The Postage Stamp Quilt may be for me

In my search for a long term hand pieced quilt project earlier this month I mentioned I may attempt a Dear Jane quilt, however, I have a few other quilt patterns floating around in my head one is the Postage Stamp quilt.

Postage stamp quilts so named because many quilters in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries used pieces of fabric as small as a postage stamp to make this quilt.

My plan is to use one-inch squares, as a quilter we rarely throw away fabric scraps, even the smallest bits have a purpose, I have quite a few pieces cut out to start piecing a postage stamp quilt, this would be an on going work in progress and like the piecing that would go into making a Dear Jane quilt, it would be a great take along project

Postage Stamp Quilts are many and varied with variation in layout and size of each square. Making a Postage Stamp Quilt with thousands of tiny pieces often requires a great deal of patience and dedication to put together.

Whenever I think "scrap quilt" the very first quilt that comes to mind is a classic postage stamp quilt. Now a days many postage stamp quilt are made using 2.5” squares, not quite as small as postage stamps, but easier to use up those scraps from left over Jelly Roll strips and Charm squares.

Traditional Postage stamp quilts are made up of thousands of tiny 1 inch by 1 inch squares sewn together. Through history, these quilts were a way to use up the tiniest scraps of fabric left over from sewing. Postage stamp quilts are often pieced with no set pattern in mind, but there are no hard and fast rules about how to arrange the colors of the squares. 

Making a postage stamp quilt is simple if I decide to make this my long term quilt project to begin I'll cut my scrap fabric into 1.5″ squares. This makes a 1″ square sewn piece with 1/4″ seam allowances.

When I am ready to start piecing my quilt, I will take 2 squares and sew them right sides together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Then I'll take another square and sew it to the two pieces I just put together, I'll keep doing this basically until I get bored of sewing, my fingers get too sore holding onto the needle or I reach the length I want.