Valentine arch card thingies

So, what's behind door number one? And door number two?



One of these is for an upcoming swap, the other is a Pay it Forward gift. Both of them are arches made with a pelmet vilene base, stitched together to make a folding "card". I started with a postcard sized rectangle (4x6") so they are quite small. There's a fair amount of shiny material on them, so they didn't photograph quite so well a they might have done, but I'm very happy with them.




And see - I finished quilting the batik quilt - now to put a binding on and stitch it down. Don't hold your breath on that, but it WILL get done, sooner or later.

An amazing thing...

...arrived for me in the post today, from Australia. A mystery package - with the customs label saying it was a "book" - and although I am expecting a book from Australia (I ordered Dijanne Cevaal's "72 ways not to stipple or meander" back before Christmas), this was the wrong size, and anyway, the return address was someone different - a vaguely familiar name I couldn't place. I (rightly) assumed it was something to do with blogging, and after opening it to the stage above and reading the card, I realised that this was my Pay It Forward goodie from Julie H. Yippee, I thought! And that was before I opened it. After I opened it, I was a little lost for words, because, well, have a look at how totally wonderful it is:


That's the front on the left, and the back on the right - it's a little notebook with plain paper inside - about 3 inches high (you can tell by the handy wooden ruler she's used on the spine!) and maybe six wide, and it's just so wonderful I'm still a bit lost for words. You can read a bit about it on her blog, and I've put some more photos below to show the inside front and back covers, which are also lovely, even though a little plainer.


(funny how the light is completely different in the two photos, given they were taken at the same time on the same surface - the left is the more accurate one).

I really just love this little notebook (no kidding!) - it's fabulous. And it reminds me of one of the things I like about swapping and pay it forwards and all those sorts of things - not just that you often get really lovely pieces of work from great people, but that you can end up with things which are so different from what you yourself make - I doubt I'd ever make anything like this, so to be given it is perfect. Can you tell it really made my day?

This reminds me that I still have some places going on my own Pay it Forward offer - 4 spaces available (I've signed up for more than one!) and one taken by Karina, who left a comment but is not contactable - if you are out there Karina, please email me with your details or I won't be able to send you anything! Those of you who are sitting on the fence on this, it's really not hard - here's how it works:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people [4 in my case] who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

And to tempt you further, if you sign up soon, you are most likely to receive an arch page or something like that, as I am itching to make a few more of them, even before the next one for my swap!

As for me, I didn't do much work today as I had yoga in the morning and then had my hair done. I did set up another 4 M is for Monster cards after realising that I signed up for 2 groups in that swap but only made cards enough for one - I will do the FME on them tomorrow. They are like the others, slightly different shaped monsters, so not really worth showing today - will share when finished.

Pay it forward - Karina and others

Karina, you left a comment on my pay it forward message on my blog and I'd love to be able to send you something, but your email address doesn't show and your profile on blogger is private, so I have no way to send you anything - please email me at katelnorth (at) yahoo (dot) com and let me know your details!

If anyone eles is interested, I still have some spaces on offer for my pay it forward swap - check out the details here...

Pay it forward...

Just a note to remind people that I still have some spaces left if you are interested in a Pay it Forward swap - here's how it works:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

I actually have space for 5 people on this pay it forward swap, as only one person took up my previous offer (which leaves two spaces!) and I have since signed up to another one, this time on Julie H's blog (couldn't resist, you know what I'm like).

Sunday: work done, winners drawn, pay it forward (again)

Well, spent most of the day sewing of one sort or another - my favourite kind of day. Of course, I didn't ONLY sew - I also helped Olivia with her lottery project homework and listened to Sarah's spellings and sentences, and did laundry, and so on and so forth. But I did manage to fit a lot of sewing in there.

First thing I did was to finish up two sets of postcards - the 1930's card from yesterday, which are overdue, and the mostly black cards, which are due today (which means tomorrow, as you can't post them today). I did mine mostly black with some teal blue in them.

The art deco cards look essentially the same as yesterday, but with edging...

The other thing I did today, because I am peripatetic by nature (in terms of my art, anyway) and simply can't resist starting new things, even when I haven't finished old things, is start making some blocks from the fabric I got as a birthday present, from my trip to San Diego. These blocks are actually only partly finished - there will be one more round on each one. And I have some more in progress, too - there will be 16 total. But you get the idea of how they will go together and the secondary patterns they will make. It will be a lap quilt, though I wouldn't hold my breath in terms of it getting quilted real soon - this is me, after all. [Weird thing happened with this photo on the left - blogger wouldn't upload it, nor would flickr, and when I tried to open it in one of my image processing programs, it said "unable to open non-graphic file" (it should have been a jpeg - it was labelled .jpg and was just downloaded from my camera at the same time as all the rest of the photos in today's post). So I opened it in Paint, saved is as a jpeg and tried again - and then it worked fine. Computers are so weird.]

The photo on the right is a piece I received in my complex cloth round robin. It's only had one person work on it after the original piece of fabric, but it's so lovely, I find it a bit hard to know what to do with. At the moment, it's telling me it wants sequins sewn on in some of the blank spaces. Luckily, this piece is on the surface embellishment group so we are not restricted to painting and dyeing - a good thing with this piece, I think.

Next order of business, the giveaway draw for the magazine from last week - winner, courtesy of DH, is Sequana (again!). Well done Annie, the magazine will be on its way to you later this week. Tune in tomorrow for something seasonal and (I hope) interesting.

And finally (congratulations if you are still reading this far down the post), I have signed up for another Pay It Forward swap - this one was on Sandra's blog, and the terms are the usual - if you are one of the first three people to express interest, I will send you a piece of handmade Kate art stuff, in return for you promising to offer the same on your blog. You have six months to get your promised goodies to your recipients, though I am going to offer something slightly different - I will send you, if you like, a handmade Christmas ornament as my pay-it-forward. If you would prefer to have something different, that's fine, I'll send you something else, but it might not be until January (which is still well within the six month limit). If you opt for the ornament, I will post straightaway so that you can hang it on your tree this very year.

Productive Wednesday...

So I guess today will balance my Monday where I didn't do anything, as I did a lot - even by my own standards. This was partly because I was tired of running errands as I seem to have be doing mainly that since school started again, and partly because my friend Lana's husband had promised to come over and install my wireless network today so I just decided to stay in and wait for him. And then, once he got here, he didn't need my input most of the time, just for the odd bit of info, so I was free to go upstairs and sew. So I did!

Right, so to start the day, here's some of my post - this is another little squishie hug on the left, this time from Anne who sent the most amazing baggie full of bits (and lots of rickrack, of which I have virtually none) - it was a minor shame that I managed to drop it and spill it all out on the floor, but then again, picking it all back up did give me a good chance to look at each little bit. :) I have actually managed to use some already (see inchies below).

The stuff on the right came from Ruth in South Africa, and I knew it was coming, but certainly didn't expect it yet as it was only posted on Friday, and the post from South Africa is notoriously variable in speed and safety. Funny thing is, something else which was posted to me first class from Cheshire on the 12th also got here today - so late that actually, you are no longer annoyed but only relieved that it wasn't lost completely. Anyway. Ruth sent me, at my cheeky request, some scraps of African fabric so I can inject a little more interest into my blocks I am swapping with Karol Ann.

Here's what I did today, or some of it, anyway. I finished the orange colourplay pieces - luckily, I don't have to back and edge them, so they are done at this stage. I backed and edged the sunset cards (finally - they have been sitting on my table for weeks) and can address them tonight.

While doing the orange colourplay pieces, I was overcome with the desire to do some inchies - or to be more precise, inch-and-a-half-ies. I decided they would be great for one of the people I owe for the Pay it Forward Swap offer I made on my blog a while back. I do hope that Toni doesn't hate orange... Most of the bits on the inchies came from the squishies that Anne and Jane sent me. I confess to having bought the orange button and the letter beads, and the sequins.

And on the right above, an African block for Karol Ann, made largely from the fabrics received from Ruth today. Do I kick efficient butt or what? But seriously, when I got the fabric, those little blue doll motifs just screamed at me to do something with them right away, and luckily, I was having the kind of day where I could. So I did.

And last, but not least, a leaf postcard from Liz in California for the Arts in the Mail leaf themed swap - and the photo on the right is a teaser for something to come tomorrow, which is photos of the discharging I did today (told you it was a productive day) - 8 fat eights, discharged in a variety of methods, one being discharge paste applied like screen printing. I haven't steam ironed the discharge paste yet (which I understand is supposed to smell pretty awful) so not sure how they will turn out, but I have high hopes. Two pieces were done with the screen, three with bleach pens and three by folding and dipping in a bleach solution. As I said, pictures tomorrow when they are dry and ironed.

Paying it forward, again

I see there's another round of the pay it foward meme going around - or maybe it's the same one, come around again, who knows. Anyway, I saw this on Susan's blog and as I want something of hers, I am once again offering stuff - here's the blurb:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week... LOL... but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

Of course, being me, I will add some additional information/refinements - this time, I think it's going to be inchies or other little bits (might not necessarily be one inch squares) - not just one, but a small selection... and although I won't promise them right away, it won't take me a year either - more likely, by early autumn sometime. Leave me a comment if you are interested.

The Mail Fairy Strikes Again

Though I didn't sew much myself yesterday (and won't today, given one thing and another, including helping at nursery, an extra four-year old, and shopping for a new toilet) I did receive some lovely things in the post both yesterday and today. The postcard on the left is actually from a few days ago, it's from Martine in France and is part of an open-themed exchange with my group Euro-Quilters. These cards aren't actually due out until 15th of May, which is why I haven't blogged about them myself yet - nowhere near my kind of deadline! I am thinking I may use surplus cards from other swaps, but frankly, it will depend on my time. I may be inspired by something else, who knows. The lanterns are the first arrivals for the lantern swap. Mine are nearly done for those - I need to do two more, probably next week. These lanterns are from Carolyn, and look very nice - I can't wait to see the variety of oriental fabrics in these blocks.

Today's mail brought the above offering, which is very hard to photo graph - basically, it's a lovely two sided painted piece, which has then been cut and folded in an interesting way. Terribly difficult to display and photograph, but very interesting to look at and fold, unfold and explore. Also, the little lutradur ATC and a piece of lutradur to play with (not photo'ed). I really must do something with lutradur - no point having it (I now have several pieces of different types) if it just sits there in a drawer...

Anyway, the lovely work above came anonymously and nearly had me stumped, but for the Norfolk postmark, by which I could luckily work out that it was from Marion, by way of a swap/repayment. I signed up for her pay it forward swap, and also brought back a bleach pen from the US for her, which she offered to reimburse me for in either money or a piece of work - well, no contest there, eh? Anyway, I'm delighted to have these pieces. Hoorah!

And last but not least, these two cards also came today - the left one is also from the EuroSwap open themed swap, and the right one is from the FAI frayed fabric swap. The colour is a little off, but it's an interesting card, despite the fact that it didn't actually fray much. She used batik fabrics, which look lovely, but the close-woven-ness of them probably prevents fraying.

"Fibres" postcards

It was a nice day today for post - as well as several blocks from a scrap swap I'm in, I also got this postcard, which is for a swap called "Fibres" with the yahoo group Fibre Artists International - it's my first card from this swap (and indeed, this group) and it prompted me to go do my cards for the swap (posting date of the end of Feb, so I'm not really late). I love what Marie has done with this one - great idea to fray the fabric in different amounts on the different sides.

I also received this Dear Jane ornament from my friend Cathi in Ireland - I took part in her pay it forward swap a while back and this is the promised item. It's not as pale as it looks in the photo (the background is a natural calico) - I promise all my photos will be better in the spring and summer - trying to get good colour indoors in the British winter is a real challenge!

And yesterday, I got another squishie in the post - this is a "silk paper" postcard from Susan - and again, in asking her to send me one, I have to promise to send a piece of my artwork to the first five people who respond (and who agree to make a similar promise on their blog). So, here I am, offering again. If you would like a piece of my artwork - this is most likely to be a postcard, probably from the series of snowflake/flowers I am working on at the moment (see yesterday's blog entry) and are willing to offer on your blog to send a piece of your work (it can be anything) , please leave a comment and I'll send you a card, once they are finished! If more than five people respond, I'm sure we can work something out - but it might be a different postcard series, is all.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't show the background - the silk paper - to best effect, but if you are interested in the technique, Susan has a tutorial on her blog. Check it out!

And here's a photo of the "fibres" cards I made for the swap I mentioned above. I only made 5 (this includes one for myself) as that was how many pieces of interfacing I had cut (lame excuse, I know) - and for a change, I did variations on a theme, as you can tell. I have a LOT of fibres, in different colours - I probably could have done 4 or 5 more colours of cards - black certainly, neutral/gold, orange, red, brown, maybe more. But I decided that 5 was enough - and as it happened, it was exactly the number I had time to do this afternoon. One thing I did with these cards that I've never done before is do a finished edge with the fabric folded underneath on both back and front (I usually just satin stitch, but I am trying variations, like with the lace-edged Valentine's cards). Anyway, I like all five of them, and will have a hard time deciding which one to send to myself (though I'm leaning towards the olive green one at the moment).

(Hopefully not) the last of the January cheer

And here are the rest of the January cheer postcards. I should probably consider myself lucky a)that these got finished b)that I can type and c)that I didn't throw the timing off on my sewing machine. That's right, kids, today's lesson is: don't ever try to poke a stray end of ribbon under where you are zigzagging - especially not with the tip of your finger. Ouch. Luckily I just caught the side of the finger, so while I do have a nice set of matching puncture wounds (in and out!) I didn't do serious damage either to myself or frankly of more import, to the machine. Or bleed all over the cards. And it doesn't seem to interfere with my typing too much!

Anyway. The cards are now done and six are in the post, with the others going out tomorrow, including one for dormouse and one for ferret. (Hmm, dormouse, ferret, hedgehog - a trend among quilty bloggers?) Penny will get her card a little later, as I haven't made that one yet - it will be one of my Valentine's theme cards, which I probably won't start until late January... Anyone else who wants a card, just let me know - officially I owe three more cards forward, but within reason I am happy to send a card to anyone who wants one, with the pay-it-forward proviso, of course...

May not get much sewing done tomorrow, as my life is full of fun mummy stuff - helping at nursery in the morning and grocery shopping in the afternoon - but you never know - there may be an hour there somewhere. If not, I may share photos of my very tidy sewing table, which I spent part of today tidying up so I could actually see the surface!

And a small gripe about blogger - seems like every single comment I get these days has no email address listed - SO annoying, as I do like to respond and I'd rather do it by email than on that person's blog, where you have to comment about something that has nothing to do with what you are actually saying. I hope when blogger finishes migrating everyone to the new blogger, this won't happen any more. Grr.

More cheer!

Finished six postcards today (of 16) - still need to be trimmed a little around the edges. I've decided I really love the pelmet vilene for the inside (instead of batting). Great to sew through and so firm I don't need card, which means I can use a fabric back, which means if I use a really heavy satin stitch for the border, it doesn't come loose (which it often does, with paper). Lessons learned, I guess! I did one of these (the first one) with a metallic thread around the edge - I love it, but you should have heard me swearing at it - can't tell you how many times it broke - just not worth the stress, so I switched to rayon - still nice and shiny, but much stronger. Still breaks a bit, but only once or so per card (and that's going around the edges twice each). Much more manageable. We'll see how the sequins go through the post as they are just glued on, but with LOTS of glue, so hopefully they will be ok. I only used really flat sequins, so no edges sticking up to catch on stuff. I like these much better than the solstice ones (the design was fine for those, but the finished product was too flimsy for my personal taste).

Ages ago I made reference to the pay it forward swaps that are happening at the moment on many blogs - where someone offers a piece of their work to the first five takers; in return you are asked to make a similar offer on your own blog. No one took me up on it at the time, so I still owe five pieces to people (if I can get anyone to take them, LOL) - I will have two spare cards from this swap, one of which I have promised to Dormouse, if she wants it but if anyone else is interested in a piece of my work in return for paying it forward on your own blog, there will be one card from this swap up for grabs, and more from future postcard swaps, as needed - the next theme I'll be working on when these are finished is a Valentine's swap. Not sure what that will be yet, but I think it will probably involve red and/or pink...

Paying it forward...

A number of blogs I read (including Cathi's and Marion's) have recently made mention of a Pay it Forward kind of scheme - someone offers up a piece of work to the first however many takers (usually 5 or so) and instead of swapping directly back, you agree to make a similar offer on your own blog. Having taken up at least two of these offers (and I think maybe one more, but I can't remember on whose blog!) I hereby make a similar offer to people reading this blog: I will send you a piece of my work; in exchange you have to post a similar offer on your own blog. I won't promise it will be a large piece, though it won't be smaller than a postcard (it may be a postcard!) and I won't promise it before Christmas as I'm not completely insane, but you will get it in the new year, probably January and it will be original...