Postcards, postcards, postcards—-it’s that time again

Yes, it’s that time again, i. e., time for our guild members to make 2000 (we hope!!) fabric postcards for the upcoming Voices in Cloth 2018 quilt show, March 17-18, 2018.  For a small donation, you can take these home with you from the show, a little reminder of the fabric arts that you have  seen on display.

Also, I have been helping people get addicted to making these beauties, since my addiction is pretty well-established.  The tutorial on the “Postcards” tab above will show folds how the cards for our show should be constructed.

Here are a few card examples, all made by ME!   I’m finally getting around to having fun with some of the fabrics and ideas that I have had since our last show two years ago.  Hope you enjoy.

 

My experimentation with hand-embroidered motifs.  I used small motifs from vintage embroidery transfers, sometimes even using the “test” motifs:

 

My favorite cats from prior years are still fun for me:

 

And now I have some favorite dogs:

 

And some very talented chickens:

 

Cards made from scraps from finished projects, both mine and those of others:

 

My experimentation with ribbons:

 

And last, but not least, the cool cowboy/cowgirl/horse cards, from fabric that I have had for many years and not figured out how to use on the small cards.  I am pleased with the finished products:

I promise you an update on the quilts, too, but this card phase is not over for me yet.

 

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Fabric Postcards–Voices in Cloth 2018

The Postcard Group is gearing up for helping our guild members make at least 2000 postcards as a fund-raising effort for our guild’s upcoming quilt show in March of 2018.  Previous East Bay Heritage Quilters Voices in Cloth shows have been fabulous (of course I say this, but they really are!!), and our postcards have been a big hit.

Two new updates to the postcard-making process for our guild members.  We have listened to you and are hoping to make this effort easier in the following two ways:

Starting:  We will begin to provide pre-made bases for your designs, since some members had difficulty getting started.  We hope these will appeal to you and inspire further embellishment, stitching, or whatever you feel like adding.

Some of these bases look like this:

Sample bases

Finishing:  We will fuse and edge-stitch your postcards for you if you like.  Simply turn in the finished postcard tops, and we have volunteers who will do the rest.

Here are a few of the cards that have been turned in so far:

By Susan Peck

By Susan Peck

Made by me.  As usual, I could not resist making as many as possible from a small scrap of donated fabric:

 

And other anonymous ones;  if you are the artist, let me know and I will included your name here.

Much more to show you in the weeks/months to come.

 

Just a few more EBHQ postcard makers

As promised, here are just a few of the many, many fabric postcards made by EBHQ members other than me.

These are ones that have already been turned in for our fabulous postcard fund-raiser at the upcoming Voices in Cloth 2016 Show (Click HERE for the link to the show details).

Please come to the show and stop by the postcard station by the windows.  This is your chance to make a small donation to our guild and take a little work of art home with you, to share with a friend or keep for yourself.

I have also included a few cards whose maker’s names I didn’t catch, for a variety of reasons.  If you recognize these, let me know and I will update the photos.

Jenny Alexich

Marcia Alpert

Anonymous 1

Anonymous 2  Woven Ribbons

 

Nancy Brown

Sonia Callahan

Mary Gilkerson

Lorraine Oller

Orna Pascal

Susan Peck

 

Nancy Redmond

 

Claire Sherman

I hope you enjoy this wide variety of artistic styles.  Trust me— there are even more in the approximately 1,500 cards that will be at the Show.

See you there.

Fabric Postcards: more new ones

My guild members of East Bay Heritage Quilters are again taking up the task of making fabric postcards for the show in March of next year, and some of the finished ones are already coming in.  I LOVE seeing what other fabric artists will do with this same 4″ x 6″ empty canvas.

I hope you are inspired by their work.

Here are six by Orna Pascal:

 

And seven from Claire Sherman:

And just a few of the ones I am playing with.  I have had barrels of fun using this pre-WonderUndered fabric donated by Marion Ongerth.  I think they were the leftovers from her projects, and I LOVE leftovers, even those from someone else.

 

I can barely begin to describe how much I love this cat fabric!

And sometimes the fabric speaks for itself.

HOT TIP  for making the postcard process easier:

My new favorite sewing machine foot, called an Open Embroidery Foot, which makes applying decorative stitches to the body of the cards and the zigzag stitches to the edges of the cards SOOOOOO much easier.  You can actually see exactly where you are sewing.

The foot for my machine looks like this:

 

Have fun making these yourself.

See the Postcard Gallery tab at the top of my Homepage and/or click Here to view the postcard tutorial.

Fabric postcards: still going strong

I have not posted anything recently about fabric postcards, even though I have made more than 250 of them since the Voices in Cloth 2014 Show last spring.  I found I could not stop making them.  It was way too much fun.

Here are a few of the couple dozen I made for Halloween.

I made approximately  35 for the Christmas season, and they were gobbled up by some guild members.  Soooooo, I made a few zillions more, but I made them in January, when I had plenty of time.  Here are a few of them.

More Santas . . . .

Vintage Christmas card images . . . .

A few more Santas . . . .

and more . . . .

And then I switched to  BACON, thanks to the leftover scraps from making a shirt for my brother.  Fab fabric!

And just a few more;  I think I want to make a lot of the “Thank You” cards.  What an easy way to send gratitude through the mail.

Wheel Medallion sneak peek

Finished days before it was to be displayed  at my guild’s Voices in Cloth 2014 quilt show late last month, my Wheel Medallion has been one of my most challenging endeavors in recent times.

Having taken a class with Becky Goldsmith of Piece o’ Cake fame, I felt I was much more able to execute this applique technique.  So I incorporated the applique border into a medallion quilt I had been struggling with working on.

Not yet photographed professionally, this quilt can only be seen in these partial shots for now.

Stay tuned for a better picture of the complete quilt.

I love the result, and this quilt already has a cousin under construction, using all of the leftover pieces that did not fit into the design of this quilt.  So stay tuned for that, too.

 

And, on a recurring note, I am finding that I have not yet shaken the fabric postcard bug.

These are a particular favorite here where I live:

 

And these were made for a friend’s Cinco de Mayo-themed engagement party:

I will probably keep doing these wonderfull little gems, just because they are soooo fun (and are completed sooooo quickly).

Fabric postcards galore

The postcard project is producing some very nice works, and I thought it was time to showcase some of the wonderful EBHQ fabric postcard artists, including Sonia Callahan, Meg Nixon, Rosemary Corbin, Susan Peck, Claire Sherman, and me.  I have remembered a few names of the names, and I’m sure I have forgotten others.  Please let me know if I need to include your name here.

It’s so much fun to see the variety of fabrics and techniques that we all have used for these small pieces.

The various themes include . . . . .   Christmas

Birthdays

Animals

Other characters

Free form designs

These little gems are lots of fun to do, once you have made a few to get yourself familiar with the techniques.  Let me know it you want to make some, too.