Originally Posted by
entangled
Great topic! I take a lot of pleasure in reusing and upcycling and have identified that as a direction I want to explore with my quilting. I am frozen by too many choices (and cost) at the fabric store - I can handle one or the other, but put them together and I just walk away.
Last year I started buying fabric yardage at the thrift store. Then grab bags of scraps. It is so much fun to see what I get! I was avoiding people's unfinished blocks but inevitably they sneak in and now my attention is snagged. What will they become in my hands??
I want to do more with reusing old clothes. I have hesitated to cut "good" stuff up. So I warmed up using the ripped and stained from my family. And musing how the fast fashion industry has created a crushing glut of clothes that no amount of charity and thrift can usably disperse. Just before the pandemic, I started buying clothes to cut up, focusing on the tag color that indicates it's been at the shop longest and will be pulled if not bought -- cheaper by the yard and potentially diverted from the trash stream.
As I was dreaming of quilting long ago and far away, I thought quilts were made from clothes that were no longer wearable, or from baby clothes that no one could give or throw away. You get the picture. It was a bit of a shock to learn the cost of fabric, supplies and longarming. I recently took a seminar on upcycling. Pretty good. I am now mixing it up. Like trying to get husbands worn out flannels to make a quilt as requested by daughter. Don't want to throw or give away the dress I was married in so am thinking about incorporating it into a special quilt for our bedroom. Although I did not grow up in the Depression, I did have many lean years and I hate to waste.