fabric postcards

These are the 5 postcards I made yesterday.  They were supposed to go to the fundraiser for the VIC show, but Larry has put a kapu on them.  Which means he has taken them for birthday gifts.  Now I have to make more postcards, so I thought I'd better write it down so I can remember how I did it.

First I selected the hula girls and cut them out from one of my favorite fabrics.  I backed them with Wonder Under.

Then I carefully cut them out with a sharp scissors.

I picked out some bright hawaiian fabric and ironed it onto the Fast 2 Fuse backing.  Careful to place the release paper on the bottom so it wont stick to the ironing board.

Then I ironed on the hula girl to the fabric.  I used a clear polyester thread and sewed around the hula girl to stitch it down to the fast 2 fuse and hawaiian fabric.  Then I cut around the edges of the hawaiian fabric to fit the 4 x 6 fast 2 fuse piece.

I cut out the post card backing and then ironed it onto the back of the fast 2 fuse.  I used a bias binding to sew around the edges.  After seeing all the postcards from the KPFA craft fair and the different techniques used to bind the edges, I decided on this binding.  It gives it a nice finished look.  If I didn't have the bias binding, I could satin stich around the edges or single stitch or use a yarn.  The problem with using the bias binding is how tiny it is.  I think next time I might glue it on first.

Identification

This is my entry for the National Park Service World War II challenge quilts.  It is a picture of an identification badge that was posted on the Rosie the Riverter flicker photo page on their website.  The original picture was named RORI 2628.  I contacted the curator by email and asked permission to use this photo for my project.  They were so helpful and actually attached the photo to the email.  I chose this picture because of the red border.  The red is very striking and had a wonderful white scrollwork throughout the red.  

 I used Bubble Jet Set and printed it on a Kona white cotton.  The main picture was one 8 x 11 sheet , the lettering were 3 other sheets of treated fabric.  The hardest part to recreate was the lettering for IDENTIFICATION.  At first I thought I could just print it, but since I was using my own red for the border, I had to carefully cut out each letter after backing it with wonder under.  I used a 100 wt silk thread and a number 6 needle to carefully sew around each tiny letter.

The scrollwork in the red border was challenging.  I tried drawing it on, printing it on tissue paper and then sewing it on, using a circle to sew it and really just used all three techniques to make that elaborate scroll.

I thought I was going to use an actual blouse for the shirt, and cut up an old shirt.  My idea was to have the collar flap extend out of the quilt.  But that did not work so well.  I found some stripe fabric instead and traced templates of the shirt and coat.  I backed the fabric with wonder under and then used the templates to cut out the fabric.   All the pieces were ironed on the quilt and then carefully stitched down.

She looks like she is in a lineup with the height measurements in the back.  Hopefully IDENTIFICATION will be picked for the VIC show.  I wrote about how I could identify with this picture.  Since I live right next to the Rosie the Riveter National Park, it will be nice to see this quilt in the show.

Identification has been accepted to the Rosie the Riveter National Park Challenge quilts. Feb 2014

Happy New Year 2014

 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Last night I decided to eat the mochi from the new years mochi display.  Unfortunately, I waited too long, because the mold has gotten to it first.  It still looks so pretty, that I thought you might enjoy a picture.  My father would say to cut the mold out and cut it into small pieces and eat it.  I'm too lazy and since we still had frozen mochi, I made that instead.

 This is my next project that has been on my mind.  42 fat quarters of Kaffe Fassetts woven cottons.  Aren't they beautiful.  You can clearly see the woven texture on the fabrics.  At first I sorted them into lights and darks.  In this arrangement, the darks would go from the left to right and the lights would go from the top to bottom.

After playing around with it, I decided to make two stacks of dark to light.  In this plan, the blue greens would go from left to right and the red yellows would go from top to bottom.  This would make a dark section on the top left and a light section in the bottom right.  Gradation coloring.  Isn't it fun.

Rayna Gillman

 This is a quilt that I made using the fabric from Rayna Gillmans fabric stencil workshop.  The design of the quilt is actually from a picture from Sunset Magazine.  Ellen had brought the pictures to our mini group and I liked this picture.  It makes you think of construction.  How am I going to draft the block.  Where is the block?  I had to figure out the dimensions of the blocks and triangles.  I used construction paper to do a layout of the design and then just started cutting the fabric pieces.  All the fabric used in this quilt were hand dyed, hand stenciled and painted with fabric paints.

Doesn't it have a very spring like feel to the colors.  This is a very different color palette than what I have been making lately.  As soon as I put it on the wall, it really brightened the room.  I think I'm going to keep it on the wall for a while.  It will remind me that spring is on the way.  Just like the first daffodils of spring.

I haven't decided on the quilting yet.  It is stabilized by quilting in the ditch around all of the squares and triangles.  I think it needs more quilting yet I haven't decided how.  In the meantime it is pinned to my dining room wall, so I can keep looking at it.  It adds a nice modern touch to my white wall.

This quilt has been given to Mrs Chiu for her 70th Birthday.