6 Fabric Postcards for 2018 Wish Upon a Card Challenge

The annual Sisters (Oregon) Outdoor Quilt Show (2nd Saturday in July) has a fabric postcard challenge each year where you make a postcard using the fabric that is sponsored by Robert Kaufman Fabric. I requested 2 fabric sets and received 2 different fabrics for the challenge. The postcards for the challenge had to be received by April 15th (today). But you can make 4" x 6" postcards to donate that will be sold (some auctioned) for the benefit of the SOQS Visual Arts & Design Scholarship Fund, after that date too. This is their 12th annual event for the postcards.

I have made and donated cards in the past, but have not entered the challenge before. So I decided to make as many cards as I could with the (2) 5" pieces of fabric that I received. I made 6 postcards. On some I used one of the fabrics in the postcard and some I used both fabrics in the postcard. The fabric I received was the blue grid print and the green print with the swirly circles. The other fabrics are my own scraps. The rules state you must use one of the fabrics in the card. They didn't say how much of the challenge fabric needed to be used, so on some I used a good amount and others just a tiny touch of it. It was fun to make these and I hope they bring in a lot of money for the cause, even if I don't win one of the 1st-3rd place prizes.

I have been to the quilt show several times in the past and was always amazed at the beautiful postcards that are created. The prize winning and several other of the nicest postcards are framed by High Desert Frameworks, a frame shop in Bend, Oregon who donates the mats, frames and their time to professionally frame each postcard they are given to frame. They do an outstanding job of choosing the right color mat and frame as well as the right size too. The frames I would guess are no larger than 11" x 14" and some are smaller too, and they always look beautiful. I have seen some of the silent auction framed postcards sell for as much as $500!

Here are the 5 postcards that I created and mailed off for the challenge. Wish me luck.

I used both challenge fabrics on the telephone. The blue grid and the circle of swirly green fabric. The background is just some random strips of fabric I pieced together. I used rickrack for the telephone cord. I added a crystal in the center of the phone dial.

Closer look.

I used the green challenge fabric in the stems and leaves and the blue challenge fabric for the top of the coneflowers. A few added crystals for some bling.

The top wings of the butterfly uses the blue challenge fabric. Crystals on the wings for some wing bling!

The challenge fabric is his blue bow tie. I added a crystal in the center of his bow tie and more crystals like snow falling on the background. 2 button eyes. (oops and a thread on his wing I didn't see when taking this photo, lol!)

Another telephone with the challenge fabrics in the opposite positions. The body of the phone uses the green challenge fabric, where the circle dial is the blue challenge fabric. Again I added a crystal and rickrack for the cord.

2 blue flowers with the challenge fabric and one green flower using the challenge fabric. Green rickrack for the stems and lots of crystal bling.

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Home Sweet Home Row Quilt

This is the 2016 Row by Row Experience Block that was from the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon. It was designed by June Jaeger (Jean Wells' sister). Jean is the owner of the Stitchin' Post. You can still purchase the pattern here.

 I started it over a year ago and then it sat waiting for me to quilt it. I got most of it quilted, except for the sky, so it sat a few more months. I am so glad I got this one finished! I just love it. It reminds me of my visits to Sisters and Bend, Oregon to visit my friend there and attend the Sisters annual Outdoor Quilt Show.

I used batik, hand dyed and commercial fabric in this quilt. It was a bit time consuming to trace the pattern shapes to fusible web, cut them out, fuse them down and quilt around everything. I did not do my usual blanket stitch around the shapes, instead I quilted around some shapes close to the edge and do other quilting to hold it all in place. I was a bit nervous about doing this, because I have had issues with thread breakage while quilting recently and if you rip out on a fused down piece the holes will show. I did have a few places this happened.

This is hanging in our bedroom and Mr. P really loves it too!

I love this Sisters, Oregon scene.

The snow is white fabric with silver glitter in it, so perfect for snow. The mountain is batik fabric.

Batik fabrics were used for the cabin,

I didn't have the right green for the trees in batik, so the trees are a commercial fabric.

I used a hand dyed brown (I dyed myself) for the binding.

I just couldn't see this going into a quilt with other rows, because this beauty needed to stand on it's own!

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(Don't Worry) Bee Happy Quilt

When I saw the Bee Happy quilt on Lori Holt's Blog, Bee in My Bonnet, I knew I wanted to make this quilt. I loved all the separate little blocks each by themselves, but all together it was quite a quilt! Plus I knew I would make more blocks and use them for other projects later on.

I did fusible applique using fusible web instead of Lori's needle turn method with interfacing. I machine blanket stitched around each applique, matching the thread color to the fabric color. I did not add a final plain border around the hexagon border, as this was getting quite large for a wall quilt. My husband did not like the wording on the quilt "Bee Happy", so I added a few birds there in it's place. Once I got the top done, it went off to the quilter. I chose a quilting design called Tweet Tweet, which has flowers and a bird and was not too densely quilted. I also chose a buttercream yellow color of thread because it would blend the best with all the colors and not pop out too much. It worked well. Although you cannot see the bird part of the quilting very well because of the busyness of the quilt, I like it anyway.

This quilt is mostly applique, but there are a few pieces blocks too, most with an applique on them. I used mostly all scraps of fabric to make this quilt. All the applique and pieced blocks were from my scrap bags. I had to use up some fat quarters and yardage for the background fabrics after I ran out of the scraps for the background.

2 pumpkins.

The Picnic Basket. I added a ribbon instead of fabric on the basket.

Love these 2 chickens.

Pieced flag with applique star.

Bee and a bird, so cute. The bird's wing is a fabric from my mom's quilt shop back in the mid-70's! I just had a few scraps left of this fabric. Since my mom passed away in October of 2016, I wanted to add some memory of her to this quilt. She would have loved to be able to see this quilt. A couple of the ribbons I used she had given to me decades ago too.

Nice floral block.

I love the different Churn Dash blocks, each with a different applique in the center. Just love this chunky bee.

3 flowers in pots.

3 flowers in one pot. I used a polka dot ribbon for the top of the pot rather than cut fabric. I used different ribbons in various blocks, which was a great way of finally using up some of those decades old ribbon! The watering can and the flag bunting also I used ribbon on (no close-ups of those).

The Bee (instead of Ball) canning jar made into a pincushion. The black gingham is a ribbon too.

Single chicken is looking for those other 2 chickens.

3 trees.

The truck, trailer and dog with the 5 little birdies I added below instead of the Bee Happy wording. My little birdies must have been moving around, so they are not aligned up very straight! The red with green dots on the truck bumper area is also ribbon.

3 spools of thread.

On top are the canning jars. The 1st one and the last one I used ribbon instead of fabric (those 2 ribbons were given to me by my mom decades ago). I also used rickrack for the stem of the flower.

A single flower in a pot.

2 cupcakes with double stacked button cherries.

Ah, a cool glass of lemonade with a straw and cherry, just the thing for a hot summer's day!

I hope you like my version of Bee Happy, I know I sure do.

There are many more blocks I did not get close-ups of, so look carefully at them all.

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Small Arabesque in Blues

I made another small Arabesque Bag in blue fabrics and I added a back zippered pocket too. This is a free pattern from Sara of Sew Sweetness. I reduced the size of the bag to about 80% of the original bag size. I also sewed vertical, rather than horizontal stripes. I think this is a really nice size bag and a great looking bag too. I have this bag in a gift shop right now, so I think it might sell soon. If anyone would like me to make a bag like this in colors of their choice, just email me and let me know and we can discuss the colors and price.

This is the front of the bag.

Side view showing the bag's depth. I also quilted it in wavy lines too.

Bag has a zippered closure and I added a handmade charm to the zipper pull.

The view from the other side of the bag.

This is the back of the bag.

I added a zippered pocket on the back of the bag, along with a homemade zipper pull. I also added some rivets on the strap band on the front and back of the bag too.

Inside the bag there is a slip pocket that I divided to add a pen pocket. Love this cheerful lining fabric!

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Jade Bag

I made this Jade Bag a few months ago. I am so behind in blog posting! The Jade is a free pattern by Liz of Moments Designs. I made this Jade with an adjustable strap, rather than a fixed strap since I am selling this bag and I don't like straps to be too short or too long for someone.  I prefer making them adjustable so the person purchasing the bag can decide how long she wants the strap and if she likes wearing it on her shoulder or across her body. I also used fleece instead of the suggested foam for making this bag. It is a surprising roomy bag.

The side view to show the depth of the bag.

View from the other side,

Inside are a few slip pockets and a zippered pocket too.

A homemade zipper pull.

The front slip pockets are pleated giving you more space for items and the pockets behind them are regular slip pockets.

The back of the bag.

Close-up of the feather print fabric.

Looking down on the zippered closure of the bag with a handmade charm added to the zipper pull.

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