Saving Electricity & Quilts?
Although this topic may sound a bit strange on the surface, I've found that with the rising costs of electricity and the concern over what the prices will be if the Carbon Tax is introduced - quilts can be a strong factor in helping lower your power bills. There have been many news reports on this topic lately as it is a concern for everyone as we all rely heavily on electricity.
Living in the Sunshine State of Queensland where the weather is mostly tropical - warm and balmy during summer and mild in winter, you wouldn't think that we would need a lot of heating or cooling. My house is a typical Old Queenslander with polished floorboards throughout. In winter the house gets cold. Air comes up through the cracks in the floorboards and being a wooden house, it just doesn't warm up until later in the day. It's easy to just put the reverse cycle air conditioner on to heat the living area. I thought Winter was over but we have had a reappearance in the last couple of weeks which have meant cold nights and early mornings. Instead of turning back on the heating and putting the electric blankets back on the beds...I got the flannel quilts back out for everyone to snuggle under while watching tv.
There is nothing more cozy than snuggling under a soft quilt that has been hand made especially if it has been made by someone special in your life. A stack of quilts in the living area that are easily accessible and are able to be used can stall the use of the heating, helping bring your electricity costs down. The image below shows this exact thing and you can read about it at dragonfly crafts blog. The shaggy quilt is lovely and certainly enjoyed and used by the recipient.
image via dragonfly craft blog
How lovely is this photo of a child wrapped up in a much loved quilt?
I recently read this article on "Window Quilts". It's an interesting concept where quilts hung in windows like curtains can keep the warmth in during the dark cold nights of winter, and keep the heat out on really hot days and basically act as an economical and alternate source of insulation.
Quilts are not normally hung in windows but the idea definitely has some merit. You can also read about them here. For those of you who don't want patchwork quilts hanging in your windows, you can also use plain fabrics and an interesting machine quilting design to make quilted blinds:
With a trend starting to show that the population (that often has a high mortgage and a substantial amount of credit card debt - working very long hours to keep up with all the payments) is starting to look at ways of simplifying their lives and cutting costs, quilts can play a significant role. Quilting and Patchwork historically have been skills that were needed to keep a family warm and those skills were passed down from generation to generation. Somehow in the 70's & 80's - saying that you didn't know how to sew was something to be proud off. I think the cycle is starting to come back around and in the future - sewing, patchwork & quilting are once again going to be skills to be proud off.
Take care...Di
