Celestial Winter: Wall Hanging, Post Cards, and Ornaments

I recently did a favor for a friend and to show her thanks, she gave me some fabric. There was one piece in the bunch, a fat quarter titled "Celestial Winter" by Jason Yenter from In The Beginning Fabrics that I was immediately drawn to.

Now I like to tell people that I let the fabric tell me what it wants to be. Sometimes fabrics just tell me that they want to be place mats or table runners. Other times it's more specific. Back when I was making "Early Morning Nine Patch" I was trying to decide what fabric to use for the barn when I realized that the title on the selvage edge was "Barn Red" so that time it was literally speaking to me.

This time Celestial Winter was speaking to me and it said "Use me."

"But I have to work on stuff for the upcoming Open Studios," I replied.

Celestial Winter loudly repeated "USE ME."

"I really don't have the time," I replied.

But it would not let me ignore it.

So I did. I made a wall hanging, ten postcards, and five tree ornaments. In one week. (I had to work quickly because I still had things I needed to finish for the Open Studios that was less than two weeks away).

Here is the fabric before I cut into it. (This is not the actual piece that I had, this is the preview that In The Beginning Fabrics has on their website). I ironed fusible adhesive (Heat-n-Bond lite) on the back of the whole fat quarter then cut the shapes out. This is called fussy cutting and it doesn't get much fussier than this, can you see how close together the images are? In some places I had about 1/16" of an inch of black left around the shapes. I wanted a little bit of black around them so when I fused them to a back background it would look seamless.

I fused six main pieces to a black fabric from my stash (one that I used for "Lavender Diamonds").

I also fused some groupings of stars on most of the pieces. Four around each round shape and two with the deer and the owl.

I pieced the six rectangles with green sashing and borders then sandwiched the quilt top with a cotton batting and backing.

I stitched around the fused pieces with black thread on the black edge that I left when fussy cutting.  It was pretty hard to see when sewing down but I took it slowly and did it. Because it was already sandwiched, this is also the quilting.

I also quilted stitch-in-the-ditch around the edges where the black was pieced with the green.

Then I folded the front around to the back for a binding. I added sleeves and a label.

I love how it looks like the fabric is glowing from within.

Because I already had fusible adhesive on the back of the fabric, I took used the other large images, some which were cut off because they were at the edge of the fabric, to make some postcards.

I used the same black fabric for the backgrounds and added the red and blue stripes which were not a part of the original fabric. Then I fused them to a thick innerfacing and satin stitched around the edges with a black thread.

There were also nine colorful trees. They were too small to be postcards so I fused them to a green fabric, then fused them to some innerfacing (the kind I use for postcards) then satin stitched around the edges with a green thread. Because there were nine trees, four of these are double sided.

As always, you can click on the photos to see them larger.

3D Rainbow Flying Geese - Project Quilting

Two quilted postcards, curved and straight, 6" x 4" each, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 9, Challenge 6: SCRAPtastic, Mar. 2018 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "SCRAPtastic":

Your project must use a MINIMUM of twelve (12) fabrics, no matter how small the piece. You, of course, are welcome to use more than 12 if you wish.

So many ideas, so little time. For this project I got into my Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" Cherrywood fabrics, although that group only had seven fabrics so I added a light purple, a medium purple, a dark green, plus the red batik at the top and the black fabric to have 12 fabrics.

The "Flying Geese" started as 1" squares that were cut in half diagonally and then attached to the background by sewing them through the middle and leaving their points unattached, so they can curl up or whatever they want. I couched black yarn over the thread that sewed down the triangles.

I couldn't decide on an arrangement of the Flying Geese triangles and I had a whole extra set so I made two postcards.

More on Rainbow Flying Geese Curved and Straight

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the SCRAPtastic link up.

Island Batik Quilted Postcards

Quilted Postcards made with Island Batik fabrics, handmade by Pam Geisel, Oct. 2016

In addition to getting ready for my "Island Colors" exhibit reception at Village Artisans this coming Friday, Oct. 14, and the Yellow Springs Open Studio event this weekend, Oct. 15 & 16. I made some Quilted Postcards using Island Batik fabrics. These are not yet available on-line but will be at both events mentioned above.

The quilted postcards are 4" x 6". The four smaller cards are 2" x 3".

Most of the fabrics are from the Wind & Sea Collection and the Desert Rose Collection, although there are some random pieces from other groupings. Three of the postcards have ribbons on them.

Modern Art Postcards - Project Quilting

"Modern Art Postcards," 6" x 4" (each), made for Project Quilting, Season 7, Challenge 6: A Goose in the Monkey Wrench, Mar. 2016 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for  "A Goose in the Monkey Wrench":  
For this challenge you must include at least one monkey wrench block and one flying geese block.  You may add other blocks if you wish.

I decided to make two postcards for this challenge, for two reasons. One is I've been working on a bed-sized custom quilt and that took most of my time. 

The second reason is since there two traditional quilt blocks were part of the Project Quilting Focus Through The Prism challenges, I thought it would be appropriate to use the same fabric we used for those challenges, and I mostly have small pieces of that fabric left.

Both postcards are 6" x 4" and had white fabric on the back where you can write a message and the address. And you can actually send these through the mail as they are! All of the edges are sewn down and are finished with a satin stitch using black thread.

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the A Goose in the Monkey Wrench link up.

Street Fair in Yellow Springs



Peace Sign Quilted Postcards

Summer hasn't officially started but it's beginning to feel like it!  And a great way to kick of the start of summer is the Yellow Springs Street Fair which is this Saturday, June 11 from 9 am-5 pm.  I've made some new quilted postcards (above) and some new journal covers featuring fabrics with peace signs.  I'll also have three of the six quilts that I made when I won Season 2 of Project Quilting.

Once again we'll have Springerles, German anise cookies made from my husband's family recipe. The cookies are $3 for a half dozen and the last two times we sold them they were sold out by 2 pm.

We're at booth #185 (if you're facing the Little Art, we'll be on the right). The Yellow Springs Street Fair is located on State Route 68 in downtown Yellow Springs.

More 2010 Holiday Gift Galleries

In addition to the DVAC ARTtoBUY in Dayton and the Studio 14 Gifts of Fine Art and Fine Craft Boutique in Tipp City, I'll have my quilted items at two other locations.

Clifton Winterfest

The Ohio Artisans Group is sponsoring the Clifton Winterfest in Clifton, Ohio (down the road from Yellow Springs). They'll have fine arts and crafts, live music performances, demonstrations and craft activities plus a cafe serving food and refreshments. All this plus free parking! They are located in the Gingerbread Antique Shoppe on North Street (between Clay and Main Street) in Clifton, Ohio 45316 and will be open Mon.-Thurs. from 4-9 pm and Fri.-Sun. from 12-9 pm, starting the day after Thanksgiving and going until Christmas Eve.

And if you haven't been to the Clifton Mill to see their light display, you've missed a real treat. They have 3-5 million lights in their holiday display.

---

Fairborn Art Association's Holiday Fine Art and Crafts Sale

The Fairborn Art Association will hold it's Holiday Fine Art and Crafts Sale on Sat. Dec. 4 from 10 am-4 pm and Sun. Dec. 5 and 12 from 1-4 pm and also Sat. Dec. 11 from 10 am-4 pm and Sun. Dec. 12 and 12 from 1-4 pm.

The Fairborn Art Association Gallery is located at 221 North Central Ave., Fairborn, OH (located in the back of the Fairborn Senior Apartments).

Christmas Gift Ideas from For Quilts Sake

Quilted postcards are made with a stiff layer of innerfacing sandwiched between two layers of fabric. All fabrics are securely sewn down and the edge is finished with a satin stitch.

The back can be written on and then sent through the mail, or use the clear envelope that is included if you'd rather mail it that way. Or pop it in a 4" x 6" picture frame and give as a gift, or keep for yourself.

Christmas-themed postcards make great holiday decorations, gifts to send to a special friend, or stocking stuffers. To purchase Christmas-themed and regular quilted postcards, click here.

Trick-or-Treat!

I just love the way these quilted postcards came out...and other people must have loved them, too because they've all been sold.

Susan's Seasons

My friend Susan has a wreath that hangs on her house against a dark wall and she wanted some way to add some color to it. She's always been a fan of my quilted postcards and asked if I could make 4 larger postcards, each with a different season, so she could hang them inside her wreath.

She knew she wanted a cardinal for the Winter season, but left the other seasons up to me. I knew I wanted to have a pumpkin for the fall and a watermelon for the summer and we both thought flowers was a good choice for Spring.

Since the fabrics were fused and raw-edge machine applique, I used batik fabrics for all but the background. Batiks have a tighter weave and are less likely to have loose threads along the edges.

These are approximately 6" x 8" with the fabric fused to a stiff fusible interfacing with a tight satin stitch around the outside, with solid colored thread on the cardinal and the flowers and a variegated thread on the watermelon and the pumpkin.

I happy with the way they came out, but even better is that Susan just loves them.

Selvedge Fun

If you know me, or if you read my introduction at the beginning (end?) of this blog, then you know that I didn't know much about sewing when I started quilting. I made my first quilt in a class and on the first day of that class the instructor told us to cut our fabric by folding the selvedges together and I had no idea what a selvedge (also spelled selvage) is!

I now know that the selvedge is the self-finished edges of fabric which keep the fabric from unraveling or fraying. It is also where the printing marks, company name and now the company's website are printed, which is sometimes helpful to know, especially when you've run out of that fabric but haven't finished the quilt yet. It has been customary in the past to cut off and discard the selvedge edge, although lately there's been a movement to use these edge pieces.

Above is a quilted postcard that I made using selvedges. Below is a chicken that I purchased from Etsy seller With Hugs and Stitches. She also makes whales using selvedge fabric.

  The project that got me interested in selvedges was a selvedge dress made by Jodie Carleton. There are more photos of this dress on her blog Ric Rac. I'm not much of a girly-girl and I suspect that the dress might be a little heavy but it looks like it would be so fun to wear it!

There's even a whole blog just about selvedge projects, aptly called Selvedge Blog by Karen Griska. She's collected photos of selvedge quilts, purses, furniture, a lamp and even an umbrella. If you want to make a selvedge project but don't want to wait until you have that many selvedges, you can sometimes purchase selvedges from other sewers!

Quilted Postcard for a Chocolate challenge

This is the 4x6 quilted postcard that I made for the January Challenge for the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network. The challenge word was "Chocolate" and I has some silver fabric that was just the thing to use as the candy's wrapper.

Of course, I had to do a lot of "research" for this project. It was tough but I managed it.

Quilted Postcards for a Frosty Challenge

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network has a bi-monthly themed challenge. The August challenge word was "Frosty." And while I admit the Snowman is a little cliche, I still think he's cute. And the Cupcake is because when the word was first announced, I heard "Frosting." OK, maybe I should get my hearing checked, but I think the cupcake is cute, also.

I've been a member of the group for over a year, and this is the first challenge I've participated in. Both are 4" x 6" fabric postcards with blue variegated thread satin stitched around the edges.

The October challenge is "Triangles" and the January one is "Chocolate". I think I'll need to do some research on that one first...

Nudge from the Universe: Sometimes it's possible to try too hard

Yesterday I was making several quilted postcards when the universe reminded me that sometimes it's possible to try to hard. I was working on the last postcard and ready to be finished. I decided to use some hand-painted pink and orange fabric pieces leftover from another project. I spent awhile rearranging the fabric trying to come up with an layout that I liked, but nothing really spoke to me.

I decided to step back for a little bit and left the studio to take care of some household chores. A few minutes later the phone rang and on my way back into the studio, "Cotton Candy Pinwheels" (pictured below) caught my eye and in a flash, I knew that I should just cut the pink and orange pieces and make a pinwheel and add a border on the left and right sides.


I'm really happy with the way the postcard came out, and sometimes simple is really best. It's a traditional quilt square but with non-traditional fabric. So thanks to Lovely Rita who was the one that called me. And yes, you really can send a quilted postcard through the mail.