Christmas Postcards

It's Christmas Postcard time again! This year I started with a vague idea of a simple tree sketch and after doing about a dozen found one I was happy with.

A thermofax screen was made and I headed out to Studio B to do some printing. My fabric this year is a piece of solid lime green decorator fabric from my stash. Misty fuse was applied to the back before cutting it into 4"x6" pieces.

Next step was to make a triangle shaped stencil out of a 4x6 index card and brush a light layer of green to each of the fabric pieces.

Then came the print with the thermofax screen.

Once they were all printed it was back inside to StudioA to add a scattering of french knots to each tree.

Next up was fusing the fabric to timtex.

Muslin was cut and fused to the back of each. Then on to the sewing machine to finish the edges.

Final step before addressing and mailing was to glue a star on the top of each tree.

Done!

Yesterday I quilted my indigo piece, all thats left to do is the sleeve, label and decent photography.

Pale Moon Rising

21"x49"

The Weekly Leaf

I used one of my new stencils that arrived last week, this one from Stencil Girl.

Week #50

Daily Stitching updates

Gelli prints #341-347

Shades of Orange #268-274

I'll be linking up to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

Christmas Postcards

It's time for Christmas Postcards again. I've made them for at least six years and every year starts about the same, trying to decide what to do. This is what I did last year and this is what I did the prior year, which also was in the 2014 Quilting Arts Holiday magazine. I tend to get a fuzzy idea of what I want to do, then end up doing something entirely different. The idea this year was snowflakes, but this is what happens. I get out all the stencils, rubbing plates, etc. that has anything with a holiday theme.

I go through them all and wait till something jumps out at me. This year it was the stencil of holiday ornaments. Then comes the decision on fabric, there happened to be some silk broadcloth and white cotton scraps on my worktable so the decision was easy. Then out come the box of paintstiks and the color decision is next. Red was my first choice but after doing one in just red I decided to add a bit of green to the center.

The bottom one is the all red, the top is what I evolved to.

The mess during the process.

After all the stenciling is done, I misty fuse them to timtex.

Then to the machine to stitch around the ornament.

Then a backing fabric is fused on and then satin stitched

around the edge.

Then I sign the back and they are ready for addresses.

The finished front.

The Weekly Leaf

This week I used a blueprint on gold fabric that had been done earlier in the fall. I used some leaves from one of my very persistent weeds.

Week #50

Daily Stitching updates

Silk Fragments #342-#348

Sari Ribbon #270-#276

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Christmas Postcards

It's Christmas postcard time again and as usual I had no idea what I was going to do until I got started. This year I started with a quick sketch and then threw some fabric around trying to decide what to use. I ended up using a piece of antique  textured silk for the background and a textured red silk from an old blouse for the 'package'. Here is my sketch and first sample.

I decided I liked it and started my assembly line with all the parts cut and ready to go.

The red free hand cut square was fused to the green background which was fused to the timtex, then  hand stitching added for the 'ribbon'. Then fused another piece to the back and took them to the machine and zig zagged around the edge.

A few of the finished cards ready to mail.

Last week I spent some time with two different groups of friends and I made a small paper pieced tree ornament for each of them. The finished size is 1 1/2" square and fused to felt.

The Weekly Leaf
This week I used one of the extra's that I made earlier in the year, October to be exact. I used Solarfast from Jacquard and a leaf from one of my favorite trees.

Week #50

Daily Stitching updates

Line Dance #343-#349

The Daily Paper #271-#277

Linked to "Off the Wall Friday"