Friday, October 13, 2017

2017 CQI Halloween/Autumn Fabric Postcard Swap

As mentioned in my last post, Wilma organized a Halloween/Autumn Fabric Postcard Swap for the Crazy Quilting International Facebook members. October 5th was the deadline to sign up and postcards need to be mailed before October 14th. 

I signed up to swap an Autumn themed postcard and this one went into the mail today. I do hope the recipient likes it!

If you have followed my blog long, you may recall that I used waste canvas to cross-stitch a pumpkin Pamela Kellogg designed and shared in the Autumn 2015 Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. I am afraid my stitches using waste canvas are not as neat as I would like them to be, but the pattern is darling! (My post from last year may be found here.)

I do love autumn! I love the large harvest moons, pumpkins, colorful leaves, pumpkins, crisp fall air, pumpkins... 

 For the back, I printed this template onto cardstock. 

I was thrilled to find a white, yellow, and orange variegated rayon thread in my stash to finish the edges with.

If you are interested in making a crazy quilted fabric postcard, you may find a tutorial on the Crazy Quilting International blog, here. If you use cardstock instead of a fabric backing, remember that the zigzag stitches do perforate the edges of the cardstock. 

For this card, I set my machine to sew a zigzag stitch with 3.5 wide and 0.3 long stitches and went around the edges once. Without breaking the thread, I switched the setting to straight stitches and went around the edge of the zigzag stitch once before knotting the thread and trimming the thread. (The finishing method was inspired by this tutorial at Quilted Delights.)

These postcards need to be hand cancelled at the post office. In the USA, this requires an additional stamp (that costs $0.21 at the time of this post.) I send my postcards in a clear plastic envelope approved by USPS that I found and purchased through Amazon. With the envelope, I have to pay for a regular postage stamp instead of a postcard stamp. Some post offices will hand cancel the the fabric postcard and then allow you to put it into the clear envelope to post it. The 2 post offices I have been to will only hand cancel directly on the postcard if it is mailed as is - without the plastic envelope. 

Thank you for stopping by!
Renee


10 comments:

Jo said...

Wow... lovely post card. I do love the stitched pumpkin... so cute. That's a lot of trouble to go to to post it. Our price for a standard letter is the same as a postcard in Australia. $1.. is the minimum...

Siouxzq64@gmail.com said...

Oh that is so very cute! Love your pumpkin cross stitch.

Anonymous said...

Even prettier in larger size than on the IG pic! I couldn't really admire the thread around the edges there. This is a wonderful memory of fall. Beautifully stitched.

Catherine said...

I’ve always enjoyed reading about your postcards. This one is so cute!

Queeniepatch said...

Lovely postcard. Halloween is round the corner.
Thank you for giving so much information.

Renee said...

Thank you, Catherine!

Brigitte said...

A gorgeous autumn themed postcard that you made for your swap partner.

Catherine said...

the postcard is adorable! The pumpkin came out nicely and the use of the Snoopy fabric is charming.

Renee said...

Thank you, Catherine! I fell in love with the pumpkin chart when I saw it in the magazine. And I was so glad the Snoopy fabric fit perfectly on the card.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Snoopy looks as though he's jumping in the leaves! I'm sure your swap partner will be thrilled when it arrives in her mailbox.