Fabric Postcards

Ok, these were way more fun than they should have been! I had no clue what I was doing, although I just remembered that my Quilting Arts magazines have some photos and info on them. I'll have to pull those out and look through them.

In the meantime, here are the photos of the 2 I've made so far:





I started with a muslin foundation. I marked my 4 inch X 6 inch stitching area and then using Heat & Bond, I ironed on one of my painted dryer sheets. Then I ironed on the fractal and then the the trim.

The design with the black butterfly looks to me like frost on trees in Winter. I didn't want to lose the delicate look of this fractal so I kept the embroidery to simply highlighting the "stems" with some silver thread. I used 2 strands of machine embroidery thread to do that. I then sewed on the lace applique butterfly which I handpainted first and then lightly brushed with some Jaquard Lumier Paint. I beaded around the "trees" with clear seed beads, beaded the butterfly and then the black lace.

For the "In The Garden" design, I was actually kind of lost. That is one bright and busy fractal design. But I love it! I pulled out some metallic thread in hot pink, green, blue and gold and did a ton of feather stitching. Again, I sewed on the butterfly and then added the beads and sequins.

To finish, I layered these with some cotton quilt batting and a backing fabric. The fabric postcards I saw yesterday online were done by sane quilters and they just zig/zag the edges with their sewing machines. I didn't feel like getting my machine out so I did a simple blanket stitch around the outside to hold it together.

I added the "postcard" info on the back with a fabric pen and then signed and dated them with the title of the design.

I've added these to my Etsy shop. I hope someone wants them! They're so pretty!!!

BTW - To Jo in NZ: How could you do this to me? I already have more than enough on my "I wanna do list"!!! Ha, ha, ha!!! And thanks for pointing me in the direction of Maureen's site. Yes, that's where I saw them!

I'm off to make another one! I'm out of inkjet fabric until tomorrow but I have another cool idea!