24-Scrap Batik Quilted Postcard Tutorial

I have been possessed by a 1" square obsession, ever since participating in a magazine challenge that stimulated me to cut out hundreds of them.

In the throes of this fixation, I signed up to participate in a fiber art postcard exchange. The theme was "Dance of Life." I reinterpreted it as "dancing colors," so I could make my cards from leftover batik squares.

Here are some of the 18 cards I made:

This project was SO much fun, and so relaxing - and no matter what you do,  batiks are beautiful, so the results will be beautiful.  

Although each card is made up of 24 squares - which sounds like a lot - it really isn't.  Cutting 6 tiny squares from a scrap doesn't take that much longer than cutting 1. And the more you cards make, the more you get to play with different compositions! Here's a tutorial:

24-Scrap Mailable Fiber Art Postcard Tutorial

1. Cut two dozen - Start by cutting at least 24 squares (per postcard) to 1.5" square each, so they'll wind up 1" x 1" after stitching with quarter-inch seam allowances.

I used batiks, but solids work, too. You don't have to use 24 different fabrics - it's okay to repeat colors. If you're using blotchy batiks, cutting squares from different areas will create different effects. 

2. Assemble the fronts. I designed a whole bunch at the same time. I laid them out on the floor (lock out the cats and dogs!)

For the "dancing" theme, I focused on arranging the cards in a way that set colors clashing and clanging and moving around. 

Once you like each composition, stitch it together, with quarter-inch seam allowances. 

3. Pick a filling.  You can use quilt batting or even cardboard. I usually prefer stiff interfacing with fusible on both sides. Products like Peltex 72F, InnerFuse (in the picture), Fast-2-Fuse - plenty of choices. At the fabric store, some stiff interfacings are sold on bolts, and some are packaged in small quantities with the notions. 

After opening, and cutting:  

(The crease hasn't caused me any problems. Ironing seems to eliminate it.)

4. Cut interfacing -  4" x 6" per card.

5. Affix the front - Adhere the pieced 24-square front to one side of the interfacing. If the interfacing has fusible, iron it on. If your interfacing has fusible on both sides, place a teflon press sheet or parchment paper under the interfacing, to prevent the back from sticking to the ironing board. when you press the front. If there's no fusible on your center material, apply paper-backed fusible web to one side, or simply use a glue stick.

6. Leave the back of the interfacing blank, for now.

7. Embellish and stitch! The card below has raw-edge appliqués (two circles and a squiggle), plus a swatch of a ribbon ladder yarn (with ends bent and glued to the reverse side).  I machine quilted the elements on, and glued the yarn. Then I echo quilted around the shapes.

The next card is also embellished with appliques, same yarn, and machine quilting.

This one is hand- and machine-quilted: 

8. Design the writing side. After embellishment, pick a fabric (or cardstock) for the writing side. Fuse or glue it to the back. If you're going to write directly on the fabric, use a light color.

9. Print Out a Statement? Because I was making these cards for a large exchange, I wrote up a one-paragraph long artists' statement. Then I arranged the paragraphs (in a graphics program) so that it I could print them out onto sheets of white fabric sent through my printer on a freezer paper backing.

Printed that out, applied fusible to the back, cut it up, and adhered one statement to the lavender fabric on the back of my postcards.

My return address label is above it. (Here are directions if you've never printed on fabric before). You can also print the statements on paper and glue the paper to the back of the cards.

10. Finish the edges. I zigzagged all the way around the edges with a variegated thread. If I wanted it to be neater, I might have done a corded edging. (My corded edging tutorial is at the bottom of this post.)

 11. Sign and Send. I signed each, added personal notes. The most spectacular way to mail your cards is in a cellophane envelope. It's incredibly exciting for both the recipient, and the postal service employee.

On the other hand, it can cause the wrong sort of excitement at the post office if the clerk has never seen anything like this before. So if you're using cellophane envelopes, bring the cards to the post office not yet in envelopes.

First, they're probably going to drop your card through their little slot tool, to measure the width, and they'll charge more if it sticks.

At most post offices these days, the employee will tell you to put the stamps on the cards. Then they either will or will not cancel the stamp. (My post office employee didn't cancel my stamps, which made me very nervous. I was sure they'd all wind up back at my house! But they didn't!)  NOW you can put each stamped card in its cellophane envelope and mail them off.

If you add 3-D embellishments, that's going to make your visit to the post office even riskier. Consider sending your card in an opaque envelope if it has glued-on elements, or any 3-D elements.

Before bringing my cards to the post office, just for the fun of it,  I smushed them together for one last group photo, to see what they would have looked like if I'd made one quilt out of them: 

OMG. I loved it. This led to a moment of panic; a little devil appeared on my shoulder and said, "Keep all the postcards! Send everyone a note of apology! Tell them the dog ate them!" But I don't have a dog. So I resisted my selfish side, and shuffled off to the post office to disperse them to the four corners of the earth. Maybe one day I'll recreate it!

UPDATE: Shared on Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday, a compendium of art quilters' latest projects! Enjoy them all at http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/ . 

Improvising a Star Trek Villain Quilt & Tutorial

Sometimes a quilt name just jumps into your head, and won't leave. When this quilt was almost finished, it came to me: "Crystalline Entity".

For you non-Trekkers, the CE was a fast-moving giant snowflake which ate everyone and everything. (Details here). Not only that, but the 'Next Generation' episode it appeared in was even more morose and melodramatic than usual.

I didn't set out to make a giant killer snowflake. I had no idea what it was going to look like when I started sewing scraps together.

To me, improvisational quilting  means you set out on a journey - just like the Starship Enterprise - without the slightest clue where you're going. You might  bump into something meaningful, beautiful, campy, and/or murderous, but mostly, it's about the voyage.

I began by cutting a bunch of 1.5" white strips, and going through my scrap pile for smallish blue pieces. Place them on the strip and stitch.

Leave more space than I did between pieces. Press open, then trim the pieces straight, if possible.

 Next side:

 Press open. Repeat until all sides are surrounded:

If you find you have a piece missing (ha!)....

....just add it at an angle. 

Join units together. Start at the center, and build your way out. This is easy when the entity is small, but as it grows, it gets more challenging. (Just like CE!)

When adding an outer piece, I pressed one seam upward (the seam allowance below the dark triangle), then stitched the adjoining seam on my machine (the grey stitching to the right of the dark triangle)... 

 Press open, and hand stitch that lower folded-in edge in place.

When all the pieces were in position,  I tested the entity on various background fabrics. But then I decided I liked it just the way it was, with jagged edges. I pressed it to fusible batting and a white backing....

Cut away the extra....

Finished the edges with a corded edging. Here it is pre-embellishment: 

Without embellishment, it would work as a table runner as well as a wall hanging. But I threw some buttons on it, and one thing led to another...

The finished image is at the top of this post. It's about 23" across, so it probably won't consume a planet any time soon. Along with the vague resemblance to the CE, it also looks to me like someone punched a hole through a wall or a window. Here's a closeup 

In hindsight, I would say that this project went quickly from ridiculously easy to very tricky, especially around the exterior. I could have achieved virtually the same final effect by simply zig-zagging small blue scraps onto one large background piece of white. But hey, as we know from Star Trek, it's not about the ending, right? It's all about the voyage.

By the way, do you think it needs more buttons?

The Roosevelts Made Me Do It: Stacked Squares with Modern Solids

In our last two installments (1, 2) , I used scrap batik fabrics to make a couple of these:

(Wrapped around a stretched canvas & frame backing, to amp the wall-power.) 

I mentioned that this highly therapeutic 'stacked squares' game could be as easily played with solids, for a modern quilt'look. Thanks to Ken Burn's insanely interesting Roosevelts documentary, I found the time to make a solid version. 

First, I cut out and experimented with a mess of blocks: (and I do mean mess). 

Made nine appealing ones. Put them on a congenial 13" square of fabric (blue green in my case ) and backed it with Warm'n'Natural batting (but no backing fabric until later). Find threads in the relevant colors (or close) and zig-zag around the edges (not quite a satin stitch). 

I haven't yet stitched around the central purple-with-white-polka-dot strip because I'm not sure I want to keep it. Before and after the stitching steps, there are SO many ways to play. I experimented with these strips.

Kind of looks like a Xmas package.That might be good, depending on who you're giving it to. Wouldn't it be fun to wrap the fabric strips all the way around to the back of the stretched canvas?
I also tested curly borders:

Meh. I left the borders unadorned, added a grey backing fabric, and finished the edges with a zig-zag satin stitch over embroidery thread, aka a corded edging.  

I used a variegated thread and a serpentine zig-zag to make the two vertical and two horizonal lines that run down the alleys between the blocks.

Finally, on Friday night, I was watching how Franklin and Eleanor handled the beginning of World War II - it was quite stressful - whenever WWII documentaries are on TV, why do I always find myself looking for pictures of my mother in Poland being hustled off to a concentration camp? - so I decided to cut tiny rectangles and attach them with just a stitch or two, or a French knot, of embroidery floss:

I may take them off. Although they got me through most of the war, I'm not completely sold. 

This project could turn into so many things - a pillow, tote bag,  artsy wallhanging, potholder, children's class project, Roosevelt memorial tower & vase cover..,

, you name it! For details on how to construct (glue stick and scissors are required) go to my first post on the subject, two weeks ago.