After 21 years of weaving, I have decided to return to where I started. Years of producing folk costume fabric as a full time job, sending larges bales of fabric to the tailor by post and the almost insurmountable technical difficulties with the Jacquard loom, made weaving a chore devoid of creativity and joy.

A generation ago I sat with mother-in-law on her porch. We had managed to persuade her to set up the loom which her father had built for her mother, back in the 1920s. It was small and smelled of museum. We sipped coffee from small white porcelain cups, watching the children play and mother-in-law showed me how to cut old textiles for weaving with scissors. She wore one of her home-tailored dresses with big flower patterns. Our nine months old crawled around on the wooden floor and giggled delightedly, picking up and playing with the big balls of colourful fabric stripes.

Mother-in-law was strict: not an inch of textile should go to waste, all the seams were cut open, pockets were removed and the whole fabric was used. While working she talked about her childhood and youth and about the origins of the textiles we cut: old curtains, mattrass covers, uncle’s fashionable pants and shirts, work shirts and jeans, dresses, T-shirts and blouses. The memories attached to the worn clothing and the persons who wore them were preserved in the rag rugs.

I love thinking back to where and how my weaving adventure started. I am still inspired by mother-in-laws philosophy, stemming from times of scarcity and need: Let nothing go to waste. The wonderful conversations I had interviewing Anne Schlüter, Megan Samms and Takao Momiyama as an editor of Textilforum Magazine reinforced my decision:

I will never weave rag rugs from purchased cotton bands, new fabrics or fabrics that still reasonably could be used by someone, For me, rag rugs are a recycling project: clothes with holes and stains are getting a new life on the floor. This means I must accept the fact that there might not enough of one colour to do a special pattern or maybe I cannot use the exact colours I would like to. And I must live with the fact that I probably cannot ever sell rag rugs: the cutting takes up so much time, a rug would actually cost a small fortune. However, we can have rag rugs on the floor of our family home or they can make a lovely gift for friends and relatives. And hopefully creativity, joy and passion for weaving will once again resurface!