selvedge madness at the art gallery

my quilting group holds an exhibition every second year and we are very lucky that our local art gallery hosts the exhibition - we choose a theme, then make the quilts and drop them off at the art gallery.  the curator then decides which quilts will go in the exhibition, hangs them beautifully and does all the necessary signage.  this year the exhibition has gone for around a month, from mid December to mid January, and from all accounts it has been very popular

our theme was "from scraps to heirlooms", a nod to the origins of quilts.

i had my quilt in planning and was working on it in the 12 months leading up to the exhibition... but being the procrastinator that i am, i finished burying the last of the threads in my selvedge quilt the evening before i had to drop it off at our local art gallery!

i cant tell you how excited i am to have my quilt hanging in an art gallery! i took this photo on my phone...

the quilt is actually quite bright in person and there are a lot more selvedges on the back of it, but obviously i cant get a photo of the back until the exhibition is finished.  i will post more photos when it get my quilt back.

i plan on hanging it in my newly redecorated sewing room, and call me crazy but i think i am going to do a lot more selvedge projects to go in there... recovering my computer chair, recovering my sewing chair, a new ironing board cover and probably some curtains!

all joined up

blocks are finally all sewn together...

i have ordered some of this gorgeous fabric from Spoonflower and it will become part of the backing for this part of my quilt.

i am planning on having a 36" square of the "selvages on steroids" fabric and surrounding it with a stripy border of selvedges... good thing i have a lot of selvedges!

woo hoo the blocks are sewn!

selvedge blocks are sewn together...

now to join the blocks.  once the centre is joined i think i will quilt the centre, add the borders then quilt the borders, it should make the quilt smaller and easier to manoeuvre during the quilting stage 


 

selvedge progress

triangles have been trimmed and sewn together into pairs

and then arranged on my make-shift design wall - my piece of green felt just wasn't big enough so i had to expand onto the lace curtain!

 

productive sunday afternoon

i've spent a lovely few hours in my sewing room this afternoon.  all of my selvedge triangles have been sewn and they are ready for trimming

and i have also (finally) finished all of the blocks for my "future is so bright" quilt

ahhh, sewing again

I've been doing a little stitching again, finally!

firstly there was an easter postcard for a friend... (layered ribbon idea was from here)

then a few more selvedge triangles for my selvedge spider web quilt...

and there has been a bit of hand stitching on the side (started at a relaxing stitchery class taught by Natalie Lymer at Ballarat Patchwork)...

 

my parcel has arrived!

my selvedges fabric has arrived!  all the way from Quilt Sandwich Fabrics in the USA, Kris is lovely and i am sure that i will buy from her again

 

 

i LOVE the way those little spiders march across the selvedges!

edited to add - i should have mentioned that this fabric is from "Haunted Mansion" by Moda

???

well, i think i have officially slipped over into "nutty" territory - i just bought a yard of fabric because it has a cute selvedge!!  will post a photo when it arrives

selvedges (aka my current project)

i was lucky enough to attend a quilting retreat last weekend (i organise it for my quilting group every year), so i had the pleasure of sewing (with no cooking or cleaning for the whole weekend!!) from Friday afternoon to Monday lunchtime... pure BLISS

my current project is a selvedge quilt.  i have been collecting them for a looooong time!  i didn't spend my whole weekend on the quilt, i sewed selvedges till i ran out of iron-on interfacing!!  the triangles aren't sewn together yet but i couldn't resist taking a photo of my blocks...

after much consideration (and debate amongst the other retreat attendees!) i have decided to call it "salvaged" and i am hoping to finish it in time for our exhibition in October 2012

i used this tutorial to guide me but i did a couple of things differently...
- i used a light-weight fusible interfacing instead of sewing onto paper, this means i can leave it in and it helps to stabilise the block
- i ironed the kite into place then put the first selvedge right side down and sewed it on using a 1/4" seam.  i pressed it open and layered the remainder of my selvedges for the triangle, once all of the selvedges were ironed in place i moved to the sewing machine and top stitched them down
- using this process has saved me a lot of time!!