croque-choux

Special occasion

This fabric card was made as a keepsake for my little friend Matthew who is 2 and a half (we went to his baptism today). I actually put the finishing touches on his card this morning before leaving! Last night at 11 p.m. I still had no clear idea of what I wanted this to look like, but a little pressure really helped I can tell you :o) After midnight I didn't think twice about cutting into the antique lace trim , but I had to hunt through all my stuff to find just the right buttons. I finally quit looking and went to bed with a headache (uh-oh!) around 2 a.m. I think.
I found the last vintage mother of pearl button this morning, just sitting on the desk right next to my bed (very odd, that). The bird is from this image pool on Flickr , and is one of my favorites as you can see here. I thought it would be cute if he had a little charm dangling from his beak by a golden thread this time. Anyway, thank heaven (indeed) that everything came together and that my idea worked out. On ne sait jamais... My good friend Mandy, Matthew's mum, loved it and wants to frame it! I'm so glad. The above slightly cropped photo isn't that great because I was trying  to take pictures of the card on my lap in the car (no, I wasn't driving!), before giving it away. Did I mention that "last minute" is my middle name btw? That's me alright.

April's 6 x 4 fabric card

Well it's the last day of the month, and I just finished my April entry for "6x4 lives", a monthly journal- style postcard challenge started by Sharon over at inaminuteago. Last month I made a dragonfly card, this month a butterfly one with a quote that I printed out on t-shirt transfer paper awhile back, and a little Japanese fabric from my friend Simone in L.A. - the pretty butterfly was from Sandy in the U.K. The angelina fibers and metallic threads are, as usual, hard to photograph, but I hope this gives an idea of the actual card. I'm off to add it to the Flickr group now...

March's 6x4 postcard

Yay, I finished it! The materials for this have been sitting on the end of my ironing board since the end of March, so I guess this can still qualify for March's 6x4 lives fabric postcard. It takes me much longer than one would think to make a card like this because I'm not one of those "just do it" kind of people unfortunately, or else I'd get a lot more done. No, the fabrics mingle awhile on the ironing board, sewing machine, sometimes even the floor, until I feel like I've got the right combination, then I fret over thread color and embellishment ideas, days go by... and I pick it up again because suddenly I know how to finish it. The background fabric I hand marbled in a class I took in 2001, and the dragonfly I printed on plastic has been waiting around in my craft mess for nearly a year. The free motion embroidery idea just came to me when I scrapped the appliqué idea I had. I like doing this kind of machine stitching because it's so relaxing and a little like drawing with a needle or a computer mouse. (Why don't I do this more often??) Well, now you know how my mind works, and it's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the "creative process". I hate that term actually- I always think it sounds so pretentious. Creation just happens, and is hard to conjure up- for me anyway, which would explain why I work in fits and starts a lot. Maybe creative flow would be a better word than "creative process"? A process sounds like a recipe to me, whereas flow is more feng shui :o)

Speaking of dragonflies (okay, so it's a fetish), wouldn't it be cool to have one of these hanging around your neck? Found via wol&zo.

"Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free."
- Chuang Tzu

Teacup reading n°4

I haven't done one of these in ages, so here is a fabric postcard fortune i.e. number 4 in my tea cup series. Think about this next time you sit in front of your morning cup of tea or coffee! Just for fun, have another virtual tea leaf reading here.

February's 6 x 4

I just realized that I put this on Flickr, but that I forgot to post a picture here. This is February's fabric postcard for 6x4 lives, which is a monthly journal project from the mind of oh-so-creative Sharon B! Can you tell that I'm waiting for Spring or something to happen by looking at this? Well, that's what I was thinking about while making this particular card. I mailed it afterwards and it's on its way to....

Catching up

...on the fabric postcards I need to make.

6x4 Postcard : January

I decided to get my act together and make a fabric postcard for this interesting journal type project that Sharon started: 6x4 lives. This piece was an accident and started out as an ATC, which you can see ended up cut into 3 pieces and stitched to this card. This month I think I was basically feeling cold (it's f-freaking f-freezing outside!), confused, and like I was going aroung in circles, which explains why this looks the way it does! I get cold just looking at this card... I tried out a little fabric foil on this, and am happy to say that the stuff works. The circle I attached with a bit of floss is cut from an old CD, and was going to be stitched on shi-sha style but I had to give up on that idea. It actually looks better this way I think. Check out the other 6x4's on Flickr. I am in awe of the dragonfly card that Sharon made!

Fabric postcard finds new home in New Zealand

It's safe to post photos of this fabric card now because Fiona just received it :o) I'm so happy she liked it! It's made from a piece of handpainted silk (a recycled scarf), some cotton that I marbled during a class, and 2 or 3 little rectangles of that beautiful irise film that Sandy sent me. I was playing around with that lovely irridescent stuff one day and decided to stitch it to a piece of Tyvek® and then heat it up to see what would happen. This would be best done with a heat gun, but I don't have one so I just ironed over it. Anyway, the suface got all bubbly and the Tyvek melted away in places, so I was really happy with the effect. Maybe you can see this in the close up. Thanks to Fiona for swapping with me- now I'm off to come up with something for Kim...!

A little art nouveau, s'il vous plait

I scored this Art Nouveau quilt book at a discount book store near my house about 2 weeks ago. It was sealed with shrinkwrap so I couldn't peak in and see if it was worth buying, but I figured it was such a deal that it didn't matter. Less than 4€! While it does have quite a few nice projects, it's the kind of book where you wish the author would have taken the idea a little further. It's still a good book though. Art nouveau/deco inspired quilts... so many unexplored possibilities, but I think that maybe people prefer 70's style or Japanese style quilts at the moment.
I have been thinking about silhouettes a lot lately anyway, so when I saw the cover of this book I had an "aha!" moment, and a few of days later I made this fabric postcard. The background was a lot of fun to make because it gave me a chance to use all those snippets of hand dyed fabric, various fibers, and metallic threads floating around my sewing area. My mother used to call this making something out of nothing :o) The background was a little busy, so that's when I thought I'd try appliqué-ing on top of it in black. Oh, before I forget: here is a sample page from the aforementioned quilt book. This makes me think that I should not be stupid and remember to take my camera with me next time I drive into Paris because a lot of times you do see lovely architechtural details in unexpected places like balconies and windows. Well, at least I always carry a little drawing pad in my purse. Even if I don't use it to record a a design idea or a brain mouvment, at least it keeps my little boy busy when we go to a restaurant!

Mail (Fiona rocks!)

I got this awesome fabric postcard in the mail from Fiona yesterday! We did a mini swap and this is the card she made for me. It's hand painted, and I love it. I'll post a picture of the one I sent later, as I don't want to spoil the surprise before it arrives. Be sure to check out Fiona's blog leap-of-faith to see more of her work. I'm in love with her ATCs!