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!

Grab A Cuppa

As Sharon would say, "grab a cuppa" because I have a bunch of fun stuff to share with you today!

First, I completed my mom's Christmas gift last night in between answering door for the all the cute little kids:



I'm very pleased with it and feel that I did justice to my grandfather's beautiful photograph, despite my lack of "antique" looking beads and do-dads!

I'm going to pick up some more dark brown velvet to border the stitched piece with and I'll make it into a pillow. When it's completely complete, I'll post another photo.

Today, I feel like playing! Jo in NZ suggested that my fractal designs would make cool fabric postcards so my plan for the day is to work with one of these:



or maybe both depending on how long the first one takes. I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never made a fabric postcard and I know I saw some gorgeous ones somewhere on someone's blog but I can't remember who's! I've looked at Sharon's postcards but I know I saw more. So, stayed tuned to see what I come up with! BTW - If you've seen fabric postcards on someone's blog, would you please point me in the right direction?

I know I have alot of readers who love my blackwork patterns. I'm still missing Sharon's 100 Details In 100 Days project so I thought I would offer you a new design to stitch. Click on the photo to go to my Flickr site where you can download the large version of my Blackwork Quilt design.



Ok, I'm off to do a fabric postcard! Wish me luck!!!

Happy Halloween!

Fractal 31
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

Before the doorbell starts ringing, I thought I'd say Happy Halloween to everyone and give you something for your projects.

Click on the photo to go to my Flickr site where you can download a large version of the design.

Print this on an inkjet fabric sheet and use in your crazyquilts, fabric postcards, scrapbooking projects, ATC's or print on paper and use as a greeting card.

I can't say that I love Halloween, but I do love all the happy little pumpkin faces and I love seeing the little kids in their costumes.

Have a great and spooky evening everyone! I'm off to stitch before the Trick Or Treaters start gathering their goodies!

Update on Mom's Block and Cross-stitch Stitchable Grab Bag

I made some more progress on my mom's Christmas gift yesterday. I did some more beading and I added some silk ribbon spider web roses to the circles on the right:



This is really looking nice now, very antique although extremely embellished with do-dads which was not the norm for traditional Victorian crazyquilts.

I want to finish this into a pillow with more of the dark brown velvet around the outside with possibly some vintage lace. I hope my WalMart still has some of the brown velvet or I'll be driving up to the fabric store in the next town for it!

Anyway, today I want to hand-paint a small lace butterfly for it and I'll see what else I have to fill those spaces to the right of the photo. I'll have to take it out of the hoop soon so I can embellish the corners and add my cat. I don't know why I made this a 10 inch block. I usually do 9 inch blocks so the whole piece fits in this hoop. I really don't care for having to stitch "in hand". But it's only the corners so I'll deal with it!

On another note, I went through some of my cross-stitch things. Geez, I have more cross-stitch fabric in my personal stash than I know what to do with! But I have a cool idea for some of it which I will reveal when I have things ready!

In the meantime, I've put together a nice goodie grab-bag and listed it in my shop. There's alot of stuff here to stitch on:



The description is below. If anyone can use this stuff, click here to order it.

A grab bag full of great stitchables for counted cross stitch! I had some good intentions for alot of projects that I never got around to doing.

This lot consists of:

*** 4 pieces of 28 count linen and evenweaves. About 26 inches X 18 inches.

*** 3 pieces of 14 count Aida Damask in pastel colors. They're about 9 inches X 11 inches.

*** 30 pieces of hand-dyed fabrics in various counts. They're about 6 inches X 4 inches. Only big enough for small ornaments or maybe fabric postcards. These were a sample pack that I got from a company that has since gone out of business.

*** 5 brass bookmarks & 10 brass ornaments. Again, items that I received as samples several years back for a design project that I did. I will never use these and it's a shame for them to just sit here. They're 14 count and require 3 strands of floss for cross stitch.

This lot is rather heavy so it's probably more economical to put them in a Flat Rate Priority Mail envelope and ship them that way rather than shipping 1st Class.

Current Project & More Fractal Sheets

I did tons of stitching on this project yesterday and finally, it's starting to look the way I want it to:



I put it on the scanner today since I focused mainly on the left-hand side of it.

I was replying to a comment that Susan left for me and I realized that part of my problem with this piece is that I don't have alot of antique looking beads and do-dads. When I buy stash, I always seem to go for the bright pastels! I'll have to keep that in mind the next I'm out and about feeding my obsession! Well, that one anyway! Ha, ha, ha!!

I also wanted to mention, for those of you who wanted a fractal sheet, I added 3 more to the shop today. They're the same ones that I had in there over the weekend. I plan to work up some new fractals when I have a little extra time to sit here and play with my fractal software.

Jo in NZ suggested to me that these fractals would make a great foundation for fabric postcards. Yes, they would!! Thank you Jo for the great idea and for adding one more thing to my list of "I wanna do's"!!!

Also, I'll be adding some more counted cross stitch goodies later this week!