Sam

 

The photographer's assistant

Christmas is coming!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And along with a photo of my sewing area, I share some of my "fabric and fibre" christmas post cards with you.

Mug rugs

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never heard the term "mug rug" and I needed to ask some of my online contacts exactly WHAT they were.

Of course, living in a sub-tropical climate I admit that my thinking was slightly coloured by the need for cool drinks, so I was puzzling how to make a stubby cooler to fit a coffee mug!

I was soon set straight with Links to these mug rugs,
and after delving in my recently tidied fabric stash I was slicing, dicing and stitching like a Fury.

Of course, I only needed to make ONE!
But I ended up making ten, and have orders for more.
NOT before Christmas, methinks......my sewing room is nearly tidy again!


 
 
 
 
 
 

Song title:

One of my favourite songs is Jim Croce "If I could put Time in a bottle",
so, naturally I chose it to represent my current swap postcards for Postmark'dArt Group.

I had it all figured out----combining the lyrics with a (flat) bottle containing parts of de- constructed wrist watches.
 
I printed the lyrics onto some ExtravOrganza and added a blue border

The problem arose, when after gently wrecking a couple of old battery operated watches, I found that today's watches don't have the cogs and springs that those of yester year contained.
Add to that, the fact that the dials were too thick to include as part of a postcard.

 

What to do!
Using some TAP paper, I printed out some clip art: An hour glass.
And this was transferred to the card's background fabric....blue, to match the border on the lyric sheet.

Once again, using clip art, I printed some clock faces, and for four of the cards, these were glued to a card bottle shape;
A layer of clear vinyl to create a bottle effect
and the organza sheet was layered over the hourglass in some and the "bottles" on the other four cards.
 
 
 

A fishy tale

 
 
 
 

Some six days ago, over on my Wordpress blog
I lamented that I tidied up so well before I went away, that I couldn't find where I'd stored the beginnings of seven fabric and fibre Postcards that I had started on for a Postmark'dArt swap.

Finally after much re organisation, and accepting that I would need start from scratch, I found them, completely by accident>
Honestly, I didn't know just how many bags of knitting fibres I had accumulated; and you guessed it, the cards were nestled into a bag of shaggy fibres: tangled in sea-weed!
I fussy cut the fish from some fabric I've had for at least eight years, and added some gold ink to the dorsal and pectoral fins for a slight emphasis.
Some of the shaggy knitting fibres were used to represent sea weeds and a few heat fused diamante were used to represent air bubbles.

All I need do now, is address them and pop them in the mail.
One (theme) down, and two to go!

Post card collages

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Isn't it weird: We do so many forms of claage in in fabric art, using applique and embellishing (amongst other things), but label it COLLAGE and I go into a blue funk.
These cards are my first attempts ever at a "dedicated collage postcard" and compared with the ones I have received, I have failed dismally.
Needless to say, I have now ordered a book to give me some guidance.it should arrive in the next day or so, and then, maybe then I can rectify my mistakes.

Wish you were here

 
 
 
 

The brief for the PostCardMailArt group should we choose to accept it, was TRAVEL.
Where better to travel , than to Australia!
Using various Australiana styled fabrics as my backgrounds,I used images of Australian icons:
The Sydney Opera House; Uluru and some Aboriginal styled holographic stickers.
To these were added passports, luggage stickers and on the REVERSE side of the card
"Wish you were here"

As usual I got carried away, and made more than necessary, so there will be some in reserve for other occasions.
Tomorrow a couple of cards will commence their journeys to California and Kentucky.

More Postcards

 

 

"Mary Mary" is the card I received from Teresa G!
It was such a surprise to learn that she lives about eleven k away. We hope to meet in the very near future.
Stitching fingers uses a different swap format to my other groups: here we need only make one card to swap, and it's a split swap rather than direct.
i.e I receive from Teresa, but I send to Patricia!

Humpty Dumpty is a "one -off" Nursery Rhyme swap with a member of the Stitching Fingers Postcard group.
This card is on its way to Patricia in Rupublic of Ireland.
It's been "a while" since I did any back-stitching and BOY! does it show!
I used Derwent Inktense water colour pencils to add detail to the stitching...I think it eased the starkness of the calico background and made it more "nursery rhyme-ish" looking.
I hope Patricia likes it


On a happier note: The auction over at AAQI is completed and I'm happy to report that my three cards were sold !
I do not know "who" purchased them, but I am grateful to them, that I was able be a minor fund raiser for such a worthy cause.
In total, the seven of our group from Postmark'dArt that contributed postcards raised US$916!

Ugly fabric swap

 

Mary S ,a member of the PostCardMailArt Group (PCMA) sent me a four inch square of what she thought passed as an UGLY fabric;
My mission was to use enough of the fabric for it to be recognisable
in a completed postcard to be mailed back to her. The green fabric is the ugly!
By using one inch strips to frame the kangaroo silhouettes I hope that Mary is happy with my attempt

Another wandering "baby"

 

I opened my bedroom blinds this morning, to let the sun shine in--- and this gorgeous young lady was outside basking in the warm winter sunshine.

I've done all the "right" things: taken her to my Vet to check if she has micro chip ID (NO)

Tattoo in ear denoting having been desexed NO

Her belly fur is matted-- and she appears to have an abdominal hernia.

I photographed her and contacted the RSPCA to register as a "found " cat and as well as my /.554,.details I also emailed them her photo.
Tomorrow I will again notify the Peninsula Animal Aid centre and leave details.

This little lady appears to be a Turkish Van.....has she been a Show cat?
(No trouble getting her into a cat cage, and no "singing" in the car as we went to the Vet's office)
RSPCA asked if I wanted her picked up and put in their custody. Knowing they have a policy of "three days grace and then euthanising" I said NO.

I think there may be interesting times ahead.

Snippets Postcards

 

These fabric and fibre postcards are representative of cards produced in the recent PostCardMail Art swap.
One card , titled "If you squint, you can see my garden" came from Deb P in IL (USA)
the "sunset? Sunrise?" came from NancyG, also in the state of IL

(Thank you both)
The two Abstracts are mine.