Bloggers Quilt Festival

It's been 5 months since my last post, and we are back again at the Quilters Blog festival - organised by Amy.

This is a fabric postcard (4 by 6 inches/ 10 by 15 cm) something I have worked on over the past few months in small doses. All hand stitched and part of a larger panel of 9 that I sliced up. I love doing hand work - it is forgiving and portable. With a long humid summer and 3 littles to watch - it was my sole piece of work. I love this technique - the way the colours merge, the unpredictability - rather like having littles...

In the Kantha style - no wadding just 3 layers - one of which was Vilene ironed onto the back of the fabric for stability. I 'made' the fabric using water soluble crayons.
Kantha is an Indian/Pakistani style of stitching - it's very graphic - I love the work of Lynne Setterington. These cards went to BLQ members for one of their trades. The in-progress pictures are on the main blog.

Blue postcards - in progress

I usually use a base of good quality Egyptian cotton - that has a beautiful soft hand. It's cotton that is sold for sheeting - and has had a good hot wash.
I coloured circles of mainly blue onto it directly - no pencil outlines as they tend not to fade. I used blue, turquiose and some purple. Using Caran D'Ache - Neocolors.
I then spritzed it with plain water.

And waited - and spritzed some more - and magic happened.

It dries slowly and merges even more...

The whole was then ironed onto a piece of vileen and then stitched and a few sequins were added so that when it was cut most cards would have a group of 3.

Done! - it was around 20 inches by 14 inches.

The finished cards are backed with Watercolour paper and have a border of heavy cotton cord that is zig-zagged on. I send these through the regular postal system 'naked' - without a plastic or paper envelope