Mystery 2/5

Mystery 2/5
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

One of a series of five atcs made for the glorious Artchix 'Mystery' swap

La rentree scolaire 5/7

La rentree scolaire 5/7
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

This is just a close-up of one of the five ATCs below. I've now broken through the 100 ATC barrier, i.e. I've made and swapped that amount. I like Frieda Oxenham's idea of making an ATC for oneself in addition to sending the series off to one's partners. Maybe next year....
I've still got cards to make for the Creative Lenna 'Mother Goose' swap and the Artchix Turquoise swap. Not to mention two exciting swaps on Swap-Bot! Such fun.
Back to preparing the last bits and pieces for my bag workshop tomorrow, then a relaxing evening with my knitting (socks) and a Madeleine Nabb mystery. Aaahhhhh......

ATCs for the FP challenge: la rentree scolaire

ATCs for the FP challenge: la rentree scolaire
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

I finally finished my 5 cards for the France Patchwork 'Back to School' challenge. I used two different backgrounds from an old calligraphy jotter and oversprayed them with Walnut Grove inks and then stamped them with a lovely apple rubber stamp that I bought locally. I then added some paper text and diagram images from Artchix, on top of which I then stitched a school photograph downloaded from Vintage Images. I found the little pencils in a local stamping/ papercraft shop and stitched them on. FInally, I added the little green mother of pearl star buttons.
They shall all go off to my swap partners tomorrow.

A comme Anne

A comme Anne
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

M comme Marianne Sept. 07

M comme Marianne Sept. 07
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

M comme Marguerite

M comme Marguerite
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

C comme Claude

C comme Claude
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

F comme Francoise Sept. 07

F comme Francoise Sept. 07
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

These ATCs are for the France Patchwork Challenge des Initiales. Each participant was given the names of their 5 recipients so that we could choose the appropriate letters - I had two Ms; 1 each of F, A,C. Great fun! I used a Morris backgroud that I washed out a bit, then added the initial downloaded from a site that hosts copyright-free illuminated letters. These are all 15th century woodcuts. I printed them onto cotton using the trusty Epson inkjet, cut them out and applique-ed them on using fancy embroidery stitiches. Some have been stitched onto a layer of gold angelina.
Next, I added an Artchix image and metallic scrap. Finally, I embellished them with little seed beads (Mill Hill & Hoffman Bead Gravy/Soup).

Fougere

Fougere
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

This is a remnant of the background piece I made for a spring-themed exchange. The yarns, which were couched onto the background using machine embroidery stitches, came from a random bundle of yarns and threads from a local craft shop.

Violets

Violets
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

This card was a random scrap of blue batik onto which I couched a piece of fancy knitting yarnalong the contour of the batik dyes. Next, I added ribbons using a lazy daisy stitch, with stranded cotton French knots for the flowers. Finally, I added some green beads from the green Hoffman bead soup range (a mixture of large beads like the leaves here and smaller beads too, including thses seed beads).

Pansies

Pansies
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

This is one of a series of cardsmade from a single background piece. The others (which I forgot to photograph before I sent them) were similar but not identical. I like to cut images from other fabrics and attach them using embroidery or beads.

Thistle Quilt

Thistle Quilt
Originally uploaded by fifiquilter

This is my first attempt at uploading a photo. This is a quilt I adapted from one of my favourite quilt magazines, American Quilting (BH&G). It's an abstract thistle in art nouveau fabrics - lots of gold in the background.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Fabric Therapy

It's raining again (& again & again). The clouds are so low today, you can't see the high rise buildings down by the beach & everywhere looks misty and grey. My Best-Beloved looks like a well-drowned rat after unblocking the drain outside the back door and nothing can be done in the garden. So, only one thing to do -quilt! So far, I've managed to finish a flip-flap cushion for no.1 son and a picnic backpack quilt for family picnics; 2 lots of ATCs for different challenges on the French quilt forum (the joys of summer; tea/coffee/tisane). Tonight, it's going to be knitting- after all the ironing & laundry this weekend, I reckon I've deserved it. When I've worked out the photo thing, I'll show you.

First Steps

After having spent months of fun reading other people's blogs, I have decided to start one myself. I haven't quite got the hang of things like posting pictures - I don't know how to shrink my photos down to less than 50KB (is that smaller than 50MB?) Shamefully ignorant, I know - but I'm willing to learn. I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Expo MagicQuilt in Lyon last weekend and took heaps of pictures, but can't share them yet. Not to worry, I'm sure I'll work it out eventually.