For a while now I’ve been part of an online fabric postcard exchange.  I was a bit late with this one, got distracted selling off or donating the last of mom’s things.  But I did get these done recently, and thought I’d share. I joined two swaps this time:  Alphabet and Song Titles.  I came up with the idea for the Alphabet, and fortunately a lot of people liked that one–we had two groups of six swapping letters A-B-C-D-E-F.   I picked F, and decided to stick with my “Maine” theme for the exchange:  Fiddlehead Ferns are common throughout the state, and are in spring considered a delicacy.  I’ve been told by a friend who grew up here (hi JQ!) that these are a taste best acquired in early childhood, but that even then she didn’t! But they are still beautiful:

I also had fun with the Song Title card, and love that quirky song, Beep Beep.  So I made these cards, with both the Little Nash Rambler and a fun cartoon character, the Roadrunner:

This card is the first time I’ve send one without quilting…but if I had done that I don’t think they would have been finished until about Easter!  Those little fiddly bits on the car were, well, FIDDLY!

If you don’t remember the song, here it is, thanks to YouTube:

Just a short post today to share the second round of postcards I made for a recent swap.  The theme for this one was Windows!  I had made a postcard a couple of years ago with a swinging door… a second bit of Peltex (the stiffener that I use inside the postcard instead of batting..the stiffer middle makes it FAR easier to quilt on the machine) that was sewn to the top with yarn as strap hinges.  So I decided that for my windows, I would make shutters that move!

I found the stone print fabric in my stash, so thought I’d make English (or Irish or Scottish) stone country cottages with windowboxes and shutters.  Then of course every good cottage needs a cat (or several!).  I had a print fabric with kitties in green leaves, so I fused up a chunk, then fussy cut the kitties and some of the leaves.  In my stash of fused fabrics, I had some leftovers from previous projects, and used the prints to cut up more leaves and flowers for the window boxes and for the “wood” of the boxes themselves.  The coral windowframes are the same fabric I used to make the guitar in the portrait I did of my son, here.

I used a VERY wide zigzag set to almost zero stitch length to make the “hinges” where one end of the stitch just caught the edge of the shutter.  This left enough wiggle room to swing the shutters open and closed. Here is one with closed shutters:

Because of the shutters, I mailed the postcards in those plastic slipcovers that you seen on fancy cards at the stationery store.  Enjoy!

A shot of the batch, with a post-it note to tell the recipient to open the shutters:

And a different kitty-in-the-window:

For this round, I wrapped the stone fabric around to the back to finish the edges of the card and used printed cardstock on the back side.  The shutters are edge-finished with a metallic paint and a bit of stitching around the edge to secure the fabric (I never trust any fusible to hold forever!).

A brief detour from the Arizona trip…..

I’ve been a  part of Postmark’d Art’s last two swaps.  This time, I used one of the exercises from my Lino-Cutting class (blogged about in January and February).   I rooted through about (no kidding) 20 years of old photos to find this one of a farm in southern England, which I snapped in about 1984.   It was funny, I thought I used to be a good photographer, taking good and artsy shots.  Hmmm.  Not so much.  Some were good, but most were….ummm…boring!   It appears I have trained my eye for composition somewhat in the intervening decades!   Anyway, this one was good, so I used it to cut a lino-block.

Here are the assorted prints drying on the floor:

Some blurred a bit, and will be cut up, tossed, or printed over.  Others turned out great!  I used three fabrics:  a pale baby blue fossil fern (the one that looks grayish), a commercial sky print (the bright one), and a blue fabric I painted and fiddled with (and used some for the mermaid I blogged about recently).  There are also two guardian Owls for a friend whose husband passed away recently.  Owl’s are a favorite of hers (I carved the block during the class with her in mind!), and decided that she and Lou needed a guardian Angel Owl.

One difficulty I have had with the class, is that the teacher–Dijanne–is from Europe and Australia, and not so familiar with US brands.  The Speedball water-based printing ink that I find makes the best prints is, shriek!, not wash-fast!!!!!   So I have begun doing some testing.  Here I took prints (heat set with the iron and not) of a sun, then treated each with various things like soft gel medium, a varnish for textiles, GAC 900 (a compound for using paints on textiles), and nothing. I also want to run another test where I treat the fabric FIRST, then apply the Speedball ink.   I don’t like how on a couple of these the color of the fabric changes so much (not to mention how stiff it got)!  I also have tried using Krylon Spray Fixative, an archivally safe spray fixative; it is often used on top of pastels so they don’t smudge.   Anyway…here’s a picture of the test, in progress.  I next need to soak these and see what happens.  Stay tuned!!

And here’s a shot of all the postcards in the swap:

One of the coolest things when you are a teacher is when a student writes to you with what she has learned and used from your classes.  Last week, I was tickled pink to receive an e-mail from Susan Molin who took my Fabric Postcards class at the Merrimack Quilt Guild in New Hampshire in late January.  The first picture I saw was this wonderful rhinoceros…doesn’t he just make you grin?

I think Susan did a fabulous job using the printed fabric, the yarn-edge finishing technqiue, and creative embellishments.  I had shared a piece or two that I did where I made the postcards first, then applied them to a quilted background (for example, the Mountain Seasons pattern in my book, ThreadWork Unraveled, is made that way).  The photo of the overall quilt, Jungle Play,  is a tad blurry, but I’m including it anyway so you get the feel for how she has done the piece:

Here is the giraffe–the “hair” for the mane is PERFECT:

and the gorilla–love those hanging-down branches:

I like how Susan has used understated quilting, creative beads and buttons, and couched yarn to the background quilt.   Very effective!  Thanks so much Susan for sharing with me and letting me, in turn, share here on my blog!

As you might have guessed by the lapse in posts, I was busy/away.  Last weekend was fun… on Thursday evening I gave my Decorated Quilt lecture for the Merrimack Quilt Guild of Plaistow, NH (about a stone’s throw from the Mass. border, literally!) and on Saturday taught Fabric Postcards,

which is really a play-day with an introduction to a bunch of art quilt techniques.  Instead of having to buy a zillion things and stuff, I HAUL a zillion things and stuff and folks can try fusing to collage their postcards, Angelina, fabric stamping (I demo stamp carving, so they can see how easy it is, but too sharp tools, too many distractions to do that in the class with so much else going on), fabric rubbings, using found objects as stamps, resists and rubbing plates,  freezer paper stencils, assorted paint techniques, and finally couching yarn as an edge finish. (PS… given the costs of shipping, this class is now available only within a 2-day drive of home…..)

Because it was just a wee bit too far to drive home on Thursday getting home at 2 in the morning on Friday, then get up at 4 in the morning to drive back down on Saturday , my gracious host Cathy Harnish invited me to stay with her, and on Friday—oh joy of joys–we went to Ikea!  I’ve been to this one about three years ago (for a one hour zip through en route to somewhere), and the one in Seattle maybe 8 years ago?   The first time I drove through Boston after we moved to Maine, I just about flipped out…this bridge had NOT been there when I was in grad school in 1981-3!  Since I was a passenger this time, I got to snap pics.  It is supposed to echo the shape of the nearby Bunker Hill monument (an obelisk) and the sailing ships of the days of yore.  It is GORGEOUS…there is a great abstract quilt in this bridge’s lines:

I did pretty well, buying not much–a bamboo placemat for rubbings in the class (which I forgot to unpack and USE in this class…next workshop!), a small lamp for the hall at home, and some shadow boxes in my quest for more ways to display and sell small quilts.  BUT, I saw this… I WANT THIS KITCHEN.  I WANT LIME GREEN COUNTERS!

On Friday night, Cathy invited over a table full of guild members, with her dear hubby braving the table of women.  We had show and tell after, too.  While I was there, Cathy shared this commissioned quilt she did for someone made of ties and shirts.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this border, and think it may be one of the most effective I have seen anywhere–it may have been dictated by the size of the embroideries on the shirts and the leftover scraps, but it is brilliant:

On Saturday, we had a quick set-up time, and then got going.  The morning on this class is learning to use fusibles, especially my favorite  MistyFuse (light hand, easy to use, never any “issues”).   The class was great, and enjoyed the “art smorgasbord” in the afternoon when I set out all the goodies to enjoy.  Everyone always enjoys something different… there are a few things I don’t use hardly ever, but every time I think of eliminating them from the class, there is someone who finds it to be “THEIR” thing, so I keep the materials and techniques included.

I’m afraid I didn’t get names for the makers of all these cards, but thought I’d share them with you… great variety!  Clearly the upcoming Valentine’s Day was on a couple of minds….

Thanks to all who attended the lecture and came to class… it was, as always, a gas!