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Claire Vlasin's Feedsack Quilts

Claire loved feedsacks. She collected them, shared them and made quilts out of them. Claire wrote, "My husband worked in a flour mill as a young boy and remembers helping ladies choose three or four matching bags of feed to make theirs or their children's clothing."
When she gave quilt lectures, she would hand out a swatch of feedsack fabric attached to this poem:
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Claire Vlasin's lecture handout.

When I was just a maiden fair,
  Mama made our underwear;
With many kids and Dad's poor
  pay, We had no fancy lingerie.
Monograms and fancy stitches
  did not adorn our Sunday
  britches. Pantywaists that
  stood the test Had "Swans
  Down" on my breast.
No lace or ruffles to Enhance,
  just "Jockey Oats" on my pants.
One pair of Panties beat them
  all, for it had a scene I
  still recall-
Chickens were eating wheat
  right across my little seat.
Rougher than a grizzly bear
  was my flour-sack underwear;
  plain- not fancy and two
  feet wide, and tougher than
  a hippo's hide.
All through Depression each
  Jack and Jill wore the sturdy
  garb of sack.
Waste not, want not, we soon
  learned that a penny saved
  is a penny earned.
There were curtains and tea
  towels too, and that is just
  to name a few.
But the best beyond compare
  was my flour-sack underwear.
       Author unknown

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