Cotton Batting
Before Eli Whitney perfected the cotton gin in 1793, quilters used cotton batting that was filled with cotton seeds and stems. After that, batting that came from the South had fewer seeds and stems in it. Because Eli's cotton gin was not in use and housewives had no time to remove the seeds and stems in the North, batting from the North still had seeds and stems. After 1830, all parts of the country were using the cotton gin, so the batting had fewer seeds and stems. When I began quilting in 1981, the 100% cotton batting available in my area (Southern California) still had some seeds and stems. It wasn't until the 1990s that cotton batting was completely free of stems and seeds. It's interesting to note that the batting is used as a method of dating quilts and determining where they were made.
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