| The Great Depression was an era that created | | | | increase their readership. After all, most |
| quite a challenge for women who desired to | | | | household budgets could not afford to |
| quilt. Not only was money very tight in | | | | purchase a magazine, yet alone several |
| households, but there were limited supplies | | | | quilting patterns. |
| nationwide. Women had to turn to creativity | | | | |
| and resourcefulness in order to create | | | | So to continue selling magazines and to |
| beautiful quilts. Some popular quilts of | | | | promote the purchase of fabrics, many vendors |
| today were actually born from The Great | | | | chose to offer free patterns that would |
| Depression. | | | | encourage the purchases. Patterns such as the |
| | | | Star of Bethlehem, Wedding Ring, |
| The Great Depression, for those of us who | | | | Grandmother's Flower Garden and even Dresden |
| weren't around at the time, was an economic | | | | Plate are just some of the patterns we still |
| slump in North America, Europe, and other | | | | use today that were actually the result of |
| industrialized areas of the world that began | | | | The Great Depression. |
| in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. Begun | | | | |
| with the collapse of agricultural prices in | | | | Often women would share one magazine. They |
| the 1920's, it's most well-known for the 1929 | | | | would trace the quilting patterns or even a |
| collapse of Wall Street. It was the longest | | | | picture from a quilt photographed for the |
| and most severe depression ever experienced | | | | magazine to make their own patterns at home. |
| by the industrialized Western world. | | | | The most popular magazines would occasionally |
| | | | offer iron-on quilt patterns. These were |
| Bankers and other previously weather | | | | extremely well received since several women |
| individuals who lost everything jumped to | | | | could share not only the cost of the magazine |
| their deaths from buildings. Workers who | | | | but could share the iron-on patterns for |
| could find jobs still struggled to be able to | | | | their quilting. |
| feed their families. With the total collapse | | | | |
| of the economy, people found creative ways to | | | | Thus, offering free quilting patterns |
| brings in small amounts of cash while | | | | actually became a common marketing tradition |
| businesses had to become creative to survive | | | | that is still used today. |
| by vying for a portion of that hard-earned | | | | |
| money from their customers. | | | | I found it particularly interesting that what |
| | | | was used to market to women and sell women's |
| So it's easy to see why companies selling | | | | magazines in The Great Depression is still |
| quilt fabrics, threads and tools had to find | | | | used today. Many companies even offer free |
| a way to create value in their products and | | | | patterns in their magazines for quilting and |
| encourage quilters to continue to spend such | | | | other crafts. |
| hard-earned cash. Luckily for them, quilts | | | | |
| were a necessity that had to be created by | | | | We offer the same service at to people who |
| hand because the severe economic times | | | | sign up for the patterns, even if they don't |
| limited the ability to purchase them. | | | | belong to the members-only section of the |
| | | | website. Of course, those who do join the |
| Women magazines began offering similar | | | | members-only site regularly receive original |
| quilting patterns for free with each issue to | | | | patterns created just for our members. |