Bits and Pieces

Last month a group of us went to the Smithsonian American History Museum and viewed a collection of their quilts.  There were 10 of us and we saw about 30 quilts.  Everyone enjoyed to presentation.

It was suggested that others would like to do this.  The showings are made on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, although they take off December and January.  There is a maximum of 10 people in each showng.  It starts at 10:15 AM and goes to around noon. It doesn't cost anything but time. Place a phone call to 202-633-3825 and someone will contact you about a visit.

There is also a book featuring many of the quilts we saw, Call The Smithsonian Treasury American Quilts  by Doris M. Bowman.  Amazon has it, used for a penny plus shipping.

Pat Alfredson

Bits and Pieces

Standard Fabric Measurements, Then and Now

Recently, we had a customer return with a fat quarter she had purchased complaining that the size did not fit her pattern. Granted depending on how much fabric is left, my fat quarters can be oversized; actually a good thing for the customer, because the customer is getting more fabric for less money. This customer decided she would open all the fat quarters in the fabric she had chosen to find the ones that met her pattern dimensions.

Fellow employees related this to me which prompted me to investigate the width measurements for fabric we had in stock. As you know fabric width can be 44-45, 54, 60, etc. The ‘used to be standard’ for cotton width was 44-45. Perhaps 43 usable especially after you washed it. Upon measuring random selected bolts, I found the standard is now 42!

Batiks across the board fared less well than that measuring 41.

The ‘old standard’ for fat quarters was 18x22. Thus ,the new standard must be 18x20 for batiks, and 18x21 for cottons.

So, when formulating fabric needs, be aware the old standards which governed our buying is no longer reality!

Happy Quilting - Dianne Tippins