Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Selvage Spools...The Tutorial!


As promised a little tutorial so you can make your own selvage spools quilt.
Start by sorting your selvages by color. Press them flat and trim so they have a nice straight raw edge. The wider you trim them the more fabric you'll be able to show. I cut mine from 1 to 2 1/2" wide. I like to show the fabric!
You'll need a paper foundation to make your spool. I made all sorts of different sizes. This one is 4" x 8". It's fun to have short, tall, skinny, and fat spools. Experiment with different sizes! I recycle paper from my computer for foundations.
Audition your selvages. Cut them a bit longer than the foundation. Start at the bottom with a non selvage piece. The cute part of the selvage will disappear in the seam allowance so there's no need to waste a selvage. Stack the selvages in the order you'd like them to appear and with about the amount of fabric you'd like to reveal.
Place the non-selvage strip on the bottom so it extends just a tish over the paper. Secure it with a dab of glue if you'd like.
Place the first selvage on top of that strip revealing some of that strip's fabric. Reduce your stitch length for paper piecing...about 1.5 on my machine and sew about 1/16th of an inch from the edge of the selvage. I run the inside edge of my 1/4" foot along the selvage edge and it works perfectly.
Continue adding selvages in the same way until the paper is covered.
It should look something like this.
Flip the foundation over so the paper is on top. Use the edges of the paper to trim the edges.
Remove the paper foundation from the back. Cut two 1 1/2" by 8" strips for the sides and sew one to each side and press.
Choose fabric for the top of the spools. I coordinated the tops with the selvage color. Cut two 2 1/2" x 6" strips and sew to the top and bottom. I cut angles into some of my tops just for fun, but that's my style. You can leave yours nice and straight if you'd like.
To put the spools together I simply lined up the bottoms and sewed background fabric to the tops of the spools so that they were the same height, arranged them like I wanted them and sewed them together. There are so many arrangements that could be done with these blocks. I'd sure love to see what you come up with.
One little note...for the shorter and wider spools I increased the width of the side strips so the spools would look proportional. Play with those kinds of things and make yours look like you want them to.
Any questions, just pop me an email.
Enjoy!

34 comments:

Kristy said...

Oh my goodness!!! That is amazingly beautiful!!! Love selvage projects!

Terri said...

I gotta make this, thank you . Will be wonderful for our guild to try out

Elsa said...

I've been saving my selvages for quite a while now and have a bunch. Yesterday a friend gave me a giant ziplock bag of them! I was more than thrilled! Was wondering what to do with them and think this is the thing! thanks for the tutorial!

Debbie said...

I've been saving my selvages, & this is the perfect way to try using them - thank you!

(On another note, can you link my blog to my name under the "Quilter Butts" challenge? I'm DebbieJ. Thanks, Jacquie)

Angela said...

This is gorgeous! What a great way to selvages. I've been saving mine up waiting to have a decent collection and looking for the right project. This may be it! I love that you could easily do this on a small scale as well. So cute!

Staci said...

This is just charming. What a great idea! I've been collecting selvedges for the past couple years. Wonder if I have enough for this project?? Guess I'll have to sort through them!

Just JaiCi's Crafts said...

so super cute!

Trisha said...

Nice of you to share your method. It is such a great quilt.

Vickie said...

Now isn't that a clever idea?!

Barb said...

such a fun quilt -
thanks for the step outs

Quilt Rat said...

Wow..........wonderful tutorial! I LOVE the look of these spools...such fun!

Live a Colorful Life said...

Selvage-obsession eye candy!

Carla said...

Thanks, Jacquie! I believe that I just added something else to my project list for 2011! You're so generous to share your idea! Are you snowed in?

abcgirl said...

an excellent and inspiring tutorial, jacquie! now if i could just get brave enough to trim my lovely Common Threads bookshelf quilt strips to a uniform height so that i could sew the top together...then maybe i could finish that quilt and start a cute spools quilt!

Donna said...

This is fantastic. Thank you for the tutorial.

Annie said...

Great quilt and tutorial. I could cry over all selveges I have dare I say it? Thrown out. I will now have to curb my wasteful ways.

suesueb said...

A great tutorial! I love this and it really inspires me, thanks!!

craftytammie said...

I really liked seeing this one at guild. Thanks for sharing the how-to!

melody said...

Great information because now I know to cut my selvages wider! What was I thinking? And a paper foundation is a great tool, would never have thought of. Thanks for the tutorial help! Let it snow...I have help at my finger tips. (OK, maybe no to the snow)

Vicki said...

Cool spools :)
Great tutorial! I might one day make a mini one for a mugrug or something.

Patty said...

Thanks so much for posting this tutorial! My punch bowl of selvages is full, so I am ready to get started :-)

Pam - said...

You do such amazing things! Thank you for sharing by doing the tutorials.

Simone de Klerk said...

Love this! thank you for sharing.

Angela said...

Yea!!!! Thank you. I have a picture of your quilt on my bulletin board in my sewing room. When I have enough selvedges, I am making one to hang in my stairwell. Thank you for the tut and the inspiration!

Sarah said...

So stinkin cool!!

MightyMom said...

awesomeness!!

Beginning Quilting said...

This is undeniably a beautiful Selvage Spools Quilt. Your choice of fabrics is just awesome! I really appreciate that you posted a tutorial on how to make this very pretty quilt. I'll surely tell my friends about this. Thank you very much for sharing!

Kathleen said...

Very cool. It reminds me of Victorian quilts made from cigar ribbons.

Dolly said...

I've just popped in from looking at a photo of the finished selvade spool quilt.
I love the quilting on it.
Did you do it freehand or is it a serpentine stitch pattern.

It's gorgeous.

Quilty Chaos said...

Thanks for the tutorial and the permission to borrow your idea. I just love the idea of seeing all that quilting history up on my wall, especially since I give away most of my work.

saralynn said...

oo i so have to do this with those cute moda ribbons i have so cute thanks for the tutorial

Coffeebean's Dailies said...

Wow! I have been saving selvages for a short time and have lots of ladies that quilt in our city give me theirs, which is wonderful! I want to make this! Thank you for the inspiration and the tutorial. It has given me a few ideas! I can't wait!

Coffeebean's Dailies said...

I have a few selvages that I want to work with this summer! This is darling! Thank you for sharing this tutorial! I am inspired!

Anonymous said...

Jacquie,
Thank you for this tutorial. Even though I don't have salvages, I have scraps that would work! I got your blog off of Julie's blog quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com