Selvedge Fun

If you know me, or if you read my introduction at the beginning (end?) of this blog, then you know that I didn't know much about sewing when I started quilting. I made my first quilt in a class and on the first day of that class the instructor told us to cut our fabric by folding the selvedges together and I had no idea what a selvedge (also spelled selvage) is!

I now know that the selvedge is the self-finished edges of fabric which keep the fabric from unraveling or fraying. It is also where the printing marks, company name and now the company's website are printed, which is sometimes helpful to know, especially when you've run out of that fabric but haven't finished the quilt yet. It has been customary in the past to cut off and discard the selvedge edge, although lately there's been a movement to use these edge pieces.

Above is a quilted postcard that I made using selvedges. Below is a chicken that I purchased from Etsy seller With Hugs and Stitches. She also makes whales using selvedge fabric.

  The project that got me interested in selvedges was a selvedge dress made by Jodie Carleton. There are more photos of this dress on her blog Ric Rac. I'm not much of a girly-girl and I suspect that the dress might be a little heavy but it looks like it would be so fun to wear it!

There's even a whole blog just about selvedge projects, aptly called Selvedge Blog by Karen Griska. She's collected photos of selvedge quilts, purses, furniture, a lamp and even an umbrella. If you want to make a selvedge project but don't want to wait until you have that many selvedges, you can sometimes purchase selvedges from other sewers!

"All the Colors" and "Sunrise" at the Springfield Museum of Art's Annual Members' Juried Exhibition

"All the Colors," 43" x 43"

This is my newest art quilt. It came about because there were many batik triangle pieces left over from another project. Each triangle is 2-1/4" tall and if I sewed them together with a 1/4" seam, they'd end up pretty small.

Instead of being pieced together, the 200 triangles were laid on the black background and rearranged many, many times until I was happy with their placement. The triangles were sewn down during the quilting process. Each piece was sewn down three times but they don't lay completely flat, as you can tell from the side view (below).

I'm really happy with the way it came out and I like how the triangles tend to curl, which makes them feel more organic.

More about All the Colors

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"Sunrise" fabric mosaic, 14" x 11", made by Pam Geisel, March 2008

I made this fabric mosaic back in March of 2008. It has small pieces of fabric arranged, covered with tulle, quilted in place, then framed.

This close up shows the tulle and the stitching which was done in different colors.

More about Sunrise.

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Both of these pieces are included in the Springfield Museum of Art's Annual Members' Juried Exhibition. "All the Colors" will have it's first public viewing in this show which runs from Sat., April 17 through Sunday, June 13, with an Exhibition Preview Reception on Sat., April 17 from 5:30-7:30 pm. The museum is located at 107 Cliff Park Road in Springfield, Ohio and is open Tues. through Sat. from 9 am to 5 pm, Thurs. until 9 pm, and Sun. 12:30-4:30 pm.

New Journal Covers

Here are the 10 new journal covers that I made last week.