July Creations

July has gone by faster than I anticipated. I have spent a good part of the month traveling and visiting relatives. But I did find time to get some postcards made for some of the swaps I am in.

This is my version of an "Underwater" swap. I picked a background fabric that reminded me of water and then printed out an underwater scene and ironed it on. Then added an orange starfish for more color and finally did some circle free motion quilting on the blue background. I like the way it makes the card feel with that type of quilting. I can feel little "bubbles" in the fabric.

I made these red flowery ones for an Art 2 Mail swap. These three fabrics are my three favorite out of my whole stash. :)

This card started out as a "Purple Haze" card for a swap earlier this year. I didn't like the way it was turning out though, so I let it sit. This month, I added some yellow stitches and a fancy yellow fabric edging and I must say I really like the way this one turned out. I wanted to keep it for myself, but I was a good swapper and mailed it out to it's destination. :)



I had some leftover hands punched out of blue fabric from a previous project and wondered what on earth I could do with them. I laid them on the post card in what seemed like hundreds of different layouts. I finally decided on this one, My version of an Inkblot. I like how it turned out.

This card was made for a flying Geese swap. I received some really great ones so far though that blew mine out of the water. They are pictured below. The first is from Vicky, the second is from Barbara. These women are great piecers.

I had a box full of rolls of ribbon that didn't have enough yardage to make much of anything with. Instead of throwing them out, I decided to make postcards out of them. I took all that extra bits of ribbon and wove them together. I had enough varieties to make 14 different cards. I sent them to the ladies in one of my Art 2 Mail groups, and of course kept one for me. :)

This is the latest card I have made. Its is for a July Mingle swap. July and Watermelons go great together, So I stitched out this Sunbonnet Sue and added some squiggly quilting around her. She is going all the way to Germany.

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.

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

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"

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.

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.

Crazy for Postcards

I just finished up my crazy quilt postcards. Both Artsnthemail and Postcard Pizzazz had a crazy quilt swap and I signed up for both of them. Artsnthemail had a little more rules than the other group, but I used the same rules for all the cards.

Rules:

1. Had to have 6 different fabrics.

2. Each seam had to have decorative hand embroidered stitches.

3. At least one seam had to have beads incorporated in it.

4. In the center of one of the patches a hand embroidered motif had to stitched. (ok, I may have left this off on some of them, but they were all on there for the ladies in Artsnthemail.)

I had to make three for each group, and I made one for myself so that is a total of 7. They are so much fun I was actually disapointed that I was finished. But, I guess I could always make more. :)

The fabrics I used came from a specimen book of silks from Grum-Ko Silk Co. I got the book from my husband's Grandmother. On the front of the book it says "1960-1961, Coast to Coast, Grum-Ko Silks, Novelty Linings". I'm not sure if the company exists today, I haven't been able to find anything about it on google.

This is the one I kept for myself. It was a hard choice, but I picked this one because of the red flowers on the black silk.

Sheen Postcard

I love kitties, so when Postcard Pizzazz had a swap with cats as the theme, I signed up right away. My kitty, Sheen, was the inspiration for these. He was so cute as a kitten and is still cute as a mischievous adult. That is him in the blinds trying to play with my other kitty, Jasper. My kids really like this postcard, they each want one for themselves, but these (I made 4) will go out in the post tomorrow except for one, which I'm keeping for myself. :)

More Postcards

This week I have been busy working on our attic with my hubby again. We have almost finished all four dormers and if the weather stays nice, they should all be completely finished by the end of this week. Then we can call the roofers and get our new roof. I will be glad of that.


This attic business has put me a little behind on some of the swaps I have signed up for, but this morning I put the binding on the last of the postcards that were past due and sent them out this afternoon.



This is the one I finished this morning, I made six of these for two different swaps: Fabricards "Go Make Something" and FAPC "Mini Quilt". The little pinwheels have been sitting in my sewing room for years just waiting for me to do something with them. This made them the perfect choice for the "go make something" cards. We were suppose to use something that has been unused in the sewing room. They also fit perfect for the "Mini Quilt" swap for FAPC. I have a hard time coming up with ideas for the swaps so when I come up with one and it fits for two groups, I run with it.


This next one is for ArtsNTheMail group. The theme was "Potty about Pink". I signed up for this one thinking I had lots of pink things to put on there, but as I searched through my stash of things I realized I didn't have as much as I thought. So I put together what I had and it turned out just great. Sometimes the simplest things turn out the best.


I made these for the Pick-A-Word swap for Fabricards. Can you guess the word I picked?

These went out in the mail last week.



These two were made for 1 to 1 swaps. Since all the stitches on these were hand done (except the edging), I was able to work on these while riding in the car and waiting to pick up kids from school. The frog fabric came from left over scraps my Mother-in-law had. I cut out the frogs and other images and turned them into postcards. I have lots more pieces of that and really enjoy hand stitching on these. I really like the look and feel of them when they are finished. So there will most likely be more of these types of postcards on the blog soon.


This postcard was also made from a peice of that same frog fabric. I made this one for ArtsNTheMail's 200 Challenge. The rules were to have 200 of something on the card. I chose to put 200 french knots on my card. I followed the graphic and put the knots on the leaves, flowers, and bugs. I thought 200 was a large number and would take up a lot of space, but once I was finished, I realized that 200 is not that many at all. The knots are very small and didn't take up nearly as much space as I thought. But I still like the look and feel of how it turned out.

Playing Catch Up.

I have spent the past couple days playing catch up with my post card swaps. I had to help my hubby build a couple of these dormers, which has cut into my cut into my sewing time.

I was able to squeeze in a little sewing. Not as much as I would have liked, but here is what I came up with this week:

"Beautiful Brown" postcards for ArtsntheMail, I only had two brown fabrics in my whole stash. so I had to go buy the background. I had lots of buttons to put on them though.

This was also for ArtsintheMail. This is "Starts with D". I chose the word "dew". Its hard to see in the photo, but there are small glass beads sewn onto the grass to represent the dew.

This card was made for Bobbie for the FAPC hand embroidery swap. I really enjoyed making this one. I hand stitched around each fabric square and added some extra stitches near the bottom. Then finished it off with a blanket stitch.

This swap was also for FAPC. It was titled "Red, Black, White Abstract". Can you tell red is my favorite color? It turned out to be the dominate shade in these post cards. I liked them so much I had to make a bunch. I only needed 5 for this swap, but I plan on sending the others to the ladies in my Art to Mail group.

I have a few more swaps I need to catch up on. After that I plan on getting back to some serious quilting. I have lots of projects rolling around in my head and the first thing I want to make is a disappearing nine-patch quilt. I love the regular nine patch, so this should be a breeze. I also am excited to start working on my Butterfly Beauty Quilt. I have received two blocks in the mail already. Only 8 more to go and I can get sewing on that. Can't wait!

Butterfly Blocks

I have finally made something other than fabric post cards! 12 butterfly quilt blocks. These will be swapped with other ladies from IFQ. I made two different sets of six to swap. I enjoy this kind of swap. It's fun to send out my blocks that are the same and get 5 totally different ones back. When they all arrive I plan on putting them together to make a quilt for one of the twin beds in the house.

Beaded Embroidery

I thought I would try my hand at beaded embroidery, and what better size to practice on then a 4 x 6 fabric post card. I sewed each of those beads on by hand. It was time consuming, but very relaxing for me. I have seen tutorials online that show how to sew beads on by machine, which would probably make the process slighty faster, but I really enjoy the hand work.


Here is what I came up with.



I also played around with my embroidery machine and made this little cutie. She is the May girl from my Girls of the Month Series. She will be sent to Mary A. for the fabricards May Mingle swap.
On a side note, I have actually been working on something other than post cards this week. (Maybe I can finally break my addiction to these little works of art and get back to my regular quilting.)
I have been putting the finishing touches on some butterfly quilt blocks. Keep an eye out for those pictures...

Purple Inchies

One of the swaps I signed up for was to make Purple Inchies. This is the first time I have attempted to make these little devils. Being only one inch in size makes it hard to come up with ideas to make them sparkle. I am undecided I if like these or not, I think I just need more practice at making them.

Here is what I came up with. I had to make six sets. I placed them on a small piece of card stock to make sure they stay put during travel. I sure hope the recipients enjoy them.

Doodles

I finished up another set of fabric postcards today. These are for the "Pick a Word" swap for my Fabricards yahoo group. The word I picked was doodles. I took one of the orginal doodles that I made on notebook paper and scanned it into the computer. Then I printed it out on fabric and added it to the cards. I wanted the background to look like paper, so I used white fabric and sewed blue lines across it. I like the way they turned out. I will send them in the mail tomorrow.

Bow Ties and Buttons

I made these postcards after I received a pattern from Maureen in the mail on how to make a 3D bow tie block. The bow tie block was very easy to make and I couldn't stop at making just one. I mailed the pink bow tie postcard yesterday, and the little bow tie postcards out today.