The 1930s Grandmother's Fan Quilt

I've recently finished quilting a c.1930s Grandmother's Fan quilt top I found antiquing!  Many of the fabrics were likely taken from cloth sacks that held a variety of staple goods, from sugar to flour to animal feed.  

I wish I would have taken a picture of a certain quilt block before machine quilting it in continuous curves and feathers, because on the muslin fabric background you could barely read “Great West…Denver, Co…Table & Pr…”.  So I got on the internet and searched using this cryptic information, knowing I would come up with a vintage sugar sack somewhere...

Within seconds I found that the maker of this vintage quilt top used “Great Western Sugar Co.” sugar sacks.  These sacks were printed with non-permanent ink so that the graphics could be washed out once they were empty. The plain cotton fabric could then be used for household linens, clothing and quilts, such as in this utilitarian Grandmother’s Fan.  Pictured here is a sugar sack just like those used in the construction of this quilt.  I had to buy it just for sentimentality!

Once I finished quilting the top, and after binding it to reduce fraying, I washed it in my washing machine in cold water using gentle detergent and Oxy, hoping the colors wouldn’t bleed.  There were many age spots typical of a vintage piece that Oxy does well to remove.  And no, I didn’t test the fabrics before washing or use Retayne to hold colors.  This was perhaps a foolish move, considering I didn’t know how old the maker’s fabric stash was to determine a possible transfer of dye. Original stains faded, but new ones didn't appear.  Phew!

A bit of history on the Grandmother’s Fan quilt:  this pattern first appeared in print in a Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Prior to that, fans were common motifs in late nineteenth century crazy quilts. Their popularity likely was due to the fad for decorating in the Japanese style, which was prompted by Americans' exposure to Japanese art at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. By the 1930s, fans were standard favorites for quilt patterns.

The 1930s quilts represent my most favorite genre of quilting because of the brilliant thrift the women used to create useful yet beautiful quilts from what they had.  I’m also emotionally connected to ‘30s quilts because I remember sleeping underneath them as a child when visiting my grandparents. 

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the longest and most severe economic crisis in American history. It impacted jobs, standards of living, well-being and many areas of American popular culture. It also created a sense of connectedness among those who experienced the period. Passed on orally in many families, the experience of life in hard times has become part of the common heritage of millions of Americans.

The generations who lived through the Depression are now elderly and soon the living voices describing those times will pass. One of the lasting artifacts of the era will be its quilts - quilts made by women who lived by the saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." The beauty and functionality they created from recycled fabrics gleaned from feed and flour sacks, old clothes and scraps left over from dressmaking left a legacy of quiltmaking tradition. 

These quilts are excellent examples of material culture allowing us a glimpse into the lives of women who may have otherwise been overlooked or invisible, but who made up the better part of the backbone of our country during "hard times". In future posts you’ll see many more '30s finished quilt tops to honor a tenacious tendency to provide warmth, beauty and emotional stability in their homes despite economic instability.