Postcard Craze

I’ve been in a fabric postcard making mood.

A couple of friends and I went to the June Tailor warehouse sale recently, so I made them each a postcard with bits of some of the fabrics I bought there.  Unexpected surprise mail is the best mail…in my opinion.

A recent name draw for Postcrossing…she likes goth, tattoos, Edgar Allen Poe and skulls.

What started this current postcard craze was an idea for Christmas postcards. 

I don’t normally make so many alike.  I put them together assembly line style.  The trees were die cut. 

    

I was not looking forward to hand stitching so many sequins!  But it wasn’t so bad and went along a lot quicker than I thought it would.

I die cut the words on the backs from metallic paper. 

Happy mail day!

Free Spirit Quilts

Free Spirit Quilt #1

This brightly colored quilt is made from 4 charm packs.

The fabric line is Free Spirit by Kaffe Fassett.

I added a solid of “Apple” Cotton Shot by Amanda Murphy for Benartex.

The charms are 5”.  I cut 3.25” squares from the Apple fabric.  I sewed from corner to corner chain piecing all the charm squares.  

I then stitched again 1/2” away so that I’d have 2.5” half square triangles already made from the cut off corners.

    


    

I arranged the blocks for the design and stitched them all together.

Poor color in this photo but it shows the layout design.  I don’t know a name for the pattern.  I don’t buy patterns.  I just figure out how to create the design from looking at it.  No, I can’t do that with every quilt design I see.  

It’s been awhile since I made a quilt bright and colorful.

It’s not a large quilt.  Measures 49.5” X 64”.  A nice size throw quilt.

It has a fun backing fabric for a fun whimsical look.

So with the left overs, came

Free Spirit Quilt #2

Baby sized at 34” X 48”

I stitched all those cut off half square triangles into pairs and set them in all directions.

With a 5th charm pack I added a border.

And finished it with a really fun backing fabric.

Still there are left overs!!!

A pair of placemats were sewn.  They will be donated for charity to brighten someone’s meal time.

    

There were still some fun scrap pieces that looked perfect for a set of fun Halloween postcards.

I stitched the bird first after seeing greeting cards on Pinterest made by Beret Nelson, On The Trail Creations Blog.  I decided the other designs didn’t need the buttons.



Those five charm packs were finally exhausted!  But what fun they were to play with!

Fall Raven

I’ve revisited making a denim raven art postcard.

I’ve stitched the raw edge applique a bit farther into the bird with hopes of getting a more feathered look for him.  I’m much happier with his look this time.  Of course some areas will not fray as much but that is to be expected with fabric.

I love those Fall leaves die cut from that Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements fabric.

Again I used Miracle Fabric for the correspondence side.  A rubber stamp and archival ink for the words.

The two postcards together.

Dies used:

Rachael Bright Sizzix Bigz die Birds

Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits dies Leaf Fragments

The Night Watchman

When I saw THIS POSTCARD by robertovnaelena (Instagram), I was immediately in love!

I wish she’d send it to me...(sigh)

I know that won’t happen, so I had to try making one myself.  Nowhere near as impressive, but he’s my version.  Not completely unfortunate, right?  I’ve had to call him a blackbird as he’s just not raven enough looking.  I used a bird Sizzix die to trace.  (I wish I could draw!)

I also wished I could figure out a couple of her techniques, but I didn’t really want to copy right down to every detail.....YES I DID!

He’s made from discarded jeans.  A couple of different denim shades.  The moon in this 2nd photo is closer to the actual fabric color.  It’s more a grayish white with silver metallic specks. I first stitched a spiral using silver metallic thread in the bobbin.  I used the wonder under paper that I peeled off the fabric moon to trace a spiral then stitched it from the backside of the postcard.  It needed more thread painting so I stitched between the spiral stitches with regular thread in a cream and then some outside stitches in the gold.

I think if I had stitched the raw edge of the bird a little farther in, I might have been able to ravel the denim edges a little more so they’d look more feathery.

Are you curious about how my postcards look on the Peltex side?

I normally sew a binding around the edges of my postcards.  That’s because I have felt it looks better than zig-zagging. But this artist’s satin stitching on her postcards looks so great, I decided to try that myself too.  Hoping my satin stitch would fill in as nicely as hers did and only going around the outside edges once, I was not disappointed.  My corners need a little work.  I’m okay with that.

Secret ingredient:  At times, satin stitching doesn’t always cover completely or a stitch length will show.  I go looking for a permanent marker the same color as my thread and I camouflage those tiny areas.

Because I am not mailing this postcard to anyone, I used miracle fabric on the correspondence side.  Very adaptable to rubberstamping and writing (if I were to mail it).  I also did not want to test the satin stitched edge with paper after all my work on the design.  But I will be testing it with paper soon!

I have a lot of discarded jeans left, so I’ll be thinking up more denim postcards.

Happy Mail Day!

Postcards and Calendars

When a break from quilting is needed, fabric postcards are being created.

This postcard collage is created entirely from scraps left from a quilt in progress using Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Abandoned2 collection of fat quarters.

This next postcard is tiny flying geese.  A paper pieced pattern by Quilt-a-Rie that I reduced to fit a postcard size.

 This VW Bug (Beetle) is a paper pieced pattern by Full Bobbin Designs that I changed to applique and reduced to fit a postcard.  My very first car was a green 1967 VW Bug that I named Stanley.

This train postcard is an applique pattern by Angel Lea Designs.  Also reduced for a postcard size.  I fashioned my train after the 4017 Union Pacific Big Boy engine on display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Quite the impressive giant.

This last Poppie postcard is a pattern by Tina Curran.  It is a paper pieced pattern that I adjusted in size for a postcard.  This is a favorite.  The original pattern is like a field of poppies art quilt.  

To catch up with my calendar journals, here are May and June.

Wishing all a happy mail day!

Postcards From Scraps

I’m linking my scrappy postcards to The Joyful Quilter’s blog for her May 2022 Table Scraps Challenge. https://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/p/2022-table-scraps-challenge.html  

Scraps are perfect for making postcards.  Especially when they are scraps that you really hate to toss out.  But I did toss these scraps out at first.  

I’m working on a quilt using a bundle of Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements called Abandoned2.  It was hard to not keep these pieces...until it finally dawned on me that I could make postcards with them!  I immediately took a break from the two quilts I’m working on, pulled these scraps from the trash and made some postcards for my Tim Holtz grunge loving friends.

As well as a gift tag.



The desire to sew postcard is in full force right now.

I thought I’d try using the painter’s drop cloth as a postcard base.  It works out really well.  Of course serging the edges helps a great deal.  This fabric has a great texture.  I pulled out my scrap bin and just cut shapes with scissors and stitched them down to create a flower.

Oh, look Joy, there’s a square in this one! **snicker**

I think I might like creating a colorful garden of flowers. I certainly have the scraps to do just that.

And then I got started on that garden...

I wish everyone a happy mail day!

Snowman Challenge

Thanks to a new challenge I found, I have my first Christmas card for December 2022!  

This is a monthly themed challenge at the blog of   The Joyful Quilter. The link to the challenge rules: https://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/p/2022-table-scraps-challenge.html.

January’s challenge is snowmen/red.  

I loved the Christmas tag I made in December, shown here, with the snowman and wondered how well he’d make into a Christmas card.  I’m combining my fabric scraps with my paper crafts to make cards this year.  At least that is the plan.  It will depend on how well the monthly challenge fits with that plan.  Fabric postcards are always an option too.

I began with fabric scraps backed with Wonder Under and cut using cutting dies.

    

I then chose a background fabric (red) cutting it and a piece of cardstock to a 4X6 inch size.  I fused the pieces to the background and stitched them down.  Adding a section of selvedge for a scarf.

    


I then began embellishing with foil paper punched circles on the holly and paper punched circles for buttons, a snowflake punched from glitter paper and a heat embossed message. I stitched the finished panel to the front of a folded card.

I sprayed ink through a stencil for the envelope.

    

Inside the card is a heat embossed message stitched to a background paper then taped to the inside of the folded card.

I love mixing sewing with paper crafts.  I can’t wait to find out what the February challenge will be.

December 2021 calendar journal

I don’t normally show progress photos, but this is what has been keeping me quite busy for the past month.  A massive cross stitch.  350 stitches X 349 stitches.  I have completed the first 39 rows...13,650 stitches.  Only 108,500 stitches to go!

Happy stitching of one type or another!