Monday, April 22, 2013

A Month of Feedsacks

I often notice that snippets of my life have themes. Several years ago, I found feathers on my daily walk almost every day for a month. Not before or after! Another time, it was bone china teacups. My sister's collection grew a bit! This month the recurring theme is feedsacks - those love 'em or hate 'em fabrics from the 1930s and '40s. Some quilters remember wearing clothing made from feedsacks, some collect them, others use them because they love the fabric designs. My Feedsack Month started when I visited the Homestead Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska. I bought a copy of Vintage Feed Sacks by Susan Miller in the gift shop. It's a wonderful reference book, filled with photos and descriptions. If you are a collector or a user of feed sack fabrics, I recommend this book, if just for the drool value!


The feedsacks I've found this month have ranged from 5" squares to complete bags in wonderful designs! The first was this sunflower feed sack. The flowers are overlaid on a gray grid. It is still in bag form and in excellent condition.

Feedsack #2 is a yellow and orange plaid overlaid with a brown vine. The stitches were taken out, but the holes are still quite obvious.
And the most wonderful find this month was this Hawaiian print: I LOVE the hula dancer!