March Goddess

This afternoon I decided to take a break from postcards and made FGM's March challenge block.

Now she's finished I'm not sure whether I like her or not. I changed the wing shape, the wings are now supposed to represent a four leaf clover but as you can see I don't have the best drawing skills :)

I made the wings cream and the body gold and used a metallic confetti heart rather than a fabric heart this time. I think she might grow on me but at the end of the year when I put all the blocks together into a wall hanging I might eventually decide to make her again.

More postcards

I've been making postcards again today and am finally up to date with all the swaps that end this week, phew. Here are the cards I've made today.

The heart is for a swap on the Quilt Europe group and is my first attempt at using the shaker technique that I used to use all the time in greetings cards for a postcard, I'm definately please with the way this has turned out and will use this technique again.

The African scene is for a landscape swap on the FiberArt Postcards group. I kept changing my mind as to what design to use. I was thinking something more along the traditional rolling hills and fields, but as I was trying to chose the fabrics I came across this one printed with African village scenes and really wanted to use it so did :)

Gold, hot pink and Purple swap

Well another swap bites the dust :) I have just made 6 cards for the FAPC Gold, hot pink and purple swap. As I have so much to complete this week I am trying to stick to simple designs. I found the perfect pink and purple fabric for the background in my stash and machine appliqued a gold heart to the front.

Although it is a simple design and was relatively quick to make I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out. I have a friend who is mad on hearts so I think I'll make an extra one for her, wonder of she'll read this before the card arrives, you know who you are :) Only another couple of designs to come up with and make and that will be the end of the madness (at least until I get tempted by all the great swaps out there and over commit again!)

Africa

Ok well I went and did something rather silly this morning and rather than work on one of the swaps that are due by the end of the week I went ahead and did a later swap just because I wanted to.

It didn't actually take too long to put these together as my sister Emily helped me to cut all the pieces for these at the weekend so it was literally a case of putting them together.

I am going to send the cheetah card to Em as a surprise thank you for helping me get these together ahead of time. Now to go work on something that is due this week .......

Pink and purple crazy!

Ever feel like you've over committed yourself? Well I've been so carried away with my new interest in postcard making that I didn't realise how many swaps I'd signed up for and they all seem to be finishing this week! Arrggggh I'm hopeful that I will get everything done before the postmarked deadlines but it might mean a couple of late nights :)

Here are 2 sets of cards that I made this weekend. On the left the theme was pink, purple and silver. I had wanted to make these chenilled but they've just had to settle for being slashed due to time. I used 5 layers of fabric and cut a hole in the centre of each layer for a piece of silver to show through. I used some of my microwave dyed fabric for the top layer.

The cards on the right are mini pink and purple log cabins made with plain and floral fabrics. I hand sewed these while at my dad's this weekend and my Nan fell in love with them so I am going to send her one in the post so she can see they really do get there!

Billy

Here is my final set of blocks for the pretty kitty block swap. I designed these myself and put them together, with a little help from Emily.

I am really pleased with the way these have turned out so I will definately be keeping the templates and might make some more in wacky colours for the summer swap :) I've decided to call this block Black and White Billy.

I used wiggly eyes but ran out of small eyes for the last block and put some medium size ones on the last block (top row middle) I think this larger size makes the face more fun so will try and remember to use these on all of them next time.

Flower Power!

I had a busy weekend at my Dad's, looking after my nephew and starting to help Dad pack up some things (he is putting his house up for sale). So not much time for sewing.

On Saturday evening though my sister, Emily, helped me to fuse some blocks for the pretty kitty block swap. Here is the first set which I'm calling flower power. I just cut a basic flower shape and added some Laurel Birch cat heads for the flower centres. I've machine stitched all the pieces down.

We also made another set of Black and White kitties which will complete my 3 sets for this swap but I haven't finished machine stitching these yet but I will add a picture once they are done. I designed all three blocks myself this time and although they are really simple shapes and patterns I'm pleased with the way they have turned out :)

My favourite animals - postcard swap

Yipee today I finished another set of postcards that I have been working on for a swap entitled my favourite animals. Well of course I had to chose the cat. I had this beautiful cat squares fabric in my stash and managed to find some perfect paw print material to match at the quilt show last weekend.

I've added some beads to some of the paw prints for the toes and finished it off with some pretty eyelash yarn round the edge. I'm really pleased with the way they have turned out and can't wait to see what I get in return. I know that one lady has made some turtles but I don't have a clue what the rest will be.

This will be my last post now until Sunday at the earliest as I am going to visit my Dad this weekend. I'm off to try and gather some things for a couple of hand sewing projects so that I'll have plenty to work on while I'm there!

A Birthday Card

I've joined a birthday club on one of the postcard groups that I belong to, and here is the first card that I have made for this group. The only preference was for a bright card. I had fun making this simple frog to which I added a few beads for a bit of sparkle I sure hope that ****** likes the card when it arrives;)

Rotary Cutter Holder - FGM challenge

Well now the judging is over I guess I'm safe to add some pictures of the Rotary Cutter holder that I made for the FGM challenge. I decided on a heart shape with some fairies appliqued on top. I put a pocket on the inside for the cutter to live in and use some small poppers for fastenings.

I didn't win the challenge as there were many great entries but that doesn't matter as I had some fun making this. It was the first time that I'd tried anything with bias binding too so another first for me this year.

Pretty Kitty Spring Swap

Here are the first set of blocks I've made for the PrettyKitty spring swap. I made a couple extra than I need but I need to get a move on with the other 2 sets I promised as they are due by the end of the month. I used some of my microwave dyed fabric to cut the hearts from and added a kitty in a star from a piece of fabric I had in my stash :)

Spring Quilt Festival Exeter

This past Saturday I went to the Spring quilt festival in Exeter, with a couple of friends from my college class Anne and Barbara. It's not a very big show but there were still plenty of wonderful quilts to be seen and it wasn't too busy so it was easy to get a good look at everything. I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of my favourites. This one is called Moonshine by a lady called Heather Hasthorpe. The colours haven't come out too well but the visual effect of the quilt was stunning there were so many shapes to be seen depending on how far back you viewed the quilt from.

This second quilt won the Art Deco revisited challenge. and is called Erte in the Sky with Diamonds. It was made by Jennifer Trollope. There was some amazing beaded and stitched detail in this one and I loved the image of the lady with her dog.

We all had such a fun day, can't wait to go again next year :)

Postcard Received

I received a beautiful card in the mail today from Nancy Arakelian. This is for the FiberArtPostcards Beginners swap 6, theme is landscapes. I think it's wonderful the background is really vibrant. I don't think I would have come up with anything like this!

Seed Catalogue postcards

Here are the postcards that I have been working on for the last couple of days. They are for the seed cataolgue swap for the Fabricards swap. I go to a quilting class at the local college on a Tueday and they have a small library of books and magazines that we can borrow. When I saw a fun book called pieced vegetables I just knew I had to try them and what better way than a postcard.

I could resist trying out more than one pattern so this is the first swap where all the cards I've made have been individual designs. I think my favourite is the carrot :)

Sawtooth Stars

Yesterday I made some Sawtooth Stars for a 'mailblocks' swap. You can't really see fom this picture but they all use cat print fabrics. I think they turned out cute!

Three in the mail

I look forward to the mail every morning now as I just don't know what its going to bring! Today I had 3 more fantastic cards.

Linda Karpp sent me the purple card for the FAPC Gold, hot pink and purple swap.
Barbara Moore sent me the moose in the landscape for FAPC beginners #6
Kandy Newton sent the crazy patchwork card for the BQLPC vintage swap.

Fairy moon

Late last night I finally manage to complete one of my blocks for the QC moon block swap. It feels like I've been working on this for weeks, which I guess I have on and off other things have just been more urgent and prevented me from finishing.

I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out all of the pieces are fused and then stitched down by machine with the exception of the moon and the wings which I hand stitched. There are beads along the tops of the wings and the dress which don't really show up in this photo. I still have 4 more blocks like this to finish but all the machining is done it's just the beading to go.

Postcards in the mail

Well I had some wonderful mail this morning. No less than 3 beautiful postcards, so much better than bills! The top 2 cards were made by Joan Waldman and Carol Thompson for the Fabricards Seed catalogue swap. I'm hoping to get my cards for this swap made this week.

The bottom card is from Anne Wigfull for the BQLPC vintage swap.

Pip's favourite place

Well it's been pretty cold here the last few days and Pip seems to have found a new way of keeping himself warm. His new favourite place is sitting on top of the monitor on Mark's computer. I think the heat generated from it must keep him nice and warm! I have a flat screen for my PC which is probably a good job as I'd spend all my time sitting thinking how cute Pip looks rather than actually getting anything done!

Black and White Postcards

Phew today I've made 20 postcards for the Fiber PC black and white swap. Of course with so many cards to make I had to pick my favourite subject cats :)

I tried using a zigzag stitch round the edge instead of the satin stitch I usually use as I thought it might go with the simple design. I hope it's strong enough to last through the mail.

Although I enjoyed making these I think I'll think twice before joining such a large swap again as even using a simple design these have taken quite a few hours to make, so I haven't gotten as many things done today as I had hoped.

Cheddar Gorge

Today we spent a few hours walking at Cheddar gorge. It was another beautifully sunny but cold day. Mark bought a new digital camera this week so it was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

The pictures here are the ones that I took on the small camera that we have. This first one is a view of part of the gorge looking up from the road. It would have been great to get a panoramic view as the gorge is huge but that wasn't possible with my little camera.


We walked to the top of the gorge (I have sore feet and aching legs to prove it!) This was the view from the top. There are plenty of wild goats roaming around on the hillsides but I wasn't able to get a photo as they all seemed to move at just the wrong time. They were pretty vute though and some had little ones trailing around after them.

Coming back down the gorge was really slippery. There was still snow on the slopes where the sun just hasn't been able to reach to melt it. Very pretty though. Of course we needed some sort of reward for all that effort, the fish and chips we ate were just the trick :)

Thank you Sheila

I received my first postcard this morning in the BQLPC vintage swap. Unfortunately for some reason I just couldn't get my camera to take a picture that really does this card justice they were coming out too light or too dark this is the best I managed but it doesn't really show how lovely and fresh the blues and pinks are.

I have to admit having a soft spot for hexagons and you might remember I designed an abstract hexagon cat for a block swap, so I was absolutely delighted when this arrived in the letterbox this morning :)

I made something!

After a few days of not having the time or inclination to make anything I finally got round to designing some fiber postcards. This swap was on a UK based list and the theme was vintage. I microwave dyed some fabrics using a beige dye and used a couple of the rubber stamps that I collected when I was doing a lot of card making to stamp the image of a lady and the quote in brown ink. I finished the card by attaching some lace trim round the image of the lady, and added some machine stitched herringbone down the side.

All the layers on this card were fabric no card or stiffners so it will be interesting to see if they make it through the post ok. I'm hoping that as they don't have far to travel they will all make it ok.

Two in as many days

Well I guess you can imagine my surprise when I had another beautiful card in the mail this morning. This time it's from Rosemary Beeler in Ohio. There was no theme for this swap, this is the one I made the Krazy Kitties card for. I love the monopoly money I've never seen any fabric like it before!

A fiber postcard received in the mail

I had my first ever postcard in the mail yesterday. I am taking part in a black and white themed swap and this card is from Freida Oxenham in Scotland.

I love it, it's the first card I've ever been sent so it will definately have a special place in my collection, a collection given the number of swaps I've signed up to that I know will be growing rapidly in the months to come, lol!