Containing The Selvages

I have amazing quilting friends that keep me in fun selvages, not to mention my love of chopping selvages from my own stash. It's so exciting when a package (squishy) arrives in the mail and it's packed with selvages. I love seeing the fabrics everyone sews with and wonder what project or quilt they went into. I piled a bunch of selvages from one bag onto my cutting board and went to town making a tote the other day.

I'm in organization mode this week, so I decided to find a way to corral all the bags of selvages into one collection so I could go through them easier. That pile on the cutting table was bugging me. All my selvages fit into this queen-size comforter bag. It's clear and has a wide opening, so I can search for the perfect selvage for my projects. Maybe now I won't hoard selvages and use them more. Now to find a place to stow this 9 lb. bag. My son says it looks a lot like trash. Hmmphh!

Front and back of selvage sewing bag. I'm not sure why I made the handles so wide, but I've been in a wide handle mood lately. This tutorial by Skip to My Lou makes tote bag sewing a piece of cake. If you are intrigued by using selvages, check out the Selvage Blog and these projects on Flickr.

Look! My first name is on one of the selvages. And it's spelled correctly! We one "l" Micheles are big in the quilting world! ; )

There haven't been a lot of finishes around here, but I did complete this hot pad for casserole-size dishes. It measures 11" x 15" and was inspired by these amazing pieces created by Sarah at the House of Krom. Hot pads might make nice gifts next year along with a pretty casserole crock filled with goodies. Yeah, I'll get started on those right away. Someone remind me! Now this talented gal has hot pad fever big time. Love her use of Tonya's letters! Here's a cute tutorial that may have started the hot pad craze in blogland.

I'm still plugging away on the Quiltville mystery quilt. What was I thinking?! This baby is going to use all or most of the remaining "calm" fabrics in my stash. I may even have to throw in some of my normal wild stuff or buy more calm.