Have you ever really looked at the edges of the fabric you buy before cutting them up and discarding them? I’m sure you have, and if I asked you what was there the most common answer would probably be: the name of the fabric company and the fabric line. Many of you would also mention the “color dots”.
These dots contain each of the hues (colors) used in that fabric and are another great “palette” to use when choosing colors for a quilt (a topic familiar to all who’ve been reading my blog recently). To read a short and informative post about these dots click here!
Some very innovative quilters have actually made quilts from these tightly woven strips, and I’ve always been intrigued by the ones I’ve seen entered in quilt shows. It’s amazing what you can find on the internet. I searched for “making quilts with selvedges” and found oodles of fun sites. Click here for a great video on this topic from Bryan House Quilts.
At the Butterfly Threads Quilting site I discovered a woman who is wonderfully addicted to making selvedge quilts. She’s made them into baskets, spools, log cabins and more. Click here to be inspired!
That being said, I’ve come to realize that one of the purposes of this week’s post is to find out if there is anyone out there who is as totally unobservant as me!!!
While at retreat with my friend Laura a few months back, she was talking about some fabrics she had purchased with creative color dots – wait, what?
My response: “what are you talking about?” She told me she’d send me a photo of some of these selvedges, and here it is (thanks Laura):
What fun! I especially loved the trucks. So I went through some of my more recent purchases and, much to my surprise, found some delightful edges:
And my personal favorite – compasses on a colorful map fabric by Timeless Treasures:
I love it! Who knew these were hiding in my stash? Did you?
Will any of you admit to being as surprised as I was to know about these “creative dots”? Please feel free to comment if you dare 🤣.
Do any of you save selvedges? If so, have you made quilts or other projects with them? I’d love to see photographs of them. Please email them to me at .