Some days are just picture perfect, and today was one of them. That was good for the 3rd grade at Rockport Elementary School (which serves the students of both Camden andRockport), since today was the annual start-of-school cookout, and parents were invited. Once the kids inhaled their burgers and/or hot dogs (ours seems to be on a growth spurt…he ate one of each!), they ran off to play. Eli went down to the field to play soccer. He’s in the middle in this picture:

And here are third grade boys being boys:

The view from the school is typical Maine, and looks a bit more rural than this area actually is (but that’s good!); here’s the nearby barn,

and a wider angle view with the same barn—I told you it was a glorious day!

Then after a while on the field they all ran up to the school because of the rumor (true) that ice cream was ready for dessert, then ran (do children ever walk?) all over and around the awesome playground equipment, donated by a local company that makes these structures (talk about earning some good karma! that company deserves it!)

And finally, because I’m feeling disorganized, a photo of all four cats, no longer hissing at the new one (on the left) ALL eating together!

Caitlin wrote:
These are really lovely – well done! I found one problem I had with freezer paper stencils was that sometimes the fabric I was painting wiggled underneath the brush – simple solution: iron freezer paper to the BACK of the fabric as well! (of course, doesn’t work if you’ve already got fusing on the back of the fabric…)

which led me to muse:

As I was working on the first of my postcards, I had a flash: Mt. Fuji through the seasons. I’m honestly not sure where the idea came from…I was at the computer, the little TV next to it was on, and I think I was at my Webshots homepage…on either the TV or the computer screen there was a mountain (not Fuji), and the idea just materialized, fully-fledged, in my head. So here are what I think are the best of the bunch of postcards so far.

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

In addition to the verticals, which I have decided I will keep and mount on a quilted background (to enjoy and to use as a teaching example that will travel well), I also made two horizontals. Not sure if I will send one to FFAC or what…. I’m feeling particularly “partial” to these. I think I’ll send one, but which one??? Anyway, the only notable technique (fusing, of course, has gotten routine) is using paint for the snow on Fuji. Rather than fuss with tiny pointy, shred-y slivers of white cloth on top of dark (which would shadow through the white and make it look murky) I opted to use Jacquard opaque white textile paint with an overlay of Pebeo Pearl Setacolor Shimmer Opaque textile paint.

The easiest way to mask off an area and not get smudges in a use like this is to make a freezer paper stencil. Cut a piece of freezer paper that will give you a couple of inches all the way around the area to be stencilled. I then drew an outline of Mt. Fuji and two snow lines. Using my 18mm rotary cutter and small, sharp scissors (I used the Fiskars 6″ multi-purpose scissors) I cut out the snow portion of the mountaintop. Here’s a picture of it (laying on my notebook cover, since the inside of the scanner is white, which wouldn’t exactly provide good contrast!):

Position the stencil carefully to surround the area you want to paint. Iron in place. Using a sponge or stencil brush and a pouncing motion, or a flat paintbrush stroking from the paper to the open center, paint in the area to be stencilled. That “extra white” area around the mountain is where the stencil brush overlapped the cut edge, and what gives a nice crisp edge. You want to make sure the freezer paper is securely ironed along this edge, otherwise paint can leak underneath and make blobs and unsightly boo-boos.

Allow the paint to partially dry. If you pick it up too soon, you can get leaking / blobbing; see the vertical spring card above … I got a small blob, so daubed on a couple more bits of paint with the tip of a brush to make it look like small pockets of melting snow instead of a mistake. Ahem! If you leave the stencil on too long until the paint is completely dry, you may peel some of the paint off the fabric … not attractive! Here’s the spring horizontal of Fuji, which may be my most favorite of all the cards:

The Autumn Horizontal is the first card I quilted. I usually quilt stuff to death, but after quilting ridgelines in the snow, I decided in the other cards I would just outline the snow. Also, for this card, I pounced the lower edge of the snowline with the nearly-dry stencil brush to give it that “just-snowed” dusty look:

This card gave me the idea I should do the same composition but use Mount Kahtahdin here in Maine…..stay tuned (other priorities happening soon, but that’s an idea that will happen in due time!).

The painting is actually really easy….no skill required. And making the stencils is easy, too….just trace! I often take a photo, size it on my computer screen to the desired final size, then tape a piece of paper over the screen (even regular printer paper works…the screen is a virtual light table) and trace the outlines. If the final size of the picture is larger than my computer screen, I’ll just work on one section at a time. When that part is done, I scroll the image on the screen so that an inch or so of the first section appears, re-align the traced image, and keep going until done.

I’ve done the tracing technique for a couple of my 2006 journal quilts which I’ll be able to share at the beginning of November, once they have debuted in the Journal Quilt Project in Houston (and for more on that, visit here for the 2005 journals, for 2004, and for 2003). The Journal Project began in 2002, and a fantabulous new book documenting the Journal project, will be out by late October (and lucky me! I’ll have several pieces in it!), edited by IQA co-founder Karey Bresenhan (think of her as the fairy godmother and guardian angel of quilting, and major art quilting booster!) and published by Quilting Arts Magazine. Stay tuned for more on that one in about 6 weeks!

A brief diversion from postcards…

Recently, I came across a fiberartist that is new to me, but obviously not to many in the art quilt / textile art world: Nelda Warkentin. I am blown away by her work — it is exciting in a way that many pieced textile works are not, though I’m not sure I’ve figured out the “why” (at least for the “why” for me). You can see her work here. Also, there is a PDF of an article on /by her in Fiberarts here. Hope you enjoy the links!

back tomorrow I hope with the final installment in this series on postcards….

Here’s the second teaching series of postcards, plus a few more. In my previous post last week about making postcards, I showed how I build up a scene starting with a piece of stabilizer covered entirely with one fused bit of cloth. In this series, I am going to build up the background using several different fabrics. Rather than (a) waste fabric and (b) have double thicknesses, I like to use this method for most of my “scenics.” In this first sample, I have fused on the burgundy stripe for the sky and a chunk of blue for the focal point / distant mountains.

(Sidebar: I double-checked…the brand of stabilizer I used for these cards is Floriani Stitch and Shape, distributed by RNK….alas, they don’t seem to market their stuff through the quilting trade major wholesalers, although RNK does sell directly to shops. I’m hoping Maine-ly Sewing will be able to carry this product and have it on their web-shop, though. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know if Marjorie gets it in–price is comparable to Timtex, but you can buy it off the 15″ wide bolt, which means you have less waste when cutting because you can order a length that won’t leave you with scrawny strips of leftovers. No matter what, check out the website … Marjorie LOVES art quilting and has all sorts of cool stuff!)

This second card shows how I have sliced up a different, green-striped batik into shapes for the foothills and a third batik in the foreground.

Finally, you have a modern twist on Moon over the Mountains:

I made several other postcards using a layered background, and here are two using the same “colorwash” in blues. Both used slivers of fabric without fuse on. In both instances I used water soluble stabilizer over the “schnibbles” of brightly colored slivers. In Fireworks, I placed the slivers where I wanted them, spritzed one side of the water-soluble stabilizer (Dissolve by Superior Threads is my favorite…rinses out easily in cold water) with basting spray (Spray and Fix 505), then pressed the sticky side onto the schnibbles / front of the card. Then I quilted the card, then sprayed with water (a lot–if I hadn’t needed to take the postcard to a lecture the next day, I would have just soaked it in the sink…a better way to remove the Dissolve) to dissolve and remove the Dissolve.

In the second card, I cut a circle in the colorwash blues (batiks and my hand-dyes). I made a nest of schnibbles on the stabilizer, covered it with a square of Dissolve, then placed the fused colorwash over it. I fused the edges of the colorwash blues with the iron, but kept the iron off the Dissolve water-soluble stabilizer. Next, quilting by machine (heavily over the schnibbles). Then, you guessed it, heavy soak with the spray bottle and some blotting to remove the stabilizer.

Finally, I made a card using a single piece of cloth for the entire background. I placed gold and deep blue Angelina fibers over a stamp (large-ish…maybe 6 inches long) of a fern and “fused” them with a medium-temp. iron. I cut off the bottom to turn the fern into a tree. The star is a freezer paper stencil using Shiva paintstiks. To learn more about Shivas, visit Cedar Canyon Textiles. Shelley Stokes has written a very helpful book on using these stick paints, which you can also order from her.

And, being a wicked soul, I’m saving what I think are the best for last…stay tuned for the Mt. Fuji series and a mini-lesson on making freezer paper stencils (really easy!).