Good Junk: feedsack quilt squares

On Monday I popped into Goodwill looking for...well, I'm not sure what I was looking for, but while I was there I spied a bag full of old feedsack quilt squares in the locked glass case. This particular Goodwill is usually pretty lousy, although I have found a few treasures now and again. I've seen antique quilts in the glass case on more than one occasion, but they're always marked at some ridiculous amount for a thrift store ($70+) and have been in poor condition. The price on the quilt squares was also too high, so I didn't even ask to look at them.

Yesterday afternoon we were on the way to get Porter's hair cut and I knew that the 50% off color tag at that Goodwill changes on Thursdays, so I thought we'd do a quick stop and see if, just by some lucky chance, the color of tag on the quilt squares was the color on sale. It was and I was surprised to see that the quilt squares were still in the case, so I wasted no time in snapping them up!

I finally had a chance last night to go through them and I'm so happy I bought them! They definitely qualify for the title of Good Junk:

There are 61 squares total. Nine of them have been sewn together in a line, and some of the other squares must have been sewn together at some point because they have pressed seam allowances and needle holes down two sides. Most of the squares (50 to be exact) have nine little feedsack strips at the top of the pink wedge.

One square has 10 strips, one has 14, and the remaining squares have 15 strips.

I have no idea why there is a difference, unless the quilter started out doing the 15-strip squares and decided it was just taking WAY too long and dropped six strips for a total of nine.

The squares themselves are made of what looks like unbleached muslin.

Some of the muslin has yellowish spots on it, and I don't know if that is damage or just part of the unbleached-ness.

The feedsack fabrics are just darling and I know it must have been an awful lot of work to piece all those tiny strips together. Here is a sampling of some of the squares:

I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with these squares. I don't sew so it's way beyond my abilities to make them into a quilt myself. I know that there are quilters out there that will take old squares like these and make them into a quilt for you, but I imagine that's a pretty expensive service due to the time involved. The sewing is not as precise (notice how most of the wedges are different sizes?) so I'm not sure it would be worth the great expense. They're too small to be made into pillows, and there are too many to frame and put on the wall. Any suggestions?

I figure each square cost me just over 25¢, which was some consolation after Porter's disaster of a haircut. He has portraits scheduled for tomorrow morning and his hair ended up way shorter than I wanted it to be, and I could just cry about it! I don't know what possessed me to get his hair cut right before pictures, but it really was looking shaggy and needed a trim--just not that much of a trim! He's not bald by any means, but all of his long curls are gone and I'm just sick about it. Maybe I'll feel better if I go look at my new quilt squares again.