More ATCs

ATCs have become a bit of an addiction lately! These are some of the ones I have made since starting them at the beginning of the year.

I have also just completed 2 sets for the SCQatcswapgroup "Cheer me up" swap, for those who are not going to Perth. I will show them after the swap has been done. Don't want to spoil it for anyone!

Journal Quilts

I am participating in a Journal Quilt project with AusNZArtquilters this year. I am very new to fibre art and fibreart quilts, so you won't see anything mind blowing yet, but these are my efforts for January and February.

January: "Sailing into Winter"

The theme was seasons, and as we were in the middle of summer (not my fave season) my thoughts were already turning to cooler months. I love Autumn best, but I wanted to get a bit more experience before tackling that, so i decided on winter. Besides, no one else had done winter, so I felt sorry for it!

I used the reverse side of a piece of grey fabric as a base for this, and painted washes of mauve and grey over areas of it.
I then needle felted (with my embellisher) some purple abaca tissue and purple silk rovings down one side,
added purple threads, cords and more silk,
stitched them down,
appliqued raw edged scraps of black and red,
needle felted areas of them,
added white batting pulled apart and white angelina fibres,
quilted and stitched all over that.


February: "It's not all black & white"

The theme was graffiti and colour, using collage
Give me a theme and my thoughts immediately seek the twist!

I used black felt as backing for this. I cut it shorter than the A4 size, and then made a smaller than A4 quilt by appliquing a collage of scraps of various black and white print fabrics, adding a small amount of angelina fibres, and machine embroidering them down.
I then coloured (with gel pens) a few tiny areas, painted on the words black & white (upside down A and back to front E),
and attached it to the felt. (the end size is A4, with 2 corners appearing to be removed)
I wrote the words "it's not all" on white fabric, cut them out, and fused them down the side.

Cyberfyber exhibition swap

Fibre artist, Susan Lenz, has organised a Postcard and ATC swap on a major scale. She has listed the postcards and atcs that she has made for swapping, and invited people to swap with her.
She plans to hold an exhibition of the traded postcards and atcs next January, at a gallery in Columbia, South Carolina US.

(See better photos and read more here)

Naturally, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by, so I selected a postcard and ATC of hers, that I would like to receive, and have now posted off my swap pieces.

Susan's work is lovely! Do have a look at her site.

This is Susan's ATC:Susan's Postcard:

My ATC: called "Opal Fields"

My Postcard



I used my embellisher for both of mine.
The ATC is embellished wool, organza and cotton, combined with angelina fibres; then mounted on a yellow fabric collage and machine embroidered. I used copper iron on ribbon around the edge.
The Postcard is embellished cotton fabrics, crystal organza, silk threads, and tiny pieces of silver foil; quilted; then fussy cut flowers added by embellishing around the edges and securing with a stitched bead in the centre.

Janome Xpression

Today, my new Janome Xpression Needle Punching (felting) machine arrived! I am so excited, especially as I didn't buy it, but won it!!!

A few weeks ago, I subscribed online to the re-launched Australian Country Craft and Decorating Magazine and by doing so online, I went in the draw for one of these fabulous fun machines. And last Friday I received an email from Lynelle, the Editor, to say I was a winner! Excited? All I could do was run around the house shaking my hands and going, OOOOOOO! DH was worried about me, but I managed to get out a "tsgood". He was ROFL not knowing what I was on about for a while, but I did manage to calm down enough to tell him, eventually!

As we are currently still in the throws of renovating and rearranging most of the house, I can't try it out yet, but watch how fast things will get done now, so that I can set up somewhere and play!