Take Three on the Christmas postcard!

My first two pictures of my Christmas Tree postcard attracted some compliments from readers, for which I thank you all. But after I posted the second photo, I had another look at it and thought to myself "that is disgusting - I can't send this to anybody!" There were three things that had to be fixed: (1)the crooked edges, (2)it was floppy because I hadn't used the right stiffening fabric, and (3)it was smaller than the usual postcard size. So I decided to glue it on to a slightly larger piece of light cardboard, then sew a wide band of ribbon around the edge to cover the cardboard showing on the right side, at the same time making the edges even. Now don't you think this looks much nicer? (I know, the corners are a bit untidy, but hey, nobody's perfect!) ************************************ I asked a Blogger friend to do me a small favour this week, and she was very quick to get on to it, so my Thank You is in the form of a little stitched card. Hope you like it, J!

More fabric postcards

This gorgeous postcard arrived unexpectedly yesterday, from Jane in the U.K. I had to email her to ask if we had planned to exchange postcards because if so, I'd forgotten! She replied within hours, saying yes, we had agreed to a swap, but a few months ago, and she'd taken ages to do it anyway. So that's another one to add to my list of to-do's! But I'm having fun!
****************** I finished this sooner than I'd planned, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered putting the unfinished block on here last night. See what happens when I sit up late trying to finish something? I get the edges off line...still, I'm pleased with the rest of it, so I hope my recipient won't be too critical of the crooked edges!

Sunday's stitching.

As I've mentioned previously, I've become involved in a number of Fabric postcard exchanges. I've completed two fabric postcards, and have three more to do. The next one due to be sent out is for Christmas, and the photo below shows where I am at today. I have some more seam embellishment to do, some stars and other bits to attach, and once that's done, the border will be machine stitched and it will be on its way to the USA. These two blocks are for a Yahoo Group exchange, the theme being "Green" for the December swap, and "Blue" for the January swap. I really like the idea of just having a colour to use for the theme; there is so much scope for everyone to play with their fabrics and bling!

Another "swap" postcard has arrived.

This one is from Ilse in Kentucky, USA. It came safely through the mail, wrapped in a cellophane envelope in order to be admired by postal employees around the world, and finally by me!

My second Fabric Postcard

This is my second attempt at a postcard made of embellished fabrics, for an exchange in a Yahoo Fabric Postcard Group. I found an interesting scrap of material somewhere, which looked like a brick wall, and decided it would be interesting to embellish it as part of a CQ project. My first idea was to embroider flowers at the foot of it, so I attached the ric rac at the bottom, and embroidered the stems and leaves in detached chain and stem stitches. Sharon suggested using buttons as the flower heads, hence the first one on the left, but I was concerned about how it would go through the post if too many bulky bits were on the postcard, so I ended up using sequins for the rest of the flowers. I think I could have done a better job with the stitching along the 'bricks', but by the time I got this far, I was starting to panic about getting it in the mail in time for the deadline. My exchange partner assured me she was in no hurry, but I wanted to get mine off as soon as I could.
I enjoy doing these postcards and ATCs, as it gives me the opportunity to stitch something other than cross stitch, which I've been doing for 20 years almost without a break, and I do miss the variety of classic embroidery. Now that I've finished my girlfriend's birthday gift, I feel free to mess around with my other projects and ideas!

Two Finished items.

This weekend I finished two of my projects that had a November deadline. This cross stitched Cottage is for my friend who turns 50 in two weeks time - Phew - just made it! I put it in this frame temporarily just to see how it looked, but I may get another one if I see something that would look better. And this is a fabric ATC which started out as an experiment, and ended up as a swap for the Stitchin Fingers ATC group. It will be going to the girl who sent me the ATC pictured in my previous post here.

Another Fabric ATC and some early Xmas gifts.

This ATC arrived today from Sue in the U.K. - she is my exchange partner in one of the Stitchin Fingers Groups I'm in. We are doing a Christmas theme exchange this time, and Sue added some cute little extras to her ATC for me!
Little Xmas Fairy using a wooden clothes peg painted gold. Val and I were trying to figure out what this gorgeous envelope is made of - not quite paper and not quite fabric, but very pretty. Lovely little keyring and unusual bias binding - love that stuff!! Can't wait to use it on a new project.

Fabric ATC from Israel!

Check this out!! Isn't it gorgeous? Ira in Israel sent this to me for an exchange on Stitchin Fingers. The little crocheted motif was a surprise extra, and I'm planning to use it in a future CQ block - one that I will keep for myself!

E.G.V. October Exhibition.

I mentioned a week ago that the EGV has a lovely display on this month, titled Past, Present And Future. Sharon and I visited it last Friday and I was able to snap a good amount of photos to show my blog readers. The photos and descriptions are on my Flickr account which you can find here.
But before you go there, stop and smell the roses. Ok, you can't smell them, but you can look! They are in Sharon's front garden and I had to take a photo!

Latest eBay wins.

These three items arrived last week from interstate. Two centrepieces and a sweet huckabuck hand towel.

Random photos.

This is where I am up to on my friend's 50th birthday gift. You can see where I have just started on the cat at the bottom. Hope to finish this by early November at the latest!
This little cherries design is the fourth in a set of jam jar covers I've been doing as "waiting room" projects. They have been small enough to fit in my handbag, and easy to stitch when I don't want to concentrate too hard! I've given the others away to friends, but I might keep this one for myself. It just has to have bias binding around the edge and I can use it to dress up a jar if I have someone over for scones and tea.
This will be made into an ornament to hang on a tree (or anywhere for that matter). It is for a Christmas ornie swap on Stitchin Fingers.
I received this gorgeous fabric postcard from Wendy in the U.S.A. as an exchange for the one I did (with the lady bug) for her. She sent it as is, just addressed and stamped on the back, and it arrived intact, fortunately!

Needlework Display at Box Hill, (Vic., Aust.)

Today (Friday) Sharon and I went to see the exhibition put on by the Needlework Tapestry Guild of Victoria. It was a relatively small exhibition by some standards, as they only have limited space for display, and all the work was done by the members of this Guild. But the quality of the stitching was incredible - I asked if I could take photos and they were happy for me to do so. I didn't know where to start and stop, there were so many I wanted to capture on film. I took 25 pics - too many to put on my blog, so I've put them on my Flickr album - you can see them here. Unfortunately the exhibition was only on for a week, and finishes on Saturday 18th October. I would have posted a reminder on my blog last week if I'd remembered to do so, as I know my Melbourne readers would have enjoyed it very much indeed.

Visitors to my blog from around the world!

For the first time since I installed it on my blog, I had a closer look at the Feedjit Traffic feed on the side bar. I was astonished to find that in the last hour, I've had visitors from a dozen countries! I don't get many comments on here, but I am aware that there are a lot of people out in cyberspace who read my blog to see my linens, and that's what it is here for after all. If you're in one of these countries and are still here - welcome, and thanks for stopping by! U.S.A. (Georgia, Nth Dakota, Michigan, Ohio) France Kuala Lumpur Spain The Philippines Romania Saudi Arabia Canada U.K. Taiwan Czech Republic Australia (Qld, NSW, Vic.)

A great show at the Embroidery Guild of Vic.

The EVG has a wonderful display on this month, which I'm sure most of my readers would really appreciate if they got the chance to visit. I was there today in my volunteer role and spent a lot of time in the Gallery, admiring each individual piece on show. The display is titled "Past, Present and Future" and features items that have been stitched a long time ago (by EGV members' mums or grandmothers in some cases); more recently by EGV members; and by children (members' daughters). I asked the display co-ordinator if I could take photos for my blog and she doesn't have any objections, so I'm planning to go back next week and get some pics.
As usual I had a rummage around in the remnants bin and found these fabrics: I'm not sure what I'll do with this, but I love the 70's look of this fabric.
This is so pretty! I couldn't go past these roses!
This scrap of woollen fabric will go well in the Peacock block I am planning. I love this colour combination.
This is a huge piece of fabric - enough to make a tablecloth out of it! I can't believe someone meant this for the remnant bin, and I asked everyone in the building today, but nobody knew anything about it and they said "Take it, Gina. It's been left there, so it is first come, first served". I'm going to keep it complete (not cut it up) for a while, just in case someone else did want it and just hadn't picked it up. If nobody at the Guild claims it, well - there's enough to share around! This is a closeup of the above fabric. Speaking of Peacocks (well I did mention the word somewhere above) I have a new embroidered peacock in my collection. It arrived today from the USA and I'm 'over the moon' with delight!! You can see it here.

Stitchin Fingers fabric ATC swap arrived today.

I had just posted my Red Buttons fabric ATC off to my swap partner at our post office, and went to the post office box room to check my mail. There was a little packet from England waiting for me - Di had beaten me to it! Here is what she sent me - her gorgeous fabric ATC, and some lovely extras: two skeins of metallic embroidery floss, a beautiful piece of floral fabric and a cute Xmas themed cross stitch kit. Thank you VERY much, Di! I already know what I'll be using the metallic thread for - spider webs on my CQs - it is just what I needed!

Fantastic book of iron-on transfers

I spent today with a friend, visiting opshops on our side of town. Along the way I found a secondhand bookshop, and of course, had to have a look in there too! Here is what I found, for $20 - a bit on the expensive side I thought, but on the other hand it is highly unlikely I'd ever find another copy, so I bought it. What a collection of transfers!!!! Every imaginable subject, and only a few cut out by the look of it. I've scanned three pages to give you an idea of what is there.

Finished postcard and two new fabric ATCs

I finished off my postcard not long after posting the previous photo - knew I should have waited! I was in the mood today to play with some more of these mini crazy patchworks, so I made two textile ATCs. I tried to photograph them, then tried scanning them, but neither turned out very well, so I settled for the scanned version. I learnt three valuable lessons today, about making textile ATCs:
1. Remove all tacking before ironing interfacing on the back.
2. Do not sew buttons and other 3D trims too close to the edge.
3. Check the width of the stitch on the sewing machine before starting to stitch.
It's just as well these ATCs aren't for an exchange...I'd be embarrassed to send them to anyone!

Update on my textile postcard.

There were some lovely comments on my last few posts - thank you everyone who left a comment, I do enjoy reading them, and will visit you all in return shortly, if I haven't already done so. Isn't the Internet great for finding people with a common interest - especially blogging - just love it! Here is a picture of my fabric CQ postcard...actually, I shouldn't call it CQ, as that stands for Crazy Quilting, and none of my patchwork is 'quilted' - it is just patchwork. Anyway, here is my postcard up until today: Ugh - okay, it isn't quite finished, but the scanner doesn't do it justice. The colours are much more vibrant than this pic. shows. As you can see if you compare this to the photo I posted a week or so ago, I've made a few improvements/changes. I changed the herringbone stitch from green to red, and I've moved the gold ric rac closer to the seam. I have a few more beads to add to the feather stitching at the bottom, and I'm not happy with the leaves on the right hand side, so I may fill them in with button hole or satin stitch yet.

ATCs

On August 30th I posted some photos of ATCs (Artists Trading Cards) I had just made. Some were textiles and the others were paper. As I'm trying to keep this blog for embroidered stuff, I've decided I'll post future paper ATCs to my Swap Card Blog. That was created for my swap/playing card collection, but it will do for the time being, to house my ATC collection as well!!
If you are new to ATCs, go here or here to find out about them.

Crazy about Crazy Quilting!

I just love messing around with little blocks of fabric that I've pieced together in CQ fashion. I have no intention of making a full size quilt - not even a wall hanging or lap rug. I simply enjoy doing a variety of stitches and beading to embellish the blocks. One of the Groups on Stitchin Fingers are making fabric postcards to swap with each other, so I jumped in there to join the swap. The theme for the postcard is 'Fall' (it was suggested by an American - surprise, surprise!) and I emailed her that Spring has just begun Down Under, and it feels like forever since we had our Autumn, but I didn't mind thinking about Autumn next year! Here is what I have done so far....actually I've done a bit more since I took this photo, but you may be able to see where I'm heading. The green Herringbone stitch will have small gold cross stitches on top of the green, and the ric rac will have another stitch, and possibly some beads worked on or around it. The red and green plain fabrics will have some other kind of embellishment, and there will be some stitching along the borders of those fabrics.
Here is another little block I made up when I was teaching myself the technique of "foundation piecing" from some CQ books I've borrowed from the library. There is no immediate purpose for this one, although a couple of friends have admired it and said they would like to see it in a little frame, so somebody may end up with this for Xmas!
For those who are interested, there are two new aprons on this blog.