ATC Tuesday

Another couple of buddy card sets - these were both APCs (Altered Playing Cards). In both cases, I finished them up. The person I was swapping with has a lot of cute cat stamps, and was trying to make up a deck of cards using them, which is why they are both cat themed...

I tried to go for a very different approach on the two cards...

Revisiting my Journal Quilt Project, week 15

 

This week , ten years ago, my friend Cathi was visiting, so I wanted my journal quilt to reflect that. I used an old picture of us on the Seahawk, a boat our college owned, printed onto fabric, and two ticket stubs from Dylan shows we've seen together (recent ones - not sure I have any of the ones from 15 years ago or more!) And of course the theme had to be Tangled up in Blue, which is, if not my favourite Dylan song, at least the one which tends to keep showing up in my life's soundtrack... Plus using that meant I could just pull out blue stuff and apply it!

I was just chatting with her yesterday on messenger about an upcoming visit - in July - when her elder daughter will be attending a ballet school in London - she and I will get some more chances to hang out and catch up. Can't believe we've been friends for like 30 years. We are so old!

ATC Friday

A few more round robin sets - these are ones which I started, and then two other people worked on them before they came back to me. The first had a kind of anatomy theme - I knew these would be a challenge. 

This one was a bit easier to work on, I think - more space to add things, and an easier theme.

ATC Tuesday

These are Buddy Cards - like the round robin cards I do, except this time with only two people - one to start, one to finish. I finished these, which looked like below when I got them. I wanted to carry on with the slightly steampunk/technical feel of them. 

These are also cards which I finished up - I added some grass made from washi tape and some more dragonflies. 

Revisiting my Journal Quilts, week 14

Apparently this week 10 years ago, I had a bit of  cold and didn't feel like sewing much, so the journal quilt is a bit basic - a good reflection of life, sometimes. Here's what I said at the time:

So then, I decided I should really do my journal quilt for the week (what with it being over tomorrow and all) but I really didn't feel like doing much, so I decided this was the opportunity to use something I "prepared earlier" - rummaged through my stash of bits and found these little squares, already sewn together and only slightly larger than I needed for the JQ. These struck me as being perfect as my week was largely made up of sewing together squares anyway... As I received my new (to me) book in the post this week, I decided to take a stab at mock-Tavishing them (which is what to call an attempt at McTavishing when you've only read the book a little and are just making it up as you go along).

ATC Friday

Another few sets of ATCs which I've worked on as part of a round robin. In each of these cases, I was the second person to work on the card.  The top view is the finished card, with  the starter in the middle and at the bottom, what it looked like after I'd added to it...

ATC Tuesday - Totally Tacky!

This swap was a little different than some - it was called a "totally tacky mystery item" swap and basically, the hostess sent you a tacky mystery item and you had to use them to create cards.  She gave a lot of leeway - you could cut them up, paint them, melt them, anything you wanted, and a lot of people did alter them a lot. Some of us, however, tried to incorporate them into cards as is, which is what I did.  The creatures, above, were foam stickers, so in addition to the oddness of the mystery item, they were also slightly 3D, which made them a little harder to collage.  I went through a rummage of my various bits and pieces, and here's what I came up with...

I won't say that the cards are the greatest I've ever produced, but it was a fun swap.

Revisiting my Journal Quilts, week 13

My journal quilt for this week had,  perhaps, a predictable theme. I started with string pieced reds, pinks & purples and then just embellished at will. At the time, I had done a number of other Valentine's related projects, though most of them were done in advance due to the nature of swapping. However, this journal piece used some of the leftover bits from those swaps. Some of the images in it were from the free vintage images (from Vintage Image Madness) which came with my Valentine's swap, and the red foil is from my Valentine's swap chocolate hearts. Unfortunately, the first few hearts I opened, I didn't manage to get the foil off without ripping it, so I had to keep eating the chocolates... The sacrifices we make for our art!

ATC Friday

Three sets of cards where I was the final person to add something. On these, I added a little white border and a large white flower to the shabby chic/vintage feel cards I received. 

With these, I luckily had some washi tape with bird silhouettes on it; I also added a bird silhouette square. Wish I had that punch for the birds on the branches. I'd love that!

And with these playing cards, I added some autumn leaves, as the colour of the cards seemed very autumnal to start with.

Cross Stitch Update

Only a wee bit of progress here - a little more branch, and a start to the Cheshire Cat, which sits on it. I don't suppose next week will really have much progress at all, as I am out most night supervising the dressing rooms at the Gang Show, which Alex is performing in. But perhaps I'll get a bit done on the weekend, before I go...

ATC Tuesday

Three more house shaped cards, which I made a while back. This one uses one of my favourite magazine images - I cut a load of these out of some of my mum's magazines a few years ago when I visited the US - it was from an ad for paint, and the chameleon was (of course) lots of different colours. I'm almost out of them now!

Other themes - birds on the moon; a winged person. 

Revisiting my Journal Quilt Project, Week 12

 

This week's journal quilt was done with a variation on the colour wheel, in line with another project I had been working on at the time, which involved colour wheels.  All the fabrics in this piece are ones which I dyed myself as part of the colour wheel project.

Block lotto blocks

Also had time this weekend to make a couple of blocks for the block lotto, which, unlike yesterday's offering, I can actually show. The theme this month was to take a small orphan block and build it up into a scrappy block. I discovered that I actually don't have many small orphans - I think because I tend to make scrap blocks quite regularly, they don't really hang around. 

These were the two little orphans I started with...

A sneaky peak

I did a bit of sewing this weekend - but one thing I can't really show - a centre block for Julie's new Cotton Robin round robin. Here's a little hint, but that's really it from me. Once the round robin is over, I'll be able to show you my little quilt, plus the other three I work on, but until then, it will have to be tiny, mysterious hints.  But it still counts as sewing time, which makes a nice change!

ATC Friday

Two sets of round robin cards to show today, both where I was the first person to work on the card - these are the cards where you have the least idea how they are going to turn out - many of the starters I send out are simple backgrounds, which could go in any direction. Sometimes you send something along with a more specific theme, but in this first case, it was pretty open. 

With these cards, it was a bit more themed, as I had the star paper and the word star.