Frugal Heritage quilt...

Wow, this is a heritage/memory quilt if I have ever seen one! Becky used fabrics and batting from old family quilts and fabrics. Be sure to visit her site for more fun stuff...

My name is Becky Hogue. I am 30 years old, and I am a fairly new quilter. I have made 3 “human” quilts and 2 doll quilts.  Here is the story of my favorite quilt so far, mostly because there is such a story and so much history in it. I posted about it in two separate entries on my blog http://www.beckyanndesigns.blogspot.com/ too. I love the idea of your new blog. I have several quilts that I have inherited (robbed from my mama’s cedar chest) that nobody knows any history on. It is so sad that we know they came from somewhere in our family but know absolutely nothing beyond that point.

My youngest daughter Abby really helped me with bringing me the next blocks that I needed to sew together so I didn’t have to keep hopping up and down from my sewing machine.


All of the fabrics except the red are from my Great Aunt Bertha. The white one was an old feed or flour sack. I literally cut it apart myself so I could use the fabric. How awesome is that! The solid teal and the white with the blue and teal flowers were pieces of fabric that she (or someone) had purchased and used part of already.

The size right now is 42" x 56". I really like to have plenty of quilt to wrap around me when I watch TV so I am going to try to find some fabric that will coordinate well to use as a border to make it a little larger. But, here it is for now.

Here is the pattern I used by Quilting Treasures.

They have a lot of free quilting patterns on their site.

This was a very frugal quilt. I only spent less than $15 total, including the thread. Now I wouldn't pay even that for a plain throw to use for myself on the couch, but to be able to produce a piece of living history to use and then maybe pass on to another family member one day, I think that is pretty thrifty.


I started with a quilt that came from somewhere on my Daddy's side of the family. With it's solid fabric top and 4 random pieced fabrics on the back, this was definitely a quilt made out of necessity not one to be used for display somewhere. Jay and I used it on our bed in the winter until last year when it was too badly torn to use anymore. I couldn't very well just throw it away, I had to re-use it for something. So, I took pictures, then carefully disassembled it. I used the blanket that was in the middle for my batting, and also one of the large pieces of white from the back for the border of my quilt. After cleaning this piece really well, I could make out the shape of an eagle with it's wings spread and the words Corn Starch, but only vaguely.

I also had some gorgeous fabrics from my Great Aunt Bertha, my Mama's aunt. The solid dark teal, the white print, and the teal flowers (my favorite of all) are all from her fabric stash. So is the lighter teal binding. Apparently she had used the solid dark teal, teal flowers and lighter teal to make something out of and these were the scraps because you could tell there were clothing shaped cutouts. The white one with the print was an actual feedsack, still sewn up. How cool is that!

So like any good quilt maker or sewer, I decided to use all of these family pieces along with a few of my own to make a new quilt. I purchased the red fabric at Heirlooms and Comforts quilt shop in Central, SC, and Donna at Mudpies and Memories with a little help from Angel helped me choose the green paisley backing at Hobby Lobby. Donna really had to convince me to buy it and even promise to buy it from me if I hated it the next day. It ended up being the perfect fit for the quilt. Except for the fact that I should have bought 3 yards but miscalculated and thought I only needed 2 yards. Oops! So, along came the stripe running down one side of the back, which I also turned out to absolutely love. Reminds me of a railroad track.

Almost forgot, this is the first quilt I have ever actually machine quilted. I string tied both of the quilts I made for the girls. I love the look of actual quilting and how they get all crinkly after washing them.


Whew, I finally have all of this documented so that when I am old and senile or laying somewhere with daisies growing on top of me, whoever ends up with this quilt will know the history of it. I have also completed another one of my goals for the new year to finish at least one quilt this year.