Material Obsession

 As a little girl I often visited the quaint Pea Green Store back when it was still a little grocery and general store. It seemed the perfect place to take photos of my latest finished--the selvage quilt. I'm calling it Material Obsession.

Only if you grew up near Olathe or Delta, Colorado, would you even know that there was such a town called Pea Green. My mother attended grade school across the street in the now-abandoned brick Pea Green School. (Someone has since converted it into a house.)  The only other buildings in town are the Community House, where my parents used to attend dances, and an old run down house.

No one was manning the junk store, now housed inside the Pea Green Store, so my husband and I had fun using the building and old truck parked outside as a prop for photos of my quilt.

Peeling paint is one of my favorite backdrops for photos and there was no lack thereof. 

The few farmers who drove slowly by while we were shooting pictures probably wondered what were were up to, but nobody cared enough to stop and ask.

The back of my quilt is as cheerful as the front. I used a fabric called Wildflowers, in lime green, from the High Society line by Modkid. Yes, it came from JoAnn's and is one of their high quality (and-pricy-without-a-coupon) fabrics. I bought it because I did have a coupon!

 From the back, the straight-line quilting shows up well. Because the selvage blocks were all made on muslin foundations, I used Mountain Mist Light batting thinking that polyester would help to make the quilt not so heavy. It's a little poofier than I like, making me wish that I had just used a layer of flannel instead.

 Here's a good shot of the back showing off the big chevon X that I top-stitched onto the backing fabric. I wanted to mimic the X's on the foundation pieced blocks.

 I ran out of the black and white zig-zag Remix fabric, by Robert Kauffman,  when I only had a few blocks left to make. You can imagine how excited I was to find enough on-line for the binding as well!

 My quilt measures 60 inches by 72 inches and is the perfect size for wrapping up in on a couch.

 Finishing the binding on the long car ride from Missouri to western Colorado, I found it great entertainment to admire and read the selvages as I sewed and cuddled with the quilt! Probably only someone truly "obsessed with material", like me,  would think so, I admit!

I don't recall for sure, but wouldn't be surprised to learn, that the infamous Pea Green Store once sold fabric up those old concrete steps!

 Instructions for creating my selvage blocks can be found here. Apparently it's not just me that's become addicted to fabric and quilting. I might need to check the roster of Quilters Anonymous to find out if my husband might be a secret quilter? Could yours be one, too? 

 We'll find out August 1!

Hints

With days of low humidity and highs only in the 70's, midwest living is as delightful as anywhere right now. Like the lovely blooms on my fragrant flocks, I know that they won't last, but, Oh, how I love these days!

 I've tried to sew every single day this week. Here are some hints of what I have been up to:

The selvage quilt is together and quilting has begun! I'm hoping for a finish to show you in the very near future.

 I tried something new on the backing. Stay tuned for that!

 Sewing for little girls has kicked into high gear--pink for Lois. I'll show you the finish once we try them on for size.

Another version of the First Day Dress is complete and waiting for Lula to return from vacation so we can access my "tweaking" for fit at the neckline. I love the antique button, don't you!

My head is swimming with more ideas than I have time to sew. Do you have that problem too? 

Random Summery Thursday

Summer is a busy time. It's my favorite season. Today, some random things I've been doing....only one more block to go and I'll have enough for a complete lap quilt of selvages! (I may have to go shopping!!)

 Speaking of shopping, I mailed some 4th of July shirts to grand daughters last week. Pop bottles make fun mailing tubes...even if it is hard to stuff things in that little hole. (Kidding, of course.....just cut a door in the side and then tape it shut and add the shipping label over the window!)

 On the way to the post office I often pass this street sign and smile. This time I stopped and took a picture. I wonder if the guy noticed the mistake when he put up the sign?

 On the subject of signs, I see a lot of these in my neighborhood this time of year! I estimate that there are around a dozen such tents within three miles of my house.

 On the hottest weekend so far this summer, I helped out some friends in their booth at a Vintage Sale. The sale took place in an un-air-conditioned horse arena with a dirt floor. It got pretty sticky, let's just say! But look at all of this gorgeous painted furniture they had for sale! It was a fun weekend!!

I came home inspired to get out my paint brushes and tackle some projects. First up was this old bureau that belonged to my parents. I've wanted to paint it for years and finally put actions to my wishing....

 Paris Gray paint by Annie Sloan, some elbow grease and patience produced lovely results, I think. I'm so happy with the result that I'm planning more projects!

My flowers are looking pretty so far this summer due to all of the rain we have had every few days. Since my thumb is not very green, I'm especially pleased!

I'm getting ready to make some homemade strawberry ice cream for tomorrow's 4th of July celebration. I hope that you have a safe and thankful holiday! Talk soon.

Get Creative With Selvages

Only have a few selvages? No reason to wait till you have a whole basket full to have some fun. Get started with something small like this little name tag.

This was actually an old name tag that I repurposed with selvages. I just top stiched some selvages in a chevron pattern onto the muslin base and used selvage to bind it. Use any sweet pin you might have in your jewelry box to fasten it on.

 A potholder or rug mug is a great way to get started sewing with your saved selvages.

To make this one, I began with a 4 inch red square centered on top of an 8 inch muslin square. Lay this on top of a piece of Insul-bright or quilt batting. Begin stitching down selvages on either side of the middle square, simply stitching on the bound edge and then laying the next selvage over the raw edge of the one above it. When you get the first two sides finished, rotate and do the same thing on the other two sides, which will take longer selvage strips. Since you are stitching through all of the layers, it will be quilted as you go. 

 If your selvage strips are at least 1.5 inches wide, you can also use them for the binding just as you would bind any quilt. Here's the back of my pot holder. You can see the colorful fabric as the binding. I also did a little extra quilting to hold my backing onto the pieced front before I bound it. (Add as many layers of batting as you want to pad the holder.)

 On the front, you can see that I machine stitched the selvage binding down, folding under the corners.

 Making a pin cushion is another simple selvage project that only takes a few selvages. This one was made for me by my blogging friend, Cindy of Live a Colorful Life. She pieced together selvages to create a one of a kind personal touch just for me. Isn't it wonderful! As you can see, she used piping around the edges much like you would to make a pillow.

 The sky is the limit on quilt block patterns that can be used with selvages. Just create "fabric" with the selvages and then piece your new cloth into a a quilt or smaller project like this pillow top. Here is a tutorial for making this particular X-block pillow, if you are interested.

 Create fabric with your selvages to make any zipper bag or purse. Here's one that I made using a free make-up bag tutorial by Noodlehead.

I made the back of the bag with a solid piece of fabric, but it could be made of selvages also.

Zipper bags are wonderful for storing and carrying just about anything. You can't have too many!

You will have to collect quite a few selvages to make a quilt, of course. But, once your friends start hearing that you are using selvages, they will start gifting them, I'm sure! You can find the tutorial for my selvage quilt here.Yes, I'm still working on it. (Some of you know that my hubby thought that my selvages were trash and threw them all away, so I had to start going through my stash and cutting off more! I finally can laugh about it now!)

 I'd love to make a spiderweb quilt using selvages for the strips. I better finish this one first, I guess...but just imagine the strips as selvage and you get the idea of what it would look like!

 Friday I will finish up my week of selvage posts with a super easy no-sew project along with some other very quick to sew ideas.

Have I tempted you to start collecting yet? Be careful, you might even start buying fabric just because you like it's selvage!

P.S. I'm linking up with Live A Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday. Check it out!

Selvage Pillow

Today I combined two of my latest favorites.............selvages and the X-Block.  Add some kitchy pom-pom fringe and a lovely Amy Butler Charm fabric and look what I dreamed up!  Love. Love. Love! 
 I've been saving selvages for a awhile now but didn't have any certain project in mind. Then one day, Jacquie showed up a KCMQG with a stunning selvage spiderweb quilt. I was smitten to say the least. So, that's been stewing in the back of my mind.

The X-Block quilt I have been working on is turning out to be one of my favorites.  I'm finishing up the binding now and will show you the completed quilt in a few days.  While I was petting the fun quilt this afternoon, a light-bulb went off and you're lookin' at the results!

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville has a great tutorial on how to make the X-block. Go here to get the instructions. I used these instructions with a little tweak that Sherri dreamed up to make the scrappy quilt I'm binding. 


Using old phone book pages as foundations, here is how I made the pillow block with selvage  pieces instead of scraps of fabric.
Starting in the middle of the paper lap two woven edges and top stitch.

Then, continue lapping the woven edge of a selvage piece over the cut edge of the previous piece and top stitch.  Work from both sides until the paper is filled.  Try to have your last piece on each end be fairly wide.

You will need four foundations to make a pillow. 

Trim the selvage filled paper to 3.5 X 10.5 inches.

Here's what it looks like on the back before trimming.  Remove the paper from all four strips.  The phone book pages come off quite easily.

Isn't this just the cutest thing?  So much to look at.............I love all the titles...Good folks..
Bird Swing..Plume...........     Oh, my!

After attaching the side strips according to Sherri's great tutorial, here's what I had.


I added the side triangles according to the directions and sewed the four blocks together to create an X. The Charm fabric was purchased on a clearance shelf several years ago......just waiting for the right project!  I already had the pom poms also...they were supposed to go on some curtains.  Oh, well

Wouldn't a matching quilt be awesome?!