| The Great Depression was an era that created quite | | | | trace the quilting patterns or even a picture from a quilt |
| a challenge for women who desired to quilt. Not only | | | | photographed for the magazine to make their own |
| was money very tight in households, but there were | | | | patterns at home. The most popular magazines would |
| limited supplies nationwide. Women had to turn to | | | | occasionally offer iron-on quilt patterns. These were |
| creativity and resourcefulness in order to create | | | | extremely well received since several women could |
| beautiful quilts. Some popular quilts of today were | | | | share not only the cost of the magazine but could |
| actually born from The Great Depression. | | | | share the iron-on patterns for their quilting. |
| The Great Depression, for those of us who weren't | | | | Thus, offering free quilting patterns actually became a |
| around at the time, was an economic slump in North | | | | common marketing tradition that is still used today. |
| America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the | | | | I found it particularly interesting that what was used to |
| world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. | | | | market to women and sell women's magazines in The |
| Begun with the collapse of agricultural prices in the | | | | Great Depression is still used today. Many companies |
| 1920's, it's most well-known for the 1929 collapse of | | | | even offer free patterns in their magazines for quilting |
| Wall Street. It was the longest and most severe | | | | and other crafts. |
| depression ever experienced by the industrialized | | | | We offer the same service at to people who sign up |
| Western world. | | | | for the patterns, even if they don't belong to the |
| Bankers and other previously weather individuals who | | | | members-only section of the website. Of course, |
| lost everything jumped to their deaths from buildings. | | | | those who do join the members-only site regularly |
| Workers who could find jobs still struggled to be able | | | | receive original patterns created just for our members. |
| to feed their families. With the total collapse of the | | | | But caveat emptor � let the buyer beware |
| economy, people found creative ways to brings in | | | | � really applies here when surfing the web for |
| small amounts of cash while businesses had to | | | | "free" quilt patterns. There are a few sites that offer |
| become creative to survive by vying for a portion of | | | | free patterns and even manage to often score high in |
| that hard-earned money from their customers. | | | | page ranking on Google that are merely scams to |
| So it's easy to see why companies selling quilt fabrics, | | | | capture and sell email addresses. So be careful when |
| threads and tools had to find a way to create value in | | | | you choose to subscribe to such a free service. Be |
| their products and encourage quilters to continue to | | | | sure it's a website or company that really is in the |
| spend such hard-earned cash. Luckily for them, quilts | | | | quilting or sewing industry, not in the data collection and |
| were a necessity that had to be created by hand | | | | resale business or you could be subject to a flood of |
| because the severe economic times limited the ability | | | | email marketing you think you've never requested. |
| to purchase them. | | | | All that aside, isn't it fascinating that this particular |
| Women magazines began offering similar quilting | | | | marketing technique of giving away free patterns that |
| patterns for free with each issue to increase their | | | | we use so freely today really came into use during |
| readership. After all, most household budgets could not | | | | The Great Depression? You know what they say, |
| afford to purchase a magazine, yet alone several | | | | "The more things change, the more they stay the |
| quilting patterns. | | | | same." |
| So to continue selling magazines and to promote the | | | | Happy stitching! |
| purchase of fabrics, many vendors chose to offer | | | | Jan Myers is the author of numerous articles and |
| free patterns that would encourage the purchases. | | | | books on topics from organizational development and |
| Patterns such as the Star of Bethlehem, Wedding | | | | leadership to quilting. It was her avocation, the love of |
| Ring, Grandmother's Flower Garden and even | | | | quilting, that inspired the popular online membership site |
| Dresden Plate are just some of the patterns we still | | | | for quilters known as the "world's largest quilting bee" |
| use today that were actually the result of The Great | | | | at Jan hosts several blogs, one of which is Quilters' |
| Depression. | | | | Broadcasting. |
| Often women would share one magazine. They would | | | | |