Quilt Store Archaeology

Cutting fat quarters and trimming bolts often involves narrow strips of fabric which are not needed or are waste.  When we cut FQs, instead of opening the folded half-meter to cut it in half, we simply place the ruler as close to the closed fold as possible and trim that off, leaving us with two pieces approximately 20'' x 22".  When the edge of a new bolt is ragged, we cut a straight line perpendicular to both selvedge and fold to straighten that edge. 
     All of the narrow folds and the ragged bolt-end strips go into a glass container that sits on the cutting table.  Since the container is transparent, it's possible to see layers that reflect our activities.
  In geology, layers of rock are formed over thousands and millions of years.  Scientists can use them to learn about the long physical history of our planet, for example, whether rock formed from cooling volcanic lava or from pressure on a former sandy seabed.  In archaeology, layers form as new societies build homes and other structures on top of where previous inhabitants lived.  These come to be over hundreds or thousands of years.
  The summer I was 19 I worked on an archaeological dig in Israel, in the Negev desert.  The oldest layers were believed to be the site of an Old Testament story in which Jacob met Rachel at a well by which stood seven trees.  At least, I think that's the story, but I am now a long way from my teenage years.  Anyway, there was evidence of buildings and also of seven trees.
  The site was laid out on a grid, and as I was there during the sixth of a planned 7-year excavation, much digging had already taken place.  There were many rectangular holes in the ground, with straight sides and fairly flat bottoms.  These were separated by narrow dirt and stone walls.  My job was to sit in the bottom of one of these holes and sift through the dirt, searching for pieces of pottery, coins, bones, and anything else that might indicate signs of the former lives that were lived here.  The deeper I dug, the older the artifacts were.  When I had sifted through enough dirt to fill one bucket with the sifted sand, and another with those items I'd found, I'd call up and someone above would lower a rope with a hook on it, to raise the bucket, empty it, and return it to me.
   While this was interesting, the Israeli summer desert was very hot, as muc as 120 degrees, which is hot in either temperature scale.  We slept in tents and each morning we had to check our boots for scorpions.  We rose at 5 a.m. and went straight to work while it was cooler.  We at breakfast at 9, and then worked until noon, at which time it was too hot to be out in the sun.  Afternoons were spent sorting and cataloging the artifacts that had been found.  But doing all this was worthwhile, as it enabled us to learn about human history.
    Fortunately, learning about quilt store history is much easier.  There's no risk of sunburn, and no creatures, especially no poisonous ones, involved.  However, just as geological and archaeological layers indicate age and information about the forces that formed them, our cutting table jar also provides much insight.
   Sometimes we cut FQs from new bolts of fabric, but we also try to always have at least three or four cut and on the shelf from each bolt in the store, as many people like to buy FQs instead of yardage.  What can we learn about what was cut from the above photo?
  As in the other areas discussed above, the lower the layer in the jar, the older the event that formed it.  With quilt store archaeology we are looking at formations that develop over days or a few weeks, instead of millenia.  The information is no less revealing, though, of the social  and historical constructs of a quilt store.
  At the bottom of the jar, we can see a layer that includes a number of colours, including pink, blue, green and yellow.  A closer investigation reveals that none of these strips have any textures, meaning they come from bolts of solid-coloured fabric.  The strips are narrow, and so must come from cutting FQs.  The existence of several colours could mean that these FQs were cut from new bolts, or from ones already on the shelves for which the FQ number had dropped to none, one, or two.  Through careful sifting, I was able to determine that are either two or four strips of each colour.  That means that these came from FQS cut from bolts already present, as when bolts are new, we always cut six FQs.
  Let us now examine the next layer.  There is a variety of darker blue strips, and perhaps a couple of black ones, although determination of this would require taking the above photo to a lab, or at least to Photoshop, for further analysis of an enlarged image.  This shows us that whoever was cutting the solids' FQs observed that many of the darker blue fabrics, and we usually have at least three or four dark blues, were popular and so there was a greater shortage of their fat quarters than, perhaps, of other colours.
   The next layer up holds many wider strips with one ragged edge.  This demonstrates conclusively that the next person cutting was dealing with several new bolts, all of which were white, off-white, or tone-on-tone in these shades.
  Above this informative and scientifically exciting layer is one of narrow strips, denoting FQs again, most in turquoises and teals.  The data leads me to hypothesize that these were from bolts already in the store, rather than from new bolts, as this layer is found between two layers of wider strips.  The fact that there are no wider strips from the blues could mean that these bolts, when new, arrived with straight edges, but this is highly unlikely, based on previous experience.  They must therefore be from bolts on the shelves.
  The wider strips above are white and pale brown, and close examination reveals that both edges of the strips are straight.  They can't be from new bolts.  A detailed consideration of options is necessary.  Strips this narrow aren't usually cut on purpose, and if these had been, they would not be found in the jar.  They must have come from cutting blocks for our Saturday Surprise (Periwinkle's version of a Block of the Month, only in our case it's a Block of the Every Two Weeks) or from making a kit.  Much further study is needed before we can learn everything possible from this layer.

And there you have it - a fascinating study of activity in a quilt store.

In case any of you are curious, and want to know why we bother saving all these strips, I will tell you.  Aside from their priceless historical data, they are used in a number of ways.  When the jar is full, we put the strips in a plastic bag and put it out in the foyer, marked 'Free."  The bags always disappear.  People knit or weave with them.  They can become fringes.  I've couched them onto landscapes, for example put blue ones in wavy lines on top of the fabric I'm using for water.  There are many more uses, and if you know of any, please comment here to let me know!