Frugal Tips: How “Green” Was Your Grandmother’s Quilting?

Mary Emma Allen — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:00:08 +0000

How “green” was your grandmother’s quilting?

(By “green” we mean using something in a way that doesn’t harm the environment and utilizing leftovers by recycling, reclaiming, and refinishing.)

Grandma never thought about “green” quilting when she recycled her fabrics. She was simply being frugal or thrifty. Also, fabrics weren’t so readily available for the early quilters. The local general store may carry some bolts of fabric for making clothing but not very many and then mainly serviceable materials. Also, it was considered extravagant to buy fabric solely for making quilts.

So what did Grandma do?

She……

*Cut up worn-out clothing and used the fabric for her quilts.

*Incorporated the leftover fabric from making clothing and household items into quilts.

*Used the decorative feed and flour sacks popular in the 1940s for making quilts, clothing, and household items.

*Traded fabric with her quilting friends.

*Used scraps of fabric for patching…clothing, bedding, tablecloths, quilts.

*Made rag rugs from leftover fabric.

*Took wornout quilts, cut out the remaining good portions and stitched together for another quilt or made smaller items from these.

*Never threw anything away that she could find a place to store.

Quilters have been saving and using scraps of fabrics for years, so this whole “green” idea is nothing new to them.