Plenty of colour

I decided to play some more with colour and the ideas that I picked up from my class at the weekend and made a series of postcards and an ATC.

This is an ATC I made and will be sending to Katharine as a thanks for running a wonderfully enjoyable class. And a series of postcards that I am going to be sending as part of the Fiber Art Friends birthday swap.

I still feel so out of the loop I have a tonne of swaps to catch up on and haven't a clue what is going on in the groups that I belong to at the moment. I guess it will take some time but I'm looking forward to getting caught up and feeling like a I am part of things again.

More textured backgrounds

Here are the pictures of the other cheesecloth ATCs that I made the other day. Being at home today has meant that I can take some pictures in the daylight which show up what is going on on these little white cards.The idea behind this one was to try and create some texture using just flat embellishments. I'm not sure if I've quite achieved the effect that I was after but it almost works. I covered a piece of Timtex with some cheesecloth and then added two different types of flower embellishments. The flowers down the side are almost a lace type trim and the bunch of flowers in the middle are cut from a long piece of satin trim. I think you can just about make out the different textures in this picture. To add a little bit of dimension I gathered a couple of the flower centres with some running stitch to make some of the petals stand up from the background a bit. I have been itching to add some beads or something just to finish it off but that wouldn't fit in with the whole idea of using using flat things.
This second study in white uses just a cheesecloth background with some fluffy yarn couched over the top. In some weird optical illusion I think that the yarn looks like it is sinking into the cheesecloth but in reality it is sat on top. I really like this card but to me the reality doesn't look anything like the picture. As it is at the moment even though I like it I think it's just a bit too simple to be a finished piece so I might add a few beads or maybe even some more yarn perhaps in a different colour. I'll have a play and see what takes my fancy.

Textured backgrounds

I just got back from a weekend at Dad's it was nice to catch up with everyone. I also got to see the dress that my sister has in mind for us bridesmaid's to wear and it's not as bad as I imagined it might be.

My sewing machine came back on Friday and touch wood it seems to be fixed. Apparently there was a problem with the switch. As I have been away I haven't had much of a chance to test it out properly but this evening I stitched the edges of a few more heart charms and it seems to be ok.

I haven't had much of a chance to get creative this weekend but I have made a sort of start on the Fiber Art Friends February challenge which is creating texture. I decided to play with making some textured backgrounds using layered cheesecloth. I've made 3 ATCs altogether but can only show one for the time being as the other two are white and are not getting picked up well on my scanner so I will have to wait until it is light enough for me to try taking some photos instead.
Yes another cat. I seem to have refound my love for all things feline, and this motif was from another scrap that I just couldn't bring myself to throw away. Basically I layered some cheesecloth on top of my ATC size piece of timtex and fused the cat over this background. Usually I satin stitch the edges of my ATcs just as I would a postcard but I like the organic look that this has ended up with so will leave it as is.

Kitty ATCs

I have been having fun making some kitty ATC's using motifs from the same fabric that I used for my postcards a few posts back.I decided to try and use up some of the cute kitty motifs that were at the very edge of the fabric piece that I had. Some of these had half an ear or no mouth but I just couldn't see them go to waste!On Tuesday night I went and visited my old quilt class. I didn't sign up this year as things were really up in the air on the home front and I wasn't one hundred percent sure that I would be able to attend every class. It was great to see everyone again and one of these ATc's went to my old teacher Anne Chapman, as it reminds me of her own fur friend, Muffin.

As for the rest well I have been searching around on some of the groups that I belong to and have found an open theme ATC swap to join :) On a more depressing note my sewing machine has decided that it doesn't want to switch on anymore so I think it will have to go in for repair. I'm hoping to get my old machine set up over the weeked to keep me ticking over and to stop me getting too far behind with my swap commitments.

Vintage Valentine

The January challenge for the FiberArtFriends is to think about ways in which to combine paper and fabric. I have been itching to get some time to play with all the ideas running round in my head but thought I would start with something simple.

Here are the cards I've made for the FAT vintage valentine ATC swap. Fabric backgrounds and paper hearts. I was looking through all my bits and pieces for some inspiration for this swap and came across some toppers that I bought in a bulk lot for card making a couple of years back. I hadn't got round to using them as when they arrived they were actually too busy for my liking but I dismantled a few and used the paper heart elements and also some paper roses for these cards. I like the way they turned out and the handmade paper was lovely to stitch on. I have loads of the toppers left so I might have a go at making a few postcards too.

I have decided to trade all four of these cards in the FAT swap. The Be Mine card that I made the other day I am going to keep for a while as it's been sitting on my desk charming me for the last few days and I'm not ready to let it go yet. No doubt it will get traded at a later date though when the charm wears off for me, lol!

Vintage Valentine

Over at FAT they are having a vintage valentine ATC swap. FAT was one of the first yahoo groups I signed up with but what with one thing and another I don't seem to have had time to join in there much in the last few months. I thought I would try and join in a trade for the new year and make some ATCs.

I haven't actually signed up for the trade yet as I wanted to make sure I would have time to make something first. Here is a little ATC that I made yesterday. If I can make a couple more over the next few days then I will sign up. If not I'll just keep hold of it for the time being as no doubt I will find another trade to use it for later.

Celestial

I had so much fun at home yesterday that I decided to take today off too, I am definitely not going to want to go back to work tomorrow, but I am fast running out of leave so will have to boohoo!

I sat and made a bunch of QTC's or fabric ATCs if you prefer. They are for a celestial swap going on at Fabricards at the moment. I had so much fun. I don't make these very often but when I do I always promise myself that I'll sit and make more but somehow I never seem to find the time.

I made seven altogether all different designs but here are a couple of my favourites.
This first one I am calling 'Burning Sun' I used a scrap of fabric that I dyed in the microwave a while back for the background and stitched down the sun print which is cut from commercial fabric. I then used the long stitch technique similar to what I did for the roofs on my scrappy houses to stitch out the middle of the sun. I used a variegated yellow thread for this. I was going to add some beads to the background but I had some thread left on the needle so decided to go with french knots instead.

This next one is called 'Sunburst'. For this one again I used the same microwave dyed fabric and stitched vermicelli style over that. I recently bought a couple of strings of beaded wire in the sale was originally meant to be some kind of Christmas table decoration, anyway I cut and coiled up some of this for the centre of the sun and then stitched some rectangular gold sequins (also bought in the sales, lol!) round this. Probably the cheapest ATC ever as the background fabric was originally an old sheet so probably cost less than a penny all told :) This last one is a bit different to the others. I've called it 'Wishing on a Star' As you can probably figure out I again randomly stitched the background and added some sequins beads and charms.

I might not be around much for the next couple of days as my Dad and sister have decided to come visit for the day on Saturday so I really must get to the housework I can't avoid it any longer.