Originally Posted by quilt crazee
my mother (85) says when she was young, her mother made quilts out of whatever they had(used clothing-cotton,wool,corduroy) and batting was old newspapers,catalog pages.any paper leftover was stuffed around windows and doors.CAN NOT EVEN IMAGINE!!! And HOW would wash that???
They probably didn't wash it, but beat it and aired it out. I believe that in the "old days" they used whatever was on hand. I have a quilt that my great grandmother made and although it is in perfect condition with no way to look inside, it doesn't' feel like any kind of batting we have now and it is so heavy!