First Selvage Quilt

It's so exciting to have made my first selvage quilt!  Over the holidays, I didn't do any sewing so I came back very motivated to make a selvage quilt.  Inspired by Karen Griska's book, "Quilts From The Selvage Edge" I began my quilt.  I haven't made a quilt where I stayed with it from beginning to end in a long time.  It seemed as if I sewed & sewed & sewed selvage after selvage after selvage. 

As I sewed the selvages together, I found that I was running out of printed selvage edges.  What to do?  I didn't want to go out & buy more fabric to complete my quilt so, I decided to use fabric markers to write & doodle something on the white space of the selvages.  When I ran out of selvage edges, I made up some  faux selvage edges by sewing narrow strips of white fabric to a print fabric.  When I'm motivated to sew, I don't like taking time to go out to shop for additional fabric.  So I got creative.  I figured that I would use up more scraps in this way.   Before sewing all the squares together, I did heat set the blocks that I wrote on to minimize fading when laundering the quilt.

Over the last few weeks, after several breaks from sewing, I came up with a layout for my selvage quilt.  I've always loved the colors in the color wheel for a quilt & this is the look  I wound up with.  The side borders are sewn in the same way as the center blocks.  For more details as to how to sew this type of quilt, I recommend Karen Griska's book, "Quilt's From The Selvage Edge".  She has written the book in a way that you can create your own design or follow one of the quilt designs in her book.  Making this quilt was so much fun & very liberating.  Thank you Karen Griska!!!!!



As you can probably see, I've only completed the quilt top.  I still need to sandwhich this quilt & quilt it.  For now, I'm taking a break.   This quilt size is 77"w x 89" l. 

Be sure to visit Karen Griska's blog at http://www.selvageblog.blogspot.com/ for more selvage quilts & other inspiring quilts.

Have a great day everyone!   

Enjoying Each Moment in 2012....

Since I had not worked on any piecing over the holidays, I wanted to sew something that was sort of fast & mindless.  I didn't want to plan much but just sit at my sewing machine & piece until I got tired.  What could be more enjoyable than piecing all those selvages I've been saving. First I had to group my selvages by color.

Even though I didn't want to have to think too much about what I would sew together, I didn't mind thinking a little bit about how I would sew these selvage edges together.  I've been wanting to make a quilt using this technique from, "Quilts From The Selvage Edge", by Karen Griska.  However, I didn't want to follow a set of instructions or patterns.  I loved Karen Griska's idea & wanted to do something on my own.  The first step was to cut my muslin foundation the size I wanted & to group a few more selvage colors together.

I found that I didn't have enough selvage strips so I decided to get creative.  I would make faux selvage strips using an alternating white strip.  I would write on the white strip using a fabric marker.  Guess what?  It works great & it solves the problem of not having enough selvage strips. 

I've found that selvage strip piecing is a little bit faster than other types of blocks.  I love this method for using up what would have otherwise wound up in the trash.  So far this is what's on my design wall & I'll keep working on it until I can have a one person quilt top to use.

The trick to keep going on any quilt project is to remind yourself to enjoy the process of sewing each piece of fabric together.  I found I had to remind myself of this each time I wanted to give up & move on to a smaller project.  In fact, I think I'll make this my new year's resolution about a lot of things for 2012.  Simply enjoy the process...... 





2012 A Fresh Start.....

Happy New Year to everyone!!!  It's been a while since I've posted but, you probably know that it was due to family, baking, & bringing in the new year.  Visiting family, out in the country, gives us the freedom to bring in the new year with fireworks.  Below my husband & nephew watch as the fireworks they've lighted light up the night.  The rest of the family watches in the background because we only love to watch the display & not have to run the fireworks show.  Besides, both my husband & nephew have a great time running this show for the family.

Because we've been spending time with family, I've not done much quilting.  On this new year's day, I will spend some time piecing a new quilt.  Photos will come later.  For now, I wish everyone a wonderful, creative quilting year.  May you make as many quilts as you would like & may you attempt something new in your quilting to keep you motivated through out the year. 

HAPPY QUILTING TO ALL & TO ALL A GOOD YEAR!