SAVE YOUR SELVAGE!

I thought I had seen it all, but now I’ve found the ultimate in recycling for quilters. One site even calls out to the “Raiders of the Wastebasket”. This latest rage is selvage quilts. Your heard me right – selvage quilts. Kinda like strip quilts, but using the selvage edge of the fabrics that we all have tossed – until now! That little strip of fabric that we’ve always been told to cut off and throw away is now the basis of a new style of quilting.

Often the selvage edge contains all sorts of information about the fabric. The best, I think, are those little squares that show all the colors used in the fabric. You also usually have the maker of the fabric, the collection and, sometimes, the year of the collection.

Selvage Quilts.com has a great tutorial on making these quilts. I love all the variations in layout. Just go to http://www.selvagequilts.com/how-to-make-page/howtomakeaselvagequilt.html. The owner, Karen Griska, also has a book and a blog dedicated to selvage quilting. You can find her blog at http://www.selvageblog.blogspot.com. She has posted lots of examples of selvage quilts from some of her followers on the blog.

MODA Fabric’s “Moda Bake Shop” site has always been a great source for free patterns. Now they have one for a super gorgeous selvage pillow. It almost makes me want to go out and buy a lot of fabric just for the selvages! Check this out - http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/03/selvage-pillow.html.

Womenfolk.com also has some great info and pictures on the subject at http://www.womenfolk.com/frugal_quilting/selvage_quilts.htm.




I don’t know about you, but I’ll be saving all my selvages from now on! Just look at the stack I've already put together.