A Fun New Project!!!

I went to a really fun and different workshop at my Music City Quilt Guild's Sit-n-Sew day last week.  One of my favorite people, Starr Howell, taught us how to make selvedge boxes.  Just to prove that I was an A+ student, here is my finished box.....  cool, huh???

One of my favorite quotes from Bonnie Hunter is - the smallest leftover strip of fabric costs the same amount as any other piece of fabric you buy - why throw it away?  I've been throwing away selvedges since I started quilting; that is, until I saw Starr's first box at a meeting a couple of years ago, and I've been wanting to make one ever since!!!  The class was on Thursday and I was looking forward to it excitedly, but on Wednesday night I got NO SLEEP AT ALL!!!  I kept hearing that 5th Dimension song from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back all night - you know the one..... "Last night, I didn't get to sleep at all, all, all..... I lay awake and watched until the mornin' light..."  Yeh, that was me!  When hubby got up at 5:30am, I was in the studio cutting squares for Talking Turkey!

But even though I was afraid would pretty much be a zombie, I was determined to take this class!  All my stuff was loaded and ready to go, so I "suited up and showed up" LOL!!!  Actually, the zombie state did not hit me until Friday - go figure!  But I was really glad I went to class, because we had fun and I've got a really cool new box to keep my selvedges in now! ♥♥♥

The first thing we did was cut pieces to fit the top and all four sides of the box, allowing an extra 1-1/4 inches for trimming.  Then we had a BLAST digging through our selvedges and picking out our prettiest ones, then pinning them down.  Once a couple of pieces were all pinned, we chain-pieced the selvedges down, trying to sew as closely as possible to the edge (sorry this one is a little blurry!)......

Here are my finished pieces (before trimming down to the correct size)....

Starr had told us ahead of time that the trick to pretty selvedge projects is to cut at least 3/4" of the fabric off with the selvedge so you get some color with it.  She sure knows what she's talking about - look at all that wonderful color!  And look at my completed box top shown below ...yoohoo!!!!

Now I ask you, does that look like me or what?  

All that color - oooo-la-la!!!

And look at some of the special selvedge designs... can you see where the designer used birds instead of color circles on the upper left here?

And Christmas Trees here?.....too cute!!!!

And the cutest little set of Japanese fans in the bottom corner.... awwww......

There are selvedges in here that remind me of the projects I've made.... like Easy Street - this fabric was used as the border....

And Genevieve's Live-Laugh-Love - this one isn't even finished yet, but it's now immortalized for me in my selvedge box!

A lot of these are from friends who knew I was collecting them, which makes them special too!!!

As I was gathering my materials together from Starr's class list, I wasn't sure what to bring for the bottom and trimming on the box.  I finally just grabbed a bland pink/red buttons print figuring a sewing motif would work no matter how the box turned out.  Boy, was I wrong!!!  That pink looked horrible with it!  All these wonderful colors in this box, and I just couldn't put that washed out pink on there... no way.  A bright, happy pink might have worked, but.....

Then Sheila came to my rescue!  I had spied her trimming fabric earlier and drooled all over it - she had chosen a bright purple and it glowed!!!  When it was determined by a large group of us that purple was what my box needed, Sheila generously offered me her left-over purple so I could make my box beautiful - now that's a sweetheart folks!!!

Looking at the finished box again - isn't that purple just perfect???  
                     Yep, I thought so too :*)
                                    Thanks so much, Sheila!!!!

And here is my finished box with all my selvedges (so far!) in it.  They were all neatly folded before I began the project, and I'll sit with this in my lap tonight while I watch TV and straighten them all up again.  It's so much easier to see what's there when they are not all jumbled up like that!

Love this "Good Morning!" piece =^..^=
(I just cut it last night, or it would have gone right on top of my box!)

........ all ready for a new selvedge project.  Let's see.... what will it be????  There are a ton of cute projects out there right now!  And tons of new selvedges, like "Good Morning!" just waiting to shine....

I cut this one Friday while playing with Talkin' Turkey!
(Another candidate for the top of the box, am I right????)

That sweet measuring tape selvedge was cut from this fabric :*D

And how about this one - too sweet!!!!!

I bet you are designing something just as beautiful!

Be sure to see other gorgeous designs over at Patchwork Times!

Also linking up with:
Connie at Freemotion by the River
Quilt Story
Sew Cute Tuesday at Better Off Thread
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Design Wall Monday - 1/21/2013

I've had a very productive week in the sewing studio!

This is the 3rd block in the Curve It Up QAL, hosted by Jenny and Helen over at Sew Kind of Wonderful.  There have actually been 6 blocks released, so needless to say I'm playing catch up ;*D  These curved blocks are so much fun!  Here are the first 3 blocks all together on my design wall.  For some reason the picture is really fuzzy, but you get the idea.

I'm using a lively set of fabrics called Good Fortune designed by Kate Spain, and there's a lot of variety and color in them.  I also got the next 3 blocks cut out and ready to sew up.  These are the fabrics I've chosen for each one.

While I was playing with these fabrics, and also putting away the fabrics I bought on my shopping spree road trip to Franklin, I went ahead and cut off the selvedges.  One of our Guild ladies makes the most amazing boxes using selvedges and she is going to teach a class on it in a few months time.  She advised us to begin gathering our selvedges so we'll have enough to have a nice variety.  I think I'm off to a pretty good start.  I'm not sure I ever really realized how cute even the selvedges can be.  Here are a few of my favorites .... =^..^=

And look at this Good Fortune selvedge.... I am in love with the little different colored fans here instead of the usual circles!!!  What a really nice, special touch!

Of course, I am still working steadily on Easy Street and making good progress, one block at a time.  This is my little "assembly station" LOL!!!

I even finished up one block using the pieces as leader/ender pieces while playing with my pink scraps yesterday!  My goal is to have this quilt pieced and ready for quilting by the end of January.

Of course, I am still working very diligently on my Dare to Dresden project.  I hope you'll be sure to come back on the 29th to see my project!!!  I'm pretty sure it's going to be worth the wait =^..^=

What's on your design wall?  It's always fun to check out the projects linked up with Judy over at Patchwork Times!  I'm also linking up with Connie at Freemotion by the River!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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