Fabric & fibre postcards:Day 15

 
 
 

Australiana Another way to remind overseas swappers of "where I live"
is to use Australian fauna or flora designed fabric;
The fabric used in these cards was a craft cotton from Spotlight some time back.

Okay---maybe Aussies think it a little cliche'd to use a fabric like this;not artie enough,but I live in an area where there are still roos and the odd platypus and koala,so why not flaunt it(Especially when posting overseas)

Two of the cards were heat fused to backgrounds to represent the country's colours,the other? well....koalas are happiest up a gum tree! 

Fabric & fibre Postcards: Day 14

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Just a very quick note today as I have 5kg of strawberries to prepare for "jamming"
(making strawberry conserve)
I find that if I need to machine stitch quilting or embellishments to my cards,I make certain I have a clear or white bobbin thread so that shadows don't show through the backing.
And having completed the required stitching I then fuse the backing into positionand tidy up the edging.

See you tomorrow,when I'm strawberry free>

Fabric & fibre postcards: Day 13

Fabric & fibre postcards, originally uploaded by curli.

Hand quilting:
Until this beauty arrived in today's mail I hadn't thought of hand quilting a card;
Most peculiar as hand stitching is my preferred option most times!

White on white,I think it's a heron in a small pond:Connie has not confirmed that,but the bird looks very similar to the grey herons and egrets that hang out around our paddocks.

Another thing that amazed me,was that this white on white work arrived here unblemished and without a protective cover.
How good is that!
I'm also glad the card arrived today,rather than yesterday when 50mm of rain bucketted down and sprayed into our letterbox.


Thanks for the card,ConnieT

There's a bear in there.............

 

Sorry about the photo quality: it was taken back in 1978 with a dinky little Kodak 120.
The comments from Chief-Ten-Bears

reminded me of a visit to Houston Zoo(I think) with my daughter and we were absolutely gobsmacked by the size of this fellow!

Joyce! This one's for you. 

Fabric & fibre Postcards: Day 12

 

Today,I thought I'd show some of the tools I use for my postcards:
Right at the back of the photo,is a roll of lightweight stabiliser similar to Timtex l/w.
(because I'm not using a l/w Fast 2 Fuse with heat fusible features on both sides,I'll also need to add a heat fusible webbing to the list.)

In front of the white stabiliser is a large (12.5") square ruler;
A box of machine embroidery threads
A rotating cutting board for trimming cards to a finished size of 6x4 inches,
a smaller (6.5") square ruler
Several rotary cutters,both straight and wavy edged
and a pile of lace,braids,yarns for embellishing if required.

Not included in the photo is: my large rectangular cutting board for when I work with a 9x13 inch size,which results in four postcards.
a selection of fabrics for the front of the card
a piece of light coloured Homespun for the reverse side for message and address.
a Zig brand pen for writing on reverse ,as I'm not computer comfortable enough to print out a postcard format. 

Day 11 Quilted F'n F Postcards

 
 
These two cards arrived as part of a "quilted" swap: The Dresden plate from JudyB in TX USA was "left over from a doll quilt I made" says Judy.
The entire card outside the plate is stipple quilted.
The precision in the segments of the plate is great.

The second one,from FriedaO in the UK has three differing patterns forming the background:The yellow-orange section is stitched with the seam allowances on the right side and in a wavy pattern(technical term escapes me at the moment)
Central section is like a chess board and the final third put me in mind of the checkered flag used in motor racing.
Super-imposed over the background are two fussy cut Ranunculi flowers.The effect in my mind is of hot summer days! Frieda also finished her edging of the card with a wavy rotary cutter....which appeals to me as I have great difficulty in achieving "tidy" satin stitched edging.

I'm very grateful to both these ladies for swapping with me.........I can only hope they aren't too disappointed with my efforts. 

WiP.....pink goddess

 

Art doll? Goddess?
Who knows?
This pink confection is a WiP,following on from my Needle felting workshop with Rita Weisse a couple of weekends ago.
I want to add more beads and possibly fancy yarns to dress her up a little before declaring her finished....although with that headpiece she already puts me in mind of Carmen Miranda!

I'm still 'looking' at Mrs Hobbit and wondering whether quadruple amputations on hands and feet might save her.........I doubt it.
Maybe the colour is off-putting! I just can't work up the enthusiasm to subject her to cosmetic surgery;
so I'm beginning to think mrs 'obbit will remain unfinished business. 

Day 10......fractured landscape

 

Okay........it's Crazy quilted but I like calling it fractured.

But the point of today's posting was how handy my Clover mini- iron was in constructing this card!

I've owned a Clover mini iron for some time,but tend to forget to use it!

It's great for cotton fabrics,but because most of my CQed pieces feature "after-five" or delicate fabrics,and ...
I forget to use a delicate/lower setting and so I bake more than I press.

As this set of cards was mainly cottons,card making was too easy!

p.s if you're interested the photo is one of the many beautiful bays on Fraser Island. 

Women who Blog

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I joined the ranks of the “Women of Blogland” as listed in the new magazine “Quilter’s Home, For the New Generation of Quilters”.

An email today from Gina Halliday informed me that I'd been mentioned in the current issue of "Quilters Home" ,editor Mark Lipinski of Pickle Road Studios.

I've been waiting since last May to find out if I'd been included in the listings,and I still can't find a copy of the mag!

Day Nine....F'n f postcards

 

Take one fussy-cut cat,add a tatted butterfly painted with Lumiere and a short length of knitting yarn.
There is no need to go wild with embellishments;sometimes keeping 'it' simple works well. 

Day 8 FnF Postcards

 
 



Xpandaprint, is a thick creamy medium that expands when heated.
It can be applied by brush,roller,sponge or spatula.
It's non toxic and comes in black or white;I use white because it's easier to mix colours into it rather than black;But I mainly paint afterthe heat curing process.

So far I've used Xpandaprint in postcards and art journal quilts by building up the required shape with an artist's spatula and other finer implements(skewers, satay sticks)
The post cards featured today were both for the theme "Pandora's Box"...
The first one I had in mind to depict an actual box shape;
The second one should really be titled "Pandora's bed"!

There was a really good article in the Spring (#6) issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine:

the workshop.....EXPLORING Xpandaprint

Eight different mehtods and directions plus photographic samples were a great help to me for expanding(no pun intended) my crafting horizons. 

Day 7 f'nf postcards

 
 
NeedlefeltingThe upper postcard was sent to me from Emmy S in the Nederlands;
At the time I had expressed an interest in needle felting, and had no idea of what n/f actually looked like---so Emmy kindly sent me the card she had embellished with an embellishing machine.

A couple of months later,Belle mailed this gem .... a frangipani flower to me!
This was done by hand......one needle!
Isn't it perfect! even has a drop of dew on one of the petals. 

Day 6 FnF Postcards

 
An easy one today!
Using a plastic template over a light Tan quilters cotton,I used my favourite paints....Lumiere metallics to stencil the butterfly.

I then shadow quilted the butterfly outline with a gold thread.

This card is now in my youngest Grand-daughter's collection 

Day 5 F'nF Postcards

 
 

Another method of representing a Landscape:
Using Vlisoflex( fusible backing) and various fabrics to represent the landscape....
The first one had whole cloth lace for clouds and silk (kimono) offcuts for mountains,with a multi dyed cotton for the stormy sky.

The lower card used commercial quilters fabric for the mountain;again the silk for foliage,and blue homespun for sky. 

Day 4 fnf Postcards

 
Receiving this card from Vivian K made me realize that printing photos on fabric could be acceptable for cards.
The pic is of the Golden Ears Mountains in BC and is enhanced with metallic as well as 'normal' thread quilting 

Day 3 fabric n fibre Postcards

 

Not strictly a postcard,but an ATC (Artist Trading Card) measuring roughly 2 by 3.5 inches.
This is what initially got me into fnf postcards:an ATC from a friend in NZ.

I don't know how the "face" would stand up to the postal system without some protective covering.......(this art doll face was made using air drying clay)and arrived in a suitably padded envelope.

I'll make and mail two cards featuring some of these faces and see what happens! 

CQed Fabric 'n fibre Postcards

 

As most of my closer friends know,I'm on a Postcard "binge" at the moment,but up until now have steered clear of CQing them.
Funny thing, but for me CQing a PC is more difficult than constructing a block.

More restrictions arise with the fabric postcard than with a block destined for a quilt:
Size: Limited to 6x4 inches,although one has the choice of either portrait or landscape format.

Thickness: Governed by what Postal authorities deem to be acceptable:e.g. No thicker than one quarter inch,or will slide easily through the slotted card used to check same.

EmbellishmentsNeed to be firmly anchored and not too free flowing or they could get ripped off by embelishment eating postal machines 

Just hangin' around

 

Another WiP completed.....okay, it still needs some tweaking,but at least (I think) it's recognisable.
My goddess!
Needlefelted with an amount of "Cheesecake" dyed Corriedale wool.

So now it's back to the voodoo board and see if I can save MrsHobbitt from becoming "Cousin It"! 

50 days: 50 fabric and fibre postcards

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Normally I hate jumping on another's bandwagon:
I'm referring to SharonB's inaminuteago
blogging of "100 details for 100 days".
Now don't misunderstand me,I'm learning heaps from reading Sharon's daily postings (she's up to Day58) and the other stitchers are presenting some interesting details too;
but my stitching skills are not up to telling/showing how it should be done.

At the moment I'm fairly consumed by/with fabric and fibre postcard swaps(the blame for that I lay at a certain NZ lady's cutting- mat ) so I thought

Why not do something similar about postcards?

The last three days have seen cards arrive from USA,Italy and the UK, and I'm in the process of planning cards for several different themed swaps.
Today,because I was having CQ withdrawal symptoms,I've basically worked on four CQ themes.....up until now I've tackled everything but CQ for cards;

and I'm learning that-----
What you can "do" as a CQed block does not necessarily work for a 6x4 inch postcard!

Consider embellishments!

When I embellish a blockI don't agonise quite so much over the thickness of embellishments because I don't have to worry about the overall depth---
(postcards are one quarter inch thick or less: as decreed by postal authorities around the world!)

I don't even give much thought to if there are "dangly bits"because I know the block will not be subjected to machinery.

Because of these restrictions,I tend mostly to mail my cards in clear sealed envelopes!
Okay!
I can hear the purists screaming that I'm not playing the game........

I put a fair amount of time and thought into making my cards, and if a clear envelope gets the card to its destination in a fairly pristine state,I'm happy.

Way back in January this year I came across a blogger's lament on Princessandthepea


and that plus post office staff advising me to use these clear envelopes made me take this action.

I now expect a tidal wave of comment!

A Postcard from Italy

 
Today's mail brought a card from Giusy ,in Trieste,Italy.
Isn't this a great interpretation of a bridge over a river!

I "met" Giusy through "Fiberarts Postcard group",and she says this is the only the second fibre postcard that she has made.
I must say,I'm looking forward to seeing her other cards,her CQ,
and,her quilting.

Thank you Guisy for posting this to me!