So this is my Selvage O'Lantern Quilt, which is my exhibit in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I love Halloween and I love selvages, so this is the result.-
I got totally hooked on selvage quilting after making my 2010 Selvage Sampler Quilt earlier this year. I love using the scraps and selvages from other quilts to make a personalised fun memory quilt to keep for myself. This year I made three other Halloween quilts and a Halloween table runner. The idea of the Selvage O'Lantern just struck me one day as I was bagging up my leftover Halloween scraps and selvages ......
I think of selvage and scrap quilts as an epilogue to other quilting projects ... they wrap it all up, summarize all the quilts that went before them, and in the process tell their own story. Plus of course they're fun! No rules to follow. At all. I love a busy quilt with lots going on and I think this quilt qualifies.
So, it is my own design, free-pieced without a pattern. My seam ripper and I became quite well-acquainted during the making of this. Selvages are essentially stripes. And stripes accidentally sewn on crooked look like crooked lines. Also, groups of lines create optical illusions. You know how wearing horizontal stripes makes you look fatter and vertical stripes make you look thinner? Well, the same applies here. Creating one big design, using internal triangle shapes as well as both horizontal and vertical lines was tricky. To add to it, I had selvages from a lot of Halloween fabric with a black background. You have to be super careful with the placement of black as it can put such a strong emphasis on one thing rather than another. I spent lots of time staring at this quilt during different points of the making saying "That looks weird."-
And it's still weird, I know that. I won't be offended if anyone is thinking, or comments, that it is one odd quilt. But I'm sure no one else anywhere has one exactly like it, which is fun to think about, and I do love it myself.
I signed it, my first time signing a quilt. I kind of made my own selvages by writing on these ones right in the border. I mention the kids of course on the label as it's really a quilt for the family, but if we all dive for it on the couch at once, it's mine! ;-)
I really spread out my selvages along the border, by inserting pieces of Halloween fabric after every four or five selvage pieces. It also made it look more seasonable.
Since this was my first attempt, I just worked with what I had -- which meant selvages of all colours. But, if I made this again, I think it would be really cool with just orange and yellow fabric selvages.
The quilt is 58 by 64 inches. It was quilted in an overall stipple design, by my go-to quilter -- Tina Hanson of Town and Country Quilts in Rothesay, NB. I chose a peach coloured thread which was nice on the orange area and not too dark on the white of the selvages. Tina did a great job as always. I should add though, that I have been practicing my machine quilting, as doing my quilts 100% myself is my next goal.-
Thanks to my Mom for helping me take the pictures yesterday. It was a grey, foggy day and I wasn't optimistic about getting anything usable, but I think they turned out really nice considering.
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So Happy Halloween from me and the Selvage O'Lantern! And I'll say now, I drew a sketch the other night for a selvage Christmas quilt (I am soooo addicted). I'll just have to see what Christmas scraps and selvages I have left after making Christmas gifts.
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Thanks so much for stopping by! Feel free to stay a while and browse. Then, when you're ready, if you click here, you can head on over to a list of other quilters participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I know I'll definitely be surfing around looking at all the fabulous submissions. Happy Quilting!
