Selvedging Along

I will be playing with selvedges along with Quilty Habit and Quilts of a Feather. To start, they've asked us to show how we store our selvedges. Mine are all in this big lined basket in a jumbled mess. I'm in awe of the quilters who have their selvedges stored by color, folded neatly in ziplock baggies.

Earlier this year, I made this selvedge log cabin wall hanging in response to the RIMQG log cabin challenge.

I had a few extra blocks which became a giant pillow.

My first selvedge project was this spiderweb wall hanging made in 2013.

 I had so much fun quilting this one!

 I will be teaching a class called "Salvaging your Selvedges" in September. This table runner is my class sample of a sampler table runner.

I'm ready to play! Maybe I'll start by sorting my selvedges by color like the cool kids.

Selvage Log Cabin

 Here it is- the selvage quilt that didn't make a dent in my collection of selvages! This is my second selvage quilt (Emerald Selvage Spiderweb, 2013) and probably won't be my last. Now that I'm in the habit of saving them, I can't stop!

This is where I started a couple of weeks ago. If you are wondering, the red is Kona Tomato. (My grandfather grew the best tomatoes.)

It only took about a week to complete the top. Many thanks to Karen Griska for writing a great pattern! I opted to set the blocks on point and skipped the borders. I wanted to make lots of blocks (I cut mine at 10"). This size fits perfectly on my kitchen wall. Selvage quilts are heavy, so a lap quilt wasn't appealing to me.

I knew I wanted to quilt this with red and white thread. I started with "organic" vertical lines through the red squares. I figured whatever I quilted in white would disappear, so I decided to practice feathers. (I really stink at quilting feathers!) All that top to bottom quilting means no threads to bury. No marking, no threads to bury = win, win.

There are some really cute selvages in here. And so many memories of projects past! Printed copyright dates range from 1994 to 2014.

The back is loaded with dots. Why not?

The only place you can really see the feathers is on this section of the back. That's OK with me! More practice required.

One more glamor shot on the couch with the matching pillow. Yes, it's snowing again! 

Selvage Log Cabin

(needs a cuter name. any suggestions?)

42" X 42"
Started January 31, 2015

Completed February 16, 2015

Pattern by Karen Griska

Scraptastic Tuesday

 It has certainly been scrappy around here lately! It all started two weeks ago when I had everything out to finish up my Farmer's Wife blocks. I needed a plan for tackling the scraps, and I finally feel like I'm making progress.

The top of my selvage log cabin has been assembled. (I highly recommend this pattern by Karen Griska!) I'm trying to decide if I want to add borders. It is already 45" square, which is a nice size for a wall hanging. If I make it much bigger, it limits where I can hang it. OK. No borders. How should I quilt it? Organic vertical lines or free motion swirls? I'm thinking about using red thread.

I had a couple of blocks leftover, so I made a pillow cover for the couch. (More about it here.)

I had not done much improv piecing in my 24 years of quilting. I fixed that yesterday! This little quilt top was made in about 4 hours! Twenty five 6.5" squares came directly out of my bin of cool (not warm) modern scraps. Why have I not done this before? Liberating is definitely the right word for it!

I wanted to see it on the wall, so I pinned it to the back of the wall hanging that was on display in the kitchen. We really like it with the pale yellow "borders." It pains me that I'll have to buy some fresh yellow to finish this.

It seems like this bin is still full, but I really did use a lot. 

 Wild & Goosey is coming along (pattern info here). I've been mostly using these as leaders/enders, but I do sit and sew a few units when I have a bit of free time.

Thirteen blocks to go...

I pulled some 2.5" strips of red and pink to make two of these mug mats. One will be a gift tonight at our guild meeting. This one is mine! Happy Valentine's Day to me! Looking back, the one I made for my mother last year has more quilting.

Mrs. Sew and Sow is hosting the Scraptastic Tuesday link up this month. Head on over for lots of scrappy inspiration!

Selvage Finish

 I needed to finish something today, purely for the satisfaction of getting it done. I had two spare selvage log cabin blocks, so I made two more last night. They became the front of a pillow cover. The rounded corners remind me of red heel socks!

The dates range from 1995 to 2014.

 

For the back, I pulled some long pieces of selvage to create this 20" square. I might like it better than the front!

 

It just so happens that the throw pillows that came with the couch are 20" square, so I shoved one inside my new selvage pillow cover. It's a little lumpy and not as full as I'd like, but it's done!

 

This cutie empties out the bird feeder as soon as Bill fills it. He trudges out through the snow a couple of times a week.

My quilting mojo may be waning, so I'm going to take a break for some desk work. I'll get back to the machine soon!

Two at a Time

I'm having so much fun working on these two projects this week! The selvage log cabins are coming along nicely. I need to make six more blocks for the layout I have planned. I was hoping to get them done today, but it is not looking promising. 

 

I have discovered that the process goes more quickly if I plan out the selvages before I sit down to sew. Here are my piles waiting to go. 

 

I'm using the Wild & Goosey blocks as leaders/enders and it is working like a charm!

 

I don't have enough variety to be truly random, so I dealt out the pieces last night while I was watching TV. Nineteen blocks ready to go! 

 

In about 40 minutes, I can sew a log cabin block and two goosey units. My Featherweight is getting a workout this week! I'm trying to take good care of her with lots of TLC and oil.

Have a great weekend!

Quilted Star Ornament Tutorial

 I have a quick tutorial for you today for simple fabric Christmas ornaments.

While I was decorating for Christmas, I decided to make a star garland from my old stash of African prints. The stars were so much fun to make, I thought I'd share the process with you. This is a great way to use up fabric and batting scraps.

 You will need some fabric scraps, batting scraps, ribbon for hanging or stringing, glue dots (or hot glue), shapes cut from freezer paper, pinking shears and a sewing machine.

I cut some 4" stars out of freezer paper using my Sizzix machine.  You can make any shape in any size. Press your freezer paper shapes onto a fabric scrap, leaving at least 1/2" between shapes.

Layer a piece of fabric (right side down), then some batting, and the fabric with shapes on top. Pin the layers together.

Using a slightly longer stitch length than normal, stitch around each shape, close to the edge of the freezer paper. (I'm working on the Featherweight because I dropped off the Bernina for service. Vacations are the perfect time to bring machines in for service!)

Overlap your beginning and ending stitches about 1" to lock the stitches, as indicated by the arrows below.

Clip the threads. Cut out the shape with pinking shears, about 1/8 - 1/4" away from the stitching line. I found it easier to see where to cut with the freezer paper still attached. 

Once the shape is cut out, remove the freezer paper.

Aren't they fun? I'm thinking about sewing together the bits and pieces to make scrappy stars.

I was trying to decide how to attach the stars to the ribbon and remembered I have lots of glue dots in my stash leftover from scrapbooking and Girl Scouts. 

The larger dots were perfect for the garland. You can just barely see it through the sheer ribbon at the top of the star.

I used two tiny dots to attach a ribbon for hanging an ornament.

If you don't have any glue dots handy, you can stitch or hot glue the ribbons. If you don't have pinking shears or a pinking blade for your rotary cutter, a straight cut will work just fine.

I'm still tweaking my Africa-theme Christmas mantle. The bows on the carved animals are causing some controversy in the family! Bill spent a year in Liberia when he was a kid. He bought the animals and his parents brought back the wall art made from barbed wire. 

You might not hear from me again for a couple of weeks. Bill and I are leaving soon to meet Julia in Tanzania. I suspect there will be more animals to add to the mantle, and there will certainly be lots of fabric to add to the stash! (Be on the lookout for a fabric giveaway before Christmas!) If I find a decent internet connection, I'll try to blog while we are away.

Baadai! 

(See you later)

Added 12/3/14: When I decorated the tree last night, I found this cute selvedge star. Apparently, I've made these stars before! This one is actually dated 2008. It was made in a quilt as you go style, stitching together the selvedges and quilting through the batting and backing all at once. If that makes no sense, I can clarify after the trip. I just wanted to show you another option for these ornaments.