Autumn Collage

Here is my fabric postcard offering of the day. I started it yesterday and got it finished this evening. The swap theme was Fabric Collage only one other person signed up. I changed my mind several times as to what theme I would base this round but my mind was finally made up on Saturday as I loved working with the leaves background fabric for the BQLPC swap.

I cut the background from that wonderful fabric and then sewed some skeleton leaves on top of that. Then I stamped some leave images over the top of these two layers. I also stamped out some other images on to autumn colour fabrics to lay as tiles on top and finally finished it off with a few buttons. I'm pretty thrilled with the way the card turned out. I hope my swap partner like it too!

Knitting

As well as calling in at the LQS on Saturday to pick up some Timtex I also had a quick nose around the knitting shop and just couldn't resist these beautiful felt yarns. Not sure what I am going to make with them yet but the colours are just beautiful so I had to buy.

I also decided to make myself a fluffy knitted bag as I'm feeling the need to get cosy now the weather is starting to get colder. I've only had time to knit up a few rows so far but I'm hopeful that it will come together pretty quickly.

Busy Day

Well thanks to the fact that I stayed up until silly o'clock on Friday night watching the baseball world series I managed to finish my fire postcards so that freed up yesterday to start catching up on other things. My order of Timtex still hasn't arrived so I decided to go to the local quilt shop and buy some Fast2Fuse instead to keep me going. I love working with Fast2Fuse but it's almost twice the price of TimTex so I can't afford to do it all the time.

Anyway I had a whole lot of fabrics cut ready for making my postcards so I had a bit of a frenzy at the machine and managed to put several sets together. We are having a fun swap at Artsnthemail called Orphan blocks (thanks to Julie at advancedfiberpostcards for letting me borrow her idea). Basically you chop up any oprphan quilt blocks you have lying around and recycle them into postcards. I loved it so much I also used this idea to create some postcards for an open theme swap that I am participating in on the FiberArtistIntl group. I made 10 cards like this altogether so I can't really show them all here but here are a couple of my favourites.

I also managed to complete a set of postcards for BQLPC the theme is Autumn Splendour, this turned out pretty simple in design but I really love the background fabric and to me it just captures the colours of Autumn so I didn't want to add to much. I usually get some wonderful cards from this group so I hope that no-one ends up too disappointed with my simple design this time.

I also made another ATC for the artsnthemail swap, I used some scraps of my Microwave dyed fabric and am really pleased with the contrast in the colours and how the hand stitching round the edges brings the hearts to life.

While out and about picking up my Fast2Fuse I also treated myself to some wool and a couple of knitted bag patterns so I made a start on one of those too, I will get some pictures up when my camera battery is charged. All in all quite a productive day (no housework though!)

Corfu revisited

Recently my partner Mark has refound his passion for photography after treating himself to a digital slr a few months ago. He has been without his PC since we got back from our holiday but it got fixed this week and we have had fun looking at the pictures he took in Corfu and reliving some of the memories.

I know I am probably biased but I think his photos are amazing. Here is one of my favourites taken of one of the statues of the muses at Achellieon palace in Corfu I just love the way the light plays across the statue. If you would like to check out some of his other photos then there is a link on the side to his blog.

Fire

Here is a postcard that I have been working on for the 'Fire' theme swap in the advanced group. I love cathedral windows though it is a time consuming technique and my fingers get burnt from all of the ironing!

I have 4 more of these to make to complete the swap so I guess I know what I will be up to this weekend!

I'm having a postcard crisis at the moment in that I still have many swaps to catch up on but have run out of TimTex, I've put an order in and had hoped that it would have been here by now but still no sign. At least I can make and finish these without Timtex as all the folding makes them naturally thicker so I can just add a piece of card to the back no need for a middle layer.

These cards are actually turning out about half inch smaller than the standard 6 x 4 size, but I'm hoping that the others in the swap will like the design and can appreciate the amount of work that each of these takes and will forgive me that half inch!

Art Meme

I recently joined an altered art group on yahoo as I have been ooohing and aahhing over some of the creations that I've seen using these techniques for a while. Having at look at some of the members blogs I came across this and of course had to comment so here I am adding the meme to my blog too (not sure if I have 5 readers though so it could be interesting!)

So, the idea is that the first five people to respond to this post (via comments) will receive a piece of art from me! I know not what the artworks will be so there's surprises in store! The catch, of course, is that if you respond, you then have to post this meme to your blog! (Ok so you don't have to but it would be nice to keep the fun going).

Lost Track

Eeek well my plan for today was to try and catch up and share a few of the things that I have been creating these past couple of weeks but I have to be honest and own up to not being able to remember most of it. Oops I think I'm just tired today I'm sure it will all come flooding back to me soon.

The one thing I can definately remember working on is a fabric book for a round robin that I am current participating in. This is my first ever round robin and first ever go at making some pages for a fabric book. First book I got to work on was Barbara's. Here is the front cover she made for her spring themed book. (sorry about the flash glare).
We have to make both a front and a back to complete a whole page in the book. Here is the front I made for my page. And here is the back ...

My page seems to be quite simple compared to some of the others that have been posted for all of the different themes but I did warn them all that I am a novice at this so hopefully they won't mind too much. I don't want to get over complicated and end up wasting time on something that is just too advanced for my skills at the moment.

I'm waiting for the next book to arrive now, the theme is flamingos which I think is going to be quite a challenge!

Getting back in the habit

Wow I can't believe how easy it is to get out of the blogging habit. It's been a couple of weeks since I posted which is not like me at all. I haven't been idle though I've being doing lots of creative things and this past Friday I went back home to attend my Gran's funeral which was very sad.

I will try my best to try and do some catching up over the next few days and to post some pics of some of the things that I have been up to, but for today it's just a flying visit to get back into the habit again.

Goodbye Nan

Today is a very sad day for me as my wonderful Nan, Ethel Barnes, passed away in the early hours of this morning. It wasn't altogether unexpected as she had been in hospital for the last few weeks but it's still a shock. It seems especially difficult as she is my Mum's Mum so to lose them both only a few months apart is just awful.

My Nan was a wonderful creative person an amazing seamstress and a talented knitter. She along with my Mum taught me how to knit at a young age, I only wish that I had had the passion for sewing that I have now when I was a bit younger as I'm sure she would have been a wonderful teacher. Even though she had a stroke a few years ago and lost the use of her left side she still kept creating for a while using cross stitch over plastic canvas. I will miss her but hopefully she is now somewhere good with my Grandad and my Mum.

I know, especially after the lessons that I have learned this year, that I shouldn't wish my life away but I just wish that this year was over it's been bloody awful.

Tree Spirit has finally emerged

My beaded tree spirit is finally finished. This was the first online class that I ever signed up to. I can't believe that it started almost 2 months ago and it's taken me all this time to get this complete.

I really like the finished tree though, and in actual fact it didn't take that much time to complete in terms of hours spent, it was just me trying to find that time, lol! I think I got a bit discouraged for a while as when Tyler was staying he managed to shake up the box that I was keeping this fellow in and all the beads got mixed up so it wasn't as smooth sailing as I had hoped!


Here is the back view. Although I bought a kit to make this cutie, the class does include instructions on how to make the tree form so I am thinking I might create a little forest of these guys maybe reflecting the different seasons or even different tree species. When I'll find the time though I don't know! I'm thinking that once I am caught up on my swap commitments I might start making a few more things just for me!

More postcards and ATC's

Yippee I have my scanner back, of course it was simple enough to plug in but the slot was hiding between some other cables and I just couldn't see for looking. I must get some simple lessons from Mark on how these things work as I'm useless when he's not around! Anyhow here are the things I was working on at the weekend. First off a set of cards for a Breast Cancer Awareness swap. Of course this theme is something close to my heart after the recent lost of my wonderful Mum so these cards have been made as a tribute to her. I have created them all with different patchwork backgrounds in scraps of pink fabric and then overlayed a heart and a pink ribbon on each.

Here is another ATC made for the artsnthemail swap. Not a very good picture as the 'Imagine' embellishment is too chunky to go under the scanner and by the time I get home from work these days there isn't much daylight left so all my photos with the camera have to be taken with a flash. I think I will try and get a better picture at the weekend when I'm at home during daylight hours!

Finally here is a design I came up with for a swap on BQLPC entitled 'Ancient Cultures' of course having just come back from Greece I had to use that as my inspiration.

Also made ....

This weekend I also made 3 sets of postcards another ATC for the artsnthemail swap and made some excellent progress on my beaded tree spirit. I know I haven't mentioned the tree spirit for ages and that class started way back in August, but what with Em and Tyler being here, Dad and his emergency trip to the hospital and of course my holiday the tree just hasn't had a look in, poor thing. Still after some hard work the last couple of evenings he is almost done.

Hopefully I will have pictures of all of these things to add sometime in the next couple of days but Mark was on my PC earlier and has disconnected the scanner and being a total technodufus I can't work out how to get it set back up and Mark is now fast asleep. (Hopefully he will have is PC fixed again soon and then he will stop tinkering with mine, hee hee!)

Fairy in Progress

This rather bizarre looking creation is my fairy doll in progress. I'm having fun taking this class but as I have so many other things on the go I'm making slow progress, just the body and legs so far.

I came unstuck with the arms though as they were so tiny I had trouble turning them until I came up with an improvised turning tool made from a straw and a kebab stick. After much effort and swearing I managed to get the arms turned and yes you guessed it I haven't done a thing with them since!

When fairy is finished I want to have a go at the mermaid which is a slight variation on the pattern so I decided to order some proper turning tools. Ordered on Saturday arrived today so I can highly recommend this supplier of doll related items.

http://www.clothdollcreations.co.uk/

Daddy long legs fever

This explosion of Daddy Long Legs that we seem to be having this year is driving my cats wild. Inevitabley one or two seem to creep into the house each morning and the cats go wild chasing around after the things knocking over everything in their path.

Just had to share this cute picture of Pip who has been staring at the same Daddy for the last half hour. Daddy is calmly resting on the ceiling safely out of reach but Pip is ready to pounce at the first sign of movement.

Beaded ATCs

You might remember seeing my little beaded mermaid from last week, well here is the finished ATC made for a swap entitled ' Beautiful Beads' I also attached a little beaded mirror and have titled card, 'The fairest mermaid of them all?' There are 6 of these altogether and all of the mermaids are slightly different colours.

I love beads and for this swap any media is acceptable so I decided to make some faeries too, using a rubber stamp onto card with some accent beads to decorate the dress. Again there are 6 of these and all of the dresses have been decorated with different coloured beads. I had lots of fun making both of these sets of cards and can't wait to see what I get in return.

Where did you get that Tee?

I can't believe I haven't posted since Friday, now I have loads to catch up on! I was without my PC for most of the weekend as Mark borrowed it to take to a friend's so it's all snowballed from there.

Sunday Emily and Tyler came up for the day to collect the last few bits and pieces that were here from their stay. Here is Tyler posing in a T-Shirt which was embroidered by a really good internet friend of mine, Carmen, she has been a great help an inspiration to me and is definately to blame for me starting out in postcards, lol! She generously made several T-Shirts with her embroidery machine for Tyler and they are all just wonderful.