By Skye Kilaen •
July 1, 2008
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Tenfold Organic Textiles bills themselves as “specialists in providing naturally dyed organic cotton products.” In addition to towels and women and men’s clothing, they also sell their organic fabrics by the yard. Tenfold Organic Textiles was founded in January 2006 to provide organic fabric to consumers, manufacturers, and retailers.
Their fabric is a 200 thread count plain weave cotton, which they recommend for quilts, clothing, and bedding. Currently the only fabric colors available are solids: madder red, pom orange, myra yellow, kasam olive, ash pink, bark brown, soot black, and sun white.
By Skye Kilaen •
May 1, 2008
In Kelly’s recent post Tools To Use: Batting, she outlined several organic and sustainable choices for quilt batting - including my favorite, Hobbs Heirloom Organic Cotton Batting. Kelly was curious, though, about re-using old blankets or sheets instead.
Being creative with your quilt ingredients is part of the history of quilting. Now granted, many of the choices that early quilters made were due to economic constraints. I suspect that if the pioneers had sewing machines and fabric shops readily and affordably available, a lot of them would have taken advantage of those options. However, quilting does have a historical ethic of conservation and re-use. Quilters today manifest this ethic through the obsessive saving of fabric scraps too small for any reasonable project, “just in case.”
So if you’re willing to look past batting, there are other earth-friendly alternatives for your quilt’s insides. Your linen closet, thrift stores, or donations from other people’s sewing supplies may provide just what you need.
By Skye Kilaen •
April 3, 2008
As you may already know, April is Use What You Have Month in the craft-o-sphere. Started by crafter Toni at her blog Simple Sparrow in 2006, this challenge asks crafters of all types to take 31 days and rediscover the treasures in their stashes instead of heading to the store.
(Yes, your stash. The one over there. Don’t bother closing the closet door or standing in front of it, we still know it’s there.)
Over 4,700 photos in the Use What You Have Flickr group demonstrate that this idea has caught on. Sometimes being green means supporting companies and artisans that are producing sustainable, beautiful materials. Sometimes, though, it means taking a break from accumulating more stuff and using the time to create something beautiful.
How can quilters spend the month of April? I’m glad you asked! Here are my picks for the Top 5 “Use What You Have” quilting ideas:
