A Grateful Thank You

At last, the postcards I received from the Art Quilts Around the World - Playing Card Swap. The Ace of Clubs is from Marion in Victoria, Australia. I love the idea of using buttons for the clubs and the textural stitching in the background adds an interesting element. The Queen of Hearts is from Lynn. I saw her blog post about how she made this card and just loved it. Imagine my surprise when the queen showed up in my mailbox a few days later.

Simone from Holland sent me the Ace of Spades. It was hard to photograph all the intricate embellishments she did on the spade. It is covered in black ribbon, tulle and numerous different stitches. The Two of Diamonds arrived "naked" from Chloe, also of Victoria. I can't believe how white it stayed traveling around the world in the post. Thank you ladies!

I planned to blog about the postcards in August but my house has been in such turmoil that I could never find all of the postcards at one time.

Some of the postcards arrived wrapped in greeting cards that featured the art quilts from the artists. I love this idea! Marian's "Urban Trees" featuring her quilt from the "Trees" Challenge

Lynn's Art Quilt featuring her friend Patty

And two items from Lynn's Etsy Store. One of her beautiful photo cards and this wonderful CD:

I was her first Etsy customer when I purchased this Relaxation Bliss CD back in July. It couldn't have come at a better time in my life. Thanks Lynn!

I was one of the lucky winners of this "Winter Woolies" Tree Skirt Pattern from Tammy Tadd Designs. Tammy's mom Velda designed this wonderful whimsical pattern. Thanks Tammy and Velda! Oh and have I mentioned that Tammy's Store was one of the Top Ten Shops in the last Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler magazine? Congratulations!!

A huge surprise from Bindu. Three bookmarks she sent me as a thank you gift. I love them!

Bindu is such a talented artist. She has talked about opening a shop on Etsy. I hope she does someday...

Wishing you all well!

Chris

A Little More From Paducah

I enjoyed exploring downtown Paducah.


The town is full of beautiful architecture.

River towns always have such grand old buildings, allowing a peek at times past when river commerce was king.

As a child I spent a weekend with my aunt and uncle swimming on the shore of the Ohio River. The river was as I remembered it, barges pushing coal and gravel up and down the river to some distant place.

If you are ever in Paducah make sure you take time to see The Wall or "Wall to Wall".

Murals painted by artist Robert Dafford cover the flood walls that protect the downtown area. Each panel depicts a different aspect of the local area history. I tried to find a link to more information about the wall but what I found was very limited. So instead I leave you with this link to the National Quilt Museum located 1 block north of the wall. This year the museum had a special display "Best of Show: 25 years of Quilting Excellence". It was a wonderful opportunity to see how quilting has changed in such a short span of time. This is a trip I will never forget.

Greetings from South Dakota

The name of my blog inspired the idea for the art quilt above. When I started my blog I thought it would be fun to treat my blog entries like postcards to friends and family members. This is a continuation of work for our local Art Quilt group. We are working from "Art Quilt Workbook" by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. One of the first activities in the book is to recreate a photo using fabrics. The buffalo in this quilt was reproduced from a photo taken at Custer State Park. I decided he (or she?) would make a great postcard. I surrounded the buffalo with photo transfers of postcards that I collected from our travels and two vintage postcards from my grandmother. The vintage postcards are actually souvenir folders. Each includes 20 photos of the area. They were published in the 1930's. Postage to send these was 1-1/2 cents.

I have two more quilts completed and a 4th to start and finish before the mail goes out on Saturday. These mini quilts will be on display along with others from the Wisconsin Quilters Inc. Guild at the Madison Quilt Expo. Dates for the show are September 11th - 13th.

This quilt is called "Iron Mountain Road".

Here is "Roots in South Dakota" completed.