The Art of Quiltmaking - 1930’s Style

I’m Sure Fat Quarters Weren't Involved

The Art of Quiltmaking - 1930’s Style – I’m Sure No Fat Quarters Were Involved

The Great Depression was a terrible time. There was the stock market crash of 1929, then the dust bowl in the Midwest and finally the migration west. But women’s magazines of the times didn’t talk about how tough it was, they talked about fashion and optimism. Sorta like today’s magazines, painting a rosy picture and all the beautiful and skinny models.

Women used just about anything they could get their hands to create quits. These quilts were not the things of beauty that were made by the Victorians. Or the show quilts we make today. These quilts were a necessity. They were needed to keep warm. Plus cover the windows to keep the bugs and dust out of the house. They were needed to put around their few possessions as they migrated and slept on the roads and in barns or wherever they could.

Women were so desperate for fabric; they resorted to feed sacks, flour sacks and clothes too worn out to wear anymore. They probably didn’t have enough money for a large piece of fabric to create a foundation quilting or even to be really creative with their quilt blocks.

In the later 19th century the Arts and Crafts Movement started in Europe and soon was in the United States. The Arts and Crafts Movement wasn’t like the Victorian Era with all the fussiness, but encouraged people to get back to simpler times, hand crafted architecture, hand built furniture and home decoration.

The middle of the 1920’s women’s tastes in color changed. No longer the darker fabrics, women now wanted the new pastels, light and brighter colors.

Most quilts of the 1930’s were pieced, but appliqué was treasured above all probably because it was considered a luxury item.

Women’s magazines continued to publish patterns but now got into selling precut fabric the precursor to quilting fat quarters) so the women would just have to sew them together. Women couldn’t afford patterns and other quilting items so everyone shared what they had. Batting companies added patterns to the packaging. Newspapers printed patterns.

Some women even made quilts for money to help the family get by. Sometimes one woman made the top, another quilted it and some else might have sewn on the binding.

I like to think a little color can really go a long way to helping someone’s sanity. It sure helps mine!

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