ATC Factory

Tonight I decided to make some ATCs. I started by free-motion quilting on a piece of pink batik fabric and a layer of batting underneath.

Then I whacked the quilted piece into 3"x2" pieces, and cut up some of my favorite scrapbook papers (as I do not ACTUALLY scrapbook, they were available for me to use for this other, non-scrapbooky project), and printed up some "good words." I wanted to use happy words, so I typed out the first 12 or so that came to me, printed them, and sliced them into strips, along with my contact info for the backs of the cards. At this point it felt like a little factory:

I stitched the edges of the little quilted pieces down to the paper. The first one came out at an angle, but then I decided I liked it better that way so I did the same thing with the rest. Then I glued on a word:

And glued the labels to the backs:

And I have a series of 12~!

This project was a lot of fun. Now I need to find something to do with them. Anyone wanna trade?

ATCs and a Novel

I recently joined an ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap for 2009. It is international so it will be very cool. I'm really excited to exchange with artists in other countries. Meanwhile, tonight I made my first ATC, and surfed some cool sites with ideas. Here is a great Squidoo site you can check out. I cut out some of my favorite scrapbook cardstock into 2.5"x3.5" pieces, then sewed on fabric/batting, and embellished lightly with square beads, then added my blogsite and a stamp I made to the back. I'll call this one "Number One."

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The whole working-on-ATC-bit-while-watching-House-on-Fox probably WAS just a procrastination measure against writing - but I'm at 36,000+ words this month for my NaNoWriMo novel, so it's coming along and I should definitely be able to eek out the 50,000th word by the end of 11/30/2008.

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I ordered some mini-cards from Moo and I'm totally excited. I uploaded 50 photos of my art, quilts, and flower pictures I've taken in the last few years, and some trees, bugs, lightning, and some family members. I think my only problem will be actually forcing myself to use them.

Nine-Patch wall hanging, and, Pumpkin Loaf

Yesterday, a review of the contents of my fridge indicated I had enough eggs to make pumpkin bread; grapes well on their way to bubbly fermentation; a green pear that was looking more like a purple plum; and two lonely, cooked chicken breasts that had been hanging out in the cold darkness together for weeks waiting in vain to be chopped and eaten as part of a sandwich.

There is nothing quite like a cold orange, quartered, and hacked at by the teeth to allow the tingling, acidic juice slide down the back of the throat.

So yesterday, apart from staring into my fridge, I stood at the back door looking through the glass at the weeds where no less than 14 birds were foraging at the base of the weeds. I was wading through my joyful eagerness to decide whether to weed the backyard or drag out the ladder and replace exterior lightbulbs, when suddenly I was seized upon by an imminent necessity to run to my art room and make a wall hanging from scratch, though I had not turned on my sewing machine or cut anything with scissors for the better part of a month.

By the time I finished the wall-hanging (15"x15"), it was dark outside, too dark to weed or change light bulbs.