- Were your clothes made from one?

Have you discovered them amongst granny's heirlooms in the attic?

Do you find them in antique shops today?

Did you know they're being traded like baseball cards?

What are they?

Well, feed sacks, of course.

[gentle guitar music] ♪ Could you imagine a more clever object ♪ ♪ Warms the body ignites the mind ♪ ♪ A child sleeps under mother's creation together forever ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ [gentle guitar music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel" is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler.

By Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needle work and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing maker of poly-fil brand products for the home, sewing, quilt and craft industries.

And by BERNINA delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.

- In this day, a telecommunication and faxes.

Isn't it nice to get mail, especially mail that has fabric inside the letters?

Look at all the wonderful six-inch squares of cut up feed sacks that I have received no two alike.

Well, it's because I'm a member of the Switches and Swatches Feed Sack Club and I'm still getting mail.

I think that you will enjoy meeting Ellie Ryan and Jane Clark-Staple today, who are gonna answer a lot of our questions and explain about the club.

This is Ellie's book.

It's her blue book.

There are over 300 swatches and little swatches all blue.

Look at the wonderful scrap quilt that she has in progress, all with feed sacks.

I'd like to know what do you do with this thread that was used to hold the feed sacks together to begin with, let's meet the ladies.

Jane and Ellie, welcome.

Tell us Jane, the why and the how for the Feed Sack Club?

- Why to bring people who love antique fabrics together and how through a lady by the name of Nanny Moran from Floyd, Virginia who had a collection of feed sacks and I wanted them.

- [Georgia] And that got you all excited.

- Yes indeed.

The beautiful prince.

I've never seen anything like it.

- Well, now all you need to do is join to write and become a member for how much a year?

- It's $10 a year and they'll receive a newsletter and a master list with all of the buyer, sellers, and traders on the list.

- Okay, wonderful.

The only way to start with this wonderful array that we have in front of us is to start with the history of the feed sack.

And I think we all respond to just the printed plain, almost like a heavy cloth bag.

Tell us why feed and this sort of thing in a cloth bag.

- All of the supplies in the early days came in barrels, boxes or tins, that's what was used for storage and they wanted to convert over to the cotton, not only to help the cotton industry, but because it was less cumbersome.

But they couldn't sew a seam strong enough to hold the contents.

After the sewing machine came about, they were able to do a chain stitch and they were able to resort over to the cotton bag.

- Well, it's interesting to look at, even at the top of the bags, they would even print, pointing a finger where the flower or whatever was held in here with that chain stitch.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I have turned one of our colorful feed sacks.

You can see it's a nice purple print inside out to start.

We started it at one end and I wanted to show you how fun it is.

It's just a lot of satisfaction and undoing that.

[Jane laughs] Now, tell me, Ellie, what do you do with all of this?

It's left over.

- Well, that's also recycled.

You can use it to tie your quilts, to sew your quilt onto your frame and also crochet with it, embroider with it.

- Nothing was thrown away.

- And right, right.

- Okay.

We went from the nice plain bags to... Look at the colorful print.

How did this happen, Jane?

- Well, there was a very wise salesman that was in a restaurant one time and he noticed that they had taken a plain cotton sack and put it down over the back of a chair to protect the upholstery.

And he thought that if they printed the sack, we would naturally be buying that particular bag.

And so he went back to Percy Kent, who was the manufacturer and suggested it.

But Percy Kent was adamant.

He says, "I'm not selling prints, I'm selling my name."

- [Georgia] Oh yes.

- And in turn they compromised and they gave us the printed sack, but at the same time they took just as we did as children flour and water, and made a paste, and put a label on it.

When the bag is emptied and cleaned up, then they just dip it in cold water and it peels right off.

- Then they have the print.

Otherwise, a quilter or anyone who was gonna reuse this had a hard time getting all of these print off, didn't they?

- Oh yeah.

Yes.

They would boil in kerosene and lye soap and scrub it on their washboards the best they could.

And if they couldn't get everything out, they would just turn the print inside.

And many a time we have to take an old quilt that we find with a feed sack lining and hold it up to a mirror to see the advertising.

- [Georgia] To see what to date it really.

- Yes.

- Right?

- I think it's pretty ingenious that at at one point they started doing what we refer to as border prints today.

Look at these three samples here from the poodle, and even the kitty cats in a border print.

- And they also use them for, if you remember the dirndl skirts and what we call the broomstick.

- Broom, right.

- Oh yeah.

- Skirts.

- And curtains in your kitchen.

- Oh, beautiful.

For your kitchen.

- [Georgia] And tell me what about these that have NRA on them?

- Okay, that is part of President Roosevelt's new deal.

That's a symbol for it.

It means National Recovery Act.

And it was only in existence from 1933 to 1935.

Anything with the blue eagle on it is collectible and they're very difficult to find.

- [Georgia] And so this would mean these are more valuable of course.

- Right.

- [Georgia] And just as you mentioned, these wonderful Walt Disney Cinderella- - Right.

- Collection here.

And now, how would someone know that this is more valuable and would run anywhere up to, well, as much as you could get, I guess.

- Right.

- $20 for a feed sack- - Right.

- Something like that.

How would you know that?

- Well, the print, of course, it would appeal.

Whatever print would appeal to you, but a Walt Disney print is very collectible and by joining the Feed Sack Club and learning from the other members, you gotta create a lot of knowledge.

- [Georgia] And you learn which ones you just- - Right.

- Love and don't cut up.

- Right.

- Right?

- Right.

- I see.

And look at even Davy Crockett.

- Right.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Georgia] A novelty type prints were printed.

- Daniel Boone and a very good source also is a book by Anna Lou Cook, one of our members from Tennessee.

And this is more or less the bible for feed sack lovers because it'll give you a guideline as to the history of them and also the prices.

- Let's talk about what they used and how they recycled all the feed sacks.

A wonderful little garment here.

Tell us about this.

- This was a two piece item that was made for the cotton council's contest promoting the use of cotton bags, so that you would use cotton and all with bias tape.

- Yes, indeed.

- Alright.

What do we call these?

[Jane laughs] Step ins?

- Right.

- Isn't that wonderful?

You mean people wore these?

[laughs] - Oh.

- For real.

- Okay, and then we have, of course, the little staple in houseware- - Right.

- [Georgia] The bonnet.

Tell us about this dress.

- That's a turn of a century dress.

That is a wonderful sample of a very, very early feed sack has a horse on it.

- Mm-hmm.

- That is really a- - Good sample.

- Wonderful, fine.

- And today, we're making vests.

- [Jane] This is an example of what we're doing with feed sacks today.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Jane] This particular vest and the one that I'm wearing, 100% feed sack.

- [Georgia] Made with your leftover cuttings, right?

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

And then we have doll clothes and teddy bears.

My goodness, tell us about these.

They were actually printed the pattern.

- Right, the sack companies became very competitive and that sugar company had a series of national dolls.

This is a good example of one of the dolls.

And this one also has.

It's a flower bag.

But on the back they have quilt blocks for women to embroider and turn into quilts.

- How nice.

- As you can see, they left the thread.

- In progress.

- Yes.

- Mm-hmm.

In progress.

- Okay.

We have a wonderful array of solids up at the front.

I never realized they did colors like that.

How did that happen?

- That's about from the 1930s and women needed the plain sacks to go with their printed sacks.

So the companies started doing that.

And besides dying- - Yeah.

- They also hand dyed.

If they didn't have the color that they wanted.

- They would do it just a plain.

Take a plain sack and use- - Right.

Right.

- And dye that they wanted to.

- They took a dye very well.

- Now home deck, home decoration was not to be left out with a feed sack.

- Right.

- So look at this particular one.

- That's a real treasure.

- It really is.

- Yeah.

- A toile print.

And once you buy this, you just take off the paper at the end and you've got a pillow.

- Right.

- Alright.

And this is a novelty idea using white rick rack made by... - [Jane] The same lady who made the two piece outfit.

- Yes.

Okay, very good.

And of course, the standard pillow with a fun little lady at the end and we're gonna look at some of the rest of these wonderful prints here.

Can we just go around and maybe start here?

What do we have?

- Well, that's very unusual because it's Egyptian and you just don't think of that type of a design at that time.

- Mm-hmm.

- Also the geometric- - Right.

- [Jane] Just to show that there was something more than the floral.

- [Georgia] And more of our conversation type- - Mm-hmm.

- Type print.

- [Jane] Collector.

- [Georgia] And what do we have here?

- [Ellie] That's the sack they call Gone with the Wind.

And that's a very collectible one too.

- [Georgia] Oh, and these.

- [Ellie] These are our war commemorative sacks, V for victory, the battles of World War II, the Civil War.

- Mm-hmm.

- And right our standard cheater cloth- - Right.

Right.

- Of all things.

Well, they just didn't miss a trick.

Oh, this is a cute one.

Tell us about this one.

- [Jane] Well, it's just one of the smallest bag that I have in my collection.

- [Georgia] And then do you have the largest one too- - I wish I did.

- Probably similar.

- Probably the largest I've heard of is what they use when they pick cotton, they were about 25 feet long.

- [Georgia] And of course, we make quilts with 'em too.

Ellie, this is your quilt.

Explain it.

- [Ellie] Right.

That has 120 different feed sack prints in it.

And I had so many pearl buttons I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to sew antique pearl buttons on it to embellish it.

- [Georgia] It's a bow tie pattern.

And is the border, are those more feed sacks?

- [Ellie] Yes, I was lucky and purchased nine of the same print.

- [Jane] This is from the collection of Pat Reed in Titusville, Florida.

And as you can see in the small handle part of the fan are the signatures of people she has traded with through the Feed Sack Club.

This is also from the collection of Pat Reed and here she selected all blues.

- [Georgia] She must have a blue book too.

[Jane laughs] - [Jane] This is Pat Reed's collection also.

And this gives a demonstration of how nicely the quilting shows up.

- [Georgia] Even the white is feed sack too.

- [Jane] 100%.

This quilt comes from Bernice Mink, a resident of North Carolina and a member of the Feed Sack Club.

And once again, a way to use your feed sacks in traditional patterns of that era.

- [Georgia] This is from Bernice Mink also, and we're featuring the back of the quilt more than the front here because it is...

They've done just what they were told two years ago and that was to use four feed sacks that would comprise the back of a quilt.

So there are four.

LEI especially love the primitive character of this top.

Tell us about what this is.

- [Ellie] Okay, this top was purchased at a yard sale in Northwest Virginia and it's a wonderful sample of a child's memory blanket.

I believe it to be early '30s.

And it's all hand embroidered on recycled flower sacks.

And along with the top, it has the two pillow covers.

One says, "Good morning" and the other one, of course, says "Goodnight."

- [Jane] This wall hanging was sent by Linda Winter from Nebraska and it's our Sunbonnet Sioux.

And it gives the opportunity, as you can see, she used the prints on the borders also.

- [Georgia] They really work this time, don't they?

- It brings it all together.

- Yes.

How nice to see all the quilts.

Now, we know what to do.

If we can bear to cut the feed sacks, we know what to do with them.

We can't end our session here without talking about Biddy the cat.

Jane, tell us about that.

- Judson Bemis was the largest manufacturer of the bags and he for some reason selected a cat by the name of Biddy for his logo.

So to find a Bemis bag with Biddy on it is collectible.

- And didn't they build a whole town?

- Oh.

- I understand.

- Yes they did.

Down in Bemis, Tennessee.

Everything from the shops, to the schools, to the skating rink.

It was a company town, owned by the Bemis Manufacturing Company and it still is there.

All of the family has since sold all of the businesses and he produced a newsletter as well.

And it was called the Bemis Blotter.

- Oh my goodness.

Well, so much of this is just so interesting and I hope that by bringing it to light, we're gonna learn more about who made the designs and how it was printed.

Were they roller printed?

What do you think the future holds for the club and what's you've started?

- I would like to see the history come along with us today into the future of tomorrow.

And I would like to see quilt museums, regular museums, universities establish permanent collections of antique fabrics.

- And maybe a first convention or a symposium.

- I love that.

- Right.

Right.

- And then maybe when the last feed sack is cut up into a six-inch square, it might kind of fade out then.

But we hope not because it's been so interesting and we thank both of you so much for coming.

I think it's gonna be a real nostalgia trip for many people in our audience.

- Well, Georgia- - Thank you.

- We appreciate the fact that we were able to be here and- - Oh.

- The Feed Sack Club would like to present you with a pair of curtains.

- I'm gonna have to redo my whole kitchen, I can tell.

[laughs] And now to our how to portion of the show, oval links of patchwork become a chain that intertwines the length of this quilt.

It's made by Penny Wortman from Candler, North Carolina, set against a field of blue and white ticking like fabric.

The feed sack material adds old-timey flair, especially the yellow print and the red polka dot fabric.

The name is derived from the actual feed sack named tuxedo feed sacks found in one of the fabrics.

The patches came from an old quilt top that was even stitched together with a thick thread used to enclose the feed sack, all shared by a friend.

So hence tuxedo friendship.

After all, that's what many of our quilts are all about, sharing scraps, more sharing of scraps.

A wonderful quilt top presented to me by Betty Selby from Middletown, Ohio.

If you look carefully, you can see in this particular patch right here where the feed sack has been reversed.

The reason I'm showing this, it's very similar to what we're gonna learn today.

That is that double wetting ring quilt patch done in a continuing quilt pattern.

And here you see it with Penny Wortman's quilt.

This time in elongated chains.

Now, you have to look carefully to find the 10-inch square that we have isolated with tape.

It takes 42 of these 10-inch blocks plus a row at the top and the bottom where she has extended half a block to finalize the pattern.

This quilt uses six templates.

Every once in a while, we have to make our templates by tracing them, usually from a book that relies on gridded plastic.

And you can simply place it on top of the area that you need to trace out.

Use an indelible pen and a ruler.

I usually isolate the turns, the corners, and then go ahead and add your quarter inch on each of the templates.

Or you might wanna use grid grip.

You can reuse that many times.

And then I simply, once it's pressed in place, will add the quarter inch with my see-through ruler.

I'm going to place the templates where they would go.

This is the background template and then this one is on the fold.

And when you look at this particular one, you think, oh goodness, it has to be set in but have a special way of piecing this that I think will make it very easy for you.

As for the others, you'll need four of these mirror images, two sets, one, and then another set over here.

You'll need these templates, two of those, one for each side.

And you'll need four of these and four of these.

But two sets are mere images, in other words, one here and one reversed on the other side.

Now as far as piecing it, you can see that you're gonna concentrate on getting the chain link done both one time and the other time.

And then these little sections will piece together as they have pieced over here to create this entire section here, it will be 5 inches x 10.

So you're really creating two rectangles.

This will piece in here.

And so you have this nice gentle oval to piece on the sewing machine.

And the same thing to come over here.

Now when I get ready to piece those I take the time to press my seam allowances.

If that's pressed down, then this one will be pressed in.

Then this one will be pressed back.

Do you see how those are going in the opposite direction?

Let's pin and peek.

I'll come over here and take this, feel my seams that are staggered and put a pin in right here.

Then I'll come and start my stitching.

And I'll usually like to stitch on this side and so I'm gonna reverse that pin.

It makes it easier.

Do you see how it's pinned on this side?

Because then I have the concave area against the feed dogs and I'm simply turning my raw edges so that they're aligned properly.

And then start my quarter inch.

If at any time I want to see where I'm going, I always drop my needle right down to the fabric and then I'm coming and use a stiletto there to get that just right, drop the needle right in the fabric and then I'm ready to come down.

And what I'm trying to do is pull this around as it ekes into place so that these will line up and you'll see how nicely this is gonna happen, where this comes right around to the very bottom.

And so you'll do that another time.

Do you see how that's reaching right there?

And that will set in to this portion right here.

And pretty soon you've got each of these rectangles done that go together to form the 10-inch square.

I've tried it over here in the dark background and it does emphasize the calico.

However, I don't think it's quite as handsome as this one.

It's because these are not feed sacks.

These are new up-to-date fabrics.

When Penny finished her quilt, she quilted it in sections.

So this gives us a chance to review the lap quilting technique.

I've created a little mock quilt here for you to have an idea of how the lap quilting connection works.

It's a review for us.

Remember that one of the secrets is that on all the connecting seams that you only quilt up to a half an inch.

In other words, if you quilted to the raw edge, you don't have that seam allowance to make the connection.

With that extension, you have a quarter inch in order to sow it together and then another quarter inch for the seam to be turned in one direction.

So let's see how that works.

You've got, in this case, four rows.

I have one row put together where I've already finished the hand work on the back side.

So I'm working in progress of the second row.

And you can see what happens is that I have picked it up, pinning the backing free on each side and going, so that I'm just working with the front section, the front panels of my quilt.

I am then going to machine stitch, including the batting from one side.

So I would machine stitch that and then machine stitch the other one.

Once that has been connected, then I'll put my rows down on a flat surface.

That allows me to then trim off the batting.

Do you see how I've accumulated or stitched in a quarter inch?

And so I have an accumulation, an excess here and I don't want that to be lumpy there.

So I'm simply going to trim that off, making sure that I'm not cutting into that backing at all.

But once that is trimmed, you'll like the fact that you've got a nice flat section then, one side goes straight and the other side will turn under a quarter of an inch.

So you create that flat lapped seam.

I would go ahead and I'll just pin this in place so you'll have an idea of how that works.

One of the secrets in doing the rows is that it helps to alternate the seam allowance each time.

For instance, if this row, if you can peek in here and see that the seam, the connecting seam is going that way and it's going this way, that on this one they're actually gonna go in the opposite direction, you see in the opposite direction.

So then once you have hand stitch the backing, and that's nothing more than a flat application stitch.

This remember would be pinned.

Let's go ahead and pin this and I have my needle threaded ready to go here.

That would be pinned and turn that under a quarter of an inch.

And then that connection can be made.

And I like to hold that and just do an application stitch.

It's a hidden one and you'd use a coordinating thread where the needle will go down is right where that thread has come up.

You're just going to go as taut as you can, but don't go through to the front of your quilt.

You'll probably be picking up some of the batting as you're going along.

Once that is connected, pretend that's been sewn here, then I'm ready to put my two rows together, removing these pins and then aligning the front of my quilt once again and freeing this up.

I can then come and with those seams staggered and pinned, I like to pin not only here but at the other seam, which might be 18 to 20 inches apart and you're...

If you've taken and made just the amount of quilting, it's going to meet exactly.

Do you see how nice that meets?

Alright, once that has been met, then you do the same thing on the long row that you did right here.

And that's a matter of trimming any excess.

And then one side goes flat and one turns under a quarter of an inch.

And it really is important that you're working on a flat surface.

So you don't get any lumpy thing happening in the front here.

But I know that you'll wanna be proud, as proud of the back of your quilt, as you are the front of your quilt.

Quite often using a calico or something that will disguise that seam connection works very nicely as it does in the back of Penny Wortman's quilt.

Now, we look forward to you joining us next time when we go to Bozeman, Montana and discover what's being done with old-timey fabrics that are being printed again today.

We look forward to seeing you then.

Thanks for joining us today.

[gentle guitar music] ♪ Warms the body ignites the mind ♪ ♪ The art of the heart and design of the mind ♪ ♪ Puts you to bed one day at a time ♪ ♪ The art of heart and design of the mind ♪ [gentle guitar music] - [Announcer] "Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel," is made possible in part by grants from Omnigrid, the original patented black and yellow ruler.

By Leisure Arts, publisher and distributor of needlework and craft publications, including an assortment of quilt books and related products.

Additional funding by Fairfield Processing maker of poly-fil brand products for the home, sewing, quilt and craft industries.

And by BERNINA delivering sewing technology and education to sewers worldwide.