ATC from Australia

I received another wonderful atc today from Susan who lives in Perth, Australia!! It has some lovely beads on it and a sweet little owl.  What is so neat too is that I'm an avid bird watcher and was fortunate enough to spot a large Snowy Owl recently and was able to take some photos.  Thank you Susan for the lovely card, note and fabulous atc!!

Crazy Quilt atc

I've never done any crazy quilting but certainly love how they look and all the fabulous materials, designs and stitching on them.  This lovely, colourful, flowery and beaded atc came from Linda. Thank you very much!!  It's lovely.  Thank you as well for the delightful birthday card :)

Feathered friends atc

Another wonderful letter in the mail yesterday for the birthday atc swap!!!  This came all the way from Marja in the Netherlands.  On the note card Marja wrote that the birds on my atc are from silk rods that she had dyed. I love the blue and white fabric and also the cute bird decoration she sent as well.  What a great idea this birthday atc swap is on the stitchin' fingers site :)

Birthday ATC's

 Who doesn't enjoy going to the post office and picking up nice fat envelopes that you know have some stitched goodies inside or wonderful artist trading cards!  Two more arrived today & I'm just tickled pink.  All the way from Singapore, Ellen tatted this lovely poppy for me and sent stamps, birthday greetings and sequins.  Thank you Ellen!!!

Tahlia in Washington made me this neat crazy quilt and hand embroidered atc for my birthday.  Tahlia wrote that she picked these fabrics to celebrate happy domesticity and healthy gardens. Thank you very much Tahlia.  I love the atc, card, note and owl ribbon :)

Paisley atc

I'm not quite finished as I still have to put a back on it but this is my latest atc for the stitchin fingers birthday swap and it will soon be heading to Susan in Perth, Australia.

Birthday swap atc's

 This year I signed up for the artist trading card birthday swap on stitchin fingers and this first one that I received came from Annette in New Zealand.  It is called "yellow experiment" and Annette described it as an international piece as the fabric was dyed in Tennessee using local native plants, the wool was dyed using NZ plants & stitched by Annette who is an Australian living in NZ & sent to me in Canada.  Wow - the materials in this delightful atc sure have covered a lot of ground!!  Thank you very much Annette!  It's a treasure :)

 My 2nd birthday atc came from Eileen in Buckinghamshire, England.  The poppies and grass look like they were free-form machine stitched and framed by a piece of felt.  It is so nicely done and of course I love poppies!! Eileen also generously included a pkg of silk embroidery thread in her card.  Thank you very much Eileen :)

A closer view to see the machine stitching.

7th ATC for EAC swap

 I stitched this peacock on my TAST band sampler last week using the detached chain stitch & liked it so much that I thought it'd also look nice on an atc.  Also got in some practice of the chain stitch on the sides which is this weeks TAST challenge.

All seven of the atc's I've made for the EAC swap.  Think I'm stopping now but a friend said she has some silk paper cloth that she's going to give me so perhaps I'll make just one more.

Sixth ATC

As I've mentioned in a few previous posts, EAC is having an atc challenge and the deadline is March 15th, 2012.  This is the 6th one I've made for the swap.  I sewed the leaves using free form machine sewing on a piece of blue polyester overlayed with a piece of organza and then did 3 kinds of flowers: 1 small pink lazy daisy, 3 purple buttonhole and 1 large yellow and orange flower using the whipped spider web stitch with a lot of french knots. I was going to try to make 10 for the swap but am running out of steam.  I have one more in the works & I think that's going to be it for this year.

Another sleepy face atc

In my previous post I mentioned the EAC atc challenge with the deadline of March 15th.  I had made one very similar to this for my daughter and enjoyed quickly stitching up another one for the EAC swap :)

Butterfly atc

The Embroiderer's Association of Canada is once again hosting an Artist Trading Card Challenge.  The deadline for the challenge is March 15 and is fast approaching!  I only have 2 made so far for this swap and hope to make at least a couple more.  Last year I made 8 but also last year I wasn't doing a TAST challenge.  Anyways, this butterfly atc is for the EAC atc swap and will be sent to someone in Canada. Learning stitches through Sharon's TAST is helping me put different stitches on my atc's too :)

Peacock atc

I made a very similar peacock atc a few weeks ago for a member of the birthday atc swap group I'm in on the stitchin' fingers site.  My eldest daughter likes peacocks too and she and I have been exchanging a few atc's so I made her this one.  I used my soldering iron to cut out the peacock shapes and stitched them on to this piece of felt with gold coloured thread.

Two Birthday atc's

 Finished off the cross-stitch butterfly atc with practicing the herringbone stitch on the top and bottom to set it off a bit more.  It will be on it's way tomorrow to Singapore as part of the ATC Birthday swap that I'm involved with on the stitchin' fingers site.

I posted this one a few days ago but didn't have a card ready.  This floral atc is going to New Zealand.

Floral artist trading card

This year I'm participating in an international birthday atc exchange on stitchin' fingers. For everyone participating we have 2 atc's to make for February and this one will be going to New Zealand.  Seeing as how I'm learning new stitches from TAST, for this atc I used the feather stitch, fly stitch, buttonhole, chain and straight stitch. The next one on my agenda will be going to Singapore but I'm not sure yet what my design will be.  It's definitely a fun swap!

Sleepyhead atc

The idea for this came from:  1,000 Artist Trading Cards: Innovative and Inspired Mixed Media ATCs by Patricia Bolton (Paperback - Apr 1 2007). I stitched the face with embroidery thread and the hair was from a small bag of miscellaneous thread that I found in my catch-all crafty drawer.

Peacock atc

This year I joined 13 other women on the stitchin fingers site for a birthday atc swap and this little bird is now on its way to the January birthday girl in our group.  This peacock turned out completely different from what I had originally thought I'd do. I was going to do rows of different coloured feathers encircling the peacock but I liked this tapestry material so much that that's all I used.  I added a few stitches with gold thread and am pleased with the results.

Christmas Gnome atc

I've been so far behind on an atc exchange because of all the Christmas crocheting I've been doing lately.  The theme was anything Christmassy so I sat there pondering on what to make.  The possibilities are endless but I looked at a little bag of candy wrappers that I've saved, a scrap of red felt that was on the table left over from who knows what plus a wad of cotton batting and so this little Christmas gnome came to life.

Pumpkin ATC

And this is the wonderful pumpkin atc that my daughter painted for me!!  I love the expression on his face! :)

Boo Artist Trading Card

There are so many ideas for making Halloween atc's that I had to make a ghost one too.  Our cat MooShoo, who has to stick her nose into everything had to come & see what I was doing and of course bat the spool of thread around :)

Halloween Artist Trading Card

My daughter & I have begun to trade artist trading cards with one another & last night I took a break from stitching on my mystery sampler & crocheting snowflakes to make this atc for her.  I'm certainly looking forward to receiving one of her neat designs!

Strawberry ATC

Can't take any credit for this delightful little strawberry artist trading card. It was made by Joyce & came all the way from Cornwall, P.E.I.  Sometimes the simple designs are the best.  I like the background fabric & the ribbon embroidery on the strawberry.  Very sweet.  Thanks Joyce!  :)