I've spent a few hours over the last several days making fabric postcards and, boy, has it been fun! It's like making ATC's which I can do for hours as well. I guess it's also like potato chips. You can't stop at just one! I'm making them the same way as I mentioned in the tutorial I did last year, with a couple of changes.
First off I gave the Steam-a-Seam 2 a try and love it. It's a double sided fusible web that comes with paper on both sides. It's a bit tacky so that you can position things and not have them fall off while you move things around or carry it to the ironing board. It's way better than Wonder Under! I ended up fusing 6" squares of the stuff to a bunch of different batik fabrics to use as my palette. Then I just cut and fuse like collage. Click any photo to see more closely.
Second I also tried the Fast-2-Fuse for the interfacing and it's much better than the Pellon stuff as well. I'm so glad I asked at the quilt shops for recommendations.
I ended up making 8 postcards, all from my batik stash. I love my batiks, but discovered a few years ago that I can't hand quilt through them, so almost stopped using them. I decided to reserve them for machine quilting, but these postcards are a perfect use of them. Actually, getting out all those gorgeous fabrics again makes me want to make a quilt with them! Anyway, the first seven were fused pieces on a single background fabric.
I mentioned in the last post that these postcards are for the Wish Upon a Card project for the Sisters Quilt Show this summer. Since the proceeds will be going to a cancer charity in my home town (the very place I will be receiving radiation treatments in a couple of weeks), I decided at least one card had to have a breast cancer theme. This one is Survivor Goddess and is based on the hand carved stamps I made for the Art for Cures breast cancer swap. This is the first time I've tried to write with free motion stitching. It was kind of fun, but there's room for improvement! Luckily, these postcards are giving me lots of practice with the free motion quilting.
For the last one I decided to do a pieced landscape and then just fused the trees on it. I really like that last one! Chloe says it's her favorite. I have been thinking these might be a good Etsy shop project. I'd love to hear your opinions about this and hear which one is your favorite! And now, for the backs...
I'm finishing up a couple of big projects now. The Elephant Walk quilt from the last post just needs a binding! Yay! Also, I have finished all the knitting on my Manos blanket (bet you don't even remember that one!). It needs seaming and a crochet edging. I don't know when I'll get to that, but hopefully sometime before winter ends. With the snow we've been having I think I have a bit of time! Today I finished all the knitting of the Argosy Wrap. I love this one! The colors are perfect and it's gorgeous. It needs the ends woven in and a good blocking. I'll post a photo as soon as it's dry. Oh, and a news flash- my sister will be visiting for the quilt show this year! I'm so excited. Sisters in Sisters- that's right!