Postcards made for

I've just finished another 2 postcards - well one I actually finished a couple of days ago, but I didn't want to put up a pic of it until I mailed it. The daisy card is for Dakotah (USA) as part of our swap with Stitchinfingers. The background is painted and the petals of the flower are felt which I free-motion stitched down and then added a button with some beads. The stem and leaves are free-motioned stitched - stem in zig-zag, I hope she likes it.

The other one is for my brother who is celebrating his 60th birthday this weekend. One of his loves is fishing, so I came up with this idea of the fish going for the cake instead of the worm! Nothing fancy on this one, just some free-motion quilting and simple applique, with some stitching on the bottom for the sea-grass. I am posting it to him even though he is having a bar-be-que on Saturday.

Postcard received

I received this lovely postcard from Dakotah (USA) today. We are both in the Stitchinfingers group and this one is for the July/August swap. I love her colours and the stitching is very interesting. Not sure what you call the blue flowers but they look great don't they? I am getting quite a large collection now. Will have to try and make a collage like I did with the ATCs and post a pic of all that I have received this year. It's amazing that these little works of art travel from one side of the world to the other (literally in this case!!! right across that big pond in the middle.)

Jade ATC for Stitchinfingers

Mailed off on Thursday this ATC to Christine in the UK for the 'Jade+2' swap on Stitchinfingers. It is part of a monthly swap we have. We put our names on the list and Gina (bless her!) sorts us out and makes sure we send and receive from different people and if possible someone in a different country. We only have to make one to send so it doesn't become too onerous if we have other things happening in our lives. I hope Christine likes it. The colour jade doesn't show up as well as I would have liked, but it is jade. The background is offcuts from sari silk strips - as you can see some have frayed, but I like the effect. The two other colours are silver and blue.

Using old laces etc

These postcards are made from an old piece of lace which I painted with dye to achieve the different looks. I made them up as one piece of fabric then I cut four pieces from the fabric and then edged them. The background is a multi-coloured piece of silk fabric which I fused to pelmet vilene to stiffen. I rather like the way they turned out. Kind of a triptych, but there are four instead of three!

A hint - I use a 'window' template the size of the postcard (6x4) or an ATC (2.5x3.5) to audition the part I wish to cut out. You get quite a different perspective when looking at it through the template. Just move it around until you see where you would like to cut.

I have been making postcards as well as ATCs lately for swapping. These little items are very addictive and I find that my other sewing is getting neglected. This is the postcard I recently sent to Dakotah in the USA - have just heard from her that she loves it. I didn't post earlier as I wanted it to be a surprise. It is one of a few that I made while doing an online course in altering fabric. I painted the base with white household paint, then scraped on some moulding paste through a stencil. When dry I then painted with water colour and dabbed on gold and bronze paint. The little rose is fabric and cov ered with a little moulding pase and then painted. A small amount of stitching was added.