Selvages

Quite a few years ago there was a selvage quilt in the Lancaster Quilt show. I saw it, admired it, and forgot about it. Until the following year when one of the ladies came back to the Spring Retreat after the show all excited about a selvage quilt. C was tickled with the idea and said she was going to make one, and sure enough she did. Here is a photo of her selvage quilt a few years later. I said maybe I will make one, since I really did like C’s, a lot. I started collecting selvages and that’s as far as I’ve gotten on that project.

Well in my email yesterday was a photo of another selvage quilt, made by another quilter and made because she liked C’s quilt so much. It was a little different and very interesting, and made me want to work on mine. But since I’m not sewing right now, and since I don’t have near enough selvages…. Hey wait a minute my brain says, where did she get all her selvages from in that amount of time. C worked part time at a quilt shop, and it took her several years to get enough for her quilt, and I sew pretty much full time, until recently anyway.

So I sent an email off, starting of course with nothing but praise. I really do like her selvage quilt, and I told her so, several times in different ways. I like her colors and her sashing and her setting, I loved it all. But I’m nosey I said, “where did you get all those selvages so fast?” I waited a few hours before she replied, and imagine my shock when she told me she had bought them.

Let’s be fair here, I told my quilter friend I was going to blog about her selvage quilt, but I’m not going to show a photo, because she will be showing it around her quilting circles, and doesn’t want anyone to know I am talking about her. (Yea right like any of her friends might just happen to read this, I don’t even think she normally reads this, but she will now because I told her I was going to write about my shock)

SHE BOUGHT THEM. In a store on line. She BOUGHT selvages in an on-line store. I was afraid to ask how much she paid for them, but she was kind enough to send me the web site. Which I am not going to share… nor am I going to buy any. After all, the selvage is the part people throw away, which means that some store is collecting the trash and selling it. Oh ok, I know they don’t trash pick, I hope, but cut selvages from their yard goods.

But how much… ok you do the math, I’m not even going there. You can purchase 100 selvage strips between 4 to 6 inches length about (love the “about” part) one to two inches wide. For only, yes ONLY, $9.99. BUT don’t forget shipping. Yes, add that shipping cost. If I were to order one package of selvage strips the shipping would be only $10.80. I didn’t believe that, so I called the shop. They use flat rate boxes and that is their policy.

No thank you, I’ll keep collecting them for myself. (And to my friend, you know I love you and I just hope that your honey buns doesn’t read this and figure out I am talking about you. Poor guy might die of shock, LOL)