A Couple of postcards

My friend Sandy cut her finger - bad.

So I sent her this jungle...with a bead lady.

This one got to be 3-D.

 Gave it to Doug and Ann for good health.

Wet Paint in St Paul had a postcard challenge.

My postcard was in the window with a bunch of other postcards offered by other artists.

 

I have more recent postcards - just can seem to load them.

I'll try again later.

Have a creative day.

A couple of things

The Textile Center has an annual exhibit inviting any members of the Textile Center to show some of their work. Usually it's only one piece per artist. The really nice thing about it is that it is not judged.

 

This is my piece for this year's show.

The container has a fiber landscape all around it using fabric, mesh, beading, and thread painting.

The fishing pole is a dried Echinacea stem which is really sturdy. A good thing since it has to hold up a giant fish!

                                       (That fish must be all of 4" long)

This is just a photo of my selvage ball.

Every time new fabric gets used in my studio, the selvage gets cut off and wound around the ball.

It changes colors every time I take the time to add to it.

 

 

Seven Quilts for Seven Grandchildren

This year my challenge and pleasure was to make a quilt for each of our grandchildren as a Christmas gift. And the task was accomplished!

 

I made the fronts and the backs and Nancy Birger did all the quilting on all seven quilts - one right after another which is a HUGE favor. Most quilters don't have the inclination - and usually the time to do that kind of thing. I know that Nancy put a number of quilt customers off till January just to help me out. The other customers quilts were not Christmas

 

So here they are for you to take a look:

 

 

Ryan Charles - 14 years

Ryan is the oldest of the "tribe" and has leadership qualities. 

I thought this quilt looked quite tribal.

Isabel Rose (Izi) - 13 years

Izi loves to be cozy and values her family history - so she got a very special quilt.

Twenty five years ago our daughter Carolyn wanted to have us make a quilt together. She was off to college with no sewing machine so we put all these pieces together BY HAND STITCHING. It was put away for those 25 years for various reasons. After making final touches and making the back for this one, it finally made it's debut as Isi's gift.

Cepeda Rose - 10 years

Cepeda is into a huge variety of artistic endeavors so her quilt is made with many colors of hand dyed and hand printed fabric.

 

Zachary Mark - 9 years

Zach is our brave and lovable grandson so his quilt pictures a variety of wolves howling at the moon. The wolves are printed on a soft-to-the-touch flannel.

Savannah Rose - 8 years

Savannah is our puzzler and reader. This quilt has several squares with news articles written by and about cats (cute). The border is one Sudoku after another. 

 

Lily Michelle - 7 years

Lily is a little lady and loves all the things that go with that.

She loves pink and pink she got!

Francesca Simone (Frankie) - 6 years

Frankie completes the tribe with her amazing wit and colorful personality. She got the Road Walkers quilt with the main center design from a pattern by my cousin Arlene Walsh.

 

 

 

Aaaannnnd we're back.

Using scraps as teensy as these strips on this postcard
add dimension, color and interest.
They are actually cut from fabric (also teensy scraps) that had fusing on it. The butterfly is actually 3-D with the wings lined and the body fused onto the postcard....I think. It was made in the spring and sent to someone. I've made several butterfly postcards - each one different.

Tricky little four-legged guys. They can climb straight up!!!!

Another postcard

My friend Peg had cataract surgery recently

so I made this postcard for her.

I wanted to make it personal by using the color of her eyes

but couldn't remember what color they were!!!

So, duh - use ALL the colors.

That's what we're about in Minnesota Contemporary Quilters anyway.

Plus it made it so much more fun.

BTW: www.mncontemporaryquilters.net

 

 

It's interesting how different shapes direct the creative thinking.

For example: The eyelid scrap was exactly the shape that went on the card. It was a double piece.

The eyelashes were exactly that long

and doubled to make them stiff.

They were easily cut with points.

I have drawers filled with all sizes and colors of scraps

that are already backed with fusing.

That's what is used...

...and often they dictate what the design will be.

 

Here's what is written on the back: (sing it)

 

 

Keep those little scraps! You never know when you need them!!!

More Postcards!

More fiber postcard coming off the machine!

I'm the Sunshine Lady for Minnesota Contemporary Quilters and send out words of encouragement or congratulations.
Some postcards and greeting cards are made by other members of MCQ and a lot are made by me.
Here are some of the latest:

About 15 years ago I was at a play day at Susan Stein's home.

We did some stamping that day.

This fabric has been waiting "in the wings" for that many years.

Yay! finally a reason for being!!!

This is supposed to show hope and newness.

 

The petals are made from two fabrics fused together, cut, pleated and tacked onto the postcard.

A button makes the center.

This one was for someone getting knee surgery.

Lots of fusing.

I tend to save just about EVERYTHING

including little, tiny strips of fabric -

 as long as it has fusible on the back.

The butterfly is from a print fabric fused onto another fabric and  then fussy cut.

The body of the butterfly is fused onto the postcard and the wings are floating.

 

It's been very fun to mess around with machine quilting on these postcards.

They are small, and so are non-threatening

for a beginner like me.

The Tree Project.

So here's the deal:About 30 of my quilter friends accepted a tree challenge presented to us by Wanda Shelton. We all got a basic pattern with only a couple of guidelines as to where the trunk began and a couple of the branches started. When we finished our tree, we were instructed to divide the tree into four quarters, mark them as #1, #2, #3, #4. We got to keep the lower left quadrant and left the other three to be drawn by others for their piece.

The tire swings are made with toy tires from a motorcycle from the Dollar Tree and hung from the branches by a string of beads.

 

That's mine on the lower left.

Lower right is Judy Lewis'

Upper left is Edith Dalleska.

Upper right is Andrea Johnson.



So now I'm going to try to make the pieces relate to each other without changing the original quarter too much. Maybe a few leaves cast to other quarters or beads. As it is, the upper left quarter was a little short so I added a little piece and scattered a few clouds across the top.



So the above is a 45 second video - don't know if it will come out as a video but will try.