Monday, June 30, 2008

QTC's and More

I have been playing around with more QTC's (Quilters Trading Cards), which can be pronounced cutsies if you like. :) They are the quilters version of the ATC (artist trading card). Here are three I have made recently. Two were for some red QTC swaps I was in and one was for a swap called QTC: gone fishing.


I have also been working on more postcards...

These were made for a fun swap called a Rainbow swap. Each person in the swap picked a color of the rainbow and was in charge of mailing out that color to the rest of the group. I picked red, of course. ;)
I made a few extras, one for myself and for some other people who enjoy the color red.
Close up of one of the red postcards. I did some meandering quilting on this red fabric, then added some seed beads on the shadows of the fabric design.




More frogs... I really enjoy doing hand work on these novelty frog fabrics. This time I tried a new flower with a viney stem. I love the way it turned out. This one went out in the mail for a one to one swap. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do. These frog cards, with all the hand embroidery stitches, are some of my hardest to mail out. I would really love to keep them all. :)



The fourth is coming up so of course I signed up for some festive 4th postcard swaps. This card is one I made for those swaps. I took bits and pieces of red, and blue fabric and covered the card. Then I placed tulle over the bits and did some free hand meandering to keep the tulle in place. I wonder-undered a white firecracker on the top and stitched it down. I finished it off with a thin zig zag stitch on the the edge and sent them off in the mail.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt

I have to go to the Farmers Festival this Saturday to represent the quilt guild I am in. Since I am one of the few members who live in Lake City, where the festival is being held, I was put in charge of the event. I called the ladies at the Bean Museum, the place we were asked to set up, and asked what they expected of us while we were there. They said they would like us to set up a quilt frame, demonstrate hand quilting, and be on hand to answer any questions anyone may have about quilting in general.


Well, I had a home made quilt frame, but I didn't have a quilt top to put on it. So, I made this scrappy log cabin for the event. I wanted to make it small, (45in x 60in) because I knew if I made it too big, it would sit a very long time till I could finish any handwork that wouldn't get done at the festival.


I prefer to machine quilt my quilts because I like to see quick progress and machine quilting gives me just that. I do like the look of hand quilting as well, though, and have tried it a few times, so hopefully I won't look too much like a novice at the festival Saturday

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

IFQ ATC's Round 8

I finished up my last of three sets of ATC's for IFQ. Pictures are due tomorrow, but I posted mine today. I had two sets already finished and ready to go, I just had to finish up my "R is for Rocky River". I like to post all the photos at the same time so I waited till today to post the photos when the edge on the R cards were finished.

They were going to be R is for Rocky Road, but the wavy road I punched out of fabric looked more like a river when I was finished. I first thought, "oh, a dark blue road would bring some color to the card instead of such a dark black." But the waviness of the road made it look more like a river so I changed the name to Rocky River. My other letter was B, so I made a Blue Balloon in Bubbles. And my last assignment was the #6. I racked my brain for weeks trying to come up with something for that, but all that kept coming to my mind was the Six Fingered Man from the movie, The Prince's Bride. So I printed the six fingered hand out on fabric, as well as a little image of his face and put a quote from the movie and sewed it all together.

I should get my partners on the 19th or 20th and then swapping can begin.
"Rocky River" & "Blue Ballon in Bubbles"

"Six Fingered Man"

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Beach in June

I wish I was at the beach today, but instead I will have to settle for looking at my newest postcard creation. The theme for this one was June Mingle. I was suppose to make anything that meant June to me. All I could think of for June was the beach. Growing up near the beach I would always want to go swimming in the ocean when the weather was warm. But the weather and the water didn't always match temperature. In April the weather would be warm, but the ocean water would still be chilly. In May it would warm up some, but by June the water was the perfect temperature for all day swimming.
I got my inspiration for this card from the painting I made when I was a teenager. I took a mini class on how to paint and the subject we used that evening was a beach scene. It is probably the only painting I have done in color that I really enjoy. Most of the other color paintings I made, or drawings for that matter, have never turned out as well as the beach one. (I usually stick with black and white when it comes to my drawings.) So I framed it and still hangs in my house today.




Yesterday I finished up a quilt block for IFQ's Crazy Quilt Round Robin - Hearts and Flowers. I have never done a swap quite like this one before so I am excited to see how it turns out. I had to make a block with at least nine different patches on it, which will be mailed to each member of my team. After everyone has had a chance to add their own stitches and embellishments to my block, it will make its way back to me. Along with the block, a mini journal will be mailed for each person to write in when they receive my block and add their own work to it. This should be very interesting and I can't wait to mail out my block and get started on others.

12 1/2 inch square Crazy Quilt block w/ Matching journal

Bits and Scraps

Yesterday I finished up some postcards for an A2M swap. I really enjoyed making these cards. I took a large piece of ultra stiff stabilizer and used all the left over bits and pieces from other projects and wonder undered them to the stabilizer in a Mosaic form. It took me all afternoon, and a little time after dinner to completely cover all the white stabilizer. At one point, I even had the help of my kids. They too enjoyed cutting the tiny pieces of fabrics and looking for holes to fill.

Once the entire piece was covered, I sliced it up in to 20 different postcards. Since some of the fabric pieces on the cards were so small, I didn't want to worry about them falling off in the post, so I covered each one with some white tulle and then did some freehand stitching over the top with gold thread. I really love the look of these cards, especially when they are all sitting next to each other. After staring at them for a while, I addressed 19 and put the last one in a box for me to keep. I hope the ladies who receive these like them as much as I do.



All 20 Postcards

Close up of one postcard.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Postcard Flowers


Above are two flower postcards I have made recently. One was for a swap titled "What will the daisies tell...". I printed the He loves me, He Loves me not on some white muslin and cut them into daisy petals. As I was ironing on the last petal I realized I had left out the "s" on He loves me not. I gasped and stared at the cards. I had a total of four on the table.

Contemplating what to do, I decided instead of pulling all the petals off and ruining the card, I would mail them out as is. I explained to the ladies receiving them that the woman pulling off the petals was so distraught at the thought of He loves me not, that she couldn't talk straight. ;)

The next card didn't have a flower theme, instead I had to use the word Feet as my inspiration for this card. I chose to cut out lots of tiny feet and turn them into a colorful flower for summer. I think it turned out lovely.