Hello, my name is Annie and I am a fabric postcard addict... 

...and you can help feed my addiction.

I've made a buncha fabric postcards over the past few years and sent them to family and friends for a variety of events or reasons.  But I'm worried now they may be tiring of them. 

But I'm not tired of making them!

This is where you come in.  I've had many admirers of my cards and I'm wondering if you would like to receive one?  As a follower appreciation gimmick giveaway, I want to sporadically offer up for grabs a postcard now and again.  Interested?

There won't be any jumping through hoops to win the cards, but since it's produced in appreciation of my followers and my flickr contacts, you have to be an already existing follower/contact when the card is offered up for grabs.

You can choose whether you would like me to mail the card to you from me (which means I write on it and address it to you and mail it to you naked), or you would like it to come to you ready for you to send yourself if you so choose to (which means I leave it blank and put it in an envelope to send to you). 

Mr. Random number picker will not be involved here.  I will just choose the winners, based on comments here and on flickr.  I would like to know that they go to caring homes.

Here are two cards up for grabs to start this off.  Let me know in your comment which one you would like.  Two recipients this time.

Tweet Bird

Butterfly Post

I so appreciate all the wonderful things many of you have commented in the past on my postcards.  I so love to make them.  Here's to hoping I will find some new recipients to send them to.  Cheers!

Annie

Blog Hopping

It seems every other blog I follow is in the middle of a blog hop.  It's so fun to see what so many are doing creatively, but I can't even keep up anymore.  Although I keep trying.  Dare I even say it's the latest craze?  **cringing**!

 

I work anywhere from 4 - 8 hours daily.  I try to keep up with flickr contacts and blogging buddies.  I'm doing good to see what those cyber friends are creating.  And I throw in a bit of blogging myself.  And now add blog hopping?...I can only get to that if I'm really feeling like lazing in my comfy chair and clicking...

...and that does happen now and again! **smiling guiltily**

When I'm working, I'm always thinking about what I want to do at my sewing machine when the time comes...usually right after my power nap.  It's hard to draw the line, but I'd much rather be creating something myself.  Then again, I'm so inspired with what I see on my computer screen.  Then again, it's not like I'm running out of inspiration.  Then again I don't want to miss something that could be the "ultimate" inspiration.  Then again....  I think this is called a vicious cycle.  STOP!

I am so happy to see that most bloggers have removed the word verification.  They've changed the legibility of those words to WORSE!  I hardly ever get them right the first time now and I'm sure some couldn't possibly be right, but I must have made a good guess.

I've got a few extra minutes, maybe I can check in on a blog hop.  Have a blogging fun day!

Annie

On The Bandwagon?

I'm waving to everyone on the bandwagon.  I jumped off.  It's too crowded for me.  It continues to travel far and wide and continues to have a great following.  I'm blaming the Internet for my lack of interest to "jump on the bandwagon". 

When all I had were magazines and books and sewing classes to inspire me to sew a specific project, my to do list really was never ending.  My list continues to be never ending, but for different reasons...such as life gets in the way of actually getting projects done in a timely fashion.

But, ..... the Internet is causing me to loose interest as fast as it inspires me!  I love it when I see a blogger or a flickr contact has created a fresh perspective for a quilting project.  I start getting inspired and mentally add the idea to my to do list.  Then, within a couple of weeks and sometimes even less, that fresh perspective starts popping up all over the Internet.  What happens to me being inspired happens to lots and lots of others.  It doesn't seem to take long after that for me to become uninterested in sewing the latest craze.

But I still love seeing every one's version of the latest craze.  I think all it's going to take is time for these newest fads to run their immediate course of popularity.  Once they disappear from sight for a while, I'm sure I'll become interested again.  I wonder if this happens to anyone else.

It isn't a bad thing either...it's also causing me to really dig deep for some originality to my own work and to add some personal perspective to work that inspires me from bandwagons long gone by. 

Just musing,
Annie

Man Quilt...

...that's not so man-ish anymore.

This quilt (#6 for me) began with a charm pack of batiks I received with a mug rug swap.  They were ugly and I couldn't re gift them because I didn't want anyone to think I'd actually choose that charm pack.  They sat around for a long time.  I finally decided they would work into an ugly "man quilt".

So I got started on a design idea.  I'm sure it was triggered by something I've seen somewhere.  This was back last November.

Then the holidays came and other sewing commitments took over.  Finally in April it surfaced again.  And I found that I was actually enjoying sewing this quilt top.  It didn't look as ugly as I thought it would.  Probably because the ugly fabric pieces are only 2" square.

Soon it was ready to sandwich.

I love when a quilt top is ready to sandwich.  The three layers together is when it changes from pieced fabric to a quilt.  I love to hug it after pin basting it just to feel all my hard work as a "quilt".  The design wasn't hard, but those corners of all the blocks match up really well because I worked hard to do my best to make sure they would all match up.

I moved along to my favorite straight line quilting. 

I couldn't be more pleased with the way the quilting looks with this simple design.

I just can't imagine sending a quilt top out to be quilted.  There is just no better feeling than sewing a quilt from start to finish.

Time for binding...

I wondered if I would ever bind a quilt with the same fabric as the design background rather than a contrasting piece.  Sure enough, this one called for a binding that didn't frame the design. 

 And in the end, I love the quilt!  It doesn't look strictly man-ish. 

It's definitely non gender specific.

I still have lots of pieces of this "ugly" charm pack left over.  Who knows what it'll turn into...we'll see.

Quilt #7 is on the wall and it's calling me to come play.  It's a rather interesting concept that I'm having a fun time with, so off I go to play!

Annie

Blooming Dresden

Table Mat

I'm not the biggest fan of the Dresden plate.  I don't dislike it but it isn't a favorite design.  However, I really like playing with the Dresden ruler wedge lately.

For this piece I traced the 8" ruler wedge.  Shrank the tracing with my printer to 3 different sizes plus a partial wedge. 

I fused the pieces to the background and stitched them down with a raw edge applique technique.  Easy peasy!  The binding is not bias, it's straight grain.  I don't like doing bias if I don't have to.

This piece is another make with this fabric collection for a personal challenge.  Other pieces can be seen in my flickr photostream here. 
Confession:  One fabric piece is not part of this fabric collection but I didn't want to keep repeating too many of the prints to make enough wedges so I just added one more print to the collection.  Is that cheating?  Maybe I can't count it in that challenge.

I've made a couple of table mats for my daughter and she said she'd like to have "some" more.  I'll have to send this to her eventually, but right now I just can't part with it.  I like it and want to enjoy it for awhile before I package it up and send it off. 

Now I can get back to work on my "Man Quilt" that I started back in January.  It's ready to quilt...I'm always so excited when a quilt is ready to be quilted.  See ya ~

Annie

Blooming Measuring Tape

Pillow #5

My man very seldom makes any comments about what I sew.  However, this piece caught his eye.  Most  likely because of the measuring tapes...guys use them too.  His comment was:

 "Somebody got mad at their tape measure and cut it up."

I always thought I was to blame for mis-measurements but I can see now that the tape measure is the culprit and can be punished with scissors!

My tape measures are a download from Digital Collage Sheets that I printed to fabric (quite a while back) and cut apart.  I thought I had Wonder Under fused to the back of these but when they didn't "stick" when I ironed them in place...well, surprise!  So I had to tack them down with a glue stick. Then made them stay put with circular quilting. 

That was all I planned to do but I felt like it just needed a little something more.  Glass beads seem to be doing the trick for me.

I was a bit disappointed to use the same red fabric for the binding, but nothing else worked.  Another simple back with a few of the glass beads hanging from the zipper pull.

This was simply a fun wild design idea that popped into my head and I had to put it to play.  (I don't kid myself.  I'm sure this has probably already been thought up and done somewhere in the universe, but I haven't seen it.)  I think #5 looks fun next to #2

What I want to know is why is it that I really like some of these pillow covers while I'm working on them and when I put a pillow form inside them they don't look so wonderful anymore. Why is that?...why is that?

Just do it!

Annie

Happy Birthday

Annie!

from my dear friend Carol (mamacjt)

 Is this just not the cutest most delightfully little happy birthday wishes quiltie you ever saw?!!!  It is such a sweet surprise.  (I didn't know she knew when my birthday was).  It arrived last Thursday.  Perfect for me to enjoy days before.  It's going to be coming out for 'everybody's' birthday to come now.  (Actually it won't ever get put away too far.  It's much too cheerful to be hidden away)  I need to see it often.

That wasn't all.  Look what fun came with it...

I guess today is the day I view the world through rose colored glasses... (I never do that.  I always look at the world head on).

Fun candles, a "gold" happy birthday necklace and some fabric pieces!

...and this fun little bundle from my other dear friend Shirley (freidasew).  Some of the world's best people live in Wisconsin.

I just love the detail in the sunflower and the leaf fabrics.  Look closely for the myriad of french knots in the flower center.  Gorgeous work, colors and absolute beautiful quilting!  That little post-its pad says: "I'll have a caffe mocha vodka valium latte to go, please!"   ... that's what I want in a coffee.  LOL

 How fun is all this?!  I'm such a lucky birthday girl.

Carol and Shirley, thank you so, so much for the best birthday wishes ever!  You're the best!

My local quilt shop gives a birthday discount of half your age on your entire purchase.  I stocked up on some fun fabrics and a new book at a pretty nice discount.  There are benefits of getting old as long as you're getting old in the right place (meaning in my town where my local quilt shop gives this nice birthday discount).  After that, a Sundae at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, YUM!

...and I thought it was going to be a rather quiet boring birthday!  NOT!

Thank you!
Annie

Revisiting Bird & Blooms

Now Pillow #4

I haven't been very happy with the outcome of this piece and have been eyeing it daily and it finally began to speak to me of what I might change.

Original details on this piece are in this post. 

The flowers bothered me the most.  They were too lost in the background.  I chose some pastel pieces to cut swirls to add to the thread painted swirls.  The stems and leaves were also very lost in the background and got fabric highlights added to them as well.

A bit more collage was created for the background to get it to a 15" pillow size and I'm now pretty happy with this piece.

  The back is simple.  I find that I like making the zipper part of the design and choosing one with color contrast for that purpose.  With my pillow zippers I'm trying to pull the "fun" out of "functional".

I think I need to look into some charms to decorate the zipper pulls.  This one will need a bird charm.

4 months into the year and 4 pillows.  At least I'm not behind...yet.  Pillow #5 is on the design wall and it also is asking for a bit of something extra.  I wonder what that might be.  I'll have to muse on it.

Annie

Altered Dresden

The unPillow 

I have this fat eighth collection that my friend Carol (mamacjt) shared with me just before I fled Wisconsin. 

Fat eighths make me think small project(s).  But there seems to be a lot more to a fat eighth than meets the eye.  A while back I made a couple of small projects with these and then decided to challenge myself to how many quiltie things I can make with the collection.  My flickr group of projects is here. 

I pulled out the predominantly pink pieces for this quiltie project.  I used my little Easy Dresden ruler to cut the wedges.  I stitched in a center circle and then satin stitched a spiral inside.

The spiral felt off centered (even though it wasn't), so I did a straight stitch following the spiral.  It still felt off.  Then the stitched-in center piece looked way less than perfect, so I cut and fused a ring to cover that ugly seam and it all came into a better perspective for me.  Plus I really like the way that light colored fabric ring looks.

 

I loved how this looked the entire time I worked on it. 

With the fixes to the center, it took on a whimsical look so I added a pink "stick".  I was SO happy with it.

Then I put the pillow form inside and my spirits took a spiraling dive!  It just doesn't look right as a pillow.  I hate that!

I think the design gets too distorted.  So, now what?  Well, I think maybe I'll try putting a thin foam piece inside and try it as a chair back cushion.  I'll just have to wait until it inspires me to know exactly what it should be.  But dang it all, I wanted it as a pillow!

There were some scraps left after cutting the wedges and the inside of the fabric ring was left as well.  I put them into the back.

This means I'm still on pillow #4.  So, I'll be back...

Annie

Publishing Comments

Why don't the little "publish comment" buttons all work the same?!!!  I suppose it has to do with the system you blog with.  I've no clue really because I've no clue about this techy stuff.  I'm just guessing.  Does any one really know why this is?

The orange "Publish Your Comment" buttons work the first time, every time for me.

The white "Publish" buttons that turn blue when you click on them hardly ever work for me.  Once I tried off and on for two hours to publish a comment on one of these before finally giving up.  I've sent many bloggers a private message just so they would know I was there, and I liked what they did. 

It's so incredibly frustrating and I know you want me to come back later and try again, but that's getting even more time consuming.  Please know that I'm watching you work.  I will continue to write a comment, but if it won't take after a few minutes of trying, I need to move along in life.

Remember...I'm watching you work!  Why wouldn't I?  You're very inspiring!  I just don't always get to tell you so.

Annie