Red Happenings

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for July is red. The only red thing I sewed this week was a selvage potholder.

It was fun to dig through the selvage bag (and one box) to find some red pieces to use. Most of these selvages I recognize from previous projects, so it's like a trip down memory lane. Since this was made to replace a very used gift from 2019, I was happy to find a piece that says 'England' on it, since the recipient's family is from England. And also a bit ironic to have a piece that says 'Handmaid' on a kitchen project.

My friend asked if she could exchange the old potholder for a new one. She gave me the old one which has burnt edges and feels/smells like it has been dipped in Crisco! I was delighted that my gift was so well used, and it definitely needed to be replaced.

And in other red happenings this week, I bought this pretty kit of fabrics to make the 4th of July project from Modern Holiday table runner by Cluck Cluck Sew. This kit has more teal fabrics than blue which gives it a more Christmasy vibe.

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

New RSC selvage project

Do you save your selvages?

I have saved mine for about a decade and have made a few small items over the years. When I made my Christmas mug mat out of red selvages, I fell in love with these things again and started saving them more enthusiastically. The box has begun to overflow and it was time to either stop saving them or use them up.

I reviewed Melissa's tutorial for working with selvages and decided this would be my new RSC project.

Instead of piecing the blocks on fabric or paper, I decided to use the quilt-as-you-go technique. The strips are sewn to a base of a backing square and a batting square. When the blocks are sewn, the quilting is done!

Melissa's tutorial reminded me to check under each seam to ensure the most recent strip covers the one before it, which is an important step in this type of block making. That seam had to be made larger on the left.

I chose 3 block  sizes that correspond to my batting scraps. My yellow selvages were enough to make a large, a medium and 2 small blocks.

Here are the back of the blocks, using yellow scraps as the base fabric. The yellow on the right was leftover from the backing of a quilt I made in 2010!

I'm looking forward to using up all my selvages in 2021 making blocks each month using the RSC colour.

Linking up to the weekly party over at Angela's.

Homemade gifts - Part 1

Sometimes I just get weird random inspirations to create things. I don't know why these are the things that were made this year, but I know that when I get obsessed with an idea, I have to make it.
Resistance is futile!


Last year it was a paper pieced Sisyphus, and this year it was an embroidery and selvage project.
The embroidery patterns are by Gail Pan, and include holly, a stocking, a star, a present and a heart.




I added one selvage (which was the selvage of the backing fabric) above the embroidery designs. Then many more red selvages were attached below in a quilt-as-you-go style, so that the quilting was completed as the selvages were added. 

A side effect of this project is that I may have become a teeny tiny bit obsessed with selvages. There are often random interesting images on selvages... look how cute this bunny is! Why does that make me so happy?! 

I don't even know what to call this project since I don't know what it is. It's too large to be a mug mat, but too small for a tabletopper... maybe it's a "candlemat"?
All I know is that it's finished, and the new owner can decide what it actually is! I also know that it contains lots of love and my wishes for healing and hopefulness for 2020.
Tomorrow I'll post what I made for my nieces and nephews.

Gifts getting finished!

There are 5 days left to finish up all your Christmas gifts!  I always work on projects to give away right up until Christmas Eve. Whatever I am able to get finished makes me happy, and whatever doesn't get finished, goes in next year's pile!
I have been collecting selvages for a while and made 4 hot mats from red selvages for gifts. They were fun to make in a quilt-as-you-go style. I hand stitched the binding on the back, making it a little longer so I could loop the end over to make a hanging tab.

Then I took them to the local park for a glamour photo shoot, but it was really cold, so the outing was brief and the photos weren't great.
You can't even see the cute little gifts in this photo!

Trying again... that's a little bit better!
Oh well... the idea was great, but the execution left a bit to be desired! LOL
I'm sure the new owners will enjoy these hand made gifts!

Quilters sewing their Frolic blocks!

And guess what today is?!?!
It's Frolic Day - Step #4 is posted. I wonder what we're sewing this week in between finishing our Christmas sewing!?