Field Trips in Fiber

Postcards Received - Recycle Theme

All of these are from the MQResourcepostcard swap. The theme is "recycle".

From Gretchen - shredded paper that's used for peacock bedding (I think we got unused bedding), the fabric is from a 2005 challenge and the back of the card is from a car show dash placard.

From Michelle (2L) - recycled silk scarf

From Shirley - recycled produce bag

From Michele (1L) - denim jeans, leftover yarn, old bobbin threads and a cardboard box.

From AnnMarie - produce labels. This one came through the mail just fine with it's non-standard shape.

From Gayle - recycled vintage bark cloth and silk flowers

From Kay - old pajama pants, bobbin thread and soda cans

From Margie

From Becca - old tape measure and beads

       

Pets Postcard

The last postcard that I worked on today was for another swap with "pets" as a theme. I think everyone knows that we don't ahve any real pets unless you could dust bunnies as pets. I considered doing something with photos of our rent-a-dogs but I saw the Bluebirds house shopping again today so I decided to try to make a bird nest. I love layering yarns so this is how I made these cards.

I started with gray felt as a base layer and added a layer of Mistyfuse and swirled a chunky tan yarn in a rough nest shape. The area is about 5 x 7 so I could cut it back to 4 x 6. I added another layer of Mistyfuse on top of the chunky yarn.

Next I pulled out 8 more yarns on various shades of brown and tan. I cut them into 2 - 3 inch pieces and arranged them in a circular, fused them down and added a layer of Mistyfuse.

 

The hardest part turned out to be making the eggs. I wanted to use silk fibers but I could not get the fibers under control to make an egg shape. I tried a few other things but settled on some blue yarn that I wadded into oval shapes. Then I covered the piece with tan tulle, fused a backing of Peltex and quilted around the eggs and then in a rough round pattern to try to highlight the nest shape. Here's the final card. I made 12 of these. Some of these will be birthday cards too.

Recycle Postcard

This card was made for the MQResource postcard exchange. The theme is "recycle". I was really stuck for inspiration on this one. I wanted to do something that I could also use for a couple of birthday cards. Here's what I came up with - I made 20 of them!

I decided to use recycle as the requirement for the materials instead of making a statement about recycling. The background is made from a big sheet of woven selvages that I made last year. The flower fabric is from two old t-shirts of mine and the green from one of Chris' old t-shirts. I made 10 with red flowers and 10 with pink flowers. The flower center is made from that thread nest that you get from the washer when you prewash fabrics.  I've been saving those nests for a while thinking I would come up with something clever to make from them. This little project wasn't worth saving them! The rest of the box is going in the trash. No more recycling thread garbage!

Adventures in Mixed Media

I pulled out a lot of my supplies Saturday to show Margie all of the cool things she could use to make postcards. Since it was all out I decided to spend the rest of the weekend making some of the postcards and gift boxes that I needed to get done. I'm not finished but I made a great start and have my two PC swaps ready and my birthday postcards caught up! 

First, I made these 3 mixed media sheets. The first two are for gift boxes. Both of these are made with canceled stamps. I bought a baggie full of them from eBay for less than $10, including shipping. These are made on a layer of felt then a layer of Mistyfuse, cut up pieces of painted cheesecloth and silk fibers, another layer of Mistyfuse, the stamps and bits of yarn, more Mistyfuse, some Angelina and a layer of tulle. There was a lot of Mistyfuse love going on this weekend! Glad I bought a bolt of white and black.

Both of the pink/red sheets are for gift boxes. This green one is made from fortunes that I've been saving from my fortune cookies for a while. It was done with basically the same layers as the pink ones. Then I fused the sheet to a layer of Pellon Peltex and quilted it with a metallic thread. I cut it into 9 postcards making sure that I had at least 2 fortunes on each card. Here's the finished card. I think these will be good for male birthday cards.

and here's part of the big mess that I have to clean up tomorrow!

Mother's Day Cards

I had a flash of an idea early in the week for a funny Mother's Day postcard made from an old family photo. I liked the idea so much (and it was so easy) that I decided to do them for my 2 aunts also. These were really simple to make. I opened the photo in Photoshop, added the text bubbles and printed to fabric. The front and backs are fused to Timtex and finished off with a zig-zag stitch. Couldn't be easier.

The one on the left is for my Aunt Edna. She recently told me that in high school she had to make homemade biscuits for her Dad every morning. When she got married and left home she vowed to never make another biscuit.....she kept to the vow. That's a picture of her dad (Granddaddy Dove).

The middle one is for my Mom. That's her Mom and Grandmother (Grandma Dove and Great-Grandma Flora). Mom's sisters only had 1 child each. My Mom had 4. It must have been like a raid to have the 4 Ottaway urchins arrive for a holiday meal!

The one on the right is for my Aunt Dee. She told me recently that for years she had to sleep with her Grandmother! Eek! The woman on the right is a neighbor standing with her Grandmother (Great-Grandma Flora).

They elicited the responses that I wanted.......Mom sent an email with only 2 words: "smart ass"

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Birthstone Postcards

The theme for the current MQResource swap is "birthstone". This one was difficult for me to design and I can't blame anyone but myself - it was my idea! I always seem to struggle with my own themes.

My birthstone is Sapphire. I knew that I wanted to use some blue sapphire silk that Kim gave me and I knew that I wanted to experiment with some bobbin embroidery. I had also purchased a lot of blue and crystal hit fix crystals at the quilt show in February. Those were the ingredients. Off I went to the Internet and my books to find some clip art to use for my image and that's where I got stuck. I finally narrowed the theme to using a bird image. Since Chris and I both have our birthday in September I decided on 2 birds. Another search of Microsoft Clip Art and here's what I found. It's really not my style - way to sappy! But it worked and I learned a lot about bobbin embroider along the way! The thread is Superior Razzle Dazzle.

I did have fun with Chris though when I showed him the card and told him it represented us. That was certainly worth the laugh!

Here are the other cards that I have received so far:

Diamonds from Gretchen:

Rubies from Shirley:

Blue Topaz from Michelle:

Peridot from Becca:

Aquamarine from Gayle:

February Birthday Postcards

One of these will go to my Aunt and one to my friend in Los Angeles. They may not look like birthday cards but I've been wanting to use these trees for a while. They are from some fancy ribbon that I bought last year. The background is some of my metallic painted fabric. The trees are woven across the width of the ribbon and alternate between these two for the length of the ribbon. I think they are really pretty. And the card couldn't be complete without some ric rac! These will go in the mail this weekend. I'm a little in shock that I got them done early!

"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!

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

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!

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.

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.

A Christmas Postcard

I worked at home today so the commute home was faster than normal. While Chris was preparing dinner I was able to get my first set of Christmas postcards done.

This is the first crazy quilt type project I have ever done! I'm so take with the beautiful work of the crazy quilters in the blog world that I decided to give it a try. The central motif is from  Dover holiday image CD. The fabrics are a mix of all kids of scrap fabrics and even some gift wrapping ribbons. It's not real crazy quilting because it's not done in a sew-and-flip method. Each new piece was position with raw edges showing - it's a postcard after all. It was fun tr use some of the decorative stitches on the machine. The threads are gold Superior Metallic, gold Wonderfil Hologram and red and green acrylic threads that I bought several years ago when Lunn Fabrics was clearing out their thread inventory. The acrylic threads has a beautiful sheen and each cone is about 6000 yards! It was such a bargain that I probably have about 40 cones of the stuff. I can even run it on the longarm.

I made 16 of these cards because that's how many images that I could print on one fabric sheet. Now on to contemplating the second Christmas design. I found a postcard stamp on the web today so should be able to get these addressed and in the mail next week.

When I was shopping for the stamp I noticed that the stamp internet stores all seem to organize their stamps by brand. Why? It makes it nearly impossible to find something without searching through every page. Those brand names mean nothing to me. The best online fabric stores got over that insanity and now cross reference they inventory by designer, color, theme, whatever. That's one reason that eQuilter is so successful - you can find things! Why haven't the stamp companies done that as well? My favorite mixed media supply site, Joggles, is the same way. I generally only buy there when I know EXACTLY what I want and can find it but it sure is a difficult site to browse. It seems to me that once your inventory in a category goes over 2 pages it's time to break the inventory into sub-menus. It drives me nuts but they probably shouldn't change that any time soon because if shopping were easier I might fall off my stash control wagon faster!

.....48 hours without a migraine! I'm starting to feel whole again.

Postcard/Door Sign

The theme for the MQResource postcard exchange is "black, white and one color". I have had about 100 lame ideas for this swap! I finally settled on something Friday and thought I'd share the entire process of how I made decisions and executed this particular card.

You'll see the black cord. That's the new twist on this card - I decided to make the card a door sign for the recipients sewing room (or studio or whatever it's called). The back photo shows how the card will arrive in the mail. I wanted to avoid having to use a clear envelope so I made a little pocket as part of the backing. That will keep the cord safe in the mail.

As I said, I had many lame ideas for this swap and pink as the third color NEVER crossed my mind. But last week I picked up some fabric from my LQS for an apron sample (for a future beginner sewing class). The pattern is Retro Aprons by Cindy Taylor Oates. This pink and white print is what she chose for the apron. Not my favorite fabric but it made a really cute apron. As I was cleaning up I noticed that there were only 3 colors - black, white and pink! The print is sewing and laundry images. I quickly counted the number of sewing-related blocks left in the scraps and there were exactly what I needed for this swap.

The first step I always take is to pull out everything that I can find in the color scheme that I am using. I gathered fabric, buttons, ribbons, yarns and embellishments. I discovered that I don't have a lot in that pink. I also quickly determined that I needed to stay in the theme of the fabric - clear color (no variegated yarns), clean lines (no eyelash yarn or other texture) and no sparkle. that left me with the motif box from the fabric and the need to probably put words with it as the embellishment. That's where the idea for the door sign formed. I didn't have the whole concept formed so I just jumped in with that I had.

The trim that matched the pink best was ric rac so I decided to pull out the pinking shears to cut all of my fabrics to compliment the zig-zag edge of the trim. I cut each motif square out and then a backing square in black that was slightly larger than the motif (there were several motifs and different sizes). The card was covered with a white fabric then the black square was fused on and the motif top-stitched. Next I printed a sheet of "Enter At Your Own Risk" labels. These were fused on and then edged with pink ric rac. This is as far as I got last night. I couldn't figure out the next step.

When I woke this morning I realized that I needed more black in the lower portion of the card. I found this tiny black ric rac and sewed it over the pink. Much better! It still needed something else. I toyed with the idea of doing some stamping or painting on the background but I still felt that the look needed to remain clean and simple. But it absolutely needed a third element.

The answer (for me) turned out to be a simple black button - I tried pink and black and white buttons. The plan black looked the best. Then I saw a stack of pink and brown scraps from Kim's quilt. I pulled three of the pink fabrics and cut them into tiny rectangles and arranged them into a fan under the button. I stitched the button on by machine and then put a dab of fabric glue behind each snippet of fabric. Now it was done! I added fusible web to the backing to prepare for adding the back cover and hanger.

Now to figure out how to add the hanger. I cut one piece of the white backing 3" x 4" (top of photo right) and one at 4" x 6" (top of photo left). I folded down one 4" edge of the larger piece as a hem and stitched the hanger to the edge. The hanger is stitched to the BACK of the lining piece - the side that will be fused onto the back of the postcard. The hanger is about 9" cut and I used twill tape - because that's what I had on hand. Some of the cards have white hangers and some black based on what I had on hand.

The postcard is placed on the pressing board with the TOP of the card to the RIGHT. In the lower half of the photo I have fused the 3 x 4 inch piece of backing to the  right side of the back (top of the card). Then I placed the larger piece on the back with the hanger to the right (top of the card) and fused that to the lower half.

In the top of this photo the backing pieces are fused in place. Fold the hanger under the top flap of the backing piece. Once the edge finishing is done, the two sides of the pocket are sewn down. I did a serger finish on these cards in a solid pink for the upper looper and black in the needle. When you make a backing like this you have to be careful to make sure that the proper layers of the back are sewn into the edge finish. That was the trickiest part of the whole construction process. I made 2 extra cards, which was fortunate because I constructed the back of one of the cards upside down!

I really like how this turned out. I see a couple of other ideas for this like a "Do Not Disturb" sign for a birthday card or a "Welcome Santa" card for Christmas. I think that I am going to print the address labels so that I can use the adhesive of the address label and the stamp to seal the pocket opening for mailing. I would have constructed the card so that the address would have been on the flat side but I needed for the button to be on the top of the postcard for the card to go through the mail processing equipment. If the button were on the bottom of card it would potentially jam up mail processing equipment. I always hope that the post office will hand stamp the cards but in reality that almost never happens.

I hope I've explained this one well. Let me know if anything is confusing so I can clarify.

Postcards Received

Here are a few postcards that I have received recently.

From the Stitcher's Guild "Great Outdoors" themed swap.

From Laurie

From Tamara

This one from Gayle is for the MQResource "Black, White and one color" swap.

A color matching tip

Mom reminded me to post about a tip that we picked up in the Jean Wells Keenan class at Houston. One of our classmates brought this one to us. It's a tip to help isolate and match colors in small quantities in photos or fabric (or whatever). All it takes is an index card with a 1" (more or less) square cut into the card along with a very small hole at least an inch and a half away. In this example I have placed the hole in the card over a small patch of an orange daylily. With that color isolated I can then place fabric or color chips under the larger opening until I find the matching color. I thought this was just brilliant!

Postcards Received

I can't leave the day with only a non-sewing post so here are a few postcards that I have received lately. These are from two different swaps. The first two are from the "New Beginnings" swap at MQResource. If you are a machine quilter and aren't a member of MQResouce, check it out! It's a great on-line community for machine quilters. The last 2 cards are from the "Great Outdoors" swap on Stitcher's Guild, a great general sewing forum.

From Lyn (New Beginnings)

From Danetta (New Beginnings)

From Joie (Great Outdoors)

From Gail (Great Outdoors)

The Leaf Postcards are finally done!!!

The best news is that these cards are for both of the swaps that I am participating in this month AND it will be the birthday card for October. This will give me a break to plan out and make some Christmas postcards before the next MQResource swap begins. I made 3 versions.

Here's some information on how I made them....

New Beginnings Postcards Received

This set of cards is from a swap I am hosting on MQResource. If you are a machine quilter (DSM/shortarm/midarm or longarm) you should check out this board. There's tons of great information sharing there. Here are the cards that I have received so far. The theme is "New Beginnings". Now I need to get mine done!

Postcards Received

I've got two posts today with all of the cool postcards that I have received lately. Since we paid off our mortgage we get so much more good mail! LOL! I also have some more good news from Craft Week - I finally got up the nerve to get on the scale and I didn't gain even 1/2 a pound! So, let's get on with the show and tell.

The postcards are done!!!!!!..and I've received some too..

The Art Nouveau Self Portrait postcard saga is finally over!

You're asking yourself - what's the "self portrait"???? My intention was to reflect my creative self (too many ideas - the leaves and too few completed projects - the flowers) and I found this image in 4000 Flower and Plant Motifs. Today while Mom was visiting we decided that the process of making this card really reflected my personality - anal, obsessive and close to the edge of insanity!

Here's how I made this little piece of insanity (15 times). I scanned the image from the book and used Photoshop to clean up the edges (that took about 3 hours). I explained how I selected the colors here. I printed 15 copies of the image on fabric and then colored them with Prismacolor pencils. That probably took about 2 hours for each card. Next I sealed the color with textile medium as explained here. Finally I stitched around all of the black lines (about 30 minutes each), fused the backing on and serged the edges - about 1 hour all together. And here they are done - 25 days late!  To my fellow swappers, these will finally be in the mail to you Monday.

Here are the other cards that I have received in the self portrait swap:

WIP Wednesday - the never ending postcards

I am still plugging away at the "Art Nouveau Self Portrait" postcards. The motif is from a clip art book, printed on fabric and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The coloring process to DAYS! Next was sealing with textile medium. I tried all three of these and even mixed a couple of them together. I wound up using the Delta Ceramcoat for the green and pink areas and used the JoSonja for the blue - the JoSonja was easiest to apply in the detail areas around the motif. I mixed all of them with PearlEx powder - I was trying to get a stained glass look. We'll see how it all turns out when they are done. 1 down, 14 to go. the green fabric above is one of my new hand dyed fabrics that I am using for the backing.

The next postcard challenge

My next postcard challenge is from my Stitcher's Guild exchange group. The theme is "art nouveau self portrait". Some day I will get Gail back for this one! The first thing I know is that it will not be a self portrait in the traditional sense - I don't do body parts in art. I don't know why but I don't like people, faces or other body parts in my art - purchased or made. So I decided that I needed an image to reflect some part of my persona. I have a few clip art books but found my image in 4000 Flower & Plant Motifs. It has an Art Nouveau section. (I believe there are 3 book in this series by Graham Leslie McCallum and they are chock full of great images.) After I found my image I wanted to select a good color palette so I turned to one of my other favorite books, Living Colors by Margaret Walch and Augustine Hope.

Living Colors has a history of art in images and color palettes. There are 80 different color swatch cards. I selected Tiffany's Stained Glass as my color palette and matched colored pencils to the swatch card. I have my image and my colors so off I go to see if I can make something of it!

Special thanks to Terri for heading me in the right direction on my approach. I had been noodling how to use fabric to do this thing but I saw her post yesterday and realized that I needed to head more toward painting as my method.

Finally, a note to Mom - I quilted 3 more hours on your quilt today! I'm closing in on completing the center section.

The remaining "Splash" postcards

Here are the last two postcards in the "splash" swap.

"Splash" Postcard

Here's my "splash" postcard for the Quilting Adventures postcard club swap.

This one was a bit of a challenge. If you are interested, here's how I made it:

"Splash" Postcards Received

Here are the postcards that I have received for the Quilting Adventures "splash" postcard theme. I think these are all great interpretations of the theme.

Summer Flowers Postcard

Mom, don't read further if you don't want to see your birthday postcard before it arrives in your mailbox!

Recent Mail

I received two more cool postcards this week!

More cool mail!

Here are the postcards that I received this week!

"Fast Food" Postcards

I can't believe that I picked "fast food" for the Quilting Adventures Postcard Club theme for June. I really struggled with this one! I went through dozens of ideas that I couldn't figure out how to execute. There's nothing like a deadline to juice up the creativity though. I HAD to get them done today! I eventually came around to "midnight snack" and that morphed into mice coming into the kitchen at night....and that morphed into this. Not my best idea but it sort of worked.

And here are some of the others that I have received so far from this swap:

Hearts Postcard

I made this postcard quickly tonight for a friend that needs an little love. The only sewing is the zig-zag edging. Everything else is fused.

"Earth" Postcards Received

Here are the postcards that I've received in the last week for the "Earth" postcard exchange.

"Closures" postcard

As I mentioned yesterday, this postcard is for the Stitcher's Guild swap and the theme was "from the sewing room". Here's yet another lesson on how things can get out of hand. I believe that I particularly enjoy this "lesson" because I keep signing up for new sessions! This started off innocently enough....

Current and next projects

I've been kind of quite the past couple of days. I was preparing for my Postcard Club meeting last night. I'm very excited to have 7 people participating this session and they are a really creative group! I've also been straightening up the sewing room to get ready to start some new projects! Here's what's coming up:

• a miniature quilt that I designed in Janet Fogg's class at MQX in April. It has a pine tree block as the focus. I'll have to practice a bit to determine the smallest size pine tree block that I can make.
• a new QOV. Remember this post? I decided that I would do project #2 - the friendship star blocks but I am going to pull strips from #1 to make the borders. I considered the Confetti quilt but, selfishly, I want to keep that one.
• longarm quilting a Stack and Whack quilt that my Mom made for my brother

Today I am working on my postcards for the Stitcher's Guild swap. The theme is "From the Sewing Room" and here's a hint:

"Earth" Postcard and WIP Wednesday

I'm watching the PBS series Craft in America tonight while working on my two sets of postcards. I've finished the "earth" card. I wish I had taken photos of the steps but I'll do my best to describe what I did...

Clay's Birthday

After I finished the Summer postcards yesterday morning I spent the afternoon playing with two other postcard designs. I'll report on those later - when they are done. But I also got this quick postcard and music pillowcase made for my cousin's son, Clay. We don't know where the music gene originated in our family but that generation seems to have a lot of music talent. Clay plays drums in his high school band. I used the leftover gray/red/black fabrics from my nephew's quilt because Clay's room is primarily red and black. I really like doing something quick occasionally!

I also signed up for the Mixed Media class and ordered my supplies - what fun!

New Summer Postcard

I made these postcards for the participants in the Summer session of the Quilting Adventures Postcard Club. I finally stopped admiring the scrap sheets and cut right into the bright sheet of my fused scraps from yesterday.

I made 3 of each style. I cut the background out of the fused sheets. The ric rac used for the stem and hill is from a batch that I hand-dyed a couple of years ago. The flowers and green leaves are cut from purchased hand-dyed fabrics and fused after the stems were sewn down. The center of the flower is made using eyelash yarn. I cut a piece about 6" long, wound it into a coil and sewed it down with clear thread. I added a large hotfix crystal in the center of the flower. To help the crystal stick, I use the tip of my iron to press in the center of the yarn. that makes a pretty smooth and flat surface for the crystal to stick. The crystals on the leaves are some tiny crystals that were left over from my winter postcard. I placed them on the two leaves with tweezers and then carefully cover the leaves with a press cloth. I can then use the iron to fuse the crystals on both leaves at once. If I had to place and fix each one individually using the wand, I'd never do it! These were lots of fun to make.

Every little scrap

I got a little side tracked off of the list today and yesterday! I did finish getting my Snails Trail class stuff together and that leaves the Indygo Junction Jacket and the Carol Taylor class project. I've decided to skip both of those for now. The jacket is for autumn and I'm not very interested in the class project - so I'm movin' on!

I have 3 sets of fabric postcards to make this week so I looked at this

and decided that it would be the base of my cards.

Kim's Birthday Postcard

I made this card for my friend Kim. She gives me a hard time for saving my selvages so I just had to use them in her card!

Postcards and inspiration

Isn't it funny where we get inspiration? I already told my Mom that her Mother's day card would be late because I didn't get to sew as planned this week. I have been working on one particular design idea for her card for a week. This morning I started drawing it out but I couldn't find the right fabrics. I thought about using some of the fabrics that had belonged to my Great-Grandmother. Here's how I wound up on a totally different design path....

"Air" Postcards

The theme for the most recent postcard swap at Quilting Adventures is "air". Here are the great cards I received.

"Air" Postcard

The Quilting Adventures postcard swap theme for this month is "air". This one was difficult for me. I'm not particularly thrilled with what I ended up with but I ran out of time! I decided on "clouds" as my inspiration and call this one "clouds are jewelry for the sky".

Here's the card and how I made it

Postcards Received

I have received several postcards in the past few weeks. It's time to catch up on sharing the photos! It's such a pleasure to get art in the mail - so much better than bills.