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.