It’s all about the embellishments (selvage quilt blocks)

The quilt artist in me came out to play this week! In yesterday’s post we did a fabric pull for the wall hanging and found some selvages too. If you don’t have selvages, you can use a contrasting fabric to the feature fabric; simply substitute the sizes of the completed selvage blocks with your alternate background fabric. Today we use the precise piecing and decorative stitches of the PFAFF performance icon to make the selvage blocks and some Half Square Triangles.

To make the selvage fabric, refer to my free tutorial – How to Make Selvage Fabric.

I chose selvages with colors that coordinated with the main feature print fabric I’m using for the heart. Of course, I picked a few with metallics to add a bit of sparkle. I had fun using some of the decorative stitches when joining the selvages together. The trick is to make sure the selvages overlap, and the stitching secures both selvages to the foundation. Securing the selvages with decorative stitches adds another layer of texture to the fabric.

There’s so much room in the harp space of the performance icon, and the LED lights and the space made it easy to work on my selvage fabric in the evening.

Once complete, you’ll need to trim the selvage fabric to size; I do this with the reverse side up as it is easier to see the ruler marks on a plain fabric. Cut it into (4) 7” squares.

When these squares are ready, you can use smaller selvage pieces to make (2) 6½” selvage blocks with selvages on the diagonal. I measured out a selvage to go across the middle first and set it aside. I started in one corner and worked my way up the square foundation, using the red guide marks on Presser Foot 1A to help keep my seam even and to keep it close to the edge of the selvage. I made both at the same time and tried to make them match, but it’s not necessary.

When completely covered, flip the diagonal selvage blocks over and trim to the foundation square.

Make Half Square Triangle blocks

Use the 7” selvage squares and the 7” fat quarter squares to make Half Square Triangle (HST) blocks for the wall hanging. Set aside the two diagonal selvage blocks for now. Match up each selvage square with one of the fat quarter squares. Draw one diagonal line on the wrong side of each fat quarter square.

Sew the 7” selvage square to the feature fat quarter fabric 7″ square, right sides together, by sewing ¼” away from each side of the drawn line. I use the ¼ Inch Quilting Foot for IDT System for precise stitching of this step.

Cut on the drawn line to create two HSTs. Press the seam to the fat quarter side. Note: You might need to re-press this seam in the alternate direction later.

Trim each HST to 6½” square.

Repeat with the second feature print fat quarter square and the two coordinating fabric fat quarter squares to make a total of eight HSTs.

You’ve done so much sewing today! Now all the background fabric is made and all the blocks for the top and bottom rows are ready too. We’ll wait to do row assembly, but I’m including a sneak peek below. The precise piecing was easy thanks to the PFAFF performance icon.

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: Using your selvage strips to make an adorable heart wall quilt!

Go to part 3: 2 beautiful stitches and ribbon to embellish your wall quilt