Originally Posted by Scissor Queen
One of the biggest reason 1/4 inch seams are used is the amount of additional fabric it would take over a whole queen size quilt. That extra quarter inch would probably add up to more than a yard of fabric on a queen size quilt.
Ironing seams to one side was done to keep the batting inside. Originally "batting" wasn't really batting. It was just hand fulls of carded cotton laid on the backing. That's also why really old quilts are heavily quilted.
Hand quilted quilts aren't quilted in the ditch as a rule either. They're quilted a quarter of an inch away from the ditch. In the ditch quilting was invented to hide machine quilting. Machine quilting was looked down upon until the last 15 years or so but it's been around for more than 100 years.
I remember reading about a gal who lived in North Dakota in the early 1900s, maybe late 1890s. I don't remember. I just know it was a long time ago. Anyway, she used the wool from her sheep as batting and each summer she would take out all the quilting stitches and recard the wool. :shock: I remember thinking how sad that was, and time consuming! She did it every year without fail. Wow! I'm so glad we've come a long way since then!!!