FNWF and Canadian Quilt Talk Postcard Swap

Friday Night With Friends started just after lunch - well I do have some Australian friends to sew with!
My aim for the afternoon was to get on with some postcards for the Canadian Quilt Talk Canada Day postcard swap. This is being organised by Brandy Lynn and all cards need to be in the post in time to arrive for Canada Day on July 1st.

The theme for the postcard swap is appropriately Maple Leaf.

I knew that I wanted to use this for my background.

It is a collage of painted newspaper and painted bondaweb a la Kim Thittichai which I put together a couple of years ago.

My first task was to make a maple leaf print block from Funky Foam and Foam Core Board.

Fortunately the temperature outside was around 30 degrees so my layer of sealing varnish on the block dried in super quick time!

When I am printing I usually have a 'practice piece' that I print on to before printing onto my finished piece.

I used three different green acrylic paints but in the end decided that only the darkest and the lightest would be best.

Here is my practice piece

which I love! It's on brown paper which means I will be able to crumple it up to give it more texture and then stitch into it.

Here is my printed piece for the postcards.

I use a roller to put the paint onto my block and I use the roller to give me some secondary prints.

Again, I am really pleased with these and they will make great backgrounds for future work.

Back to my postcard piece and I sprinkled it with green and bronze glitter - well this is a celebration! - some supermend and then ironed on a turquoise sheer fabric to enclosed any rough edges.

Here are my four cards ready for machining - oops! no picture of the machining I did. I will post one soon of the completed postcards as that was as far as I got that afternoon.

I spent all afternoon looking at, but not touching, this tray of brownies ready for the Strawberry Tea fundraiser for our Church where we have been helping all day today.

I did get to try a small piece today and it was scrummy!

So to yesterday evening and I finished off the embroidery on this

my ongoing project for a sewing machine cover. I also started adding hexies to the top to shape the cover.

Hope you all had a good FNSI and are enjoying your weekend.

Lin xx