Postcards sent and received
This first postcard purchased from Fibre Art for a Cause following the International Quilt Festival in Houston - it was created by Jan Johnson and is called Paint Strokes. I like the way she has combined satin stitching with paint splodges to make the design.


On the City and Guilds Yahoo group I belong to, we did an end of year postcard swap - this is the postcard that I received from Karin in Germany - I find it very calming yet interesting to look at.

This is the postcard that I created for Karin - hand dyed scrim on pink aida with stitching and beads added, edged with hand made cord. Many of the stitches were ones that we had done during the Library of Stitches course.

Well, we haven't put the Christmas tree up instead I've had some fun this evening doing this embroidery with thick, interesting threads on scrim which I then stitched onto felt. I did try doing some bullion knots which were a bit of a nightmare as they kept getting tangled up with the fibres from the wools and I also added large green beads, mainly round the edges. We actually like the cream scrim that is visible round the outside so I haven't covered it up - if I'd had time before I started then I would have dyed or painted it.

This is a sampler that I have done for week 6 - all based on chevron stitch and using some lovely variegated threads of different thicknesses. I have tried varying the sizes of the stitches, working them the wrong way round (look at the middle row), overlapping them and using both bullion knots and cast on stitch to vary the look. Some of the threads I used proved to be a bit of a nightmare - either very silky or with a slub that didn't want to go through the ground fabric.

I bought some Caron Watercolours thread yesterday and that was lovely to use - it feels so soft and the colours are yummy - I let myself play with one skein and am getting 7 more for Christmas - can't wait! Next I want to play with stitching on scrim to develop a picture with thick yarns and I need to find enough room in the lounge for the Christmas tree to go up this afternoon.

This week, since I finished the banner I have been busy creating a postcard to send off for a swap - it was going to be the one below - Christmas red and green with a bit of gold - but I didn't like the finished embroidery, so I started another one. I finished and posted it today and will post a picture of it here once it has reached it's destination.

I have also been stitching a small sampler for Week 5 of the Library of Stitches - this time using Arrow Stitch and lots of variations of it to give different effects - don't they look effective?

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas! Yesterday I finished the banner we have been making to hang in Church over the Christmas period and here it is -

Although you can't see it very well on this photograph the gold lines from the star extend outwards to the edges and we sewed blue sequins on to the sky which sparkle as the light catches them. The star is actually mounted on a cross (made from blue net) which is very subtle. It got a good, positive reaction in church this morning which is encouraging for all those who were involved in its production. Now we can start thinking about a hanging to celebrate the church's 350th anniversary next year - we are one of the oldest Baptist churches in the world.

I can also now start to get on with some other stitching and thinking about Christmas pressie shopping etc.