Project 11 and 12 CRQ Progress OMG April

This month I did not have much time to be creative. Between the children’s holidays and travel I did not managed to sit behind my sewing machine a lot. Enough though, to get two sets of blocks done. A good thing I participate in the One Monthly Goal organized by Patty at Elm Street Quilts. Otherwise progress would be much slower. As is, my aim for April was to finish the Friendship Block and the Family Block of the Cross Roads Quilt and yesterday, just in time managed to finish them. Hopefully next month I will have some more time to work on the quilt.

OMG April - Cross roads adventure

Easter weekend passed and I had not much time to craft as I spent most of the time with the kids, soaking up the sun, visiting the nautical show in the South of France and walking around. I knitted in the car as DHB was driving, only to find out that I had dropped a stitch and made an error so decide to frog some 30 rows back.

This weekend I need to get back to my cross road quilt, so far I managed to sew two sets of blocks and still a few are waiting already cut. So my One Monthly Goal for April of Elm Street Quilts is to sew two sets of blocks. Ideally I will sew three sets ..... however not sure how realistic that would be.

Post card exchange by Elm Street Quilts

We all have blogs we read, follow, appreciate. And then there are blogs that become among our favourite blogs to read. I don't remember how I first stumbled upon Patty's blog Elm Street Quilt, somewhere last year ....... And I became an avid reader. So when she proposed for readers to participate in a post card exchange, I did not hesitate. I had never made post cards, and this would be a way of learning something new, and use my stash as much as possible. Of course by sending a post card to someone unknown, also implied that I would receive a quilted card from someone unknown. After all there were 100 cards to be send, so the likelihood that I would receive a card from a quilter I knew were very very small. Needless to say that I love surprises.

As part of the exchange we were asked to provide one word as an indication for our quilting friend to work around. My favourite colour is blue, so no surprise here, I wrote blue.

And then it was waiting for my card to arrive, while I made mine.

The card arrived in a plastic see through envelope and was happy that it indeed arrived, because it is sooo cute. I wondered how many post workers went ooh and ah over the card as it came from the US to Europe.

The card has three little birds in a nest, all blue, and each a different fabric. Thank you Tammy,I love it, my kids love it.

Tammy used a different technique than I did. She had cut the fabric and appliqued it to the back ground fabric and embroidered "hello" on the card. The inner layers are batting and a carton layer all then sewn together with a blue thread.

This card gave me lots of ideas on how to make more myself. As I emailed Tammy to thank her, I joked that I saw a lot of fabric post cards in my future. And with my new sewing machine, I need to practice on lots of little projects to try out all the stitches.

As I was making my card I used Patty's instructions. They were very clear and helped me go through the process. While surfing for ideas I did a search for quilted postcards and found so many cards out there. And sites explaining how to make them and you tube videos.

I wrote about the making of my post card "grey" and made pictures of the different stages of my card

Once we had made our card, Patty has set up a page where we could upload our post cards. All ready to be published on post card parade day.

I am joined today by the following bloggers who are writing a post about the post card exchange. My big question now is of course when the next post card exchange will be.

Denise @ DottieDoodle
Isis @ Creation d'Isis
Karen @ Run Sew Fun
Lynette @ What A Hoot Quilts
Laura @ LC's Cottage
Lisa @ Sunlight in Winter Quilts
Marsha @ Quilter in Motion
Michelle @ Creative Blonde
Paige @ Quilted Blooms
Patty @ Elm Street Quilts
Sandra @ mmm! quilts
Susan @ California Fiber and Music
Valerie @ Val's Quilting Studio