Feedsack Collection

I got to be a guest blogger over at Sew We Quilt @ Stash Manicure. Take a look at the article. Here are some of the more collectible conversation prints.




Be sure and check out the whole article.

Blessings,
Rhonda

Vintage Thingie Thursday

To increase the use of feedsack prints in the household the Cotton Council in conjunction with Simplicity and McCalls printed booklets. These booklets carried the same fashions and household uses as regular patterns but included the yardage in number of sacks necessary instead of regular yardage. There was a section in the booklet to order the pattern as well.
I have 19 of these booklets and am always searching for ones I don't have. Ebay has been a great source for these. The obvious problem with them is that they are on paper and therefore are disintegrating.
In the past I have seen reproductions of these booklets surface. They are considerably cheaper than an original. I am so attached to all the American Textile history that shows in each booklet.
I truly can't pick a favorite. The older ones are in black and white with few pictures. The newer ones contain colored pictures. This is probably the oldest in my collection.



The cotton council also sponsored a contest where the winner could receive a new sewing machine and a trip to the world's fair. It was an important tool to increase the demand for the sacks. Remember at one time all our cotton was produced and milled here in the U.S. Enjoy looking at the graphics as well on these booklets.




I love the sepia tones the most. The paper also changed through the years. The later colored ones appeared on a glossy stiffer paper whereas the earlier ones are on a thin cream colored paper. Or they could have originally been white that has aged to the creamy color.

Enjoy more Vintage finds at The Colorado Lady.


Rhonda

Vintage Thingie Thursday

I love thinking about what I might photograph for Thursdays. Today I was working in my sewing room and decided that I wanted to show some of my feed sacks and related stuff.

For those of you who may not know what a feed sack is ....

Feed sacks came about in the early 1900's as a off white colored onasburg sack for carrying dry goods such as seed,fruit,flour,sugar etc. As manufactures noticed the women who had access to these bags began reusing them for everything from towels to underwear (remember we were in the never waste anything era of time) they began to manufacture the bags in prints for use by homemakers. I started collecting them to use in quilting.

It was this quilt that got the whole thing started for me. In the process of collecting enough feed sack prints to make the 1600 leaves on this quilt I met the "feed sack lady " of the time and joined a club she ran for collectors.

This was a wining quilt from the 1930 Chicago Fair.
Yes in fact mine is in progress and has been for several years.

Well it just multiplied from there. I now house over 600 sacks and various related objects. This may be an ongoing vintage post.

As you can see they came in different color ways of the same print.


This is an example of how they would of come to use for a flour towel. remove the string that held the bag closed add a seam all the way around and you have a great cotton towel.

Here are a few from my collection of those with labels.This is an example from 1940's where a kitchen knife came inside with the product.

This is a example of two things. First the bag was pieced together. As the run of fabric was done they just added another on at that point and still made a bag out of it. It is also considered a novelty fabric as it has characters on it.


This is an example of a geometric. It also has the manufacture on the label. Chase was a major mill which manufactured bags.



I didn't realize how much time this would take just to get this much posted. There is so much more I want to show. Stayed tuned for next week and I will post more of the different types of prints available. Be sure and visit The Colorado Lady for more vintage finds.

Enjoy your day.

Rhonda

Whatca Workin on Wednesday

Eggstra....Eggstra Read all about it.
I'm not "working" on anything in particular so I thought I might share a few past projects today.
As I walked throughout my house and pulled out Easter Decorations it was a trip down memory lane for me. It was fun going through the bin and mixing them with the new.

1970's

I had learned to crochet and made the eggs. My mom made the basket for the girls when they were small so they could play with them. Sometime in the 1990's.

1970's into 1980's

My mom and I took ceramic classes together when I was in high school.
Just a few years ago she gave me the couple eggs she had done then.

My favorite thing I made in ceramics.

This is a candy dish and it has always been filled with MnMs. It's a tradition. It was a lot of work and I still love it even though it's not prim at all. It does look good on the firkin though.

My mom made this one and gave it to my grandma. When grandma died she gave it to me. It has mom's initials on the bottom so I love it.

1997

These are special to us. Our elderly neighbor bought these for the girls when they were small. Tori was 2 and Emily was 1. They are getting closer to prim.

2009
I was looking for a wool egg pattern and was having trouble finding one. My prayer partner found these on clearance and "knew" i could make them from just seeing these. I will treasure them always.

2009
I spent the day meeting and shopping with a blogging friend. I met Rondell and we had a super day shopping. We bought these gorgeous aqua eggs and the grass. Don't tell our hubby's we bought grass...they just wouldn't understand.

2009
These are by far some of the funnest(is that a word?)eggs I've done for awhile. I plan on making some more. I dug through my vintage feedsack scraps and these turned out great.

Tried to prim them up in a wooden bowl.

2009
I have had a good friend for many years...since our girls were small. She teaches Pisanki eggs and I made some in the past but they got crushed when we moved to the new house. She had a class this year and I finally got a chance to make another one. Hopefully I'll get time to get some more made. I thought they'd look great with quilt patterns on them.

Hope you enjoyed my trip through my eggstra special eggs. Maybe I'll have to do my carrots next.

Stop on over at Leslie's and read what others are working on this Wednesday before Easter.

Rhonda

Feedsacks for Sale

It's a dreary wet day here in PA. Be sure and visit my other blog for Vintage Feedsack fabric. I am going out with some friends from my Feedsack Club for the day. I'll take lots of pictures and let you see all the stops today as we go searching. Just click on the For Sale Friday icon on the top of the page to see what's there.

Here's a sample of what is there.

Rhonda

Whatca Workin on Wednesday

Good Wednesday Morning all. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on MY fun stuff but I did manage to get a few things accomplished.

First I did get some bunnies cut out and sewn. Now I just need to Chocolate them up and work on a grouping for them. I had seen chocolate bunnies on both Leslie's and Rondell's blog and couldn't wait to try them. Here's my interpretation. Thanks gals for the inspiration.




I also didn't have enough carrots to compliment the bunnies. So I cut out some more. I just need to get to JoAnn's today as I'm all out of orange thread.


I saved the best for last. I found this pattern on Retro Mama's blog. I used some of my vintage feedsack fabric to make these eggs and fell in love with them. I can't wait to pull out some more scraps and make tons more. I have a couple of gals form my Feedsack Club coming in from Canada this week so I thought I'd have a small gift for them too.




My goal was to use up some things I have here and not purchase anything to make my "goodies". So far so good. I do have some orange thread in my jar in a previous post maybe I'll see if there's any orange in there. The bunnies were made with old feedsack ammunition bags. As you can see they are a cream colored with red lettering. The red lettering I turned to the inside. All the orange fabric was left over from a Halloween quilt top I made. I wish I could say that everything is "Made in the USA" but stuffing and some of the orange fabric is not. The bags and the old thread was certainly made here. Of but I digress to another topic.

Time for me to get painting. Yes unfortunately it has taken longer than expected. I am today changing the ceiling color. But once I paint the ceiling I can begin putting things back. We will be adding stenciling and wainscoting but I need to get this room back together for company coming. I'll post pictures once I get everything done.

It's pouring rain here so at least I can enjoy being in side and listening to my radio as I paint. I plan on getting out a little this afternoon though. I have some things to mail.

Be sure and check out Leslie's blog for more Whatca Workin on Wednesday projects.

Happy April Fool's Day
Rhonda

Feedsacks for Sale

I have some Feedsacks I posted on my selling blog. I will be posting different sewing related items on this blog every Friday until they are gone. That may take awhile as I used to buy estates of textiles. So stay tuned on Fridays for my offering.



This is just an example of what is there. Every feedsack is an original 1930's,40's or 50's sack. If you don't know the story of feedsacks I will be posting a small explanation on the other blog this weekend.

Happy Friday.

Rhonda