. The bags were initially printed on plain white cloth and the brand name of the product was printed on the side of the bag. Sacks for flour, sugar and salt were a finer weave.

Granny Rose's feed sack quilt

Manufacturers soon recognized the appeal to women, so they began to use colors and pretty prints. It was a great marketing idea to sell more product, because it took three identical flour sacks to make a woman's dress. There were themes and collections of coordinating fabrics...kitchen, animals, Mickey Mouse, Gone With The Wind, Buck Rogers, nursery rhymes and more. Magazines published patterns for dresses, quilts, pajamas, dolls, and even crochet instructions for the strings that held the bags together.

In 1942, it is estimated that three million women and children were wearing print feed sack garments. Not long after WWII, the change to paper and plastic bags began, since they were less expensive than fabric.  After years of being frugal, women wanted store-bought clothing instead of homemade.  However, well into the 1950's farm women continued to use old feed sack scraps for quilts.   

Useful Notion:  Browse yard sales and thrift stores for discarded vintage quilts.  Watch online for old feed sacks or even reproductions to make home decor and kitchen accessories.  

"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary."  ~Mary Kurtz

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