Archive for the ‘Postcards’ Category

I always seem to overestimate what I’m going to get done the day before a trip. I had thought among other things today I would get a top loaded and quilted but that hasn’t happened.

The morning was taken up with the contractor here working on the shower – I get interrupted frequently so I don’t try to work (besides it’s two floors down from where he’s working). Before he showed up, I did manage to get a quilt trimmed and a binding machine stitched so it will be ready for me to do the hand stitching when I get home. Laundry is almost done and packing is started….

At the last minute I realized that I hadn’t made my postcard for our family exchange – due to be mailed today but I had planned to just hand carry mine to Mom. Unfortunately, hadn’t made it yet.  Tanya had posted a landscape quilt she made using techniques from this book and since it looked interesting, I ordered the book and it arrived today. I decided I’d try a quick one for my postcard. Rather than trying to work on a 4×6 piece, I took  a page out of VickiW’s book and started with a piece that could be subcut into 3 postcards. I also decided I’d do raw edges rather than turning them under. The landscape is representative of the lake, mountains, and golf courses at our condo in the North Georgia Mountains.

Layers pinned

Stitched down onto the peltex.

Cut into three 4 x 6 sections

Edges finished with a narrow zigzag. On these types of postcards, I usually change my thread color for the zigzag, using a green for the bottom of these cards and a blue for the top.

Not bad …

I LOVE making 3 at one time – that was way easier than trying to do them individually.

I dislike the decorative stitch I used in the “lake”

I should have used more greens for a more layered effect.

I’ll definitely be using this technique again for my postcards.

This time of year all I dream about is being somewhere on the water …so my July postcards reflect that although how successfully I’m not sure.

I’ve been wanting to play with some ribbon and yarn and try couching – there are a few beads in the first postcard for sparkle.

I’m not an artist so I’m not trying to make any great statements with my postcards but it’s nice to try new techniques on a small scale.

My base fabric for these is a hand dyed from Deb.

I almost forgot I had to get my family postcard done before leaving on Saturday so instead of working on assembling the Lattice quilt I made 3 of them.

We’re not big baseball fans but used to go to Marlin games when we lived in Florida. Now, the Twins are in a brand new stadium just a few blocks from our townhouse so we decided to celebrate our anniversary on April 21 at a game and I just purchased our tickets.

Not much quilty stuff going on today but I did mail off my March & April postcards for our family exchange.  March is late but April’s is early.

Keith brought and assembled a chaise lounge for me to sit out on the deck.  Chesty of course loves it because now he can sit up beside me on the chair instead of having to sit on the bare boards when he’s out here with me.

Some years I do and some I don’t. This year the only ones I’m sending are these 6 postcards to the family members who do the monthly postcard exchange with me.

And when I walked out just now to put them in the mailbox it was snowing again! They’re calling for another 2-4 inches tonight and tomorrow.

Other than finishing the postcards the only other quilty thing I’ve done today is to piece a backing for a donated quilt. If I finish up on the computer and still feel motivated, I might just get a top loaded on the longarm before going to bed.

I was excited today to read the newest prompt for my Journal Your Christmas class and another one of my pages from last year was used as an example. It doesn’t take much to make me happy sometimes! Now I need to go do my pages from yesterday and today.

I’d set aside the selvages when I cut out my Applecore quilt to use for postcards and started sewing them today. I thought they needed a little something so I went playing in my buttons. The ones in this bag were mostly red and green and I’d forgotten I’d bought them last year after Christmas but they’re just what I wanted tonight.

They may not be the most artistic postcards you’ve seen but I’m having fun.

I’ve got more to button up and then I’ll have to back them and finish the edges.

Poor baby, he’s not feeling very well tonight and he’s still half dazed from the anesthesia but I’m sure he’ll feel better in the next day or two. I appreciate the comments and emails – I am always anxious and upset until he is home.

On a quilty note, one other task I finished today was the edging on this simple postcard. It’s doing double duty this month — going to my cousin’s daughter for our family exchange and it’s my interpretation of Vicki’s theme for November. I’m thankful for SO many things and certainly this isn’t the most important but Keith and I were just talking this weekend how thankful we are for changing SEASONS. Although this card just depicts fall, having 4 distinct seasons is one of the things we love best about Minnesota.

Maybe I should be!

My idea for Vicki’s postcard challenge was a bike ride in autumn. So I went up to my sewing room this afternoon with a couple ideas.

First, I wanted an autumn background and found this leftover strip of coins from some other project. Looking at all the Joann’s fabrics in it, it must have been a really old project.

And speaking of Joann’s, I’ve used some iron on crystal motifs in several cards before like this one and I had a bike but it was in pink and black — I thought it probably wouldn’t work but decided to try it anyway.

Nope, not so great. So I decided to try again and just quilt the bike in perle cotton. I don’t know where I found this paper but it comes on a roll and it’s like tissue paper — pretty easy to stitch through and pulls away easily.

The effect is kind of lost in the background and I would like it better if the bike was more prominent but I’m done with the challenge for this month. Are you participating?

Seems I’m just catching a few hours sleep here and there and after waking up at 2AM and being unable to get back to sleep, I got up to check a few things off my to do list for today but now I’m heading back to bed.

I needed a postcard for our monthly family exchange. Pets are this month’s theme and I was going to make a simple selvage card with the addition of some cute bits of ribbon.

Unfortunately, no one mentioned that the wider satiny ribbon was going to bunch up on me when I tried to sew it. I have very limited sewing experience other than quilting and I’m used to cotton fabric. I’m not that happy with either one of these and normally I’d just redo them but there’s no time before I leave so they’ll have to do for this month.

So what’s left to do when I get up – laundry, the post office to ship a quilt, packing, and maybe I’ll quilt a quick top while I’m downstairs doing laundry.  I’m sure there are other things but right now I can’t think of them.

version 1 — beaded flower centers on this one. I also tried a decorative stitch on the outside and didn’t like it that much so went back to the zig zag on #2.

I have more puzzle pieces but I think I’ll get back to quilting tomorrow. Playtime is over for now.

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I was in the mood to play tonight so I went ahead and made my February card for our family exchange. I wonder who will get mine this time? It’s time to post the exchange list Deb.

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