Common practice was to use it as batting. This is why so many older quilts had to be so closely quilted as the cotton was simply carded so migrated easily if not quilted densely. Some still use hand carded wool for batting as well.

I am not sure but am going to read the answers to find out.

I remember my Mom carding cotton to make the batting for quilts. This was to remove seeds/other matters and to smooth it out in a flat matted form of batting. this was in the 40's.

My husband's aunt showed me once how they carded the cotton. She was from Arkansas and had a lot of raw cotton growing in nearby fields. Wads of cotton bolls we placed along the long edge of one card and then they combed the cotton by pulling the 2 cards apart, handles opposite. This was done several times to make the fibers lay straight and parallel with each other. Then, they would comb the cotton off the card by pushing the 2 cards together. The fibers would roll up along the long edge and then the roll would be placed on the quilt. Once enough rolls were laying on the quilt, side by side, they would pat them all together and start quilting.

I tried it. It's not easy and I can certainly see why they quilted lines so close together. The aunt is gone now.... she was the coolest lady..... but I still have a couple of the quilts she made before WWII. I cherish them. Those ladies worked from sun up to sun down, trying to do things for their families with never a thought of themselves.

Nanna-up-north, your description of the process is wonderful! It is hard to imagine how much work it was from beginning to end of a quilt. It is easy to understand why there are so many vintage quilt tops, since sewing the tops, even if by hand, was the easist part of the process.

In addition, they ladies in the south grew and picked their own cotton for the batting.

Not sure of what you speak, the heading older quilters caught my eye. Then before I looked the next question was how old? Not sure but this age thing and quilting has me thinking. lol I think partly from my memories of photos of older women quilting, they were gray haired little old ladies, which I do not include myself in, yet.....lol Hope you get your answer I know I was no help.

My grandma used to card sheep wool, and put that in quilts! I have two that she carded the wool and used as batting and believe me they are warm. So we are talking old probably as early as the 20s and 30s .. !

It's been a while since I've seen her but I worked in a beauty salon and we had a client who used to raise llamas and alpacas. She would take them out of town to get them sheared then she kept the wool and she would card it and spin her own wool and local cotton. She made some of the most beautiful quilts.

I remember my grandmother had a pair of carders. She told me they were for pulling cotton and that your knuckles would get skinned up and she hated doing the job. Glad we have the pre-made battings available now.

I still have two wool batts, one has a cover on it and the other is still in the roll as it came from the woolen mill. This woolen mill was still open in the late 1990's. They would take my old batts that I took out of quilts that needed to be redone (need a new top, or batting had shifted) and wash the wool and recard it. Then I could take this "new" batt and make another quilt. A wool quilt is the best for warmth. The reason they are just sitting there in my closet, is because I am afraid to make a quilt out of them now, as everyone puts their quilts in the washing machine, and you can't do that with wool quilts. I had one dry cleaned a few years ago. Very expensive.