Field Trips in Fiber

2007 projects Completed

Here's a roundup of the year's completed projects. Not bad!

Postcards

Dec 31 – 3 Friends at the Art Gallery

Dec 8 - 3 sets of Christmas postcards

Nov 18 - Black, white and 1 color

Sep 26 - New Beginnings and Great Outdoors

Aug 25 - Self Portrait

Aug 4 - "Splash"

Jun 3 - SG "Sewing Room"

Jun 25 - Fast Food

May 30 - Earth

May 29 - QA Summer

May 12 - May Birthday

Apr 28 - QA swap "air" themed

Apr 9 - Bird

Mar 27 - QA "Fire"

Feb 24 - QA Water

Feb 18 - From the Kitchen

Jan 31 - Monogram postcards for Quilting Adventures class

Longarm Quilting For others

Aug 18 - quilt Mom's Stack and Whack quilt

Apr 26 - 2 Female QOV quilts quilted for Quilt Studio

Feb 10 - Kim's Quilt quilted

Feb 3 - Anne's Snails Trail Quilting

Community Service

Oct 27 - Chinese Coins QOV

Sep 30 - Quilt For an Hour QOV

July 4 - Friendship Star QOV

May 6 - QOV Quilt For An Hour Batik

Mar 15 - Binding Reversible Baby quilt for Quilt Studio Project

Jan 8 - Quilt Studio QOV

Personal Projects and Gifts

Dec 29 – Music-themed pillow for James

Dec 26 – many mixed media boxes for Christmas gifts

Nov 12 - Purple/Gold Indygo Junction Jacket

Sept 3 - Anti-Watercolor Quilt

May 26 - James Graduation Quilt

May 5 - Baby Snails Trail Quilt

May 5 - Baseball pillow for my boss

April 1 - Blue & White Snails Trail Quilt

Jan 7 - Phoebe's Indygo Junction Jacket

"3 Friends at the Art Gallery" Postcard

This postcard is for the Stitcher's Guild "Favorite Artist" postcard swap. I'm embarrassed to admit that it was due December 15th. I did get it done in December though!

We were supposed to depict a work by our favorite artist. I had too many idea and very little in the way of plans for execution. I woke one morning last week with this idea. It's three friends discussing a piece of art in a gallery. It's the discussion we all hope no one had about anything we create!

It also proves that there is a use for all of those snips and bits of thread that pile up near the sewing machine! The frame is black Timtex. the conversation bubbles were developed in PowerPoint and printed on fabric. There's very little sewing but a lot of fusible web on this one!

A Music Pillow

A few weeks ago Ellen (a friend I met through the LQS) read my post about my visit to see my nephew. She has an embroidery machine and offered to stitch out this music design for me. Today I made it into a 20" square pillow. the gray fabric and the music print fabric are left over from my nephew's graduation quilt. The red is left over from the quilt I just made for Anne. I love how it turned out and can't wait to send it to him when he returns to school in a couple of weeks!

Thank you Ellen, the embroidery is PERFECT!

Stash Report

There's not a lot to report this week. But what I have is good!

• I didn't buy anything - no fabric, no books, no tools, no beads, no yarns, nothing!
• I used about a yard of fabric from the stash to finish off the Christmas boxes and, except for the red fabric, all of the fabric in Anne's quilt is from stash. The backing was hand dyed for the quilt but I'm not counting my hand dyed fabric. I dye it as I need it.
• I used 5 fat quarters for the metallic painting and gave 4 of the 5 pieces away. I want to paint more of them Wednesday.

The interesting thing that I've noticed after the Christmas box extravaganza is that I've used almost a bolt of WonderUnder, almost all of my MistyFuse, about half a bolt of Timtex and used up a couple of colors of felt. I don't really consider those stash items since I buy them as I need them. I like buying these supplies by the bolt because it's less expensive and it keeps me out of the fabric stores!

I will probably buy some more felt this week since Hancock's is next door to the sewing machine store. I've got to take my Pfaff in for a service. It needs it desperately!

I am looking forward to getting back to my normal sewing and some more fabric painting this week. Christmas is officially OVER!

Finished the Red/White/Black String Quilt

I finished this quilt today. It's a Christmas gift for my friend Anne. Now before you point out that it's AFTER Christmas, I should note that she hasn't even started to make my gift yet! So, I'm early.

I started this in September at Craft Week. I made 4 blocks and Anne immediately claimed it as hers. It is based on the pattern used for the Heartstrings Quilt Project. I originally thought I might make this as a QOV. I'll make another for QOV - this one spoke to Anne and you have to let the quilt speak!

It is 70 x 90 and aside from the red used for the center strings and the inner border, it's all stash fabric. I started it because I had so many left over strings of black and white print fabrics.

The backing fabric is hand dyed gray and it is quilted with the Timeless Quilting - Feathered Curls pantograph. This was the first time I used this one and it will be one of my new favorites. It's very well balanced and has just the right density for my tastes.  the thread is Superior Threads "So Fine!" in Scarlet.

Here's the label that Debra embroidered for me. The color of the backing fabric is most accurate in the photos of the label. It's the perfect finishing touch!

I won!

Look at the surprise that I got in the mail today! I won this from Terri. She made 4 of these and had a naming contest. The chosen name is Stop and Smell the Roses. She decided to give all 4 of the away and I received this one.

I won another of her pieces in June. I mounted it with a piece of silk fusion and it brightens up my desk at work. I'll make some silk fusion backgrounds for this one too.

I'm calling him "Old Blue". Isn't he cute?

Thanks Terri!

Christmas and Kumihimo

I took a break from the sewing room today for Christmas with my family. We had a great time seeing everyone although my niece had a cold and didn't feel up to any festivities. There are a couple of sewing-related gifts to report. First, my Mom got me the Myrna Longarm Ruler Organizer. We saw this at Houston and I almost bought it there and have been wanting it ever since! After I finish this post I'll be setting it up with all of my templates and rulers.

The second gift is really one that Chris received. It's the Coleman Hands-Free Utility Light. He really should put this thing away somewhere because I got very attached to it on he ride home! I was able to use it in the car and start the pink and green braid that you see in the photo. I started the other braid last night and finished it on the ride to Mom's house.

This Kumihimo disk is lots of fun and you quickly get in the rhythm of the braiding steps. These braids are all the standard round braid. Next I want to try a couple of other braid methods. What fun! Why didn't someone tell me about these earlier?

Tomorrow it's back to real work........

The end of the Christmas boxes

Thanks to Kate I got the last of my Christmas packaging done today! (We are not celebrating Christmas with my family until tomorrow so I am not late.) Kate posted this link to the pattern for a small gift box. These are perfect for my last packages. I had a half-yard piece of the metallic fabric and half yard of a red poly/cotton that I was able to use for the lining. I used left over bits to make the gift tags. I made 8 of them!

The Pink and gray thing is a pencil case for my SIL, the artist. Her gift wouldn't fit in the small boxes so I made this instead. The outside is a piece of corduroy that I dyed and printed several years ago. This is another of those fabrics that I was saving. I think it makes a cute pencil case and I still have a good chunk of it left. The hanger is made from various pink and gray yarns braided on my new Kumihimo Disk.

Now I will rest for a day.

Fun With Fabric Paints

I had to take a break from boxes (sort of, I did make one box you'll see later) and got the urge to do some fabric painting. Plus I was feeling really guilt for not getting my blog drawing fabrics in the mail yet. You may remember that I did the fabric dyeing in November and I still do not have everything in the mail.  I gave Mary her backing fabric when we met earlier this month but the other 4 are still here. That's because I was not happy with some of them.

I am please with both of these sets and decided to leave them alone. The top set is a gradient of yellow to red and the bottom set is a pastel color wheel. The gradient is the first one that I have done that I felt turned out "right" and I really love the soft colors of the pastel set and I dyed these after I purchased purple and green dyes from Dharma. Before I had been mixing dyes for my purple and green but my color mixing testing convinced me that pure purple and green dyes and paints are worth having.

 

   

 

 

The third set of fabrics for the blog drawing were dyed using Ann Johnston's color parfait technique. I decided to tart two of them up with some painting. I used primarily Stewart Gill paints on these using Metallica, Pearlize, Alchemy and Colourize in various blends. On the one on the left I used a combination of stencils and stamps. The stencil worked great but the stamp did not. I actually had to go back and paint in all of those squares! I will not do that again. You can't see it in this picture but there is a smaller square stamp and some brush strokes over the entire piece. The one on the right has a base of brush strokes in a darker metallic with splatters of silver Metallica.

Next up are these fabrics that I dyed trying to get "sky" images. the only one that turned out good and I left alone is the one on the right. The blue on the left came out darker than I wanted so I lightened it up with some sponging over the dark areas using either Alchemy or Pearlize or both - I can't remember. The one in the middle was dyed using a recipe in Ann Johnston's book called "sunrise". It came out pink and gray. When I saw the sunrise photos on Randi's blog I had my inspiration. I painted over the pink and gray with DyeNaFlow paints and improved that fabric greatly!

Next on the agenda was another box - see, I told you there were more boxes! This is a tissue box for my tiny powder room that I keep decorating. I bought this fabric in Houston from Jeanette's Fabric to Dye For. She has the most beautifully saturated hand-dyed colors I've ever seen and she had a table full of these awesome metallic fat quarters. I bought two of them. This one was purchased specifically for a bathroom tissue box! I figure that I spend a lot of time in there and want to have some pretty things to look at.

The metallic fat quarters are $8 each - quite pricey for something that I might want a lot of! So my next painting assignment was to try to mimic the look. I didn't quite get the look that Jeanette has for her fabrics and her fabric is much stiffer but I sure do like what I did get. I started with these:

I did not use the dark blue/green one that is third from the left. After a big mess and lots of fun I ended up with this!

Aren't they cool! I laid them out backwards in this photo to the fabric on the far left in the top picture is the same as the fabric on the far right in the bottom picture. I used a combination of Jacquard and Stewart Gill paints. I thought I might use up the Jacquard paints but, fortunately, I have a lot of paint left to do lots more of these. Can't you see this as a good way to rehabilitate bad dyed fabrics?

Stash Report

I know that Judy isn't doing a stash report this week but since I've been spending money I thought I need to 'fess up!

I didn't buy any fabric and I have used a few yards to make my boxes this week. But I did buy some other things. First, I bought these supplies for doing Kumihiro braids. I've been wanting to make some cords for various projects and to use up some of the assortments of yarns that I have. These were about $35 and I got them on eBay from this seller.

These are the other items I bought. From my LQS, I picked up a sampler set of Wonderfil threads (because I liked the color palette), the Stitch Journeys book that goes with the threads and a specific issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting because I was looking for a specific article.

I also ordered 3 books: one on braiding to use with my disks, a book about fabric bowls made from fabric-wrapped cording and one on paper making. I want to try the fabric bowls once I finish my locker hooked rug. I used to make paper and want to get back into it to make paper from some journals. All of this stuff was about $150.

My total for the month comes to about $215 and, I hate to admit it, but that's REALLY good for me! None of my expenditures were for fabric. I'm taking extra credit for that.

Postcards Received

I have a lot of postcards to share with you today. This first group is from the MQResource "black, white and 1 color" exchange.

From Deb:

And behind the gren door?

From Suzanne:

From Karen:

From Beth:

From Lynn:

These last 4 are from the Stitcher's Guild "favorite artist" swap.

This one is Tamara's interpretation of Raphael's "The Creation of the Sun and Moon"

Obie's "Evening Out" by Juarez Machado

Zippi's "The Scream" by Edvard Munch

Carla's "Countryside" by Monet

Can you take one more box today?

I promise, I am ALMOST done with the boxes. This one is for my friend Denise. She lives in California and I have not mailed her Christmas gift to her yet because I didn't have the box for the gift made! I talked to her today and she wanted me to open my gift, which she sent on time. I told her we will open them together on the phone when hers arrives. At least I now know it will go in the mail on the 24th.

This one sort of fits in the stash control category too. This is a fabric that I bought several years ago at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I've been "saving it for the right project". I think that has become a very bad habit so I've been trying to breal it. I cut the fabric so that the pattern matches around the box. The box is about 11" x 8.5" and 2.5" tall and the lid is attached in the back. I added 3 rock beads (from an old necklace) to the front of the lid. The inside is a commercial fabric that looks hand dyed.

Still boxing!

It's been way too long since I last posted. Things have been very strange here at the Welsh home. We've had a social life this week! Mom was here last weekend and we had visitors Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  I'm still in shock! Who knew that people wanted to visit us? LOL! OK, Mom doesn't count, she just wanted to play with Willie. The rest of the Christmas holiday will be quite relaxed. We have a Christmas Eve dinner to attend and will celebrate Christmas with my family on the 26th. In the mean time I will endeavor to finish making boxes for my gifts - several will be very late!

This is the one that I have been working on for DAYS! The box design is from Sue Blieweiss' Mixed Media class at joggles.com. She is teaching this one again starting in January. If you are interested in Mixed Media, I highly recommend this class!

This box, called "At a Loss For Words?" is for someone that I work with. We both have a lot of odd jobs. She coordinates all of our corporate charitable giving but I know her well because we run an associate networking program together. She also write speeches for the President and other executives. That's how I developed the idea for the box.

The mixed media sheet is made on a piece of light blue felt and covered in silk roving fibers. The white paper are torn dictionary pages. Next I added snips of fibers and yarns and light blue tulle. The words are stamped with Stewart Gill paints - Colourize mixed with Alchemy.

This box has over 30 pieces! It took about 5 bobbins to do all of the stitching. But it's well work the effort. It's quite sturdy.

The box is for her to use when she hits a creative wall. She can choose from three drawers: "nouns", "verbs" and "profanity". And inside the drawers? What we all need when we hit a creative wall - CHOCOLATE!!

Now I'm off to the store to get the fixins for Chex Mix - I got a craving for the treat last night. Later I will post all of the postcards that I've received recently and maybe another project. This one is the most complex for the season!

...And Another Box

This one is for my boss. My co-worker and I are giving him a baseball book and tickets to a game in May (he's a really good boss!). He's originally from St. Louis and a big Cardinals fan.

The box bottom is made the size of the book and the top is 1/4" larger. I use the Fibre&Stitch basic box instructions. The bottom of the box is made with some hand-dyed fabric from my stash.

For the Cardinals images we photocopied some photos from a Cardinals book in his office. The top is a layer of black felt (I use acrylic felt because I'm allergic to wool but it seems to work just fine), red silk roving fibers, cut outs of the Cardinals images, wisps of black eyelash yarn and snips of silver Superior Razzle Dazzle. It's all topped off with a layer of black tulle.

Back to the box sweat shop.....

Stash Report and More Boxes

My weekend list is still mostly undone. I've been busy all weekend bit things are talking longer than planned! My Mom is here and is quilting her THIRD quilt of the weekend. I feel like we're running a sweat shop! All I accomplished is these 2 boxes for Christmas gifts. I'm really please with both of them but they sure took a long time! then cool thing is that I used some yarns and specialty fabrics that I've had in my stash for a while and had not used yet. I didn't use much of them but I did use them!

In the stash control front I made 2 purchases this week: a pillow form for a specific project and this lame gadget. It was only $10 and I thought I might be able to use it to sew my backing fabrics onto the zippers for the longarm. I hate using pins because I always stick myself at some point in the process. Don't bother to try the Sew Quick, it didn't work for the leaders. I think next I will buy a curved stapler as recommended by Jessica Schick in a class at MQX last year. Fabric wise, I used about a yard of fabric for my gift box projects and Mom shopped the stash for some binding fabric. Not much usage but no additions either!

Back to box and gift bag making......

Decorating and the weekend list

I haven't made a list on a while and I feel like I am falling behind on Christmas preparations. Chris is going out of town to visit a friend for the weekend and Mom is coming here to quilt 3 quilts on the longarm. I have 6 things I really want to get done by Monday:

• Get the Christmas cards in the mail - half are done
• Make the rest of the gift boxes and bags.
• Get my artist postcards done for the Artisan's Square swap
• Get the fabric from my blog draw in the mail to the winners
• Get Anne's Christmas quilt bound and labeled.
• Get the Christmas tree up and decorated. Chris did the outside of the house over a week ago. I used to put up 4 trees and loads of other stuff. Now it's just 1 tree and a wreath over the mantle. Oh look! I got this one done tonight! This tree is all glass ornaments. Here's a photo of the tree and some of my favorite ornaments. I buy a few every year and the tree is finally getting full!

After I put on all of the glass ornaments I fill in near the base of the tree with red and gold balls. Glass ornaments only work on an artificial tree. They are too heavy for a real tree. I attach the ornaments with twist ties instead of hooks so that they have less of a chance of falling off. I think I've only broken one in 10 years!

I may have another tree display to show you in a week - if the tree base arrives. It's the tree that my college roommate says will be used for my FBI personality profile.......

Awesome Mail

I've been piling up some postcards to show you. Today's mail was such a bonus that it's time to share all of it!

First the postcards.

From the Artisan's Square artist postcard swap, this one from Joie interpreting Andy Warhol's "Sun"

These next two are from the MQResource "black, white and one color" swap.

From AnnMarie:

From Margie:

I traded a couple of my Silver Tree postcards for these.

From Kate:

From Cindy:

And if that wasn't enough mail happiness, today brought thee big surprises!

I met Ellen at my LQS in a class. She saw my post about the visit with my nephew and embroidered this for me! My nephew will have a new pillow for his dorm in January. She did it in colors that match the quilt I made for him perfectly!

The other package in today's mail was this big surprise from Marie. She used black walnuts to dye some fabric and I commented about how much I loved it. She offered to send me a sample. She not only sent that but also sent me this beautiful little bag that's embellished and hand beaded. It's beautiful!

To cap everything off I received a lovely thank you note for 2 QOV quilts that I sent to Iraq. I love making these quilts they seem to be greatly appreciated. Now we are off to the mall to meet some friends that are in town for the evening to do some shopping. Maybe tomorrow night I will get my Christmas tree up!

Thank you to everyone for my wonderful gifts today! I left work with a migraine building - I feel terrific now - the headache is gone!

A Guild quilt

This is a sweet little quilt that my Guild is making for a Marine's wife. They have been sending loads of care packages to the Marine's unit our coordinator has gotten to know the Marine coordinator very well. His wife is having a baby SOON and he allowed us to make a quilt as a surprise for his wife. I should have completed this last week but I wanted to make sure I had it done for the Guild meeting tomorrow night.

I did the whole thing free motion which is easy to tell. I was a little worried about the wonkiness of my quilting but the two primary prints in the quilt are wonky heart prints. I think the wonkiness is consistent enough that I can officially call the quilting "whimsical". But mostly it's "done" and ready for binding and shipping.

Here's a close up of the front. See the "whimsical" heart? The back is Minkee. I love that stuff!

A day of visiting

What a nice day! I drove east to Newport News to meet up with Deb (on the left) and Mary (center). I'm the midget on the right.

We had a fantastic visit and they are both as nice and fun as they seem on their blogs. If I had not needed to leave to visit my niece we would probably still be sitting there talking! Thanks to both of you fro taking time away from your family to meet me. It was loads of fun and I can't wait to try the new thimbles that Deb gave me.

It's been such a treat to meet several bloggers this year and I have found that the blogger's personality comes through accurately in the blog.

After lunch I headed over to my baby brother's house to see his family. My SIL is the talented artist that did the charcoal drawing of Buddy for me and Chris in September. I got to see her new artwork, the bathroom remodel that my brother is working on and my niece serenaded me with her violin.

For my Mom, here's another photo of my niece with her dog Sam. I another niece and newphew that I also think are talented and perfect. Hopefully my middle brother (who reads my blog occasionally) will bring them to visit Mom over the holiday! Hint! Hint!

Now, I'm off to do some quilting for a Guild quilt.

Stash Control Report

When your project is postcards you don't use a lot of stash! The big news is that I went to the Bead Show yesterday and this is all I bought! $16! The two spiral pieces ($6) don't count anyway because I bought them to be Christmas ornaments! My tree has all handmade glass ornaments and I thought these would look great at the top of the tree.

The three strands are flower beads. I bought one in patriotic colors, one in Christmas colors and one multi-colored one. 3 for $10. I thought they might be good in postcard designs.

On the way home I stopped by my favorite LQS. I was booed when I entered because my friend Kim had ratted me out about the stash control program! They tried and tried to see me two new collections. It was difficult too because my MQResource secret quilter gave me a gift certificate at the shop! She must be one evil woman to tempt me like that! LOL! She's wonderful actually because I bought an 8 x 24 ruler that I've been wanting and a couple of packs of crystals to replace some of the ones that I used on the Christmas postcards. I didn't buy ANY fabric or yarn or other "raw materials"!

Not a bad week. I'm leaving shortly to meet Mary and Deb and then to visit my adorable niece! More photos later today...

Snowman Postcard

Here's the third and final Christmas postcard. I was originally going to do something similar to the one that Kate made for Jane (posted here). Then I saw Summerset's beautiful blue and white tree and remembered that I had a stack of leftover Christmas scraps fabrics in blues.

I don't have a tutorial. I was dealing with allergies today so didn't have the energy to photograph and document each step but I'll do my best to describe it for you.

I started with this pile of stuff. The background is made of strips of the blue scraps woven and fused to Timtex. Next I sprinkled some BoNash over the top of the card but only in the center where I was going to place the Angelina. I piled on some White and Silver Angelina in an oval, covered it with my teflon pressing sheet and lightly fused (medium heat) the Angelina to the surface of the card.

The snowman is a stamp that I used about 10 years ago to make paper Christmas cards. I stamped it on fabric and loosely cut out an oval shape. I actually used 2 layers of white fabric so that the blue background and Angelina would not show through. I stitched it down with a zig-zag stitch using white acrylic thread.

I fused the backing on next and then ran the card through the serger to finish it off. I used 2 strands of dark blue acrylic thread in the upper looper, a dark blue in the needle and white poly serger thread in the lower looper.

It's not the best card I've done but I'm pretty pleased given that it's made out of scrap fabrics and an old stamp!

In the middle of making the cards I gouged a chunk of skin out of my thumb. It wasn't very pleasant and bled like crazy. My thumb is quite sore so I'll post tomorrow morning about my stash control update and  a little more about the weekend.

Take it Further Challenge

I've been pondering Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge for 2008. I'm already planning to do the Art Quilt Workbook within 2 groups in 2008 so I was afraid that TIF might be too much. but I think I can use the TIF challenges in some of the AQW projects. So, I'm giving them both a try! Sharon is still taking sign-ups if you are interested in joining in. Be sure to subscribe to her blog In A Minute Ago. It's a great read!

Baltimore

This post is mostly for the family to share a few photos from the trip to Baltimore. Anne and I drove up in the snow Wednesday to see my nephew perform at the Peabody. He is a freshman there this year and plays trombone. I sort of knew it was a big deal that he got accepted there but I didn't really get it until I saw/heard the performance. Holy mackerel! Those kids have more talent in a fingernail than I have in my whole being. Here's the Wind Ensemble.

Of course, playing trombone, he sits in the back and you can't see him. But they change the seating between each piece so I snapped this one on the right while he was moving seats.

We arrived  with just enough time to drop off the groceries, see his room, check in at our hotel, take him to dinner and get back to the school so he could dress for the performance. Afterward  I did get one photo with him in his tux but it turned out blurry.

Then we headed down to the harbor and had coffee and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a quick trip but I am so glad that we went. I just adore him!

Here we are in his dorm room. Dorm rooms are still the same as when I was in college.

His next performance is in February and I hope to be able to go again.

It's snowing!!!

It's snowing in Richmond, VA in December. We haven't seen that in a long time! In the one hand I am excited to see snow any time but not today.

My friend and I are supposed to go to Baltimore this afternoon to see my nephew in his ensemble performance at the Peabody Institute. It's the first time I've seen him since he started school and I have 3 bags of groceries for him! The snow in Baltimore is heavier than here so we are watching carefully over the next hour or so to make a decision on the trip.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying the view!

Postcards Received

Two great postcards have arrived in the mail in the past week. Both of these are for the MQResource "Black, White and 1 Color" theme exchange.

This one is from Michelle. The tea reference was PERFECT for me!

And this one is from Gretchen. I wasn't in her swap group but she sent one of her extra cards to me and I'm so glad. I love it the lime green!

"The Silver Tree" Postcard Tutorial

Are you old enough to remember the aluminum tree with the 4-color light wheel? Both of my Grandparents had them at one time or another. I still love them and I've been trying to come up with a way to represent the aluminum tree in a postcard. It all came to me last week when Kim gave me some scraps of silver silk from her holiday dress. I thought that others might want to create an aluminum tree memory so here's a little tutorial.

These cards are made in sets of 4. Cut 4 Timtex (or whatever you use for the insides of your postcards) bases 4" x 6".

Fuse paper-backed fusible web (I used WonderUnder throughout the project) to the back of 4 fabrics, one each of red, yellow, green and blue. Cut one piece of each 4"x6".

Stack the 4 fused fabrics and align them carefully. Cut a crooked "X" (not corner to corner) through all layers. It's important to keep the fabrics aligned for the cutting because you have to put these pieces back together.

Peel off the fusible paper backing, sort out the cut pieces and arrange them on the 4 Timtex bases so that you have a piece of all 4 colors on each piece of Timtex. Make sure the cut edges align in the center of the card and then fuse everything in place.

If the pieces do not align perfectly, it's better to have some of the base showing at the edge of the card instead of spaces along the cut edges of the "X". Does that make sense?

Apply some fusible web to the back of the silver fabric. Make a paper tree template. I made mine a little wonky so I would not have to be fussy about placing the tree in the card. Cut out 4 trees, one for each card and 4 small triangle shapes for the base of the tree. Peel off the paper backing from the fusible web and position the tree on the card. Make sure that there is a bit of tree over each of the 4 colors of the backing. Tuck the base triangle under the tree and fuse the tree in place.

I put some Silver Superior Glitter thread in the needle and stitched a star at the top if the tree and the fagoting stitch down each side.

In my Pfaff 7550, the start stitch is #132 and the fagoting stitch is #17. My machine has a single motif setting and I used that for the star.

I couldn't find anything exciting to use for the backing so I just used white fabric. I fused the WonderUnder to the white fabric and then cut out the 4"x6" backing pieces and stamped them with my Postcard stamp before I fused them to the back of the card.

In this photo you can also see a better view of the decorative stitching on the tree.

The next step is to finish the edges. I have a serger so chose to serge the edges so that I could use a heavy decorative thread for total coverage. I used Silver Superior Razzle Dazzle in the upper looper, white standard serger thread in the lower looper and  Silver Superior Metallic in the needle. I serge straight off each edge, then use seam sealant on the 4 corners (front and back) and then trim off the tails.

You do not have to serge the edges. If you wanted to use Razzle Dazzle you could load it in the bobbin with white in the needle and zig-zag with the front of the card down.

The last step is the most fun - add the crystals! I placed one large clear or silver crystal in the middle of the star and then added red, yellow, blue and green crystals (small and large) on the tree. Keep each color of crystal placed in the appropriate color quadrant. In the card in the photo look at the top red quadrant. All of the red crystals are on the tree only where there is red fabric underneath.

I do not fuse my crystals one at a time. I carefully place a press cloth over the card and them place the iron on the press cloth and fuse all of the crystals at once. On the right side of the photo - there is a postcard under the iron. Now you are done! Address and mail them.

If you do not have crystals, you could paint ornaments on the tree with fabric paints or you could embroider french knots. If you do the ornaments with stitching do it before the back is fused to the card.

I hope that someone might want to make these cards. I made 16 of them! I have 32 cards made for Christmas mailing so far. I'd like to do one more card design for this season.

Weekend Roundup

The weekend trip to DC was lots of fun. The surprise party was a real surprise for the birthday boy and it was great to catch up with friends. We delivered the quilt to Matt today. When he said he had a trophy room, he was serious! I'm not a big fan of stuffed animals but that's his thing and it makes him happy. He was thrilled to get the quilt and it is perfect for his room. He even has the perfect spot to hang it. It was as if he saved the one particular wall for the quilt. I think the quilt will be very happy there!

I rarely have a trip without a good allergy story and this one did not disappoint! We ate before the party so that I would not have to eat anything at the party. I never eat party food because I don't know exactly what's in it. On the way back to the hotel I was hungry so we drove through McDonald's for some fries. I haven't had any McDonald's fries in years but I used to eat them because it's the only food there that I can eat. A few hours later I awoke with a bad allergic reaction and it was a typical dairy reaction. What could it be - I only ate french fries? When I got home today I checked the McDonald's web site and found out that their french fries have DAIRY PROTEIN in them! It seems that when they stopped cooking them in beef fat and then removed the trans fats that they needed to add back flavor. The added beef flavor and casein to the mix. Damn it. I wish the health nuts would leave the bad food alone. We are adults and can choose what we want to eat. We do not need a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff added to food to make it taste like it used to. Leave the food alone. French fries should be potatoes, oil (the original good stuff), salt. Period.

Oh well.

In Stash Control I don't have a lot to report. I haven't added to the stash and everything I made this week came from the stash. It's just that everything I made is small so I didn't actually use a lot of stash. We'll just consider this week "acceptably unchanged".

Another quilt off to a new home

This is a quilt I completed in March of 2006 when Anne and I were creating our "Gift Quilt" pattern. This was one of the first prototypes. I had been collecting African fabrics for a while and had just enough to make this quilt. It was also the quilt that I used to first practice cross-hatching on the longarm. That's when I discovered that I LOVE ruler work!

One of Chris' friends went on a big African safari  sometime in the past 2 years and has just finished putting together his trophy room. He saw this quilt hanging in our guest room and went crazy for it. We're going to see them this weekend so I'm taking this quilt to Matt as a surprise.

I'll miss it. I love this quilt! Maybe I'll collect some more African fabrics....or not....for a while anyway....but maybe....