Valentine Postcards

 Here's a section of my  machine quilted  post card fabric panel just off the 4 foot Art Quilter frame. To keep the postcards light weight, I skipped the batting and only used two layers. So perhaps this project comes more under the free-motion embroidery heading. The exciting thing is that the line between machine quilting and free-motion embroidery is fast disappearing. The Art Quilter frames are fantastic for anyone who wants to draw with the needle.  

Rosie, my clever daughter, designed these post cards using computer graphics. We printed them on card and used my dull rotary cutter to cut them out. Then using my good sharp cutter we cut the fabric to fit the postcards...

...and zig-zagged around the edges on the JUKI Exceed 600. The titanium coated Topstitch needle from Superior Threads easily stitched through the fabric and card. Then we wrote on the back and popped them in the post. 

The post mistress thought that our Valentine postcards  looked lovely. This was so much fun that we'll be making more! There are lots of other excuses for a postcard. We could create postcards for all sorts of special occasions. Birthdays, Spring, Easter, the list goes on...

Poinsettia Stocking

My daughter Rosie loves pink, and I'd promised Rosie a home made stocking for Christmas. So I used pink fleece and cut and machined a stocking shape. As you can see, I've leaned toward a more feminine dancer shape for the stocking. Then I used free-motion machine embroidery on a table top frame to create poinsettia flowers. If you don't have a table top frame, you could get the same result using a hoop to stretch the netting.

I've used a fine sparkly netting as a background for the poinsettia flowers. This was stretched between the first two leaders on the frame. I needed a bold line of stitching to outline the petals and keep the netting from fraying. The King Tut range from Superior Threads was ideal for this. Ramses Red #914 was the perfect colour.

I used the needle to draw the petal shapes on the netting. Later I took the netting off the frame and cut out the flowers. I went on to stitch them on a stocking but they could be used in other ways. Take a look at the slide show on the right hand side of this post. It will give you a good idea how this project came together.

Using a see-through fabric is wierd! You can see just how your sewing machine is working. I've used this same technique to create fairy wings. Does anyone have other ideas?