Postcards

I enjoy making fabric postcards, which I've done on and off for several years.  They are small pieces of fabric artwork which I've done mainly for swaps, but also as a way of trying out different techniques on a small scale and don't take up a lot of time.  They are usually between 6 - 6.5" wide by 4 - 4.5" high (or vice versa depending on whether the design is landscape or portrait).  They are usually made in such a way that they can be put through the postal system as a normal postcard, which is sometimes referred to as being posted 'naked'. Sometimes some extra embellishment is needed for which a cellophane envelope is used.

Last month I made a couple of postcards for a UKQU (UK Quilters United) Postcard swap entitled 'My Dream Home'.  First off is this beach hut one

I had a little piece of this beach hut fabric from which was the also the inspiration for this.  Adding a strip of the yellow 'beach' I fused the hut, roof, door and window and stitch to secure. I found this little seagull on another fabric which had to be added!  Since living in Poole I've been envious of people who have beach huts - they are either rented out or owned by families and they are expensive too! So although I'd like one I'm unlikely ever to have one, but if I did I'd be down the beach more days than I do now!

Getting in the swing of things I made another postcard, just a normal house.  It's home, nothing more.  East, west, home is best.  I've done some decorative stitching for the flowers above the green fabric and found a tree to fussy cut from another fabric.

 There they are both together.

I should get an email later this week of the new homes they are going to.

When I was on holiday on our way to Yorkshire we stopped by The Bramble Patch in Weedon.  It is my all time favourite quilting shop and visit when I can.  They support the Macmillan charity for cancer care and hold exhibitions and other events for this cause.  When I was there there were kits to make postcards for a donation and to make a postcard or two to send back to them.  The theme for this year is Flower Festival and on Sunday I made a card for this which I will send in the post this week.

I started with the background, the idea for this came from a design by Jo Avery of My Bear Paw and her design for a mini quilt (I've linked to her blog post about her mini quilt) in a recent issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting (Issue 59). The background are low volume fabrics with small wonky square, half square triangle and drunkard's patch blocks, raw edges left stitched down with lines of variegated green and peach threads.  The peach thread is a rayon one, so it gives the surface a slight sheen.  I've had that thread for ages but I can see me using that again!

Afterwards I noticed this on the back

Ooops! How did that bit of fabric get there?

On the front I used Jo's tendril technique for stems and for flowers I used my cotton reel technique,   Fabric is backed with a small piece of fusible and I trace around the a medium or large based cotton reel.  After cutting the circle I then cut into the shape to get petals. The leaves are free cut, I've done so many leaves before by putting fusible on the back of some green fabric and cutting and sticking down it's almost second nature to do that.  Lastly I felt there was a little more needed so some decorative feather stitching was added.

On the back before adding address, etc.

I like to add a piece of selvedge to separate the address side from the message.

I may make another to keep in my technique folder as a reminder of what I've done.