Anne Williams takes a look at charming scrap quilts…
At this time of year, many of us need to tighten our belts, perhaps more so than ever given all that is going on in the world just now. So why not save some quilting pounds by resolving to reduce your stash?
Scrap quilts are the ideal thrifty project and are a wonderful way to use up oddments left over from previous makes, as well as for cutting into larger pieces you doubtless have squirrelled away. They are also an excellent home for ‘ugly’ fabrics and ones you’ve had tucked away for so long that you now wonder why on earth you bought them in the first place. In among a melee of prints, you’ll never spot the ‘offensive’ ones. So, dig deep and get sewing! To get you started, we’ve provided some handy tips (see panel, page 49).
A SELECTION OF SCRAPPIES
A scrap quilt is generally regarded as one in which there are no two identical pieces of fabric, but the term also applies to quilts and coverlets which contain a plethora of designs. Many heritage examples can be considered as scrap, or at least scrappy, quilts as they commonly contain hundreds of different prints. At a time when fabrics were a precious commodity, nothing went to waste. Remnants from clothes-making or pieces salvaged from objects worn beyond wear would all be carefully saved and used in other items, like the ‘Penrith Quilt’ made from remnants by John Wharton in 1900 (see page 46).
‘The Diamond Mosaic Coverlet’, dating from the mid-1800s, is made from a vast selection of multicoloured and patterned printed cottons (see page 48, top-left), reflecting the huge variety of colours and designs available during that period. Not all examples were so elaborate in their design though, and many quilts were more utilitarian in nature, like the charming late nineteenth-century ‘Double-Sided Frame Quilt’ (see above). The regularity of the rectangular patches in this quilt suggests they could be sample pieces. A case of waste not, want not.
During the Second World War, when clothes were rationed to save materials for the war effort, ‘Make Do and Mend’ became etched on the public’s conscience and people were forced to be creative in how they utilis
