While working on the Civil War BOW last year, I first heard the term "poverty fabric" to describe piecing scraps of fabric to make pieces large enough to use for a part of a block. The term made me smile as I thought about our foremothers who made do... or did without.
In the beginning, I wasn't as careful cutting out the fabrics for the Jacob's Ladder blocks as I should have been and, as I got closer to finishing the 48 blocks, I started running out of fabric. So.... I pieced some scraps to finish a block....
I had to get a bit creative with some of the piecing...
...but was able to use just about every bit of fabric from the FQs that I had selected for this quilt.
I think my foremothers would be proud of me!
Good Job! I have done that same thing so many times, but had never heard that term before.
ReplyDeleteIn some of the vintage textiles I have the pieces are just overlapped with a raw edge showing and then a running stitch holds them together--in contrasting thread at times. Now that is making do!
Oh yeah, they sure would!
ReplyDeleteI love the way you used every bit of the fabric and it looks good too! I intend to keep on using what I have and try not to buy too much fabric. I hardly bought anything on my JL quilt.
ReplyDeleteI saw on Bonnie's blog that she was working on a JL quilt and got some of the pieces turned wrong. Sounded familar!
Have a great Sunday and hope its not as windy today!
I've done that a few times and what I find so interesting is that once the piece is quilted unless you know it's there you donn't know it's there. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking on this same subject lately.... our fore mothers made quilts out of leftovers from clothing, and we agonize for hours (days, in my case) to pick just the right color in just the right spot, with just the right binding and just the right thread. As my hubby says, it really doesn't make any sense to take a perfectly good piece of fabric and cut it all up into little pieces that have to be sewn back together! (Little does he know!)
ReplyDeleteOne of the elderly quilters in my guild (100!) calls it frugal piecing...she never throws out a piece of fabric!
ReplyDeleteI have done that too on some of my charity quilts - just didn't know there was a name for it! And once you quilt over it you don't even know it's there, especially if it's a nice busy design in the fabric :D
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post, going to look up the term poverty fabric, hadn't heard the term before. I have had to do this many times.
ReplyDeleteI've done it, too... and the term makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about doing this too when I messed up a little bit cutting as I paper piece
ReplyDeleteI do this on purpose all the time. I have made entire quilts using "poverty" fabric, only on 15 Minutes Play, we call it making new fabric. Whatever it is called, it is great fun and very freeing. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteI've had to assemble a piece myself after a "miss-cut" - no problem with that! I had not heard the term poverty fabric before though.
ReplyDeleteI've done that, and done it even just to have enough seam allowance!
ReplyDeleteThey call it "patchwork".
Hugs!
Good job, your pieces worked well!
ReplyDeleteI have done that to make something work-I even did it yesterday to one of those tiny houses I'm obsessed with. I only feel bad to do it on someone else's quilt, but for me, I feel tied to our kindred quilters of the past ~
:-}pokey
Very good job - I bet once the quilt is all assembled, you'll never be able to find this block again!
ReplyDeleteI never heard the term before either but it makes sense. As a child of the Great Depression, I've been piecing things together all my life.
ReplyDeleteLillian
lillianscupboard.wordpress.com
I love it. I do some creative piecing all the time. No one sees it but me. Hugs
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