Janice and her Selvedges

I hear from the most interesting, creative people and Janice Luinstra of Calgary is one.Janice sent along some pictures to show what she has been doing with selvedges, including this tote bag made from one of my patterns. Janice writes, "I have enjoyed making these bags ...and have given them to my daughters, daughter in law, friends. Now I am making one to be donated to the Ujaama Grandmas sale Bags, Babies and Beyond in October in Calgary."

On a trip to Indianapolis to visit her daughter, Janice visited the local quilt store and mentioned to a person there that she was looking for selvedges. That person had been collecting them and was happy to donate a bag full to Janice. They connected again on Janice's next trip, and the woman gifted her with huge bins of selvedges. Lucky Janice! In addition to several tote bags, she also made a selvedge skirt for her daughter, which understandably garnered a lot of attention, and this fabulous quilt.

Here's a shot of her huge selvedge stash (and I thought *I* had a lot!!) spread out so Janice can select just the perfect one for use in her work.

Thanks so much for being in touch, Janice, You can find out the times and location for The Ujaama Grandmas sale here; if you are lucky enough to be in the Calgary area, you may come home with one of Janice's selvedge bags!

Joanne's Selvedge Tote

More sew & tell, this one from Joanne Colleaux from Armstrong B.C.  Joanne is an award winning quilter who seems to share my love of blue- green fabrics.  Joanne writes, " One of my quilting friends made the tote in the spring, and seeing how great it looked was the motivation to get this onto the to-do list. It was a fun project for me... I’ve never paid a great deal of attention to what was on a selvage other than the dots, but if asked, I would have answered that the letters were all black and in the same font. What a surprise to discover the reality, and be able to play with all that colour and variety in the skinny strings. Although not all the related fabrics had meaningful connections for me, many did, and so it was also a nice trip down memory lane...thanks for your inspiration for yet another project."

Typical of Joanne , she has put a unique spin on the tote bag adding a centre square to the intersection of the selvedge blocks, which are then joined through partial seams.  From the picture, it looks like Mirror Ball Dot for the square and trim...? Joanne also used variegated thread in a zigzag stitch to anchor her selvedges, thus adding another bit of colour. 

It make my original version a bit pale by comparison :)

Thank you Joanne for sharing your beautiful bag.  The pattern for the Selvedge Tote is available from my website or an an instant download through Craftsy.