All those old stories of how "Grandma" made a quilt from scrap pieces of cloth she saved from used clothing and sewing projects were wrong. In the glow of the 1876 U.S. Centennial and the 20th-century quilting revival, stories of a more romantic time seemed logical. But quilting expert Roderick Kiracofe has written a new book, "Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts below the Radar, 1950-2000," about recent quilts–and his research has concluded that the scrap-bag story is wrong. Quilters of the mid-1800s bought printed cotton fabric from New England mills and cut it up to make new quilts for household use. The made-up idea of the thrifty housewife's quilt of leftovers remained popular until the 1930s. The 20th-century quilts pictured in the book are very different from earlier quilts and may or may not become popular collectibles.
Photo Credit: Barnes & Noble
My aunt gave me a quilted pillow top that she had made from her and her sisters party dresses. These were hand made from the materials they could get but they lived in a very rural area and material was scarce.
Maybe your city people bought yards of new material, but the poorer country people saved all worn-out clothing for quilts!!!! Better qualify your remarks to certain sections of the country, because there are a lot of people in the comment section that agree w/me. How one-sided can your report be????
I’m 71 and I have quilt faces from a great grandmother who started life as a wealthy woman in Lima, Ohio. She moved to NYC and probably after being widowed began to make quilts from her husband’s neckties. Don’t know if it’s any special pattern but they are somber yet beautiful. Doubt they were anything but a way to use up time. No iPads you know!
I concur with the other commentary on this…my grandmothers ( one born in 1894, the other in 1890)) both quilted using scraps of former clothing. Part of the charm of their quilts was hearing the stories demonstrating the sentimental memories attached to a particular piece of cloth. Perhaps the author should further investigate his assertions. One of my great grandmothers also quilted, also from clothing scraps. She was born in 1847. I have several of these quilts still.
Like all the articles in this book, this one is thoughtful, well written and perhaps provocative to some.
Better yet, don’t take my word for it. Buy the book, Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 and make your own conclusion. It’s a beautiful, groundbreaking and thought-provoking work. Anyone interested in quilts should own it.
P.S. These quilts are already highly collectible and sought after.
First, I want to correct a bunch of errors in the Kovels original post and several of the comments:
1) Roderick (this is the correct spelling of his name) Kiracofe did not write this book; it is a collection of essays by a variety of quilt makers and scholars, art historians and artists. The essay that refers to scrap quilt myths is by Janneken Smucker, PhD., not Kiracofe.
2) Kiracofe is NOT a “come-lately” to this subject. He and partner Michael Kile were quilt dealers in the late 1970s and early 1980s; together they published the well-respected series The Quilt Digest, an annual publication with scholarly articles on a wide range of quilt related topics. He is the author of The American Quilt, (1993)—still one of the best texts on quilt history—and Cloth & Comfort (1994) as well as several other essays and book introductions.
See part 2 in next post
My great-grandmother made quilts of scraps for each of her great-granddaughters when they graduated from H.S. This was in the 50s and 60s. So not sure how long she had been doing them before that, but I bet it was quite some time. She lived in a two-room house without plumbing, so know she had very little money to buy anything. I also know that she used scraps from clothing my mother gave her and other family members did also. We call hers a crazy quilt because there is no pattern, just all pieced together. Now I’ve seen quilts called crazy quilts and they have appeared to have a pattern to them, so not sure what constitutes a crazy quilt now.
I know my great grand mother and great aunt in fact saved all there scrapes to use for making quilts , as did my grand mother. this was done on both sides of my family. as they did not have money to waste.these were all made by hand,
I am appalled at this piece of so-called news. Let’s just call his research a bit of snobbery by a come-lately to the subject. My grandparents, married in 1887, raised eight children on the Maine/New Brunswick border. At age 78 I can recall spending many cold Maine nights snuggled under quilts made from bits of dresses, menswear and the faded, everyday clothing of babies and children, each piece with its own story. Those quilts told the history of real people who lived real lives. They were made by a woman for whom quilting was sometimes a social activity, but always a necessity of a life hard and fully lived.
I have to agree with Mr. Kiracofe. I have a copy of Designs Worth Doing McKim Studios Independence, Mo. There is no date on it. Advertisements for “ready-cut” quilts appear for the “Noon Day Lily”, “Tulip”, “Apple”,”Irish Chain”,”Lone Star”,”Pine Tree”,”Rainbow”, and “Dresden Plate”. I inherited the ready-cut “Dresden Plate”. I have yet to quilt it.
My great-grandmother made quilts in the early 1900’s out of necessity. I have many well-worn quilts she made. Looking at many of them, it’s easy to see through the solid white cover sheet the writing on the old flour sacks she used as batting!
She didn’t go out and buy anything, she made quilts for warmth out of anything she could, when the family wore out a garment.
My grandmother sewed anything and everything. She made all the clothes for herself, her kids and even us as long as she was alive and able to sew.
She was financially well-off too. She didn’t “need” to save scraps. But because she didn’t like to waste anything, she used every bit or her fabrics, even making new items out of old ones when it was needed.
I have been in the process of cutting my daddy’s old flannel shirts, jeans and other clothing to turn into quilts for my nephews to have.
My gran saved and used and re-used everything, including fabric scraps. I don’t recall ever seeing a “formal” quilt in her house, most of them were crazy quilts, bits of cloth pieced together. I wish I had them now.
As with those who have already posted their comments, I think we all feel offended by Rogerick Kiracofe belief that quilts of this era were not made from saved scraps of the best parts of clothing when it had to be retired. I recently have been helping my aunt with quilt blocks her mother had sewn together by hand. She pointed out to me this was from a dress I wore with several of the blocks, this was from my brother’s pants. She identified many as articles of clothing she wore as a child.
Now if the quilter had the means available I am sure they would utilize new materials, but the quilt squares I have seen were sewn by women who did not have much. Roberta’s mother was a widow trying to raise four children alone.
I agree that Rogerick Kiracofe needs to do more research. He should research quilts made by share cropper’s wives, or made in “dog trout” houses and ones made for the sheer necessity of warmth. These ladies took pride in their work and made a quilt with the best design they had materials to work. These quilts come from the backbone of America not the socialites that could afford to buy new fabric for their hobby. Just my opinion!
I have a dozen or so quilts here, all made of identifiable pieces of clothing. The oldest is from the 1860s and belonged to a great aunt. People woud point out pieces in it when I was a kid and use them to show that she was kind of a trampy dresser. She apparently just considered it flashy. I don’t even know where you could find hot pink polka dot silk in that time period, but clearly you could.
My grandmother had a habit of saying to people, “Gosh, I just love that material your dress is made out of! When you are finished with it, could I have it?” She always made her quilts out of hand me down materials. She couldn’t afford to go to the store to buy new.
Perhaps some quilters in the 1800’s did buy or barter for fabric for quilting. However, Depression Era quilters most certainly used whatever they could find in a lot of cases. My Granny saved every scrap of clothing and every button to be reused and I have one of her scrap quilts and a jar of old buttons. She made flour sack dresses and reworked used ladies clothing into children’s clothing because times were just that tough.
Quilters are thrifty people. While those who prefer “art” quilts may buy new materials, many, many quilts are made from necessity.
I have quite a few quilts made by family members and NONE are entirely of unused materials. While often the backing is new, I imagine because of the size needed, [i][i]cherokee1 [/i][/i]is right on the money. I, too, have quilts made by family members and I also inherited shapes and finished blocks.
I totally agree with the above comments. I know for a fact that my grandmother used old clothes and anything else, fabric wise to make her quilts. My mom used to look at them and say, ” That was my shirt, dress, or what ever.”
I have a quilt top made in the 1930s by my great-aunt Lucinda Williams of [img]http://saidthespider.net/images/cogswell_quilt_sm.jpg[/img]Ohio. She gave it to my mother in 1938. I finally got it quilted last year by Rosemary Zettler of Redondo Beach, CA. It is definitely scraps. Lucinda Cogswell WIlliams utilized every tiny scrap of fabric available to her. The quilt contains 143 blocks, half of which are open and the other half made up of one square and eight triangles. Within the total quilt, 124 different times she extended her resources by sewing together little bits of fabric, (some no larger than half an inch) to complete a block or a section of a block. I have fallen in love with it, keeping it on the foot of my bed. “Waste not, want not” has long been a mission in my mother’s family.
My mother was born in 1902, and her grandmother and mother both made quilts. When I was a kid in Illinois, mom would say, concerning some of the materials in those old quilts “That was a piece of grandpa’s tie, or that was a piece of mother’s apron”, and the like. I don’t know where Mr. Kiracofe got his information.
this is poppycock, i know for a fact my great grandma used old clothes and any thing else she could to make quilts with. my grandma was telling me about it the other day and how she would help cut up the worn out clothing to reuse in the quilts. and i am about to do the same. my grandma (just turned 86 last month) has had old quilt blocks cut for years from the clothes of my mom and 2 uncles. she has never put them together and i told her i would do it for her. i am also planning on digging out some baby clothes that were mine and my sisters along with some from my daughter and niece to add to it as well. so yes it is done and has been done for a long time
I do have 2 of the family historical quilts which have notations of whose dresses some of the pieces came from. In our family I doubt that they could afford all new fabric most of the time.