Category: Textiles & Fabric

Textiles & Fabric

Selvages

Elizabeth E.2 Comments

I did some recreational shopping last week when my husband was out of town.  It was after grading/prepping for hours and hours and I just sat and enjoyed looking at all the fabrics at Sew, Mama, Sew. (I like them because they’ll still sell you a quarter of a yard.)  That night it was that familiar feeling–too tired to move, but not too tired to click and shop.

The fabrics arrived today, and I’ll take a photo of the stash builder tomorrow, but first, tonight, I wanted to show you two interesting selvages.  In case you’ve been under a rock or something, selvages–that woven strip along the edge of fabric–is the New Hot Thing.  When I slashed off multiple selvages to send to Cindy at Live a Colorful Life, I was working from the very bottom of my stash and found lots of interesting selvages to send to her for her pincushions.  In those days, the printing on selvages was used for identification, and color registration.  The manufacturer would check to make sure the dots on the selvage lined up, so the pattern in the fabric would line up.

But look what they’re doing now!  The top row of registration dots are actually little scissors.  This is the new City Weekend, by Oliver + S.  They have little scissors on all the fabrics–if there are more colors, there are more dots.

And the bottom is a row of little apples, from a Moda alphabet fabric, Wee Woodland. And it’s even on sale!! (Why do you think I bought it?)

 

 

 

Creating · Sewing · Textiles & Fabric

Sewing on the Edge

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

Front of French Pincushion

I read a lot of blogs, but I do have my favorites.  One of them is Cindy’s Live a Colorful Life, which is always enjoyable to read.  She talked about her new business, Sewing on the Edge, where she takes selvages and turns them into pincushions.  This summer I’ve been doing a lot of sewing and I thought I should send her all my selvages, so I wrote to her and Yes! she’d love to have them.

Back of French Pincushion

But when I looked at what I’d hoped to send her, it was a pathetic little collection.  So I grabbed my food fabrics stack–you know, fabrics with food all over them of all kinds–and started slicing.  I’d been collecting these for years, one of those things you start collecting and keep at it, and can’t remember why.  (I do remember now: I want to make a basket quilt, using only food fabrics).  Some of those things are over 12 years old, maybe even 15. By the time I finished I had a better bundle of stuff to send.  Then the French fabrics arrived for the Provence quilt, and I saved those selvages and sent those as well.

Yesterday our held mail was delivered in a stack, and top was this tiny little box.  I opened it and the sweet little French pincushion was there.  Wonderful!  Thank you so much!

I’m always thinking I’d like to do something with the selvages–like made a chair cover, or a little pincushion, or something.  But at my age, I’ve realized that it’s okay to NOT do everything.  I don’t have to hand-dye my fabrics, really I don’t.  I don’t have to be the Queen of Applique–the Princess will do just fine.  And I don’t have to worry about doing something creative with selvages: Cindy’s got that one down, and I’m happy to contribute to her industry and creativity.

Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Mini-quilts

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

I love this photo of the wall of mini-quilts from the book just out from Whip-Up, apparently full of great ideas for mini-quilts.

I have my own mini-quilt wall, but not all mine are up (add another thing to the list).  I pushed them up with thumbtacks in a little unused corner of our hallway cupboards (hence, the crookedness) but I enjoy looking at them as I pass by. The one on the left is from a fractured landscapes class I took from Katie Pasquini Masopust some years ago in Houston, and the one in the center is from a Laura Waskilowski fusing class.  When I used to take classes from the pros I felt the need to make large–BIG–quilts incorporating their techniques. Then at some point I wised up, and made mini-quilts.  I learned what they were teaching, and had a “sample” of the technique.  I could then decide if I wanted to go on to a bigger quilt, or if the small one was enough.  Less fabric to carry to class, and I usually finished the sample that day, instead of adding another UFO to the stack in my sewing closet.  Win-win, in my book.

The mini quilt on the right is from Peru and is called an arpillera.  We almost bought one in a shop in San Francisco (I had to look through all of them!) but the prices were a bit dear, so my husband found some online for me to choose from and I got it there.

And on a somewhat related note. . . Candy Bars!

I bit, and bought.

They have a little booklet of ideas in the bottom of the box–I see another possible mini-quilt for my wall.

Quilt Shops · Textiles & Fabric

Shop-Hop, Miniature Style

Elizabeth E.

Tracy and I headed out early this morning to have our own mini shop-hop, hitting a few stores that she knew about (she knows most all of the quilt shops around here). Click over to the interactive map to see where we went (I’ve also included the two shops I went to last week.)

Why a Google Map for my local fabric shops? When we went to England a couple of years ago, I was searching for information about York, and a local fellow had designed several “walks” that I printed out and we followed as we got to know the town. It was really helpful, and since then I’ve discovered many other helpful public maps on Google.

Is there a public fabric shop map for your town? A public “walks” map? We don’t have those kinds here in Southern California–our culture is car culture, whether it’s the best thing or not (it’s not).