Abstract: A quilted pad is made by chopping post-industrial scrap foam into particles and blowing the chopped particles into an air cyclone. The cyclone separates the particles from the air stream and feeds them into a foam layout machine. The chopped foam particles are deposited across a fabric bottom carrier sheet in a uniform layer. A multi-needle quilting machine lays a top fabric sheet across the foam layer, and then quilts a geometric pattern of pockets which separate and secure the foam particles. The foam particle sheet is then cut into panels and the panel edges are finished, creating a low cost but highly functional and attractive pad that can be used as a cushioning pad internal to a conventional bed mattress, as padding in the manufacture of futons, or as a low cost mattresses for camping, for use in emergency and homeless shelters.