Cotton fabric -
#1
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,660
Cotton fabric -
Specifically, the type of woven cotton that the majority of quilt makers use -
Is there an article or video that shows all the steps involved from preparing the soil for planting the cotton to when a bolt of fabric ends up on a store/shop shelf?
Where is cotton grown? Are some cotton fibers better than others? Does cotton seed come in varieties like green bean seed?
Are the any mills left in the United States? for processing the cotton, for weaving it, for dying it?
Is there an article or video that shows all the steps involved from preparing the soil for planting the cotton to when a bolt of fabric ends up on a store/shop shelf?
Where is cotton grown? Are some cotton fibers better than others? Does cotton seed come in varieties like green bean seed?
Are the any mills left in the United States? for processing the cotton, for weaving it, for dying it?
#2
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 12,930
Some of your questions are likely answered in Harriet Hargrave's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Fabric-...dp/B013PSXZ82/
There are a few mills left in the United States:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...to-series.html
https://www.amazon.com/Fiber-Fabric-...dp/B013PSXZ82/
There are a few mills left in the United States:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...to-series.html
#5
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 809
Bear- we grow a lot of cotton here in California. Its amazing to drive up Hiway 5 and see all the cotton. Itys in big semi trailer sized blocks, waiting to get trucked to the gin, I guess. I appropriated a few seeds from the Calif State Fair one year, and they sprouted and all. I was researching just what you are wondering about, and its possible to get seed from one of the Universities. I can't remember if it is here or somewhere like Rutgers or Cornell. I can't remember if you spin. Have you ever spun cotton?
#7
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Victorian Sweatshop
Posts: 863
At the mention of cotton in the field and my fingers start moving. My family picked cotton a lot way back when. The bolls have five sections so one grab, stuff them in one hand till you reach back and drop the wad in the sack dragging behind you. I look at my life now and think how other worldly all that was and I travel back in time. The sun beating down, the long rows, the strap around my shoulder, the sack getting heavier. I picked a hundred pounds the last day we did that and we were only out there because the owner's machine broke down and a storm was on the way.
#10
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Central Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Posts: 7,695
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