The "waste not, want not" philosophy was certainly at work when I was growing up. I remember my mother cutting buttons off clothes that were worn out. They "saved" everything on the theory that they "might need it".
Although I don't personally remember her doing so, I know my grandmother made quilts both utilitarian -- to cover the beds of her eight children -- and as a creative outlet. As a child I slept under what I remember as a beautiful Sunbonnet Sue or little Dutch girl quilt that also had tulip blocks, made by my grandmother. I still remember the fabric and colors. It breaks my heart that my mother didn't preserve that quilt when it was "worn out"; how I'd love to see it again now that I am also a quiltmaker.