Saturday, December 27, 2008

Frugulista - scrap/selvage quilting

I've been on a roll all day long making selvage postcard quilts. No photos yet as I didn't want to stop and do the whip stitching to finish the pillowcase backing and then to iron them. I made eight postcards today not only using the selvages -- many sent to me by dear friends on Swap-bot who I've never met but who are kind and send me envelopes of selvages every so often. I'm using not-"new" fabric - well actually it's all new and not been used before but it was not purchased specifically for this project. Like all scrap quilts -- which are my favorite kind -- I'm using what I have in my stash.

This is frugal in several ways. I'm sewing onto a backing of iron on interfacing that I purchased, actually by mistake, quite a while ago. Not only do I have the strips of selvage sent to me, I realized that many of the strips of fabric in my large "scrap bag" are selvage cuttings. So I went through the whole thing and took out the selvages -- also neatened a bit!... How righteous I feel!

Then as I worked I had a frugalista brain storm -- I could stiffen the post cards by inserting between backing and front, pieces of the many Christmas cards that would otherwise go into the garbage. How perfect is that!? They are a nice light weight but with enough stiffness to give the postcards the necessary oomph to withstand the P.O.'s carelessness ... I hope.

I'm really on a roll and hope to make, perhaps as many as 20 in the next week. I'll do photographs when they are finished. Meanwhile the starburst quilt is coming along -- a friend saw it yesterday and pointed out that it is a mandala and the colors are "Tibetan" -- both true. The influence of my long time interest is so much a part of me I hadn't even thought about it. How wonderful and helpful to have a fresh set of eyes.

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