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Several years ago, I was invited to join a postcard exchange. To my good fortune, the group was the original art2mail exchange group and I have been blessed to be a part of this group for 3 years. This is a fascinating group of women from the around the world. I’ve met most of them “online” through our discussion group, and had the pleasure to meet several members in person at various quilt shows and markets.

It’s always a challenge to figure out what to do for my postcards and I have used this exchange do try something that is not related to paintstiks. This year, I decided to pull out the felting machine and see how it works. While rummaging through my closet (which I will NOT be posting photos of…) I rescued a rather large bag of glorious silk fibers, wool roving, incredible yarns, and all manner of lovely stuff that I have not been able to resist taking home with me over the past 10 years. I also ran across a box of vintage eyelets I had tucked away, so those went into the pile as well.

After just playing with the machine for a bit, I settled on a simple design. (If you are going to make 30 postcards, keep it simple!) It was fun to choose the eyelet colors and find a pattern that complimented each card. For the backing, I found a little deck of self-adhesive card stock from the scrap booking section of a local craft store. I love it when I can peel and stick something to get it done quickly! The adhesive gummed up my needle as I stitched around the cards, but a little bit of solvent cleaned that right up.

I put a little bits of silk roving under the eyelets to add a little extra color and hide the white on the back of the card stock.

Now, I just have to stick on the stamps and got those cards in the mail! At least I know that I’m not the only member of the group sending out my 2007 exchange cards several months into 2008

I just got a few lovely photos from Mary Brandt, my trusy trade-show companion and special projects go-to gal. Mary loves to play with the paintstiks and try out new things, especially when she has a new pattern to work with. Mary got a copy of the Sassy Bag pattern from Lazy Girl Designs and just could not wait to put one together. Visit the Lazy Girl Designs website for more information and to see a video on the Sassy Bag.

Mary used our paintstiks to create the irregular stripes on the turquoise fabric for the bag flap. The light fabric on the bottom of the bag is a batik from her stash. This is a truly quick and easy technique that you will want to try for yourself, so here’s how it works:

1. Choose a relatively plain piece of fabric from your stash. Press to remove any wrinkles.
2. Tape your fabric to a work surface, or use a Grip-n-Grip mat under your fabric to keep it from moving around while you work.
3. Tear a piece of paper to create an uneven edge.
4. Lay the paper on your fabric, leaving about an inch of fabric exposed.
5. Apply paintstik color to a palette surface and load the paint onto a stiff brush.
6. Brush the color off the edge of the paper and onto the fabric.
7. Move the paper over about an inch, and continue to add stripes until you have enough painted fabric for your project.
8. Heat set your paint and get started!

OK. the official instructions are to let the paint dry and then heat set before moving on with a project, but there really is not much paint on your fabric when you make these soft stripes, so here is the “heat in a hurry” tip — Just put your fabric between 2 pieces of parchment paper (look in your kitchen for baking parchment) and press for 10-15 seconds over each part of the fabric. The paint will be dry enough to continue working without getting paint on your hands or sewing machine.

Mary tells me the Sassy Bag goes together very quickly. I may have to try one out myself. She was having so much fun that she painted another piece of fabric for a checkbook cover, and then finished off the set with a Wonder Wallet. That seems like way too much for one day.

Happy painting!

Hey there, paintstik fans. We had a lot of requests for some warmer colors in the minis, especially Barn Red. We hear you! A new set of colors has just come in from the factory. It’s called American Country and contains Barn Red, Yellow Ochre and Olive Green. Here is a little sample I put together to show off the colors.

These are matte colors (not shiny) and they are just perfect if you like traditional projects or just need some warmer colors without investing in full-size paints. After all, if you are stenciling, there is a LOT of paint in one of those minis! Don’t be too hard on your favorite retailer if you can’t find these in the next day or two. It takes more than a day or two to get everything into the pipeline.

Happy painting!

Welcome to the CCT Blog. It’s a challenge to keep up with the changes on the internet, but I decided it’s time to stick my toe into blog-land. For my first post, I thought I would take you along for a backstage pass.

At the end of January, I made another trip to Cleveland, Ohio to tape a couple of segments for Quilting Arts TV. When I looked around my hotel room, it looked like a bomb went off in my suitcase, spewing forth all the materials I so carefully packed for my segments . The quilts were laying around as I attempted to remove the wrinkles. I like to roll my quilts rather than folding them, but I didn’t have a good way to drag them though an airport in a long tube. Ah, well. The rest of the stuff? Well, let’s just say I didn’t quite have everything done when I left home. So what else is new…

This was my second trip to tape segments, so I didn’t feel like such a rookie. At least I had a fair idea of what to expect at the studio. Somehow I had it in my mind that taping for TV would be very glamorous. Silly me. It’s a ton of work to figure out what to say in the alloted time, come up with just the right set of steps and samples, and remember not to say the brand name for anything. After all, it is public television. I have no idea how Pokey Bolton (delightful hostess and editor of two incredble magazines) manages to figure out 13 segments and keep track of all her guests, not to mention the 13 changes of clothes. It gives me a totally new appreciation for the term “multi-tasking.”

The taping process itself is nothing short of amazing. Segments don’t get filmed in order — it all depends on who is available at what time on a particular day, and how to make the fewest changes on the set. I have no idea how they keep it all straight. I discovered that they have a magical wardrobe room that can save the day. When I pulled out my hot pink sweater and Pokey was wearing orange for one segment, we all looked at each other and said “I don’t think so!” Katherine rescued me with a perfect little jacket. She also graciously provided batteries when my camera quit. There is not much that they can’t take care of in a pinch. And thank heavens for a good make-up artist. I have to admit that she makes us look pretty darn good under all the heavy lights!

Here we are, ready to go!

The most exciting part for me is meeting the other guests. I had a delightful dinner with Jane Davila, Rayna Gillman and Clare Shipman on Sunday evening. Jane’s husband was a wonderful sport. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get a word in edge-wise with the 4 of us going on and on about this and that. I have to say that I’m very much in awe of the art that these ladies create. I feel very honored to meet them and see what they are doing.

So, the next time you watch Quilting Arts TV (or any program), you’ll have a little better idea of what happens to make those segments look so easy. You can read more about the taping and other guests by visiting the Quilting Arts Blog by editor Pokey Bolton. Enjoy the show!