catching up on things.....

Way back in July, my cousin Max, her daughter Emma and my sister Jane came down to visit.

One of the activities was making postcards.

To keep it simple, 

they used cards (cut up cereal boxes) that already had paint on them,

left over painted paper and words from my stash.

They both did a basic bird on the cards.

I never took a picture of the completed cards....

BUT,

Max sent me this photo. They painted a canvas dark purple, then used a toilet paper tube to make the white circles.

Emma's cards were then glued to it for wall art in her room. 

I thought it was so cool!

The peaches came in, and I started painting this old globe last month.

My middle son bought several boxes and we canned about 20 quarts.

It went pretty fast once we got going.

I also did some frozen peach pie filling.

Then a coworker of his had sweet corn that was going to waste. We went out there and picked a bunch. I spent yesterday freezing it. 

The globe is still not finished, but further along. All the land is black and the sea white. I am pretty sure the student I work with will be able to see the land masses much easier. 

June's block at block lotto was this sunrise block. 

I won these but I don't have a group shot of them all together. 

They are all just blocks yet, but I think I know what I will do with them.

I need to buy some more fabric! 

Officially these are called Spokes at block lotto. They are July's block. I was totally shocked when I won these too. I think of them as fireworks. 

This is the first batch of blocks that arrived in the mail along with mine.

August's block is called windows. These will make an awesome quilt. 

I donated all my chances for these. 

All the lotto block patterns can be found [HERE]

I bought the pattern and kit for this bag from Connecting Threads. It make two bags, one purple, one blue. I needed to get zippers, D-rings and strap stuff to make them.

I had to go to Des Moines for a few days to attend the Iowa Braille Summer Institute.

Helpful classes for when you are working with the visually impaired.

On the way I stopped for what I needed 

and finished one of the bags in the hotel room.

It is 9 1/2 inches wide. I want to make another one that is just a little wider now.

That black is the zipper, it just lays on top and is sewn down that way.

I like the look and will probably do more zippers that way on bags.

The Blue Earth Valley Quilters and Woodcarvers Expo is this weekend. Been getting ready for that. I still need to finish sewing a hanging sleeve for one little quilt. I better go do that, as we are setting up tomorrow! 

mail art.....

School started, and I haven't sewn in days.

Plus we were gone all weekend.

But....

I was reading about this prison library project at Giraffe Dreams.

I took two magazine pages and made envelopes out of them.

I added just a few other things that were already cut out.

I put a postcard in each one of them. 

(like the purple bird card)

I know they made it, they are posted! ( here at Postmarked 2012 )

It is fun looking at all the different things that have arrived there. 

cards

My mother-in-law needed some birthday cards for a couple of her girl cousins.

She wondered if I could make her some.

(she had talked to tractor joe, who said, "Mom needs 2 birthday cards")

I made a few birds with happy birthday on them,

postcard style

Hmmmm....there was hesitation as she looked.

This will work for one of them, but the other is turning 90,

and she is a quilter

and I need an envelope....

(tractor joe didn't get the details of what she was thinking)

Okay, back to the drawing board.

Now I had the details...

I made this one on card stock,

using fabric,

getting a quilt block on it,

 made sure it said 90,

and it is a real card with an envelope.

On my way to give them to her this morning!

graduation cards.....

Yesterday was the last day of school and graduation last night. I would have been happy enough to sit, drink some coffee and page through a magazine. Somerset Memories (spring 2011) to be exact.

Then something caught my eye on page 144.

It was a scrapbook page with the words....

spread your wings and fly

how perfect would that be for cards????

Next thing I knew I was at the kitchen table cutting up invitations that we had received.

Gwen, my cousin called while I was working. Her daughter graduates this year too. I told Gwen I didn't want to cut up the nice big picture of Lauren she had sent....or she would be getting one like this too. 

I am pretty sure we decided Gwen would be sending a smaller picture to be cut up.

Anyway, tractor joe grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of me on the phone, me and all my morning glory.

The first two are twins. Their party started at 9:00 am. It had already started when I was snapping photos.  We got there about 10:30 They were serving breakfast and was that ever good!

Anne's photo was already doctored on the invite...made her card look cool!

I've got more stuff.  Keepin' things short and sweet. I'll be back.

making cards.....

The kids are making mother's day cards. While they colored, so did I.

I wanted to make my Mom a card too. 

My master pieces were brought home. They got a squirt of my spray paint.

One became an envelope.....

...the other got cut up. It was about then I remembered tractor joe's mom!

I needed to make two.

The outside of the cards were painted yellow and orange. My tool of choice is a sponge that I cut up into small sections...and use over and over again. 

I was going to make the black and white fabric a border, but.... at the last minute, it became the stems for the flowers. It just seemed right.

Two cards, I needed another envelope. I found a scrap paper....and added more spray paint.

My envelopes are pretty basic.....

After cutting it square, I fold it in half, pinching only the very edges.

It should be cut at a nice 45 degree angle, I eyeball it and snip.

All the flaps are folded in. Here I decide which way will be up.

......and then glue down three of the flaps.

Wasn't sure what I wanted on the inside. I ended up with a heart, black &white fabric strip and cut out letters from the newspaper ads.

Found some stickers to add, and flowers that were cut from an ad selling flower arrangements.

When I had cut them out, I had no idea where I would use them, they became the perfect thing here.

The 'happy' is black letter stickers and I made a frame with a white ink pen.

This took me most of the morning to finish.

Here they are in the mailbox! They left this afternoon!

Mother's Day sure does seem early this year.