Who created the first fabric pre-cuts?

Some of you have been busy bees - even with knee and other surgeries!! It's great to get things done, and Torry seems to be accomplishing a lot in small leaps and bounds! All progress is progress!!!! We must celebrate the small steps as well as the big ones!!  

I'm having so much fun going through these magazines that I want to make sure I document all the cool stuff I spotted. Once I get past the next couple of issues (pre-2000), I'm sure I won't need to document so much because it's all "recent" at that point. 

As you can imagine, there were ads, and I bet that most of the products available were in those ads. So I thought I'd share some ads with you. 

Back in the day, Fairfield was a big batting supplier, and I remember my friend at the time who helped me when I first started was a staunch user of Cotton Classic. I think she made everything using that batting. Later, when I saw other battings, I wasn't such a fan - I found it quite limp compared to the stuff with polyester in it. Fairfield is still going strong, and you can check out their website. 

An ad for Fairfield batting (1987)

Hobbs batting was around at the time, too. But from the ad, I only see poly-down, not their poly/cotton blend. 

An ad for Hobbs batting (1987)

OMG—I just read the blurb, and you are not going to believe this. If you wanted a sample, you could send a SASE to them in Texas. The batting was made with Celanese Fortrel Loft-guard. Who knew!!!! To me, Fortrel was what other people call crimpoline!!!!

In January/February of 94, I spotted an ad (another first!) by Hobbs announcing their 100% wool batting. And look who is in the ad - Harriet Hargrave!! I believe she was the one who pushed the quilt world, kicking and screaming, I'm sure, to machine quilting. She was a master at machine quilting. 

Harriet Hargrave - a master machine quilter

I mentioned the other day that Quiltmaker was part of the Quilter's Newsletter family, and I have more to tell you about that story another day. But they advertised their magazine in Quiltmaker. Of course they did—they reached different audiences. Quiltmaker focused on patterns, while Quilter's Newsletter had articles of interest as well as patterns. It will take forever to go through those. 

An ad for Quilter's Newsletter magazine

Back in the 90s, quilters were using projectors to enlarge patterns and pictures. Many quilters designed small patterns and enlarged them. This was very common in art quilts, but in the photo, it looks like the lady is enlarging a pieced block!!!

The use of projectors (1987)

Keepsake Quilting was around and advertising swatches!!! Yep --- you could get up to five hundred 2" swatches plus their catalog, and who doesn't love scrap quilts!!! You could get 350 calico and small print swatches for $4.00. Who doesn't remember getting the Keepsake Catalog in the later years and browsing it like you were a kid and had just received the Eaton's Wish Book? My catalog was earmarked with so many things I wanted. BOTH the Eaton's Wish Book and the Keepsake Quilting Catalog!

An ad from Keepsake Quilting (1987)

Or you could buy a wide assortment of fabrics in larger squares. This picture is from a 1987 issue! There were no "pre-cuts" back then. WAIT—these are the precursors to pre-cuts as we know them. This was a pack of 5" squares that were die-cut. That sounds like a pre-cut to me!!! A quilt store was selling these. More on that another day. You got 286 5" squares (two each of 143 fabrics) all for the grand price of $28.00 US (ppd). I think that last means that the postage was included? 

A pack of 286 5" squares for sale - $28.00 USD

And then they had these "cute" ways of displaying fabric swatches. Imagine the person who was tasked with making ice cream cones from fabric swatches, but it does show off the gradations nicely! Yep—quilters and marketing people were clever even back in 1987. NO AI to generate that photo!

Ice cream cones to display fabric gradations

You could buy tote bags because you can never have enough tote bags or other craft kits. 

Tote bags and craft kits available for sale

And let's not forget about the books! I know that the earlier quilt pattern books did NOT have pretty pictures and the instructions may be a bit sketchy, but the ideas? Way more creative and flexible than patterns today. Give me an old quilt book any day over a modern one!! I happen to have most of the books in that top row!! I had to scrounge to find that scrap book on the far left, but I'll tell you the story of that another day. 

Highly coveted quilt books (at least by me!)

Who didn't get signed up for these craft book clubs? OK - Maybe Elle didn't! But I'm sure at one point, all of us belonged to one of those clubs. And what has happened to most of those books? They are gone! While I said that I liked the older books, most of the stuff in the craft series was different. More crafty than quilting. 

Did anyone sign up for the craft book clubs?

Don't forget the magazines were peppered with ads for hand quilting frames. I bet most of them were designed by some quilter's husband, and he built them. There were many brands. 

Hand quilting frames

How about a hanger for your quilt? I used to have one of these (of course I did!) - you didn't need to put a sleeve on the quilt. I got rid of it a number of years ago, and I believe it went to someone's cottage. 

Quilt hanger made from wood

And let's not forget the binders you could get with the magazine name on the front. It was for storing magazines. I never stored magazines in these binders. 

Binders to store your countless magazines

And the quilt calendars. These used to have beautiful quilt pictures in them, and Quilter's Newsletter published them. 

Quilt calendars

OK—here's how far we have come in the world of sewing machines. This ad is from 1994, when Janome didn't exist - it was called New Home at the time. I wonder if that's why some people say Janome (rhymes with HOME)? I call it Janome with a long e at the end. WAIT -- that is supposedly a computerized EMBROIDERY machine. Seriously? How big was the hoop? 

Look how large that throat space is? 

I love that they encouraged flexibility in the pattern sizes. You can vary the patterns by adding or subtracting rows or varying the borders, and they offered multiple color combinations so people didn't make the exact picture in the quilt. We were encouraged to think outside the box!! Not so much today, as there is one size and no mention of getting creative with the pattern. 

Instructions to get creative with the pattern size and color!

Although many patterns back then were quite repetitive, it was easy to change the width of the sashing and borders and play with the blocks in each row to make it bigger or smaller. But still—they encouraged people to make the quilts their own!

An example of a quilt pattern from 1987

They used a spool symbol to show how easy or hard the pattern was. I'll go into this a bit more, hopefully tomorrow. This symbol system is still used today. Different time, different symbols, but a good way to indicate the complexity of the pattern. 

A symbol system to show the degree of difficulty

Wow --- this is fascinating stuff. I know—it's only me who is fascinated, but I think learning that nothing is new today is a great lesson. For instance, the pre-cuts. One fabric company spearheaded the pre-cut movement (their clever marketing department), and now we have pre-cuts in all sizes, shapes, and fabric counts. Many companies have followed suit, but because those pre-cut names were copyrighted, other companies had to scramble to find something equally catchy! 

On that note, I've already been to the gym and worked out on my own. My upper arms are going to be jelly later today! I also came up with a clever assignment for my machine embroidery group while I was pumping iron, and I need to send it to them today. I swear if people STOPPED scrolling, they would have time to think up creative stuff and would actually get stuff done. I am shocked at how many women (it's mostly women) were on their phones today as they walked to the gym, to the locker room, around the workout floor, and then back in the locker room. It's insane!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!