We are incredibly lucky to have such a large selection of fabrics designed specifically for our hobby, but it was not always so. Quilting was born out of necessity, not luxury, and our grandmothers and great grandmothers "made do" with whatever they had easily to hand. I am very selective about purchasing new material and careful in choosing my fabric. I recover previously used material from clothing: any cotton fabric from shirts, dresses, etc. It is a bit time consuming, but in a funny kind of way, gives me a link with the past, when quilts were made using leftover fabric. Last Christmas, for example, I used recovered Jeans to make slipper boots for all the children and men in the family. I also used jeans fabric to make handbags for all the ladies.
My favourite quilt is one that I didn't make! It was made by my great grandmother, as a bedcover for my grandmother when she left home to get married. It used old dress fabrics and leftover pieces of material, because she didn't have the luxury of purchasing new fabric from her local quilting shop! All through my childhood I remember it being on my grandmothers bed. It is now on mine!