Selvage Quilt Little by Little

Canadian quilter and fiction novel author Riel Nason (The Town that Drowned coming in October) is making another selvage quilt. But she's not making it all in one shot. Riel makes these 6" squares now and then, in between other projects. When she gets a big pile she'll make a quilt top. Her blog is "The Q and the U." Check out her recent" I Spy" quilt too.

Selvage Snowman Quilt by Riel Nason in Canada

Riel Nason in New Brunswick, Canada made this big snowman quilt using over 700 selvages! Even the snowflakes are made from selvages. Isn't it awesome? She has lots of close up photos (including a tutorial about making those snowflakes) on her blog: The Q and the U. Bravo!

The snowman in this photo is 20 feet tall!

Jacqui's Fancy Stitches

Jacqui of Treadle Quilts in Canada is saving Kaffe fabrics for an orange peel quilt that she plans to make. In the meantime, she used the selvages to make another thread-catcher to hang near her sewing machine. Take a look at the fancy machine stitches Jacqui used to attach the selvages. It looks like she used variegated thread too. What a nice touch.

Liberated Wedding Ring Selvage Quilt

What a wonderful selvage quilt by The Cozy Quilter from Ontario, Canada. She calls it her Liberated Wedding Ring selvage quilt. I think the red triangles look like butterflies fluttering over the surface of the quilt. The royal blue inner border is one inch wide. The binding will be dark red. She'll be taking it to be professionally machine quilted soon.

Isn't this a beautiful way to display her quilt, on a clothesline? Cozy Q doesn't have a clothesline, so this is her neighbor's. Take a look at her blog.

Selvage Stool by Gail in Canada

Gail in Canada made this beautiful cover for the stool that goes with her grandmother's treadle sewing machine. Very nice! See more on her blog: www.thecozyquilter.blogspot.com.

Jacqui's Selvage Thread-Catchers

Jacqui from Canada made these little selvage bags to keep near her sewing machine for catching threads and little scraps. The pin cushion at the top is filled with plastic pellets so it stays on the table. Very nice job, Jacqui! You can get a closer look at her selvage arrangements on her blog: www.treadlequilts.blogspot.com. Tomorrow you'll see what her friend Gail made with selvages.

Selvage Postcard from the Yukon Territory!

This postcard was made by Janet in the Yukon Territory and she mailed it to me! It arrived just fine, Janet. Even the stamp is still attached. The postmark says "Whitehorse, YT." Wow, something from the wild Northern frontier in my little hands. Thank you very much.
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Janet won a package of selvages from me a while back and she used some for this, her second selvage project. Her first project was a postcard for her sister, made from the selvages of old fabric their mother had before she died 8 years ago. Isn't that a sweet idea? Now Janet's planning her next selvage project, a quilt. I can't wait to see it.
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Sometimes when I tell people I graduated from U Conn, they say "Way up there? Wasn't it cold?" "Not too bad," I say. "You get used to it." Haha. Yeah, I'm pretty rugged.

Poppyprint's Chinese Coins Selvage Quilt

Krista Hennebury of http://www.poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com/ in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada just made this little Chiniese Coins selvage quilt called "Happy Camper." Very creative! And the polka dot binding is perfect; it adds sparkle. It's hand-quilted and embroidered too. She has close-up photos on her blog.

Selvage Needle Case from Brenda

Brenda from the "Scraps and Strings" blog in Manitoba, Canada surprised me with a gift of a selvage needle case! The cheddar felt pages are attached like the pages in a book so you can put things in the pockets in the cover. Didn't she do a nice job? Thank you, Brenda!

If you follow Brenda's blog, you'll remember that she sewed lots of selvages together creating a large piece of "new fabric" and she used it to make several items. I like how she put the selvages so close together. Selvages get used up fast when you focus just on the windows, but it does look cool. :)

Take a look at Brenda's blog: http://www.scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com/. She just finished a spider web that you have to see. Thanks again, Brenda!

Darlee Byron's Selvage Quilt: "Garden's Edge"

Darlee Byron of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada is reviewing a quilting book each month, and making a quilt inspired by the book. This month she reviewed "Quilts from the Selvage Edge," and this is the quilt she made. Isn't it a beauty? Those green corner squares are perfect.

You can read about it on her blog: http://www.quiltsamplerjournal.blogspot.com/. She describes her design process and shows great detail photos. It's a very interesting story. Nice job, Darlee!

Join Pat Sloan's Red Zinger Mania Group!

This is the Red Zinger that I made for Quilter's Home a year ago. It was the trigger for Pat Sloan's new obsession: Red Zinger Mania! (Heh heh heh, we're here for you, Pat!) She's going to make a Red Zinger and she wants company! Pat has a forum on her site for all of us to hang out: selvage quilters, non-selvage quilters, enablers, selvage swappers, wannabees, newbies, been-there-done-thats...

I just have to share with you what Pat said in her opening post:

"I said I was not going to do this...my friends are...I see quilters everywhere doing it...but I...not I...I would be strong. I would not cave in. Even if I did blog about Karen's quilt. But alas...the other day I started to keep them. I started to KEEP my selvages...gasp...the obsession has started!" -Pat Sloan, quilter from Virginia and Internet guru

When Pat gets an idea, she goes full tilt!! You will see what I mean when you visit her sites:

Read her post about Red Zinger Mania: http://patsloan.typepad.com/pat_sloans_corner/2009/10/just-a-litle-obsession.html

This is where you register to join the fun and add your Comments: http://quiltmashup.com/index.php/topic,278.0.html

Website - http://www.patsloan.com/

Blog - http://patsloan.typepad.com/

Quilt Forum - http://www.quiltmashup.com/

P.S. I sent her a box of selvages to get them going! I can't wait to see the quilts.

Brenda's Neighborhood in Manitoba

Meet Brenda Suderman of Manitoba, Canada as she tells you about her neighborhood:

"Where I live: I live in an old neighbourhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which is located roughly in the middle of North America. we are eight hours northwest of of Minneapolis, and about halfway between Toronto and Vancouver, but both are at least two day's drive from us. We're a cultural centre on the Canadian prairies, located at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, close to the boreal forest and the pre-Cambrian shield. Yes, we have long, cold winters, and short, hot summers, but that just means we have lots of time to quilt."

Don't you just love those elm trees? Brenda says they make her street feel cathederal-like. Visit her blog at: http://scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com

Meet Anna Hergert of Moosejaw

The featured exhibit at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center was Anna Hergert of Moosejaw, SK, Canada. I was lucky to meet her the day I visited the museum. She is a delightful person who likes to share her inspiration and methods. She will be teaching soon at Quilting by the Lake in New York. Check out her website at: http://www.annahergert.com/.

Anna let me take these photos to share with you. She and her husband traveled around Canada and she made a series of quilts from photos that she took. This is one of her landscape quilts. She has others that are abstract, inspired by her emotions. Some are three-dimensional, and the view changes as you walk by the quilt. All are stunning.

I like how she made this fence. She said that the fence post below wasn't dark enough at first, so she used tulle to darken it. The shadow in the sky above the red house was from light shining in the window, not the quilt. This exhibit runs until the first week in September.

Another Quilter Takes the Plunge!

Kerry Leslie in Alberta, Canada is a quilter who especially likes crazy quilts and embroidery. She decided to give selvages a try and she really likes it. This pot-holder is her first project. She made it for an exchange, so now I guess she'll have to make another one to keep. That's how these things go; you start small, then before long you need to buy selvages!

Take a look at Kerry's blog at: http://kerrykatiecakes2.blogspot.com/ She and her husband spend summers at the lake, so you'll see some nature photos too. If you click on her "Complete Profile," you'll see that she follows a huge list of interesting blogs!

Selvage Inchies from Canada

Canadian textile artist Jill Buckley has been making tiny quilts that she calls "inchies," using a variety of techniques. Take a look at her blog: http://www.thequiltrat.blogspot.com/. You can click on her photos to zoom in for a better look. See the selvage inchies? Perfect!

Jill says this goes to show that a small selvage stash is no excuse for not making a selvage quilt.

Here is a sample of the eclectic stuff you can see on her blog: (above) some amazing junk yard art that she photographed, and (below) one of her toy sewing machines. Also see her swirl quilt blocks. Her blog is lots of fun!

Brenda's Basket - New Method

Take a look at Brenda's new selvage basket block. She's been experimenting with the process of sewing selvages together without a foundation fabric, and she says it's working fine! Visit her blog to find out more: http://www.scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com/.

We hope you're staying warm up there in Manitoba, Brenda!

Meet Artist Jill Buckley of Canada

Artist Jill Buckley of Canada was making this vest and decided to add selvages. She says the selvage edges turn a rather boring piece into something a bit more interesting. I think it looks terrific!

Doesn't Jill sound like Martina (in ysterday's post)? I don't think the vest or the blouse were "boring" to begin with, but I do like what they did with their selvages.

Jill is a retired designer/dressmaker so she has extensive skills for projects like this. Her vest is much fancier than the ones I make! Check out her blog at: http://www.thequiltrat.blogspot.com/.