dreamer2009

I'm wondering how many of us here use
actual vintage fabrics in your quilting ?
or do you just like to collect them ?

sarahrachel

If feedsacks count, I use them, but I try to use them in traditional blocks. So they're saved for that special purpose unless a pattern comes along and it would fit perfectly.

dreamer2009

I fell in love with feedsacks :)

Jan in VA

I used hundred year old+ fabrics to piece a quilt for the friend who had given them to me. I found them inconsistent in weave, thread count, quality, and hand. Difficult to work with as I had literally scraps and had to recut/resew/piece some to make the blocks. Some were stiff, some were very thin or loosely woven, most were what we'd call poor quality today.

I've also shopped vintage fabrics (over 75-125 yo) at Houston and Mid-Atlantic Quilt Shows and found them to be very expensive, naturally, if they were in good enough shape to want to quilt with.

Even though my interest is antique quilts, quilt history and restoration, I personally do not collect or use actual vintage fabrics very often. Our current mills are doing an amazing job of reproducing the actual colors and prints of mid-to-late 1800s and 1930s in a "hand' we can use safely today.

Jan in VA

auntpiggylpn

I just like to collect them and display them

dreamer2009

that sounds like me...
or I take them out and fondle them...it's a sickness !!

fabric_fancy

i use vintage silk kimono fabric often but that's about it

leatheflea

Sure do! I love using my moms old stash, theres not much of it left.

chickadeee55

I find the vintage fabrics very interesting. I have a old quilt that my grandmother made and I used it for over 30 years (because I did not just want it sitting on a shelf). Now I had to take it apart, because the fabric was falling apart. I have the pieces of the quilt and am trying to decide what to do with it. I hate to throw it out.

Making a few crazy quilt blocks and framing them may be an idea. (I have never made them, but it could be a pretty way to save a piece of the fabric and display it.)

I know she would have liked knowing I put the quilt to good use over the years. I love feedsack fabric and 30"s prints and civil war.

MonnaL

I have an ongoing love affair with vintage fabrics. I keep gathering them up when I can find them at estate sales or garage sales. I enjoy studying them...the colors, the designs, the weaves, etc. I have sold some, and did quite well on them. There are people (quilters) who want the genuine thing when reproducing a vintage design.

But when I put together a quilt, I always go buy a reproduction. Not sure if it is because I don't want to "waste" my vintage fabric or what. LOL

I was absolutely thrilled when I was doing the July shop hop and discovered a store that is now carrying chrome orange and cheddar yellow. Yeaahhhh!