Hearts and Flowers

February is the month of love, and there is plenty about my life to love at the moment. I love the fact that I finally dusted off my sewing machine again, and I love the fact that I have completed one thing from my February to do list already.

My hearts and flowers postcards are done. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I've made hundreds of postcards in the past, but none for a while.

I started out with a scrap of felt and cut out some simple hearts.

The hearts then got needle felted, by hand, sadly I still haven't been able to afford to treat myself to an embellisher machine - it's still on my wish list though :)

The pink scraps from my 'new projects' post the other day then got put to use, and so did my sewing machine. After scraping off the thick layer of dust, I just about remembered how to thread it up! :) The finished cards look something like this.

It was great making a few of these mini creations again, like visiting an old friend :)

Yellow

In the spirit of tying up all loose ends and getting ready to move on into the new year. I thought I'd share the final set of postcards I made in 2008. This time for the Artsnthemail Something Beginning with Y swap.

As I'm sure is pretty obvious Y is for yellow! I used the same technique for the green stripes card a few posts ago.

So far I'm signed up for 2 postcard swaps in January adding up to just 4 postcards to make. The branch of the embroidery guild that I belong to is also doing a postcard challenge this year which I would like to participate in but I really am going to try and keep the postcards to a minimum and explore other things this year.

Stripes

For an upcoming 'Stripes' swap at Artsnthemail I was able to recycle a couple more cards from the pile which is great! That pile of cards I pulled out will soon be shrunk to nothing

I only had three swap partners in this one so just one extra card to make. I pulled out some green fabric scraps and added some hand stitching and a couple of embellishments.

I joined all the strips of fabric together and left all of the raw edges showing. I have used this technique before a good while ago and really like it so I think maybe some more raw edges will be a feature of my work next year.

I couldn't write a post on Stripes without showing you one of my favourite Christmas presents this year.

Aren't they great!

Leaves

Over the last week or so I have been working hard to complete the majority of my postcard swap commitments. Next year I will be cutting back on the number of swaps that I take part in. Although I still love this mini art form I think it's time for me to play around with some new things. I've no doubt postcards will still pop up from time to time though!

I had 5 cards to make for a 'Leaves swap' These first two I managed to 'recycle' from my pile of old cards.

This next one changed as I was making it. I found an article in one of my issues of Workshop on the Web by Pauline Parker entitled 'Scorched Autumn'. Pauline had made lots of wonderful leaves layered in sheer fabrics, machine stitched and then burned back with the heat gun.Well I managed to layering and stitching part (I used a white outline for the stitching as my original inspiration came after seeing a pile of frost coloured leaves on a recent walk). Unfortunately I just can't seem to find my heat gun anywhere at the moment for the burning part.

Never mind I like how the card turned out anyway.

Finally I made two cards in the same design. I used chain and stem stitch to make the simple outline of a leaf.

I do enjoy making individual cards rather than a whole set the same but it does take longer to put a set together in this way.

Christmas Presents

However you may have celebrated or passed the day yesterday I hope you had a joyful time....

Z is for ....

As hard as I try to keep things tidy I'm just a naturally messy kind of person, lol! However just recently I have really been trying to put some effort into getting organised. As part of this tidyfest I have started to sort out all of the postcards I've collected over the last few years.

When I first started postcard making I used to make an extra in each swap to keep for myself. However I soon realised that with my collection growing so rapidly I realistically didn't really have the space to keep one each of all the I made as well so that stopped.

As part of my sort out I've come across some of my old cards and will be making every effort to recycle them in up come swaps and maybe some giveaways.

One card in particular jumped out at me. Perfect for the final letter of the alphabet swap that I have been taking part in.

I still haven't made my Y cards yet but while they were in mind I went ahead and made a couple more Zebras, so another swap gets crossed off the list :)

I had to raid my yarn box for the eyelash yarn for the edges and that led me to another project but more about that tomorrow .....

More Christmas cards and a Giveaway

On Tuesday it was the monthly meet of the Great Western Embroiderers. While most people are busy working on stitching a piece or two for the exhibition we have at Steam next year, I took along some bits and pieces for making Christmas postcards as a little distraction from the serious stuff :) Sadly I forgot my camera to take pictures on the day but here are a couple of cards that I managed to stitch.

For the last couple of evenings I've been trying to get myself into the Christmas spirit by working on my Christmas cards for family. They are all done and ready to mail (not all shown here though, the light is just awful for pictures at the moment it's raining hard outside!)
I really love the black and silver tree fabric and the different designs on the trees. This little chap has got to be my favourite.

I'm often attracted to work with birds on but hardly ever use them in my own stuff, maybe that's something to think about for the new year.....

GIVEAWAY - Anyway I have one card left over with the bird design so I've decided to have a quick giveaway. Leave a comment here before the end of the weekend and I'll put you in the draw. If I can get him mailed on Monday, who knows there's a chance he might even reach you before the 25th!

Christmas Trees

I'm feeling a bit under the weather at the moment. Nothing serious but it's not really helping my motivation so it's turning into a slow stitching week.

I have managed to make a set of postcards for a Christmas tree swap that I'm in though. I only had three to make so I decided to make them all different just to make it more interesting for me.

This first one is the simplest. I took a ready made picture attached it to the backing fabric using some tree brads and then added some sequin baubles to the tree.

For the next two I raided my rubber stamp collection and then did some over stitching. I guess I really am missing those french knots as all the snow drops and baubles in this one are knots, lol!
For this last one I used a really basic tree shaped stamp and then satin stitched over the top, and of course some more french knots. This last one took ages but it's also my favourite!

Hopefully I can shake off this lurgy and get my stitching motivation back as I do miss not blogging everyday, must try harder (just as the school report used to say!)

Christmas Postcards

I think it's going to be a slow week stitching wise. I just have so much going on at the moment, the little spare time I have in the evenings is going to be taken up with holiday errands and gatherings, it's just that crazy time of year.


I have however finally decided on my Christmas card design for the year. I've decided to send postcards instead of traditional cards. I went with a simple (and hopefully elegant) black and white design using some of the fabrics that I bought the other week. Thankfully I don't have hundreds to make. So far I've only managed a couple but the rest will likely get done and sent at the weekend.

Flower Field

So I've finally come to the realisation that the quilt won't be finished before Saturday, lol! Actually I managed to sabotage myself by not buying enough backing fabric at the weekend. Still a valuable lesson has been learned and I know it will be done before Christmas, I just might not get it to my Nan by then.

Although the quilt has been my main focus of attention this week I've also made a couple of postcards (just for a change, lol!)

Here is a quick and easy one for the Artsnthemail Lottery.Actually this one was a bit of a cheat as I'm sure that I was gifted these fabrics already pieced together in a secret sister swap so all I had to do was add the back :)

And another for a private swap with Jane.We've been having so may grey days here recently I thought some spring flowers would cheer things up a bit.

Snowflakes

I thought it was about time I got back to some postcards before I got withdrawal symptoms!

These are for a 'Snowflake' Swap. Difficult to get a decent picture of though so apologies for the naff quality.
I made five altogether and although they are all lightly different, these two are a pretty good representative of how they came out.
They were fun to make. a combination of different white on white fabric scraps, some ribbon, some paper punched shapes and one of the fancy stitches on my machine. I do enjoy working white on white (just wish I could get a better picture to show you, but pretty impossible here at the moment!)

And if you haven't already heard Terri and Sue are having a great 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. You can find all the details on their blogs, but all you have to do to be entered into the draw is sign up for their newsletter here. Go on give it a go, it'd be daft not too :)

Angels

I have decided that the perfect way to combat the whole grey days = no photos thing is to work like a demon on my stitching in the evenings and the photograph everything at the weekend when I get to experience some daylight! So for the foreseeable future the stuff on my blog will be 'what I did last week!'

I have managed to get slightly behind with a couple of my swap commitments due to the whole sewing machine drama, but it feels good to be starting to catch up.

Here is one of a set of 4 postcards that I made for an Angel themed swap at Artsnthemail.

I changed my idea for these cards several times before coming across the perfect rubber stamp image buried in my collection. If you visit often I'm sure you've noticed by now that I love my bright colours (grin) but I also enjoy working with white. I thought a mainly white card would be perfect for this heavenly theme. I really enjoyed making these.

Lottery Postcard

Just a quick post to share the card that I made for this months lottery on Artsnthemail. Not the best card I ever made but I challenged myself to use some bits and pieces that had been lying around on my worktable for a while and this was the result. 'Colourful' is probably the best thing I can find to say about it!

I think things on the blogging front will be a bit slow this week. I am away on a conference with work from Wednesday to Friday but I am going to try and figure out how to schedule a post for Wednesday so I don't miss my regular slot for the Siberian Gold update.

Africa

Well I have heard from the engineer to say that my machine will probably be with them for a week or so. In the meantime I am making do with my basic Brother. It feels very odd stitching on it, it's so clunky, lord knows how I managed to make a whole quilt on it.

Any how here is another set of postcards that I recently finished for an 'Africa' themed swap. I found this wonderful fabric in my stash that I had honestly forgotten all about.

Sometimes the fabric is just perfect and doesn't really need anything else to fancy it up. So with these I just added some seed stitching to various bits of the backgrounds and they were done.

The satin stitched edges are not as good as usual with my clunk machine but hopefully they will still make it through the postal system in one piece!

Melt down (in more ways than one!)

Yesterday evening I went to switch my sewing machine on and nothing, zilch, zippo. It just won't power up. I tried changing the fuse still nothing, so it will have to go in for repair.

Had a moment of panic and then decided to breath and get my old machine from it's hiding place at the back of the cupboard. It will take a bit of getting used to as it's really basic, but it will allow me to keep working on some of the things I have in progress until my regular machine is fixed.

Here is something I did managed to get done the other day before the machine failure. A set of postcards for a 'layers' swap. I had loads of fun with these. I tried out a burning technique which I know is old news for many fiber artists but something I'd not tried before. First I tore some strips of cotton, over layed these with some organza and went to town with some loopy FME. Then it was out with the heat gun (I've had mine for ages from when I used to do a lot of card making and rubber stamping) for some melting fun. Well you may have figured by now that I love my hand stitching so finally a layer of fly stitch. I had four cards to make and I made the background all in one and then sliced it up, something else I'd not done before I usually make my cards individually. I think overall I prefer the individual way, but for some techniques like this it really would not make sense to make all the backgrounds one at a time.

Finally I couldn't resist sharing this picture of a part finished card sitting in the window. I love how the light changes the colours in the organza.

Something Beginning with W

Time to share another set of postcards that I have been working on. These are for the Something Beginning with W swap on Artsnthemail. This time I decided W would be for White.Sorry about the picture, it's starting to get to that time of year; still almost dark when I leave for work and almost dark when I get home so difficult to get any good light for photos.

I love doing white on white work. For these I raided my scrap box for pieces of fabric and layered together some really scrappy backgrounds, then added a layer of this really fluffy net stuff (have no idea what it was just found it in one of the fabric boxes), then added a few embellishments and some hand stitching.

I really enjoy working like this, freely and having plenty of fun!

Laurel's Cats

Well first things first, I finally feel like I am coming out of the other end of this tonsillitis. This whole week has been a struggle but I'm finally starting to feel like me again which is great. I'm looking forward to catching up on all the emails and blog reading that I have been neglecting!

Secondly the winner of the drawing for the copy of Stitch magazine is Vicki W. Congrats Vicki, I know we chat a lot through the blogs but I don't think I have your snail mail addy so please could you email me :)

Thirdly, the main reason for the post os to share the last of the set of postcards that I started while on holiday. Of course I couldn't resist when the theme 'Cats' came up :)

My original plan was to design a few of my own crazy kitties but time ran out and I needed something that I could work on while I was away as the mailing deadline was immediately after I got back.

When Vicki's parcel arrived just before I left I found the perfect inspiration in a beautiful piece of Laurel Burch fabric she had sent. I cut out the motifs and added them to a plain black background. Then embellished with some hand stitching and sequins.

I love the fun, vibrant colours in Laurel's designs. Here are a couple of close up shots which makes it easier to see some of the hand stitching I added.