:: The Story of String Quilts

During the economic slump of the early 20th century, string style quilting thrived. The 'strings' were narrow strips of scrap fabrics or otherwise used pieces of material that would usually be thrown out. Quilters sewed their strips of fabric together to cover a pattern in the shape of a diamond, square, triangle or any shape they chose cut from newspaper or used fabric.

Often a flour sack or old sheet served as the foundation fabric for sewing string pieces onto, in the flip and sew fashion, until the foundation was covered. They then snipped off fabric left over around the pattern edges. The blocks were sewn together as any patchwork block would be.

String quilts made by women in Gee's Bend, Alabama and Mid-Western Amish communities have become an art form. What they made for practical purposes are now treasured and displayed as wall art. The quilters had to make do with what they could sew out of almost nothing but some of their quilts show their desire to create interesting and attractive patterns and designs, often out of the most unpromising materials. Their string blocks are often square in shape or close to it, with one above the other. Sometimes sashing strips divide the blocks. The Amish string quilts can look like stacks of small squares. This pattern is named 'Coins'.

Quilters today sometimes look to old patterns to design quilts. String quilts in blocks, strips or overall patterns are part of the modern quilter's repertoire, either piecing scraps together in the old way, or cutting specially bought fabric to make the strings. One modern version of the string quilt is the selvedge edge quilt, also putting to use fabric which would otherwise be thrown away. Browsing the internet, I found all sorts of fascinating designs by typing in things like Scrappy Quilts and Heartstring Quilts.

The selvedge edge's size and shape matches another material used a century ago when cigar makers tied a bright coloured silk ribbon around each bundle of cigars. Women stitched the ribbons together with black or coloured embroidery floss. The colour and overprinting would add a secondary pattern that formed when the blocks were sewn together. Usually left unquilted, cigar ribbon tops were fragile, unlike the string and selvedge edge quilts. Mostly they remained as tops to cover tables, or they were made into pillow covers.

The common thread in string, selvedge edge and cigar ribbon quilts is that their popularity came about at a time of economic downturn or a war, or both. The materials used in each were throw-aways being put to use, as a quilt for warmth or as a decoration for the home.

The history of string quilts makes them particularly appropriate to sew in this time of recession in the early 21srt century. Using what we already have can be a challenge to ingenuity. It is satisfying to create a pleasing pattern or design out of left overs. There are many charity quilting projects in the USA which invite people to produce string blocks which are then made into comfort quilts for donating to people in need. Today we have more options than quilters a hundred years ago as the string quilting technique can be used in traditional ways but may also be applied to creating landscape and art quilts and in making fabric pictures.