Every Foochow woman in those long ago days would keep their scraps of cloth left overs from their frugal home sewing. The favourite product they would make from these scraps would be a floor mat like this. (Those toes are mine to give you the scale.)
The pieces of scraps would be cut and made into triangular shapes and then sewn together to either form a round shape or an oval like this one.
They did not colour coordinate the colours like the American women (ref How to Make an American Quilt) but usually the floor mat turned out to be more red than any other colours. It was also quite often that the women would use the red cloth given as a "thank you" token when attending a traditional Foochow funeral in Sibu. The piece of red cloth was given to protect the funeral attendee from an evil spirit. The attendee would cover herself in the old days with the red cloth so that she could fend off an unwelcomed spirits. She would also not take home any such spirits.
My aunt who made this one brings out the best and newest one for Chinese New Year. She never fails to make a few every year. So a small gift from her is always very meaningful. This is indeed one of the best ways to recycle scraps of cloth.
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