Living on the Edge

On September 5, 2015, I began crocheting some of my blue and green selvedges into a mandala using the pattern I designed for thread crochet following the death of Marinke Slump.

As the piece became bigger and bigger, it began to ruffle on the edges because of the 12 increases on every round of the original pattern, which was written for a much smaller scale.

I wasn't in the mood to unravel. So my selvedge mandala has for nearly a year and a half rested atop a stack of quilting magazines next to our living room chair, where I sit on a heating pad when I can't sleep at night. Meanwhile, I did tons of piecing and quilting, as well as a few sewing projects, and I cut up plenty more selvedges. The pile kept growing and growing and growing. Becoming more and more annoying with every new project.

Ugh!

Down with a head cold most of January and not retaining enough energy or will most nights after work to quilt or do much of anything else creative, I decided one evening I should go ahead and finish this mandala rug. It was right there, next to me. I didn't even have to reach for it.

I thought this might also be a good time to organize my relentless and out-of-control mountain of selvedges. It truly was a mountain.


I finally ripped back three rounds on the selvedge rug and then continued crocheting, working in only six increases on each round instead of 12. That worked for about four rounds, but then I had to do 12 increases on the even rounds and 6 increases on the odd rounds, which required a bit more unraveling and redoing. Nevertheless, the project was moving along at last. Finally!

I underestimated the amount of selvedges I'd need to complete the rug and was short about six or seven yards on the final round.

I'd already organized three years' of selvedges and packaged them to sell on Etsy. I didn't want to break into one of the packages to finish my rug.

I pulled out one of the Ravelry reward fat quarters I'd received a couple of years ago for finishing a WIP quilt and cut the entire fat quarter into 1-inch strips. I added the strips to the dangling selvedge on the unfinished rug, and about 20 minutes later, this longstanding WIP was finished!


I tried to make the color registration dots show whenever I could.


Taking pictures of the finished rug was more fun than taking pictures of the packaged selvedges. My first amaryllis of the year bloomed at just the right time!




The packaged selvedges took a heck of a lot more time and math than the rug! But thank heavens they are DONE! And in my Etsy shop. Good riddance!




































Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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