To sew the patches I used the English Paper Piecing method and completely recycled or scrap cotton fabrics. Some of these were cut from pillowcases and old duvet covers but most were cotton clothing that had worn out in places, such as shirts and blouses..

I did purchase some new fabric for the borders of the quilt, because I didn't have anything quite big enough. I also wanted to be sure the border fabric would be strong and long-lasting. I bought a couple of metres of pale grey linen for that job, and hand-appliqued the finished hexagon edges to the border all the way around. I used a lightweight cotton/wool blend batting for the inside layer.

For the backing fabric, I sewed together some of my most previous and long-hoarded fabric pieces together. The piece with tiny coral flowers on a cream background is actually a fine wool fabric that I bought from Cloth House in London the last time I was there - 15 years ago! It's so good to have all my favourite fabrics gathered together in one finished piece. To quilt, I just hand-stitched some horizontal lines at various intervals.

For the quilt binding, I used one of Tom's favourite work shirts that had mostly worn out and found that I was able to make nearly enough binding for the whole quilt by sewing carefully-cut strips together. I used some leftover border fabric to make up the required length of binding.

One concern I had about this project was the longevity of the quilt top, considering it's constructed entirely from pre-used and washed fabrics. I am worried that they could tear or wear out over time. I could probably replace any damaged hexagons easily enough, though. And the softness of the finished quilt makes up for it.