Plum's card

In the BQLPC group, in our ongoing Birthday card exchanges this is my offering to Plum for her Special day.

Each letter was drawn in reverse on some double sided interfacing ( on the paper side), then ironed on the wrong side of the fabric, cut and free motion quilted on the white fabric.

Here are some photos of the process.

I wrote my message with different coloured pencils. 5 colours. Then I knew which fabrics for each letter.

Don't forget to reverse the writing! I drew them freehand, but you could use Word. I thought it would take too long. The glue side of the paper is ironed on the back of the fabric. Then you cut each letter on the line, take off the paper and iron them on your base fabric, glue down. This means they are easier to sew at the next stage.

Here you can see that I just lift my needle when i travel from one letter to the next. I come back at the end to cut the threads.

There is also some polyester wadding under the fabric.

This is after I iron the fabric plus wadding ondo the piece of pelmet stiffener, and back fabric.

The only stage left is sewing around.

I have been around my shape with a zigzag stitch and can now cut the extra fabric.

I went around the card a second time to finish off the edges.

It's finished. Ta-daa!

I know that she received it so can publish it without spoiling the surprise.

I enjoy this challenge, it forces me to follow a deadline, although at the beginning I thought that I would be able to make all my cards in advance. That didn't happen.

I believe there is more diversity as a result .

Enjoy your sewing .

Pascale.

A new birthday card

I'm still making cards for our birthday swap on BQLPC. This one is obviously for Helen.

The free motion embroidery was done on my machine with some metallic thread, which shines a bit but it doesn't show much on the photo. I think I might use this model again.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

A new fabric Birthday card

This one is for Jan and has been sent before we left for our holiday.

Enjoy the great weather if you have it. Summer can be wonderful. 

Pascale

Fabric birthday card

This card I am sending to Miriam, as part of our birthday card swap with BQLPC.

The sewing machine is felted, and the writing and embroidery were done by hand.

I hope she likes it.

Enjoy your free time and create.

Pascale

Brithday fabric cards

This year I have put my name down to take part in a birthday swap, with fabric postcards of course. So you will see them appear regularly on this blog.

I can try different techniques each time, and I always keep a spare one as a memento.

We had 2 birthdays to celebrate in January, and they received this card below.
It's all free motion quilting around the paper shape of the cup I drew. And then writing free motion as well.

This card with the cup full was my first attempt. The fabric was pulled by the stitching and is all wrinkly as a result. I need to work on this, so kept the card at home.

I am still working on my quilt from the Bonnie Hunter Mystery "Easy Street", slowly making progress.
I am also preparing a little workshop for my quilting group, more to come later.

We had some snow for a week until last Saturday, so lots of things were cancelled, sewing included. England is never really ready for snow, roads get jammed, airports shut down, it's mayhem.
We also have some builders, decorators and other tradesmen working to repair some water damage that happened in the house in July. It took that long for the insurance to authorise the repairs, and it was a minor leak, but with big impact. I can't imagine what it would be like to have some real flooding.
It will be great when I can have the house for myself again, but then the girls want new curtains, cushions, etc...We will see.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale.

Fabric postcard, Flying Dutchman

I took part in a little swap on the group BQLPC (Post Cards) with only 3 of us.
The theme was "Flying Dutchman", which I interpreted as the boat called that name. It was supposed to be a ghost embarcation, and feared by people on the sea.
The name also refers to the patchwork block called the Flying Geese, triangles in a line, in the middle of a rectangle.
And this is the result:

I regret the poor lighting, with winter the days are quite short, and the weather is terrible, lots of rain at the moment, and flooding not far from where we are. There is no risk for us as we are on a hill, but we feel sorry for the people who are affected.

I managed to go running this morning, but got wet from the rain while in the middle of nowhere. There were only fishermen around the lake where I was.
This is all on the theme of water isn't it!

Enjoy your sewing,

Pascale.

A nautical card

I quickly want to show you some cards I made. I just sent one to Avril for her birthday, in the BQL birthday swap. The technique used is reverse paper, and I added 2 little birds by hand.

We are moving in 2 weeks now, so I'm starting to think about giving our new address to lots of organisations, to keep things working.
My shoulder is getting better every day it seems, but I still need to take things slowly. Progress.
Oh and I did a bit of knitting, but I need to finish it before I can show you.

Have fun sewing.

Pascale

Frustration !

I'm back from my little trip to northern France with the girls. Sorry I didn't contact you Pascale, but I wasn't very organised.
I managed to give a second lick of paint to the bathroom, and then on Tuesday last week I went to register for a horse riding lesson. As I left with DD1 in the dark, I slipped on some mud and had a bad fall. I didn't get to go on a horse. To cut the story short, I have dislocated my right shoulder with a bit of broken bone. I'm not supposed to move it : can't write, cut my meat, sew or knit. I'm developing my abilities with my left hand : brushing my teeth, holding a pencil.
DH had to come rescue us on Friday, as did my parents and sister on Wednesday. Luckily the girls are not toddlers any more, they can look after themselves for a little while.
I had taken some little projects with me but just managed to iron some fabric before falling.
That's where the frustration comes from.

I've used this time to check all my emails, and update the way my blog list is displayed. I need to do something about my banner though.
If only I could sew!

I can show you a card I made just before leaving.

 They were for the birthday swap on BQLpostcards, with cats as a theme.
My free motion quilting is easier now that I resolved the problem of tension.

I have somthing else made previously to show you, but my typing is very slow.

Enjoy your sewing.

Pascale

More fabric post cards

There were 2 birthdays recently in our card swap.

 The first card was sent to Sandra at the beginning of September, because she's a star..

Each square is 1" finished.

 And this was for Plum, she chose the theme of architecture, so I took little bits of grey and beige fabric, and fixed them by putting some sheer fabric on top, the one I received with flowers from DH. The fabric is grey on top of the white background.
The free motion quilting was done with silver thread.

I'm trying each time something different, on such a small scale it is fun. This worked quite well, with a pleasing result.

Have a great time sewing.
Pascale

Bat card

After downloading the holiday photos, I realised I have a few things to show you.
This one is quick. As part of the birthday card swap I made a bat card for Jan. The animal is purple (bad colours on the photo), and I was lucky to have the fabric for the back.

I embroidered the face and body of the bat, and gave her feet. The wings can flap, they are not sewn down.

I hope you find the time to do some sewing.
Pascale

We are hoping to move

This is the reason I haven't posted much recently. We saw a house we liked not far (so no need to change schools for the girls, nor friends or dancing lessons) and to make an offer on it we have put our house on the market. That meant a lot of tidying up and putting things away. Most of my sewing is now in the loft (le grenier en francais), and I have to be ready to show the house quickly. The garden is tidy, the kitchen empty and the girls have wonderful, clean bedrooms.
It's all good for selling this house, which we love but it has become too small for our big family. But it's no good for creativity and crafty activities. Hopefully the reward should be a sewing room, and not a bit of the living room for me. Hourra!

In the meantime I had to make a card for Irene's birthday (in the BQLPC birthday swap), and I was late. It is now in the post and she should have it on Monday. Here it is, a calorie free cupcake.

I'm just practising techniques. The wadding is a bit too thick but that's the one I could find.
I really enjoyed designing and sewing again, and hopefully should have more time for it soon.

Lighthouse fabric cards

Before going on holidays I made these cards. They are for the birthday swap.

I used the technique of reverse paper piecing. I've had a lot of practise through previous projects so it's not a problem for me. I drew these to the 4"x6" size needed for the postcards.

I find that I don't have much time at the moment to get involved in more card swaps, life is too busy.

I do a bit of sewing and hope to show you some things regularly, but I was hoping to do a bit more, and it's not going to happen.

Anyway on Friday I intend to go to Quilts UK show in Malvern, you can find more information on this page. It will be a great day, lots of shopping, inspiration, photos (I can't show them because of copyright rules).

Have a good time sewing.
Pascale.

Hen cards

 These were made for a birthday request, and the theme was chicken. OK mine are hens.

I must confess that I was running out of time and used some pre printed fabric with hens on them. I still think that they look great, but wish my effort was a bit better. Days like this happen.

No more birthday for the moment so I should have time to prepare for the next one.

Cats everywhere, in fabric card and a toy

Again time has been flying by.
We went on holidays skiing and that took a lot of organising on my account before and after the week we were gone. I think I caught up with the washing, nearly.
I didn't do much sewing while I was away or since I came back but I have some little things to show you.

First there was Barbara's birthday, and she asked for a cat on her card, and this is my result. I pieced a background and drew a cat face on a paper template, then fabric. I used some free motion sewing to applique the design.
They look a bit cheeky.

Now I can stay on the theme of the cats with this blue one.
The pattern comes from Wee Wonderfull and this link will take you to Hillary's page of freebies. She has also published a book.

I love this cat, the design is very modern and you could put the head at a different angle to have a new expression.
OK and I could also give him some eyes and mouth.

More fabric cards

Last  week was my birthday, so as part of the BQL postcard swap I received 13 cards. You could easily get used to so much attention.

By Jacquie, the white fabric is folded.

By Avril, you can use the felted flower as a brooch, it has a pin at the back. So clever.

By Carole

By Barbara G, I love the birthday ribbon.

By Janet B

By Rosemary

By Lois, I am so sorry this one got damaged in the post.

By Irene, I love the edging.

By Jan S, hand embroidery.

By Lesley, another one damaged by the post.

By Sandra, each stamp is on a separate piece of fabric, and appliqued.

By Sue W, I don't know how she managed to sew all these shapes together.

By Plum, I wish it had not been damaged.

The theme I had chosen for my cards was red and white as you must have guessed. There is a lot of inspiration in all of these. So I am saying a big THANK YOU.

As there was also Valentine's Day this week I made a card for my DH, well 2 in fact.

There are some beads around the heart on the right.

That's a lot of cards.

Birthday cards

 In the BQL birthday card swap, I had to make a card this week. I went crazy.
It 's a technique that I find is not as easy as it seems, so it gave me some practice, and I think the results are quite nice.
I chose bright fabrics to make a cheerful card, and I kept the second one as an example of my work. I hope that Lesley who will receive it will like it.