I slept on what was called a feather tick. It was like a huge pillow that was used for a mattress. Just about the time it would get all smashed down and I could sleep, Mom would fluff it up. I would always ask her not to, telling her that it tried to eat me and suck out my air. She said I was being silly. It wasn't until years later that we found out I was allergic to feathers. I always slept with my head off the side of the bed when I was little.

I sleep on a feather bed now! It's a 5in deep 'mattress' that sits on top of my regular mattress. It gets turned and fluffed up every time the sheets are changed and it's absolute bliss for aching joints.

And we always had newspaper underneath lino and carpets, because the gaps between our floorboards had to be seen to be believed.

And we always had newspaper underneath lino and carpets, because the gaps between our floorboards had to be seen to be believed.[/quote]



That's pretty funny. I remember daddy taking up several layers of old linoleum to put down under layment and carpeting. Underneath was layers and layers of newspaper. Under that was tin cans and stove pipe that had been hammered out and nailed over holes in the floor. They were in a formation. When I asked about it, Dad said, "Your mom and her sisters sat down on the couch and the legs of it went through the floor." The house at one time had had some termites. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I've heard of corn husks being used, but that's when times were real tough.

Yes! A lady who taught quilting told me they used to use newspaper as we use muslin today. She said sometimes they would take out but many times they left it in for added warmth.

I have a spider web pieced top that used paper as a foundation. The date on the paper pieces is 1935!

FEATHERBED: I remember one of those that my Mom gave me
after she had no use for it. I thought it a good idea to make
pillows our of those feathers. Wow did I open up a fluffy mess.
And those feathers were broken, dusty and yes dirty. That was the end of the feather tick that had kept lots of us warm
over the years.

Flo in COLD IN NNY

I know that people used to rarely wash their quilts. They sewed a layer of flannel over the top, about 12". Where the quilt would touch the head. Then they took that off and laundered that instead of the whole quilt. The quilts were hung on the line to air out. I believe most of these had heavy wool batting inside. I remember seeing this when I was growing up. The actual quilts really never got dirty, just the area of flannel. They would be hung on the line and then whacked with a wire beater. Do not know the technical name of the "whacker". (I think maybe rug beater) This removed any dust that had accumulated on the quilt.
It was used on area rugs too. They were hung on the clothes line and whacked to get the dust out. Gosh that must date me--grin

I use plastic shopping bags for filling for my four legged companions' beds. They love it. Can be fluffed up and can even be washed. (Some throw pillows get this plastic bag filling, too.)

Yes. A lot of very early quilts in New England used newspaper as what we call batting; also used for English paper piecing and the papers were left in.