Fay's CQ

As promised when I posted the picture of my CQ ornament, here's the 7" square mini-quiltlet that Fay in South Africa sent to me. It happened when she joined the CQ email group I belong to. Someone else was talking about "squishies", and she wrote in asking what a squishie is. (A baggie full of fabrics and embellishments that crazy quilters sometimes send each other.) Since she was new to the group, I emailed her privately and offered to send her a squishie. She's such a sweetie, because after I sent the package to her, she sent one back to me. There were some awesome African fabrics and beads, laces, the above CQ, and a CD of pictures of the animal reserve she lives near.

Vive le France ATCs

Anna with Christian Paper Artists is hosting another ATC swap; this one is "Vive le France." I was so excited when I first read about it, but then I didn't kow what to do. Mike and I visited France two and a half years ago, on the first trip we chaperoned through his high school. I fell in love with France: Paris, the countryside, the Cote d'Azur. How to translate that into an ATC? I decided to concentrate on Paris, using some pictures I took of some of my favorite Paris places. Going clockwise from the top right is Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and Arc de Triomphe. I printed the photos in sepia tone to give them continuity and to make them look a little older, like memories.



I apologize for the slightly fuzzy picture; the brad in the left corner (from JoAnn) sticks out, so the ATC wasn't laying flat when I scanned it. I'm having issues with my digital camera, so I can't just take a photo and upload it.



For the base of the ATC, I painted a thin wash of Liquitex "Iridescent Rich Gold" acrylic paint over a page from a French book I picked up at the used bookstore in town.

I made five of the same ATC for this swap. Can't wait to get some from other artists.

CQ Christmas Ornament

I made this crazy quilted ornament for a swap Lisa D. is hosting through the Quiltropolis Crazy Quilt email list. The ornament is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter.



The center gold fabric is a piece of silk that I got from Fay in South Africa. (I'll have to post a picture of the crazy quilted mini-quilt that she also sent me). The top red is cotton velveteen. I had bought a few yards about 8 years ago, planning to make a Christmas dress for my daughter Kendra ~ she was 3 at the time. However, I was so exhausted due to being pregnant with my 3rd child that I never got around to making it. When I started crazy quilting 2 years ago, I started cutting into that velveteen, since there's not enough of it to make Kendra a dress now that she's grown into an 11 year old. It was just sitting in my armoire, begging to be used! The other red fabric and the greens are poly satins that I've collected.



On the left side, I attached a button cluster with some gold beads. The seam treatment is a piece of ribbon I got at Hobby Lobby. The top red has a small lace motif which I painted using my (favorite) Liquitex "Iridescent Rich Gold" acrylic paint. I attached it to the velveteen using an iridescent-type white bead. The feather seam treatment has yellow-ish clear beads. On the right green fabric, I stitched a swirl motif out of Carole Samples' wonderful book, Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, then I added a few red and gold beads. The bottom seam has green buttonhole and lazy daisy stitches to look like flower stems and leaves, and gold bead flowers.

I added a pretty, sparkly gold braid to hang the ornament, but it got cut off in the picture.

It was such fun to make a small CQ project. In fact, I've started making one similar to this one, so I can keep it. One of these days, I also need to take some pictures of the big crazy quilt that I finished in January.

Give Thanks

These ATCs are serving two purposes. I made them for the "Give Thanks" ATC swap that Donna is hosting at Christian Paper Artists. Then I saw that the current theme at SaltFaith Challenge is also "Give Thanks."

It's so easy to forget the wonderful gifts God has given us through His Son Jesus: eternal life, an abundant life here on earth, the Holy Spirit. I've loved this verse from the Psalms for a long time. God's unfailing love is what makes everything worth while. When I start to get bogged down with the things of this life, these verses help remind me of all the good things that I do have.

For this swap, we are each making 9 ATCs. Donna had said that if less than 9 people sign up, we would get more than 1 ATC from some people, so we might want to make some of the ATCs different. I made 4 of the first version, and 5 of the second.

I live in the midwest and we are in the middle of all the leaves changing into their glorious autumn colors. So I naturally associate leaves with the Thanksgiving holiday.

For the background, I mixed Lumiere in metallic russet and halo blue-gold to get the brown color. The text was printed on cardstock which I painted Irish Mist Twinkling H2o (gotta get some sparkle in there). For the leaves, I first painted a piece of watercolor paper with a wash of yellow, orange, and red watercolors. Then I used a small leaf punch to punch out the leaves. Finally, I added a "trail" of microdot stickers by a.muse, to look like the leaves are falling.