> Nowadays, when you want to make a patchwork quilt, you go to a special patchwork quilt shop and buy special material designed to be used in patchwork quilts. I don't know if it's just me, but this strikes me as being so freaking hilarious and ironic. I love it.

In this area, a few quilters do it that way, but the vast majority still use the scraps left from sewing. They buy the backing, and that soft stuff that goes in the middle, but the pieces used to form the pattern usually match articles of clothing that have been made. Just a few days ago, I looked at one of the quilts my daughter made and she pointed out the pieces that matched a dress she wore when she was 12, other pieces from her daughter's clothes, and even some from her mother and grandmother's clothing. Those scraps are very old and really small before they get thrown away.

My wife recently made a sunflower quilt for our granddaughter's Christmas present and all of the pieces were old stuff except for some printed material with sunflowers on it. In that case, she wanted sunflowers on a sunflower quilt, and the only way to get it was to buy some. What else would a good grandmother do if her granddaughter likes sunflowers?

Real diehard quilters *never* buy quilt pieces, and they *never* have them machine quilted. Exchanging quilt pieces with other quilters is OK.
Few non-quilters enjoy quilting as a spectator sport, but I do. I find quilts and quilters very entertaining. It's like stock car races. I could never drive a race car, but I know how difficult it is and admire the people who do it.
Howard