Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise

Saturday 7 April 2018

Elm Street Quilts Postcard Blog Hop

I am participating in a blog hop for people who participated in Elm Street Quilts' postcard exchange.  This was a one-on-one exchange.  Each person made one card to send to one person.  Swappers could sign up a second time to send and receive from a second person.

I have participated in a number of postcard exchanges, and have taught classes and given lectures on postcard making.  It is fun creating these small fabric pieces, and even more exciting to receive one in the post.  I have found that one-on-on swaps tend to generate better quality cards, than swaps where a large number of cards have to be made.

As almost everyone loves ice cream, I created an ice cream card for my recipient in Texas, and I had fun adding the sprinkles on top!  Her word clue to me was shimmering.  (There is a bit of blank space below the card as I could not get cropping to work! )


The beautiful card that I received was made by Nina in England. I had given the word music, and her white fabric included musical notes!  I am not sure if she realized that I am originally from London, so that getting a Union Jack card was especially exciting.


I made another card for a wildflower swap.  I chose the California Poppy as my flower and created it with free motion quilting and Inktense pencils.  This was made for a lady in England.


People often ask how I do the outside edges.  I use a very close together zigzag stitch on my Bernina 440 or 830, 12 weight cotton thread when I can find the correct colours such as Wonderfil Frutti or Spaghetti.  When I cannot find a suitable 12 weight cotton thread, I use a finer thread and do two rounds.  I usually have my stitch set at a length of about 0.3mm and a width of around 4mm.  If I have to do two rounds, the first round is slightly narrower than the second.  I prefer to use cotton threads as I have found that they "fill" the space and round out unlike polyester thread.

I hope that you will visit the other participants in this blog hop.


Denise @ DottieDoodle


Karen @ Run Sew Fun


Laura @ LC's Cottage



Michelle @ Creative Blonde



Sandra @ mmm! quilts







8 comments:

Margaret said...

Good to see a post from you! :-) And yes, ice cream is beloved pretty much everywhere. Reminds me of the song my son and his friends had to sing when they performed in the musical version of "Anne of Green Gables"...almost 20 years ago now... Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Who doesn't love ice cream? Especially ice cream with sprinkles on top! I lived in the Mojave Desert for a time. One of my best memories is seeing the desert bloom with California poppies...what a riot of color! And what a terrific surprise to receive a Union Jack that reminds you of your birthplace!

Karen @runsewfun said...

This has been a fun blog hop seeing and hearing some detail about all the postcards. I love the red, white, and blue thread that was used to quilt the Union Jack. Great swapping!

Paige said...

Great job, both of you! How funny that you are from London and you received such a relevant card. Thank you for the tips on the edge finishing. I which I had used a tighter zigzag.

Dione Gardner-Stephen said...

Isn't your Union Jack card marvellous?! And I'm sure your recipient enjoyed her ice cream as well.

Cathy Perlmutter said...

Great cards, thanks for sharing them!

Patty said...

What wonderful postcard! Thanks for participating in the postcard swap and hop!

Lynette said...

So cool! (That music fabric in the Union Jack, and that you're originally from London) Your ice cream cone looks good enough to eat. It's making me want icecream even thought it's currently cold and hailing! :)