Originally Posted by tracylester
I buy my fabrics in discounted remnants at craft, fabric, and stores like Walmart. I make alot of strip quilts and eclectic quilts and interestingly enough they seem to be what my family prefers when given a choice for gifts. I buy fabric, table cloths, sheets, even interesting clothing at thrift stores and yard sales for quilts. I just made a quilt for my 11 year old daughter out of all the jeans she's outgrown and it's her favorite. I used the pockets and all the little embellishments that were on the jeans originally. This made it not just a quilt, but a memory. Isn't this what quilting really is? Isn't this how quilting came to be? Our grandmothers and their grandmothers had little scraps of fabric that they made into something beautiful--nothing was wasted. Quilting is the ultimate in repurposing, recycling, and being thrifty.
That is so true. My sister and I each have a quilt that obviously was made out of our great grandmother's clothing. Both the quilts have the same fabrics and they are utilitarian quilts. When I was first learning how to quilt, I cut up some old cotton shirts of mine that I wore in junior high. Somehow they hadn't made it to the Goodwill bin, so they became blocks. I still have one of those original blocks I made when I was a teenager. (My mom only bought fabric at the store that she was making into clothes, so I didn't even think about buying yardage for quilting, I just used the scraps left over from her sewing projects to "play" with. I still have the scraps from the cotton dresses my mom made me when I was a preteen that I am saving to put into a memory quilt for her.)
I think I might make a wild and crazy quilt out of some of my dh's old western shirts from the 80s. Thank GOD those went out of style. He loved them so much they are still hanging in our closet. Maybe when he is deployed I can surprise him with a special quilt made out of all those crazy shirts. (Save me a bundle on fabric!!!)