postcards

In the mail...........

I was so excited to receive a Christmas postcard from Vicki Welsh again this year.  The one in the center is the new one with previous years' cards surrounding it.  She uses her hand dyed fabrics to make them with an occasional commercial print on them.  I have these on display in my studio.
My waxed Amaryllis bulb that doesn't need watering is growing nicely.  Last week's photo is here. 
















Last night I sewed another batch of 16 blocks.  One of the 8' fluorescent bulbs is burning out by my best design wall.  I need to decide where I'm going to lay out this quilt.
Another of the pink and white cacti is blooming.  The next one that will bloom will be the one I call champagne.  It is a pale gold or beige color.  I have 2 of those and they both have buds.
This is just taken at a different angle.  I love the size of the blossoms. I have 28 cacti plants right now and I have 2 plants with these large blossoms.  I love my indoor winter garden.
 

Decision made, sewn together............

I decided on the alternating horizontal/vertical spools layout and sewed the top together.  I thought it was the best pattern if you viewed it draped over a couch.  It is 58" x 77" right now.  It will probably lose an inch or two in quilting.  Today I need to get some quilt backs pieced together and cut batting for the 3 flannel quilts.
A few days ago I got a surprise in the mail.  It is a postcard that was sent "naked" and made it here in good condition.  it's actually surprising how clean it is after coming through the postal system.  I sent some of my tiny batik scraps to a friend who moved away from this area a couple years ago.  She mixed a few of my scraps in with hers and made this for me.  I love it!





For the past five days I have been making some pastel batik blocks.  I'm using my cutaway strips from straightening my fabrics and cutting them in 11" lengths.


Last night I trimmed them into 10.5" blocks and sorted them into three piles- light medium and dark pastel blocks.  I'll play with a couple layouts today.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is another of my antique Valentine postcards. They are so different from today's cards. This is a repeat that I showed last year when I showed a series of heart quilts in February. If you are interested in its construction, click on Prismatic Garden on the Label list on the right side of the blog and it will take you to the whole series I have made as well as some in progress pictures of some.
It's just another day for me, cleaning the house for the company on Monday, continuing to make blocks for my next project. We got a coating of snow last night which should melt today. Hurray, no shoveling!

Postcard trio

In Sept. 2007 I showed the 3 postcards with one just a background and the other 2 finished. I didn't have and idea for the third one, and Robin suggested just leaves. I tried the leaves that were on the other 2 postcards but didn't like them by themselves. Then I found this other Kaffe fabric with leaves and knew it was the right choice.
If you click here you will go back to the page with the one unfinished one pictured with the 2 finished.


Vicki F asked yesterday what size the little bag is. It is 10" x 6" x 2" high. It is perfect for carrying all of your sewing tools to classes or retreats. Also it is a good size for cosmetics. If you click here it will take you to a post where I showed a bunch of these little totes.


Postcards

I was taking the postcards down from the design wall when I noticed a hole in one of the fabrics on the postcard on the left. These were made from the scraps of the Turning Twenty Again quilt top that is on my blog-shop. I immediately thought I need to cover the hole, and walking by the table of yo-yo's, I saw a brown Fossil Fern one that I thought might work. Then before I took all of the postcards down I decided to take a picture of them as a group. Here are the fronts...
and in the same order, the backs.
I was trying to clean off my cutting table and found this piece of patchwork, leftovers of the Fossil Fern fabrics that I made yo-yo's from. I added the new fabric that I had purchased on each side and backed it and finished it. Did the cutting table get cleaned off? NO! I had fun instead.
I think this fabric on the back might be one of the Ricky Tims fabrics.
My mother is doing fine again, now taking her pills with applesauce. The independent living facility is now giving her ground meat so she can swallow it easier. The sun is shining and it is supposed to be in the 40's, so I hope some of this snow melts.

Update on borders, finished postcards

Here is the piece I showed yesterday, that I am not happy with the borders on. Thank you everyone for your comments as they make me look at my pieces with new perspective. I even received some emails, one with a cropped version for me to view. This is how I have changed the borders since yesterday. Even though I love wide borders on other people's quilts, they don't usually please me on mine.
I just have the borders folded under at this point. I will measure them and make notes so I can cut.

Below are 2 postcards which have been in progress for at least 7 months. I finally put backs on them yesterday and did the satin stitch edging.


Don't mind my crooked photography, they are a lot straighter than this picture!
I really like my little pieces when I finish them, and even though I had originally thought I would try to sell them, I really don't want to part with many. It may have to do with the fact that I am going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff in the next 2 years (maybe sooner) and the big stuff is what will make a difference. The little stuff I could keep in a small pile and still own a lot of variety without it taking up a lot of space. Pros and cons: (pro) little things sell better because they are more affordable for most people ( and for impulse purchases), (con) they are often little studies for larger pieces or techniques and I need to keep them for inspiration.

I know some people never sell anything they make. Some people give it all away as gifts and never keep anything for themselves. I am in the position to need the cash flow and that makes it extra hard to make the decision, especially when I love the piece I have made. Decisions, decisions, isn't that what life is all about?

Busy work

Thank you everyone for your prayers and good wishes. I really appreciate it.

My mother came home from the hospital yesterday late afternoon. The swallowing therapist wanted her to stay one more night but she let them know she wanted to go home. The hospital is only about 9 blocks from her apt. so we can easily get back to meet with the therapist.

You have all heard the saying that when you get older you will have either your mind or your body, probably not both. My mother's body is full of arthritis, she is hard of hearing, and has macular degeneration in one eye, glaucoma in both, and a blocked retinal artery, and she is pretty sharp yet in her mind. My dad on the other hand was physically able to do almost anything up to his 92nd birthday, however his mind had started deteriorating at 90. I made him fix his own sandwich to see if he was capable. I purposely left him unattended yesterday to see how he would do if Mother was gone for any length of time. He walks with a cane now and sometimes a walker. As a pair he helps her walk and she helps him think. It is the next step I dread, the one where one of them is gone.

To keep busy Tues. night I picked up the scraps from the yellow and green crazy pieced blocks and started playing with them in postcard size. I was working on automatic because I was bone tired. I just did what I can do without thinking, lay the strips down until they covered the heavyweight product, zig zag their edges in place, trim any fabric hanging over the edge.

Last night I came back to it and started adding a few things to it. Below is the batik on the back of the postcard.
I am going to the sewing store today to teach a class on designing as you go. They are bringing their embroidery machines and while the machines are busy embroidering I will teach them how to take many different size blocks and plan a layout.

Friday

Can you believe I didn't have anything to post today? I didn't take any pictures yesterday and in fact didn't even sew yesterday. I shopped at W*l-M*rt in the morning, went to computer club at night. I'm not sure where the afternoon went.

I think I showed this 4" x 6" postcard size piece before but I think this is a better picture. The stitching is a metallic thread.

I have just a plain piece on the back of this one, not the embroidered postcard back like I showed you in a previous post. Have a great day, everyone.

Cheerful color

Cheerful color, isn't that what we need in winter? Here are 3 sizes of yo-yos laying on the table together. Here they are again with the yo-yo makers. That little green one is the one I started out with. Don't look for a project made out of these any time soon. I will have to make bags full before I have enough for anything. I have packed a ziplock bag with fabric for all 3 sizes, scissors, needle and thread to grab and take along when I know I will stuck somewhere for a while. The small ones are about 1.2", the large is 1.8" and the X-large is 2.375". Why didn't they make a medium? There is another size an X-small that is about .75". I didn't figure I needed that one.
Here is another postcard I made last year from the scraps of one of the Kaffe Fassett fabric quilts. I used a veriegated rayon embroidery thread for the stitiching. It is all raw edge cutaways laid in place and then stitched over, no fusing. It is 4" x 6".
I have the pattern for the postcard backs for my embroidery machine so I did a bunch and use them as I make a matching color card. The piece below is square, it is the camera lens that distorts it.
I wasn't really paying attention when the weatherman said we might get a dusting of snow overnight. This morning I thought I heard a snow plow and when I looked out we have a clean fresh blanket of white on the ground. It is supposed to be 9 degrees so I'm not ready to go out and shovel yet.