I'm a newbie. I hope this is right. I can remember my Grandmother And my mom talking about using newspaper. Kind of sewing strips of material to the paper. I'm not sure. Does anyone know about this. I do scrap quilts and she always told me about this but it was not very clear. :?:

I have a spider web top that was done in the 1930s. The newspaper is still there and legible, which is how I know the date. I guess plain paper was scarce or expensive, so they used what they had on hand. If I get a chance tomorrow, I will add a picture of it.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Quilting-...-newspaper.htm

This little Q and A mentions it.

I saw an episode on Simply QUilts about the newspaper quilts.
I learned that if you are going to use newspaper as your foundation to sew strips quilts, you must allow the newspapers to sit for at least two weeks ... apparently, it helps the ink to set and the oils to dissipate or something like that.

Hello there,
I just had my Mother, who is 85,
tell me that when she was young
she used pages out of a Look
magazine to sew her blocks on!! :D
Sure wish she still had a few of them.
:D :D :D :D :D

I've done two string quilts on newspaper. Cut your newspaper about half an inch bigger than you want your blocks to be. Lay your first strip across the diagonal right side up and the second one right side down. Sew one edge. Flip open, iron and continue to cover the paper in one direction. When the first half is covered turn it around and cover the other half. You can use any size strips and they don't even have to be straight. When the paper is covered turn the block over and using a large square ruler trim the block square. Sew the blocks together and add the first border before you tear the paper off since all block edges are bias edges.

Since I'm not a beginner when I did my string quilts I did half the blocks with all dark fabrics and half with all light fabrics and then cut them in half on the diagonal. I cut the dark blocks across the strips and the lights with the strips and then sewed them back together.

Recycle, reuse and have fun with newspaper or magazines, or whatever is at hand. Newspaper is especially good when you want larger blocks. Just do remember to use newspaper that has aged. Fresh newspaper inks have a tendency to transfer to your hands or whatever is near!

Nice tutorial, Scissor Queen.
I do strip quilts on old bedsheets or very thin fabric ... never thought to turn them over to cut them ...
a few months ago, someone had a magazine with the same pattern you just taught us, and let me tell you! It was taking the person following that pattern FOREVER to finish one block. Yours is so much easier!
Don't know how big the telephone books are in your areas, but I think they are made on newsprint paper also.
I have heard that in the "old days" they just left the paper inside for added insulation. Of course, they didn't have washing machines to throw a quilt in to wash it ... probably just soaked it down and let the spring breezes dry it ...

Thanks for the tute. It helps it all make more sense. I guess back then they used whatever was available.

something else to consider ... the strips do not have to be one piece to go across ... you can sew strips end to end and if the "strip" changes in the middle of a line, no harm, more charm!
One of my friends goes through her scraps, cuts three sizes, 1", 2", and 2.5" ... and sews like-sized strips together, rolls them up into a jelly roll.
When she has a bunch, she starts a strip quilt, and just mixes the sizes of the strips from time to time to create "movement" and interest.
Helps gets those scraps in control, and creates a project that can be added to as time goes by.

Plus you can use all those scrap triangles on the corners if they're big enough. Since you sew the blocks together before you take the paper off you can pretty much do what you want for the strips. A lot of mine weren't even straight, they were skinny at one end and fat at the other. I did use the widest strips in the centers of the light blocks since I knew I was going to cut them and sew them on that diagonal.

The main reason I used newspaper over phone books or some other paper was I could get bigger blocks to start with.

Hi, Betty, and welcome!

Jane Quinn of Quilting The Country in Bozeman, MT, did an article on Chronicle Quilts where, years ago, women would use old copies of the local newspaper, The Bozeman Chronicle, to foundation-piece their quilts. If I recall, the pages were left full-size (mostly) and then the blocks were sewn together. These women also left the newspaper backing in their quilts for insulation....As I said, I hope my memory is serving me correctly...it's been awhile since reading this article. I've been wanting to try this method myself with some of the newspapers that age themselves around here!

One tip is to use a dry iron on any paper first if it has ink print on it. It will help set the ink and it won't come off on your fingers....
:roll: rich people's butlers do this to keep their fingers/hands clean while they read it :roll:

One tip is to use a dry iron on any paper first if it has ink print on it. It will help set the ink and it won't come off on your fingers....
:roll: rich people's butlers do this to keep their fingers/hands clean while they read it :roll:
I also buy the ends of newspaper rolls very cheaply...I can cut out any size blocks that I want out of it and I use it for other things as well. You can call your local paper and ask if they sell them and for how much.

I've used newspaper for my hexagonal quilt top. It's the English Paper method (I think that's what it's called) where you cut out the shape, fold the fabric around it & whip-stitch it to the next piece.

jojo47!
That is EXACTLY the program I was referencing!
Thank you for remembering <g> .. I knew it was in Montana somewhere, but was afraid that I hadn't remembered that correctly either!
I ain't so daft as I thought! Cool! LOL

My local newspaper sells the end rolls of paper so there is no ink.....just cut to size. It's great for all kinds of things......drawing paper when the kids were little to packing boxes

This is very interesting.
Think I might have to try this. :wink:
Thanks!

I have attached 2 pictures of the top I have. There is a date of April 1935 on one piece.

Let me try to paper picture again.

Thank- you so very much. I'll give it a try :lol:

Glad I could help, Omak! In fact, it was just this last summer when I visited my sisters in Montana that I learned about Chronicle quilts. I feel blessed that I can visit Montana each summer and that I've gottne to know Jane and the staff at Quilting In The Country. The annual quilt show Jane and Bill used to do was awesome!

To be able to go from Minnesota to Montana every year ... THAT! Must be a wonderful experience.
A couple of years ago, I traveled from here to North Carolina by train. I had a cell phone that I kept in contact with family on the ranch ... when we were going through Minnesota ... I called home and told Joe "I could live here!"
although, <g> I really do like where I am! LOL

I have a quilt made by my grandmother and great grandmother with a foundation of newspaper, and I remember clearly my grandmother saving papers and cutting shapes to stitch "strings" to.
some were triangles, some squares. I'm not sure if the paper is still on there or not. but it doesn't rustle at all.

Sometimes, today's "archivally correct" processes puzzle me, when I see that something has lasted for DECADES in the Eastern part of the USA and is still readable and usable ... I am not sure, but I always have thought the the east part of the USA is humid ... humid in western states means "everything rots" ... but, the East has so many antiques and good stuff that has last historically for HUNDREDS of years!
I don't get it!
But, I am glad that you have the newspaper quilt experience, Tippy <wave>

Here in Ohio we are really humid in the summer and in the winter very dry. It evens out I guess but I hate high humidity.LOL

humid in summer, dry in winter ... hmmm ... I don't think I have ever lived in country like that! Hmmm.... so .... what is the average temperature there in the summer? Ohio ... part of you is very close to one of the great lakes?
Of course, I could go look at it on a map, but .... that would be too easy!

I am 58 and I can remember my mother using pages out of the Sears Robuck catalog to paper piece her strings. Some strings would be no larger than 3/4". She had to make enough quilts to keep 8 kids warm, couldn't waste any scraps.

ROFLOL.. we used the Sears Roebuck catalog for an ENTIRELY different purpose at my grandmothers... just be sure to use the non-shiny pages and crumple them several times before use... a lesson we learned early on. We called those the "Roebuck" pages as the family name was Sears.. and that just didn't seem right...<giggle>

In 1973, I was living in Idaho, working a dairy.
Toilet paper was declared to be in shortage, and my boss' wife and daughter started running to town to buy toilet paper in BULK!
In a time when you didn't get a catalog unless you ordered from a company, these women had every catalog known to the free nation! I asked them what their problem was ... they couldn't have bought enough TP to equal what they had sitting around their houses!
Heck! We even had an outhouse sitting out back next to the garden ... I thought they would know how to "survive" ... they looked at me like I had three heads and headed BACK to town to buy MORE toilet paper!
We had just gone through all the "terror" of gas shortage, I would have thought that anyone could have understood how they were being manipulated .. but ... no such luck! LOL

it is a great experience, Omak, but the best part is my oldest grandson (he's 12 now) has traveled with me since he was 6, and enjoys visiting with his cousins. They do their thing and my sister and I...especially the one who quilts...do our thing!

Also ROFLOL! That catalog certainly had many uses!

LOL, and then some! From newspaper quilts to catalogs to lack of TP...and speaking of outhouses...one of my sisters has a brand-new 'necessary' a nice walk from their family cabin. Catalogs? Probably...they ARE biodegradable!

LOL ... i'll bet the paper we are using now that is recycled is not as biodegradable as the original product ... we are just multi-faceted conversationalists! 8)

Your quilt is beautiful. I love the way you put the blocks together. My mother used newspaper to sew her string quilt blocks on. I use thin muslin or other thin fabric as a base for my string quilts, but 70 years ago when Mother was making her string quilts, any fabric, even worn out sheets was precious.

Your quilt is beautiful. I love the way you put the blocks together. My mother used newspaper to sew her string quilt blocks on. I use thin muslin or other thin fabric as a base for my string quilts, but 70 years ago when Mother was making her string quilts, any fabric, even worn out sheets was precious.

and tell us, amma, how do you know this? LOL! :lol: :lol:

How true, Omak!

An "inlaw" gave me a quilt top several months ago that she bought at a garage sale "just because it was different". We have speculated on why the newspaper was on the backside (insulation was one of the guesses); so it is good to finally have the real answer.....thanks the for original post and thanks to my BFF for bringing this post to my attention!!!

You might check at your local newspaper office. My Mother went on a certain day of the week and got the end of run roles of paper. Her first ones were free, but they got wise and started charging a minimal fee.....still cheap.