Fabric Postcards

I'm taking a Fabric Postcards class with Diane Magarelli next weekend but could not resist playing around a bit with the supplies I picked up yesterday. Fused the flowers on the front, then fused the back. Then I had to peel off the back to do the background quilting and free motion stitching around the flowers (looking for the edges to fray to add dimension). Put the back on again, satin stitched around the outer edges and realized that I forgot to stitch the green thread tendrils I had wanted and the beads for the flower centers. Was able to do the beads with clear thread but it wasn't easy to slip it between the fused layers. Lesson learned.

It looks a little flat but I'm not sure how much you can really add to these and still mail them. Might try to mail it to myself to see what happens when it goes through the postal system.

The front:

 

The back:

 

Now off to a doll show this morning... maybe there will be good embellishments available for postcards.

Two kids - two quilts

It's been Spring break for the kids this week. DD and her friend started a quilt and are currently putting the rows together. They are so excited that they nagged me to death to put a few rows together last night. Mornings are my sewing time if I want things to come out right. My mood is not the best in the evenings but we got through a couple rows. They want to finish up putting the rows together tonight but not sure it will happen. I'm shooting for Sunday. DD wants to quilt it herself maybe with a walking foot and a guide they may be able to do some of it. The biggest issue is for them to handle the bulkiness.

Both are already thinking ahead to their next project (real quilters at heart). They want to make a couple preemie quilts to donate to the hospital. They only wish they could see the babies. :) Dummy me went to the fabric store today and came home with fabrics for them to make a few instead of going through stash. I'm happy dd and her friend are sewing but until today I didn't get a darn thing done this Spring break and that was just playing stuff. Hope it does not go this way during the summer.

They both love horses so that is the focus of their quilts.

DD's quilt layout:

 

Her friends quilt layout:

 

In My Hallway - Memories

3/15/09 ETA: Ooops. Anyone that reads my blog must have thought I was really whacky. Some days I am but just to clarify I didn't make a first and second quilt for this doll. haha It was made for my daughter. Now you can read the post...

It's warming up, a bit too soon as far as I'm concerned. But as the days lengthen and the sun gets brighter it makes me want to bring out the bright, fun, and funky quilts. So in my hallway for the next few weeks is a bright and cheery quilt just right for Spring. And standing in front of this quilt filled with memories is a sweet little redheaded girl trying to hurry the bunny's arrival along.

Looks Mary Engelbreit-ish, don't you think? I used lightweight fusible interfacing for the baskets, flowers, leaves and machine buttonholing to make her second little quilt. It's held up through lots of cuddling, naptimes, playtimes, and washes.

This quilt began a nature theme for her room when she was a toddler. I painted a mural on one of the walls of a little girl playing under a tree, bees and butterflies flitting, and a gently rolling hill with flowers dotted throughout. Then I used the flower and leaf pattern from this quilt and painted them randomly over the other three walls. I made her a head bumper with bright bluebirds and bumper pad with birds to put around her crib. Even the sheets were made to match. Oh, it looked so sweet as I peeked around the corner to see my little sweetie sound asleep and wrapped in this quilt I'd made for her.

 

This was the bumper for the head of her crib.

 

And one of the birds from around the shorter bumper. They were in blues and yellows with colorful butterflies flying past them.

 

The bumper pads have long been put away. I've thought of cutting into the pads and using them in another quilt but so far have not been able to. Until then I enjoy her little basket quilt and let it take me back to her baby days.

I hope all your quilts bring back a flood of memories.

'Til later...

Square scrap

The little very bright something I've been working on this past week. I think I'm going to add two more borders. A thin white 1" middle border and a 4" to 6" wider outer one in a to-be-determined color (although I have a pretty good idea of what I want - orange!). It's 61x61 so far and will end up at 71" or 75" square. DD picked the turquoise. Maybe more subdued would have been better but it is what it is now.

I love scrap quilts but generally more controlled. Doing this top it was at times hard to just put the fabrics in it whether I liked them or not, to pull them and stitch without thinking about what looks right next to what, and to use fabrics I just did not like but kept keeping them. So now they are mixed in with fabrics that I love and really they don't look too terribly bad. Just think of the yardage that would have gotten thrown out or the money wasted if they were discarded.















I've also worked on the bright string-X quilt blocks and have decided to stop at 64. I'm tired of making them so they either need to get finished up asap or go back in the UFO drawer where they will be likely to sit for the next 10 years.

On a different note, I can't seem to find a spot to take pictures of my larger quilts. They look crooked if you lay them out on the bed for a pic. Maybe I need a clothesline of sorts or maybe I will have to enlist the kids to stand on the low wall out front and hold them. How do you manage pics of your larger quilts?

DD and I are still fighting the crud, mostly headaches and sinus. The pollen levels are high right now and it feels like it. I hate seeing her with a headache. Her eyes get dark with bags under them and she just looks so miserable. And added to that, her asthma seems to be flaring up which it hasn't done in quite a long time. It's definitely a tough allergy season coming on hard.

Back soon...

A little sewing

Down with a bug. DH started it off. DD has it a bit too and missed school today. I had a flu shot this year and had done well until now. It's just enough to feel bad and not want to do anything but not enough to be totally miserable. I'm thankful for that.

I did do a bit of sewing today so maybe something more interesting tomorrow...