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

CQJP 2016 March Block Seam 3 - TAST Stitch 71

TAST Stitch 71: Alternating Up and Down Buttonhole

The alternating up and down buttonhole was a fun stitch to work! 

I opted to add this stitch to the 3rd seam on my CQJP 2016 March block.

First, I pinned 14-count waste canvas along the seam. Next, I worked the alternating up and down buttonhole stitch with a strand of size 8 Anchor green #0225 pearl cotton.

Next, I added French knots with a strand of size 8 Anchor red #00047 pearl cotton. Then I removed the waste canvas.

This is how the block looks with this seam.

(For my own easy reference, each step of this project has been saved to this board on Pinterest.)

I first worked this stitch in 2014. (You may see the original blog post here.)

In 2014, I also created this beaded version of the alternating up and down buttonhole stitch. (The original TAST blog post is here. And you may see this completed block used as the pocket on a tote bag here.)

On another note... I also set up a Hand Stitched Treasure Facebook page. You may find it here if you are interested.

Thank you for stopping by!

Renee

If you are wondering...

TAST stands for Take a Stitch Tuesday. It is a personal stitching challenge offered by Sharon B. at Pintangle.com. You may read more about it here. There is a TAST Facebook group where members share their interpretations of the stitches introduced each week and the creativity never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

CQJP stands for Crazy Quilt Journal Project. For CQJP 2016, my goal was to complete a 12-inch block each month with embroidery only (and a bit of lace) while using primarily shades of red, green and black to create a washable quilt. There is a lot of eye candy on the CQJP 2016 blog that you may see here.