I am wondering if anyone has ever used linen table clothes as material for a quilt. With prices of fabric going thru the roof I am looking for other alternatives and the local antique stores have so many vintage table clothes in bright colors and designs I thought maybe I could use them to supplement a quilt. Any comments or ideas? These table clothes are in fantastic condition.

Excellent idea! It seems that I have seen some on the board that others have done. you might google and see what you find:)

Just be a bit careful .....pure linen wrinkles more than regular cotton, and has to be ironed damp to get the wrinkles out.
There are many beautiful vintage tablecloths that are not linen but 100 percent cotton.

I am sure grandma would have ;)

I have owned a lot of vintage tablecloths through the years and very few of them are real linen. They are mostly cotton. Real vintage linen is stiff.

Vintage cotton tablecloths would work well in a quilt. Some of them are a little heavier fabric and might be hard to hand quilt.

Now that you asked, makes me wish I had kept all those tablecloths.

A lot of the ones I see at thrift stores are polyester - a lot of damask or woven stripes. I wouldn't be afraid to use them for part of a quilt. poly does hold its color well.

Didn't someone recently suggest making placemats from old tablecloths? I have some small square ones that have flowers printed on the corners.... hmmm...

I think it would work great. Back in the day my Mom used bed sheets as backing....

You could also use embroidered dish towels. My mom used to find lots of them in the thrift stores. The embroidered sections would make cute centers for blocks.

I use them all the time.

linen is great to work with and is very strong- making a quilt with linen fabrics will be a quilt to last generations.

i made a quilt a few years ago that was about 1/2 & 1/2 silks and linens- when a friend brought me a special gift of an assortment of irish linen samples-from ireland---oh my goodness-what a wonderful textile!
i used some for a couple special cross-stitch projects- then made the quilt- it is a crazy quilt with alot of decorative stitching/quilting on it- i've had no problems with wrinkles in the final quilt after washing-
i love mixing textiles in my projects- as long as everything can be cared for together- i put it together.

I don't know why not.

All of your suggestions have helped me a lot. I am new to quilting and I am learning something new everyday. I see these table clothes and some of them have some wonderful needlework on them. It just seems a waste to have them sitting there getting dusty. Nobody uses table clothes anymore, heck, families don't even sit down at the table together anymore...so sad. Anyway, thanks everyone, I think I will be buying some table clothes. :-)