Secrets revealed.

Finally I can start revealing things I have been working on. Firstly I decided to make my own valentines cards this year. Well postcards at least. I like to try and avoid spending money on a commercial holiday, but I like the idea of expressing your feeling so these are made mostly from scraps. Frugal greetings. Just perfect.

As you can see I didn't finish all of them. I didn't need that many but I wanted to make several to give me a chance to play. I started by cutting a lot of hearts from the red scraps. I even cut one from a pieced scrap, the bottom one in the line of three. It looks really cool in the flesh. I could then play with different layouts. I really want to do some sort of exploding thing, and one where they erupt and make a heart. I kinda got that feel on some of them.

Next year I am planning a bed quilt with a valentines theme, so one of these may get to grow up into a big quilt. I like the black and red much better than the more pastel designs, so I think I will try and get a magazine interested in some valentines projects. I've got a few ideas to reuse this kind of design, from these which are very quick, all the way to very involved bed quilts. What do you think? Are hearts a good motif for a project? I have to admit that it wasn't something I would have expected to like, but I can see a lot of potential now.

Art in the Mail

I really like getting quilts in the post. It's so fun. I know, I know, you told me, but it isn't the same as doing it. I am going to have to start working small and posting them. Here are my first two quilts made by others.

This first one is from Kate. I should have taken a picture of the back of it as well. It has a colours backing and it is great. The design is couched threads and fancy stitches. It also has sequins. Remember these quilts are only 6"x4", and they are quite tricky to photograph well.

This second one is by Nellie Bass Durand. It is of Lake Michigan. I had to give you a close up of the piecing on this one. There aren't any raw edges! It's really raised the bar for the landscapes I have planned. This is the card that started me on the Art Share Meme.

I am so thrilled with both of these. I am trying to think of a good way to display them. I might try and design a quilted album to put them in. I have some clear plastic that I could probably sew into pages to make pockets for them, but I don't know if it would out gas and damage them. I suppose I could use some sort of net or mesh and take the cards out when I want a good look at them. Either way, I want more so I will have to get to work. Thanks guys they are great.