Not Quilts, But Still Fabric Fun!

I made these fabric postcards for three friends early in 2020. I browsed Pinterest for some ideas and made my own patterns. These turned out so fun that I wanted to keep them for myself!

(click on photos to enlarge)

A Little Thank You

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about winning some luscious fabric from Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber blog. In return, I made this very simple postcard for her from the selvages of all ten of her hand-dyed pieces that are now in my stash.

All I did was use my basic selvage postcard tutorial, put a first-class stamp on the back, and take it to the post office for delivery. And it showed up in her mailbox several days later...Vicki tells me that the postcard arrived in good shape.

Thank you, again, Vicki, for the great giveaway!

Another AAQI Donation

My quilt for this month's AAQI donation is a birthday postcard I made using my selvage postcard technique (the tutorial is on my blog sidebar). Hopefully, someone will buy it as a gift for someone else and the proceeds will go to research for an Alzheimer's Disease cure. Be sure to check out all the quilts for sale or auction on the AAQI website.

Just A Little Thank You

This is a postcard I recently sent to Karen Griska of Selvage Blog to thank her for picking me as a winner in one of her recent giveaways. I'm hoping it has arrived in her mailbox already.

Thanks again, Karen!

Giving Thanks

Many of you may know that Kelly of I Have a Notion had a month of giveaways recently (and perhaps some of you entered and won). I entered a few of them myself and was thrilled when Kelly contacted me and told me that I had won one of the prizes -- a DVD on quilting feathers from Patsy Thompson! Whoohoo --- now I can be Patsy Thompson when I grow up! (well, maybe not quite).

Anyway, in order to thank the two of those lovely ladies, I made up a couple of selvage postcards and sent them on their way.

I told Kelly that she is a "Timeless Treasure", so I sent her some flowers (in selvages, that is).

Thank you again, ladies!

Just A Little Thank You

This postcard is for Sara, who picked me as the winner of her giveaway of a Loralei fabric panel. Some of the selvages are from the fabric she sent. Check out her blog sometime -- I especially like the mini snowflake quilt that she made for a swap partner.

Thanks again, Sara!

Another March Birthday

Another one of my quilting BFF's is having a birthday today (Happy Birthday, Madalene!), so of course, I had to make a fabric postcard for her. The purples are really much purplier in person (and much prettier). You can see the postcard I made for her last year at the bottom of this post.

Madalene makes exquisite art quilts and has done some wonderful things with snow dyeing fabric (among other things). You must take a look at her blog. And while you're there, wish her a happy birthday!

For a BFF

One of my BFF's in the quilting world, Dori, is having a birthday today (Happy Birthday, Dori!), so I sent her this postcard to wish her a wonderful day. I've noticed that she seems to like the yellow and blue combination for quilts, so I thought these fabrics would be appropriate. One or two of them might even be some scraps that she gave me.

You can see the postcard I made for her last year here.

P(ay) I(t) F(orward) Gift Received

Shortly before Christmas, I received a wonderful "Pay It Forward" package from Bree of me and my 2 guys. She sent some Down Under-themed goodies -- four coasters made from an Aboriginal-inspired print (love the cool quilting on them), and two pieces of fabric featuring Australian native flowers and birds. The fabric is too pretty and unique to cut up right away, so I think I'll just admire it for a while.

I did make use of the selvages, however, as you can see by the thank you postcard I made for Bree...

I loved participating in a quilty PIF project -- if you want to see what I made for someone else, check my blog post here. According to the PIF "rules", I still need to make something for two other people, so if you're interested, keep your eyes open for when I have signups...

From Across the Border

Heather, a Canadian blogging friend at Books and Quilts, recently had a giveaway and sent me this luscious fabric that she had used in a fabric challenge on her blog. You can see the wonderful blocks that were made by the participants in this post here.

As a thank you to Heather, I made this selvage postcard for her using the selvages from the fabric she sent. (I'm getting quite predictable with the thank you cards I send nowadays).

If you'd like to make some of these yourself, a PDF version of my postcard tutorial is available on my blog's sidebar.

Thank you, Heather!

Appreciation

You may remember that I recently won a couple of giveaways that I blogged about in this post. Of course, gifts require thank yous. So...

I made this postcard for Janice from the UK using selvages from the fabric I won in her giveaway.

And this one was for Brooke and Greg in Kansas, again using the selvages from the fabric they sent.

A tutorial for these postcards can be found on my sidebar.

Thanks again Janice and Brooke and Greg!

Postcard Tutorial Now in PDF Format

Today is my friend Susan's birthday (go to her blog and wish her well), so I couldn't let the day go by without making a selvage postcard for my blogging partner-in-crime. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!

And I recently found out that another quilting friend had a birthday a couple of weeks ago (she's very good at keeping secrets) , so she got a card as well (even though it was a tad late).

The tutorial that I posted in a blog post here, is now available in PDF format here.

My Cup Overfloweth

I think I've finally caught up with all the thank yous that I needed to send out this summer. This first selvage postcard is for Anina of Twiddletails to thank her for organizing the nine-patch swap that I participated in. Since a lot of the selvages on the card had circles, I secured the diagonal one using a small circle/large circle fancy stitch on my Bernina.

The second selvage postcard is to thank Megan for the adorable 30s fat quarters I won in the giveaway on her Will Work for Fabric blog. The selvages in this postcard came from the FQs she sent me.

Here's a shot of the box of goodies that arrived from her. In addition to the FQs, she sent a nice pattern and an adorable golf tee pin cushion. How cute is that?

And of course, I had to fold the FQs using the method I blogged about here.

The last postcard is for Kheli of Remember Your Karma who sent me a box containing various pieces of lovely fabric, some embroidery floss, and a few other little goodies. Some of the selvages in the postcard came from the fabric she sent.

Kheli's postcard is the one that I used in my fabric selvage postcard tutorial here.

Thank you again to all these wonderful bloggers!

Fabric Selvage Postcard Tutorial

As promised, here is my attempt at a tutorial. There are several other postcard tutorials out there on the net, but I've tweaked them a bit to make what works for me. If you make a selvage postcard using these instructions, please let me know if you had any difficulty following the steps. And, of course, I'd love to see your final results! And if I can get it to work, I plan to make a PDF file available on my blog someday. Updated -- link to the PDF is on my blog's sidebar.

This tutorial is for non-commercial personal use ONLY. Feel free to share with others, but please give the author (me) credit. NO COMMERCIAL USE ALLOWED. Thanks.

Supplies --

-- one 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of white/cream fabric for the back of the postcard

-- one 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of fusible fleece (fusible on one side only)

-- one 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" piece of fusible web (I used Heat 'n Bond Lite)

-- thread (at first I thought I'd use red, but changed my mind to pink after I had the selvages arranged)

-- permanent fabric marker

-- fabric selvages

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1. Center the fusible web on the wrong side of the white fabric and iron on. When cool, remove the paper backing. Set aside.

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2. On the fusible fleece (fusible side up), arrange the selvages the way you like, making sure to overlap the finished edge of a selvage on top of the unfinished edge of the previous selvage. Once you have decided on a design, with the iron gently fuse the selvages onto the fleece. This will help keep the selvages on while you sew them on the machine.

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3. Sew the selvages onto the fusible fleece, sewing very closely to the finished edge of each selvage strip. In this sample I used a straight stitch, but I've also used a small zigzag stitch at times.

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4. Trim the selvages to about 1/4" all the way around the fusible fleece. Discard the trimmed off pieces of selvage (unless they're long enough to be used in a future project).

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5. If your sewing machine has an alphabet stitch and you choose to embroider a message across the front of the postcard, press the unfinished edge of another selvage piece under (wrong sides together) 1/4" or so.

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6. Sew this selvage strip on, sewing very closely to the pressed edge. Here I've used a straight stitch, but a fancy stitch would look nice, too.

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7. Stitch your message on this strip, making sure you don't start or finish too close to the edge (the card will be trimmed a bit later). You could also just stitch the message on one of the selvages already on the card if there is enough white space.

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8. Center the white fabric on the unfusible side of the fleece and fuse the pieces together. Let it cool.

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9. Trim the card to 4" x 6".

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10. Satin stitch all the way around the edges of the card.

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11. Using a permanent fabric marker, write "POSTCARD" on the top of the back side. Write your message and heat set the writing. (I usually add my personal label before I satin stitch around the edges).

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12. Add a FIRST CLASS STAMP (not a postcard stamp) and take it to the post office to be hand-cancelled. Don't let the clerk tell you it needs additional postage! I've sent these (from at least three different post offices) to Oregon, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, North Carolina, and a number of other states, as well as locally with no problem at all.

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That's it. Have fun!

To see samples of my postcards, just click on the "postcard" label on my blog's right sidebar.