My grandmother called me one day a year ago to ask me if I might like some fabric that she found in her attic. "Just a box or so" she said. "I'm not even sure if it's usable. It's just leftovers from a church quilting bee." SURE! I said. I didn't want her to throw it out, but it's not like her generation to throw something out anyway. Little did I know what treasures I'd discover when I later went to visit.
My grandmother was born and lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian mountain range. This woman is my source for how-to on reuse/repurpose! My grandparents were part of that wonderful culture WAY before there were cool green living catch-phrases. However, one thing my grandmother does not do is quilt (but she sews clothes beautifully!) She says she's always had too much energy to sit thru quilting bees. Yes, both of my grandparents still rarely sit still. They have a LARGE garden, though they'll tell you it's considerably smaller than it used to be. They can and freeze their harvests. They are very active in their church. They bake and cook like crazy (yum!) and have big hearts for helping out their neighbors. Her mother, my Nana, was the quilter. I have a few of her creations. They're nothing like the fancy quilt blocks you see today. Simple large and small blocks mixing a few different fabrics, lovingly hand-quilted by a bee of ladies from long ago. Even though everyone says I am a lot like my grandmother, I do have the patience to quilt. In fact, I taught myself when I was given my first sewing machine as a graduation gift... about 12 years ago.
When I went to visit and also pick up this box of fabric I was in for a shock... they were boxes. Plural. Several. Most of the fabric was pre-cut into large and small squares. Only a small amount of it was faded or otherwise damaged. A MIRACLE! Beautiful vintage patterns. Soooo many different ones. Ahhh.
She promised me this was NOT my Nana's fabric, but from a neighbor. Well, imagine my shock when I started noticing the SAME printed squares on all of my Nana's quilts that live in various family member's homes! After chatting more with my grandmother, I find that thes squares originated from large end-bolts at a local manufacturing plant. They made shirt-weight items such as pajamas. Once the fabric gets too short to feed through the machines, they generally throw out the remnants. This plant saved it to give to quilters.
Right away I promised to make and donate large lap quilts. I also have several quilts to make for family members and for our home. Then what? I'd love to share this fabric with you, a little taste of times past. Because I did not have to buy fabric for the quilt tops or spend time cutting the little squares you will find my quilts less expensive than many others out there. This does not mean that they are of a lesser quality. They are made to be in your family for a long time. The colors are soothing and beautiful. The styles are timeless. I am listing them as BODO which means that for every quilt that sells on Etsy, I will give away a similar quilt to an Elder in need of warmth and love. BuyOneDonateOne. If you purchase a quilt as a gift, I am more than happy to wrap it in a pretty ribbon and attach a card explaining the charitable part of the quilt. Even though I am donating these quilts to Elders, they make BEAUTIFUL baby blankets. They are a bit larger than the average baby throw. They also make great additions to a favorite reading chair.
This is also the same fabric featured in my doll blankets. My daughter loves hers for her American Girl dolls and my son still has to have his wrapped snugly around his favorite stuffed bunny every night before he falls asleep.
There are also a few other different fabrics in the boxes that I am working on using. More to come on those.... another time.
It was so easy and they turned out so cute. I really enjoyed seeing my 7 and 3 year olds making up their own color combinations and then giggling with excitement when the new crayons were cooled enough to take out of the molds!
Another one of my favorite ideas is to use reusable sandwich baggies as gift bags! This cute bunch have handmade biscotti inside. These are available in my Etsy shop in assorted colored ripstop nylon (the material is made in USA!) and also in upcycled cotton prints and organic cotton solids.
Or consider wrapping a gift in a reusable produce bag. Many people already have cloth grocery bags - help them totally ditch single-use plastics at the grocery store while also reducing your wrapping paper use! I think these would be beautiful tied with a BIG fat ribbon.
There's also the amazing Japanese art of furoshiki, wrapping things in fabric. Use a scarf and it's 2 gifts! Here's a website with a great instructional pic of many of the basic techniques... http://xorsyst.com/japan/how-to-tie-furoshiki/ 
