Repurposing Old Quilts

Recently one of the members of our message board community, affectionately known as The Parlor, asked for ideas on reusing an old quilt made by her grandmother. The quilt was in mediocre shape and becoming threadbare, but as family heirlooms go, she wanted figure out a way to repurpose it. After all, isn't more respectful to find a purpose for all that hard work that grandma did, rather than stuffing it into a trunk in the attic? i like to think Grandma would think so.

Here are some suggestions inspired by our community as well as some of my own:

Teddy Bears
Turn them into teddy bears for the family's children and grandchildren. Because they don't need to be washed very often, they won't wear as much. The best part is that you will remember that special family member whenever you see our hug the bears.

Framed Quilt Patches
Use a plain black frame with a white matte. Place 1 quilt block, or a block of 4, depending on the size of your frame, centered within the matting. Cover with glass and close the frame.

Baby Quilts
Cut good sections of the quilt and finish all the edges to make a miniature version. Wonderful as an accent hanging in the nursery, draped over the crib, and better yet, used to cuddle baby in.

Pillow Shams or Covers
Old quilts can be cut up and made into pillow shams for your bed, or make smaller ones to cover plain pillows for your window seat or sofa.

Ornaments
Be creative! Cut out squares of the quilt and sew a backing on it, stuff with batting and add a hanger for a keepsake ornament. For sections that have worn squares or unsalvageable areas, cut around those and make shapes, such as pine trees, birds, and circles. Stuff these, add hangers and you have some lovely keepsake ornaments. These make perfect gifts to share with family members!

Pin Cushions
Cut quilt sections , stuff tightly with batting and you have an ideal pincushion.

Rag Dolls
Similar to the teddy bear idea, turning old quilts into rag dolls make for lovely accents to a tea room or little girl's room. Adorable sitting on a shelf as well!

Seat Cushions
Covering the cushions of a window seat, or the chair pillows of your tea room or sun porch is a great way to use old quilts. Because these areas do not receive as much activity as general living areas, the wear and tear on your keepsake fabric will be much less.

Place Mats & Table Runners
Repurposing old quilts into place mats and table runners is another great option. They look wonderful atop a shabby chic wicker table or an old rustic wooden table.

Bags & Totes
While making quilts into purses is common practice, you might not want to turn granny's keepsake quilt into something that will quickly wear out. However, making a craft tote or yarn bag will remain mostly in the house and receive much less wear and tear.

Heart or Flower Pins
Cut 2" hearts or flowers from the quilt fabric, use a blanket stitch to finish the edges, use fabric stiffener to make the fabric hard and attach a pin to the back. These make lovely lapel pins.

You might also like: Caring for Heirloom Quilts 

Do you have any ideas to share? Leave them in the comments, or better yet, join The Parlor and post your ideas there!

Special thanks to community members PamperedLady and Sheila for sharing their ideas!

Thrifty Thursday: Frugal Headboard Ideas

There are a lot of different and creative ways to create a unique headboard for your room. Honestly, I had never thought of some of these ideas but was so intrigued I felt the need to share them. A great way to save money and redecorate at the same time!

An Old Door

If you want a classic wood look, sand and stain the door to match existing furniture. Or paint the door and distress for a vintage look. If the door is paneled, the inserts can be painted a contrasting color, stenciled with elegant designs, or decoupaged with fabric or handmade papers.

Fencing

Use a section of wooden picket or wrought iron fencing. The sections can be painted and fastened with bolts or hooks.

Trellis

Decorate with ivy, silk flowers and ribbons for a Country French look or simply paint.

Old Window Frames

Leave painted window frames as is for a distressed look. Or paint a garden scene (or use a wallpaper mural) behind the frames to give the illusion of looking outdoors.

Folding Screens

An elegant folding screen with fabric or painted panels can be easily attached to the wall or left standing for a simple headboard solution.

Vintage Napkins or Placemats

The linen can be hung on curtain rod which is attached decorative rod holders just above the bed.

Plywood, Siding or Paneling

Use scrap plywood or MDF covered by cedar siding or paneling. The headboard can have a rustic, lodge look if covered by cedar shakes or a more traditional look if covered by tongue-in-groove paneling.

Shutters

Stain or paint the shutters to create a country or cottage look in your romantic bedroom.

Framed Photos

Create an arrangement of photos grouped by size, frame color or theme to give the illusion of a headboard.

Quilt or Tapestry

Mount the fabric over a shower curtain or cafe curtain rod using curtain hooks with a clip bottom. This looks great in a country or European-style bedroom.

If you use your imagination, tiles, strips of fabric, bookcases, the back of an old sofa, a large poster or wooden shelves can all be used to fashion a headboard.

See other great ideas for your home in our Home & Heart section.

This post is part of Thrifty Thursday. Visit Thrifty Thursday for other frugal ideas!

Thrifty Thursday: Frugal Cleaning

More and more people these days are looking for less expensive alternatives to everyday necessities. You can't stop cleaning your house because 409 and Windex don't fit into your budget. Instead, make some of your own cleaning solutions and supplies from items you have laying around the house. We are including these ideas for Thrifty Thursday hosted at Amanda's Cookin'.

T-shirts

You know the ones. Their too stained to give away to a clothing donation, but you can't bear to add it to the landfill. T-shirt make wonderful dusters. They are soft and won't scratch your wood furniture and they work great for cleaning mirrors and glass as well. Toss them in the washing machine when you are done to use them all over again!

Empty Milk Jugs

Believe it or not, these make great carry all containers. Cut off the top where the spout is but leave the handle in tact. Use it to carry your sponge, rag, cleaning products and other items. When cleaning the bathtub, empty out the jug and use it to rinse the tub. This does double duty by cleaning out your jug for you too!

Mis-matched Socks

These are perfect for dusting. Slip a sock onto your hand and simply wipe! These are great for little helpers too. Slip two mismatched socks on your child's hands and have them help you dust!

Old Towels

We have several different "categories" of towels in our house. There's of course the bath towel, then the hand towel, kitchen towel and after that they get demoted. Once they've outlived their life in one of the previous categories, they are moved down to cleaning towels. These are the tattered and torn towels that just don't look nice anymore. But just because they've lost their luster doesn't mean they've useful life is over! These tattered towels are perfect for cleaning the car and using as rags around the house.

Swiffer Imposter

I have a Swiffer Sweeper, I'll admit it. I love it! I don't love buying the pads though. If you use dryer sheets, instead of tossing that used dryer sheet from the laundry, attach it to your Swiffer for a quick floor dusting. We also use old rags, run under hot tap water and wrung out, then attached the Swiffer for quick mop jobs.

What supplies have you "created" instead of bought?

Next week I'll share homemade cleaner recipes! Meanwhile, check out these great uses for vinegar.

~ Amanda

Home & Hearth: Mattresses and More

Let us not look not back in anger, or forward with fear, but around in awareness. ~James Thurber

I found the following tips in a booklet from 1948. It appears to have been a give-away from First Federal Bank of Detroit. Wonderful tips! The first few are about mattress care, which I found fascinating because quality mattresses today are SO expensive, yet we don't think of doing this much to extend their life.

-Prevent tears in your mattress by dressing your mattress in a muslin cover. Place a mattress pad between the mattress and spring and the between the mattress and sheet.

-Reverse the position of an innerspring at least once a week, turning top to bottom one week, end to end the next week. Air and sun mattresses at least once a week. Every few weeks, clean it on both sides with the brush attachment of vacuum cleaner.

-Don't sit on the edge of the mattress. Never bend or roll an innerspring mattress. Never beat it or stand it on end.

-Check floors for protruding nails, rough boards and kindred saboteurs of rug and carpet life. Remove any protrusions which can wear into your floor coverings.

-Avoid running wires or lamp cords under your rugs. They wear ridges into the fabric and constitute a fire hazard that, in some states, may void fire insurance policies.

-Broken casters on furniture legs are also ruinous to rugs. If these are hard to replace, use caster cups.

-NEVER pull out tufts or knots in your rugs. If there are any that make rugs look shaggy, clip off the long ends with a pair of scissors.

-Reverse the position of your floor coverings, every couple of months, to distribute the wear evenly.

-Take the "throw" out of throw rugs by winding three "preserving jar" rubber rings together with thread and sewing them to the corners of the rug. They form a wonderful suction cup that will prevent many accidents.

I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT....
Renovate that faded fiber rug: don't delegate it to the junk heap! Give it a coat of your favorite color house paint thinned with turpentine (1 part turpentine to 3 parts paint). Work the paint thoroughly into the fiber with the brush to obtain the best results. (Note: Only do this outside, where you aren't closed in with the fumes, and be sure to wear gloves. I would only try this with a rug on it's last legs!)

Tame your closet clutter this spring with these tips:
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/clutter2.html

Hodge Podge Day: Woodpecker Tips

We are told to let our light shine, and if it does,we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining-they just shine. ~Dwight L. Moody

Today I have some great tips from readers who had woodpecker problems!

I had a friend who was having a terrible time with a woodpecker that would continue to bore holes no matter how it was filled. An aviarian vet told them to put up some of the bat wings you find at Halloween to deter the bird. If the large plastic bat wings were not available then to take a pair of black stockings and stretch them over a pair of wire coat hangers to make them look like large wings. This will resembles a hawk or predatory bird to the woodpecker and they will leave the area for a safer site. It worked like a charm for them. ~Patty

Woodpeckers will peck for a number of reasons: to get bugs out of the wood (not a good sign if the wood is on your house!), to make noise to attract a mate, to make a home (not good if this is already your home - once they are nested it is quite difficult to convince them to leave). Just make noise of your own when they come around - yelling or banging pots will drive them right away. Do this each time they show up and they'll get the idea very quickly that this isn't a nice place to be for them! ~Nadine

One of my neighbors had a woodpecker that would come every morning about 5 AM and sit on the corner of their bedroom where there was a drain pipe. You can imagine the noise it made. That corner was also right across from our bedroom. We joked about it a lot. For his birthday I bought a plastic woodpecker and had my son go up and install the fake bird to the drain pipe when my neighbor was gone. The real woodpecker never returned. We had many laughs about that with the neighbor and it was a solution to the noise that woke us all up every morning. ~epearson

We have woodpeckers in our backyard that LOVE our trees (thankfully not our house) but here is what I know about why they peck on the wood of any house - The birds peck where there are bugs to eat! It is a great way to forage for food. Soooo... removing the food supply will help get the birds to a tree faster!

The person with the woodpecker problem may have termites, boring carpenter ants or some such critter that lives in soggy, rotting wood areas under eaves, around windows, etc. Time to get the ladder out - inspect the area where the birds are pecking and remove and replace any damaged areas with new wood. Treat for the bugs that are in the old wood by spraying an environmentally friendly bug solution to the surrounding area. If you have a termite infestation in the walls of the house -better get a professional in.) Cover the new wood with a couple of coats of good house paint and voila! You will be on the road to send those peckers packin'! ~Susan

In regard to keeping woodpeckers from pecking on your house, try putting a fake rubber snake on the roof near where the woodpeckers go. This seems to work really well for our neighbor, whose house has cedar siding. Or, if there's a tree nearby try hanging an old CD from a limb. The birds don't like the moving reflections as the CD turns in the breeze. ~Susan in Arkansas

On OFL we also have tips on spring cleaning:
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/cleaning2.html

Home & Hearth: All Purpose Tips

Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.--Mae Jemison

My entire family on both sides knows I love vintage magazines, clippings, books etc. My dad especially is always giving me fun things he finds at auctions among box lots. These are some tips from the 1930's and 1940's that I thought were useful as I browsed through some pamphlets and clippings.

Use the special crevice nozzle on the vacuum cleaner for removing dust from books. Or, wipe the books carefully with soft clean cloth. Remove all dust from the shelves before replacing books. If a book becomes wet do not place it near a heat source but instead place clean white blotting paper on each side of the wet page and press with a warm flat iron. The leaves will not warp or wrinkle.

To clean leather books never use mineral oil. Use lanolin or caster oil and rub along the back of the binding with your hand, then rub dry.

Hem white cheesecloth in thirty inch length, fold in a small square. Place the dry clean cloths in a fruit jar with a mixture of one pint hot water stirred with one-fourth cup lemon oil. With a stick, press the liquid into the cloth. Squeeze dry and hang in the air. Wash after using. Dusters must be kept clean.

Removing Glass Stoppers: Place the stopper under running hot water. The heat causes the neck of the bottle to expand and the stopper can be easily removed. Or, tap the stopper lightly on a table or add a little glycerin to the neck of the stopper.

Cleaning Paint Brushes: Soften brushes in hot vinegar, then wash in hot soap suds. Rinse thoroughly and then dry at room temperature--never dry over direct heat.

To sharpen scissors cut through fine sandpaper.

If your windows are rattling and you need a fast fix, wedge in a split wooden clothespin or a golf tee.

When painting stairs that are regularly used, paint every other step, allow that to dry completely and then paint the other steps. This way they can be used if necessary!

To remove postage stamps from letters moisten the envelope on the INSIDE, behind the stamp, with water.

On OFL we have tips for cleaning stainless steel:
http://oldfashionedliving.com/stainless-steel.html

Hodge Podge Day: Questions & Answers

The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. ~George Moore

Special Note: We will be starting an Old Fashioned Living newsletter with updates on the website. To sign up you can go to OFL, or sign up at the blog: here.

Today I have questions and answers on several different topics.

Any idea on getting soot off a rock fireplace? ~Rhonda

There are a few things you can try. Scrub the surface where the soot is with non-diluted white vinegar. This may take 2-3 times. You can also try mixing a solution of 50/50 bleach and water in a spray bottle. Spray the surface and scrub with a cleaning brush. Rinse with water.

How do I clean my African Violet leaves? ~Eileen

There are several things you can try. Buy a small paint brush that has soft bristles and brush the leaves. If they are really dusty you can rinse them off. The key is not letting them dry in the sun. It's the sun shining on the wet leaves that causes spotting.

I had a homemade recipe for Biore strips that I thought I had saved but I can't seem to find it. Can you please help me? ~Sylvie

I have very dry, sensitive skin, so I've never used the strips that Sylvie is talking about, but I did some research and found a few things that will accomplish the same thing as the strips.

Gelatin Mask: Mix 1 Tbsp.of Knox unflavored gelatin and 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk. Microwave for 10 seconds and apply to the oily areas of your face. Allow it to dry for 30 minutes. During this time it will become VERY stiff. Peel it off carefully and rinse with warm water. Gently pat your face dry.

Milk of Magnesia Mask: Deep Cleaning Mask: Use a cotton ball to coat your face with the milk of magnesia. Avoid your eye area, which is more sensitive. Leave this on for 10 minutes. Use a warm washcloth to remove the mask. Gently pat your face dry.

Chamomile Mask

You'll need:
1 package unflavored gelatin
2 bags chamomile tea or 1 tablespoon loose dried chamomile
1/2 cup boiling water

In a small glass or ceramic bowl add the boiling water to the herbs or tea bags. Steep for 5 minutes. Add the gelatin and stir until it's dissolved. Allow to cool---it's okay if it's thickens, but it shouldn't set completely. Smooth the mixture on your face and allow it to dry completely. Peel off the mask, rinse and gently pat dry.

On OFL we have tips on getting the most out of your candles:
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/candle.html

Home and Hearth: Winter Tips

Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. ~James Fenimore Cooper

Winter is in full swing for most of us, despite a few warm days. There are many things you can do to keep your heating costs down, and also some things to watch out for during the winter.

Allow as much sun as possible into your house. During the day open all the shades and drapes, which will help warm your home. If it's a very cloudy, windy day or in the evening, close the curtains to keep in the warmth. Especially at night, keep your thermostat as low as you can while remaining comfortable, and double up on the blankets. A degree or two can save you money. Keep the humidity level up in your home by placing shallow pans or bowls of water near heating vents or on top of radiators and wood stoves. Invest in a humidifier if you can. We all know to use storm windows or some type of weather stripping to keep out drafts. Watch the bottom of your doors for drafts. For example, use a rolled up blanket in front of the door to block drafts. Old houses are especially prone to drafts. Our first home had this problem and blocking the bottom of the door made a HUGE difference.

Carbon monoxide is always a concern, more so when the house is closed up tighter and we are using heaters and furnaces more often. The following are safety tips:

-Be cautious and only work on fuel-burning appliances if you are experienced; this includes oil and gas furnaces,gas water heaters, gas ranges and ovens, dryers, gas or kerosene space heaters, wood stoves and fireplaces. If you suspect something isn't right call someone who is experienced.

-Don't use your gas oven to heat your home.

-Never use a charcoal grill inside-even if it's on a hearth or fireplace.

-Don't leave your car or snowblower running in a closed garage. Fumes can build up quickly in the garage and seep into your home.

- Never use a gas or kerosene heater in an enclosed space.

Note: If you don't have a furnace repairman that you've used in the past, find one now before you need them. Find out rates and hours, then post them someplace you'll remember. Our furnace gave out on a weekend-we were lucky to find someone nearby who had the part and fixed it in a short time. You'll need to compare weekend and after hour rates, as well as regular rates. Also, have a back-up! Hopefully, you won't need a repairman, but if you do-be prepared.

Tips on OFL for cleaner air in your home-
http://www.oldfashionedliving.com/air.html