Selvedge Obsession in Print

It has taken 35 years of quilting to open up a quilting magazine and read an article about my quilts.  The latest issue of Down Under Quilts, a popular Australian quilting magazine, includes a two page feature article on some of my selvedge quilts.  

What a joy it is to see your quilts on display for others to enjoy.   My obsession - and it is quite literally an obsession only few people can really appreciate - with selvedges is ongoing and started about 5 years ago when I saw a picture of a small pincushion made out of them.    I went through my fabric stash and cut all the selvedges off each piece of fabric then and there.

Over the years my selvedge stash has grown to containers and containers full of both word and plain selvedges, collected from quilting friends around the world.  I have a quilting acquaintance from  interstate who regularly sends me a parcel of selvedges.

In 2016 I held a display in a local gallery over a weekend of my selvedge quilts, large and small.  Many visitors were astounded to realise that the strip they had been cutting off and discarding from their piece of fabric for years and years could be made into a lovely quilt.  Many left the display eager to keep their selvedges and 'play' with their newfound knowledge of what to do with them.

This quilt is one of the larger quilts I have made using both the word selvedges and plain selvedges together in the one quilt.  

All my quilts are sewn by me on my Janome domestic sewing machine, on the dining room table where all my quilting is done.

This quilt called 'Love in Tasmania' features my home state sewn using plain cream/white selvedges and the background sewn using just greens/blues plain selvedges.  The little girl has a 'selvedge bow' in her hair.

This 'Hand Quilt' is made using just the numbers and dots selvedges.  None are discarded, just put aside until I have enough to make a smaller project or until I can come up with a design where they will fit nicely into a quilt.

Here is a close up of the thumb of the Hand Quilt.

I am currently making a series of 'Australia' quilts and this is one which is made using selvedges for the Australia and Tasmania sections.  The background blues are fabric scraps.

I was given a bundle of indigenous fabric scraps and selvedges and they went into this 'Australia' quilt.

I have many more ideas for selvedge quilts and will spend some time in 2019 delving into the stash again to make a few more.  

If you are interested in seeing some of my other selvedge quilts check out my Facebook group called Selvedge Quilts.  

Do you keep your selvedges or cut them off and discard them?  

Happy Quilting,