Blog Action Day – What Can Quilters Do for Environmental Awareness?
October 14, 2007 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
Many people around the world are celebrating Blog Action Day, October 15 to create environmental awareness.
What is our environment? What do we mean by environmental awareness? How does this affect quilters and fabric artists?
I think quilters may have been some of the earliest environmentalists, although they would never have thought of themselves that way. (Besides the term “environmentalist” hadn’t even been invented.)
However, quilters, since quilting began, were recyclers. They used and re-used fabric for their creations. At first this was from necessity, then they couldn’t see fabric go to waste. Sometimes, too, they made quilts from older fabrics and clothing because of the memories it evoked.
Nowadays, quilters use new and old fabrics, along with embellishments they’ve salvaged. These include old beads and buttons, scraps of yarn, keys, medallions and charms. They even make embellishments for their quilts from saved materials.
What can quilters do? Continue what they have been in recycling older fabrics and accessories into new work. They make a statement, avoid cluttering the environment, and create something of beauty.
What else can you do as a quilting environmentalist?
Cool post! I recently featured women who knitted a house to raise money for housing so sewing can help — a lot. I love the ideas about recycling materials; I never really thought about that but it’s true. My grandma was a quilter and she bought all her stuff at yard sales and re-used items. Her quilts were still amazing. Happy BA Day