check, it's in the mail

I got an acknowledge- ment of receipt today from one of the folks in my postcard group so, as requested, here's a look at the FRONT of the one I saved for me.

I'm not quite done with my contributions for the book exchange, but I'm thisclose. I decided against beading for the black and white and red page in Dinah's book. Since the books are going to be bouncing around in the mails in three countries on two continents, it occurred to me (in the nick of time) that it might not be the best idea to have lumpy, sharpish things sticking up from the pages. Enter Sequins. The slow-drying glue will have finished working its magic by tomorrow, then I can post a picture and post the thing itself -- yes really -- on Tuesday.

first edition

This was interesting -- making an 'edition' of something.
Here are the 20 postcards for the exchange I joined drying in one of the bookcases (also a glimpse of high and low reading material that has, so far, survived my six-bags-full "get rid of the books!" frenzy...).


I had my usual trouble figuring out how to finish the pieces and wrestled with the backs more than is reasonable. Next time, I think I will print the backs on the computer, especially if I decide again to use a longish quotation as the message. Penning in "People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things around us --Iris Murdoch" twenty times was more exercise than I'm used to.

Meanwhile, the first of the books for the Australia-sparked exchange has come in -- and I learned that I completely misunderstood the size of the intended pages. So this is a case where procrastination is good -- the pages are half the size I imagined (but twice the size my sputtering research suggested). So I can now get started on that in earnest.

awake again

Okay. I'm up.
Three days in a row I've been awake for more than about 40 minutes at a time. Behold!, the power of homemade chicken soup and garlic.
And so I got going on the cards for a postcard swap I joined via postmark'd art [http://www.postmarkdart.com/]. I first thought about doing some kind of leaf study, then I thought about doing something for a moonbow idea I've been harboring for a while. I did a moonbow sketch and pulled fabrics, but... no... that won't do. Then I remembered I had some quilt blocks that weren't going together in quite the way I'd hoped and that were about the right size. Where... where... ah! in the downstairs room that has become an attic. Whilst cleaning -- yes, I'm awake enough to tackle a small portion of the ongoing excavations -- I came across yards-and-yards of something I'd bought while in thrall to Stack-and-Whack. Yes! These go together and the flowers are the right size for a medallion. Off I go.

Today I discovered a heretofore unsuspected superpower -- I can (almost) melt Mistyfuse with my bare hands. I'm not sure this is useful, but I will try to use my power for Good.

Forging on... Misty-fused the medallions to the blocks, Fast-2-Fused the blocks and backing together, and discovered yet another reason to hate math. F-2-F is 28 inches wide. You'd think that meant you could get seven 4-inch pieces across the width. You'd be wrong, you get almost 7. I understand the bit about cutting lumber where you have to account for the thickness of the saw blade when you measure, but come on... how thick is a rotary blade? Thick enough, I guess.

Now I just need to unearth the sewing machine... I know I brought it back from the April retreat, it's got to be here somewhere... find some thread that goes-with, and Finish. It's good to be back.

Oh, addendum to the postcard exchange lore posted previously: Make one for yourself so you have a complete set.

land of nod

I've been almost but not quite coming down with something for a couple of weeks. The main symptom of this thing has been an irresistible compulsion toward 15-hour naps relieved by half-hours of diminishing alertness.

In those fleeting moments of alertness I have managed to help coordinate a postcard exchange and learned a couple of helpful tips for getting going. To wit:
1. Set up a yahoo group. Set it up so that the personal info of the people in the group is available only to other members of the group.
2. Keep track of the folks who can't or won't yahoo and keep them informed of what's going on.
3. Once you have your major points settled -- theme or no theme, mail-by date, who's in and who's not -- make a list or table or spread sheet so you can keep track of whom you've sent to (and received from).
4. Make and send cards to five people at a time so you don't get into a major mass-production weekend or all-nighter the day before the mail-by, and -- I thought this was especially brilliant -- so people start getting cards almost immediately.

Whatever I was not quite coming down with seems, as of today, to have been routed by chicken broth laced with shocking amounts of garlic so I expect to have more to report sooner rather than later.

Looking forward.