Feed Sacks....

I think I might have told you but last year I went on holiday to Oregon, USA. Whilst I was there I visited an amazing patchwork shop called Tater Patch and they had just the most amazing range of fabrics. What I was really looking for was feedsacks. Those 1930s style ones that people used to make into quilts; I thought they would be easy to pick up but when I was chatting to the ladies there, they said that quilting fashion had moved on from feedsacks and that there really weren't that many about these days. Then just as I was leaving the shop, one of the ladies suddenly asked me to hang on a mo. She ran downstairs and came back with 7 feedsacks. They weren't of the 1930s vintage but they were very pretty, cotton fabrics. She gave them to me as a gift and I have been trying to decide what to do with them!

Guess what.....my latest favourite magazine came up trumps again!

This design would showcase the fabrics but also would have a bit more interest than plain squares. First job was to unpick the stitching on the sacks.Oh boy, that took ages! And this is how I know these are not very old sacks as the thread was a synthetic fibre that melted when I ironed it! That done I had 7 lovely big pieces of fabric so I cut out all my bits and also sashing from some plain white I had bought.

I love to see all the "kit" for a quilt laid out, ready to go! Next I assembled the blocks; 9 of each design.

Finally I laid them out, following the pattern in the magazine and stitched them all together with the white sashing. By now it was nearly midnight and I had spent 12 hours on it (with a break to cook and eat dinner).

So there is the top! All done. I have NO idea what to back it with but I am thinking a white quilt in our house is NOT going to be a good idea! I love the way the feedsacks really feature. So there we have it: 3 quilts in 3 weeks (even though this isn't quite finished!)I think I might rest my poor machine for a bit now. Need some more supplies but Sandown is soon......