Do You Make Your Own Christmas or Holiday Cards?

     Should I make my Christmas cards this year or should I just buy a set and send them out? That's the question I pose each year. If I make them, I like to do it in the summer when I'm less busy and then they are ready to go. But I forgot to do it this summer. And I'm not one of those artists that can just slap a collage together. I take a long time to make design decisions. I'm getting quicker about it than I used to be. This week, I decided that I would give myself two days to put together a design and finish a small art quilt for a card cover. If I didn't accomplish that, then I would purchase cards.
     I began by choosing a previously monoprinted fabric for a background. I thought I wanted it to be zen-like. So I chose another previously monoprinted fabric in a complimentary color and cut out a sun shape and hand embroidered it onto the background which I had placed onto batting.

in progress

     Then I got the idea to put a bird and a saying on it. For inspiration, I browsed through my book Inspired to Quilt by Melanie Testa, which has helped me often. And I reviewed my notes from a class called Spirit Cloth 101 which I took from Jude Hill. That class not only showed me many marvelous techniques in hand stitching, but it also passed on the art of story telling in cloth. And the great news is that the class is now open to all for free. Here is a link to it.
     So I finished it up by thread stitching a bird with my sewing machine onto commercial fabric, cutting it out close to the stitching, and hand sewing it onto the background. Then I embroidered branches using two colors of embroidery floss (3 strands) in a wrapped back stitch. I printed out text onto white cotton muslin, cut them out and hand stitched them on. Next, I cut out a piece of commercial fabric an hand sewed it on with embroidery floss. To finish it up, I added a piece of fabric on the back, and then I used two colors of embroidery floss and whip stitched around the edges (6 strands of the dark teal and 3 strands of the rust).

Joy and Peace

     I plan to scan the image in the computer and add a frame. I'll use that for the cover of the card. I'll put some text for inside the card and take it to a printing company and have them print the cards for me. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see how it looks as a printed card. Of course, the watermark won't be on it.  If it doesn't look good, then this year will be about store-bought cards. At least I tried and I ended up with a small art quilt. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

     

Be Happy

I found out today that my second prayer flag quilt was also not accepted into a showing in which I had hoped to be selected. It was for QuiltingArts Magazine's "Text Me" challenge. I'm trying to be upbeat in spite of that. Here is my entry:

Spread Peace 2

You can see similarities and differences between this quilt and Spread Peace 1 quilt (which I still need to change in the area of the monk to make a better design).

I'm very happy with the fabrics that I created for these quilts and will continue to make some quilts with fabrics like them. I feel like I'm onto a worthwhile series. I'm also hoping to make some more quilts with prayer flags as the theme. Once I fix up Spread Peace 1, I'll enter it into another exhibit.
     I must say that I'm not used to getting rejected. When I was a science teacher (which I was for 23 years), I worked hard and strived to be the best teacher I could and my work was always evaluated objectively (as it should be in science). I could therefore know ahead of time if I was performing up to par or not since I knew what the criteria was. But with art, my works are evaluated subjectively (as they should) so I can't tell how I'm doing when I enter a piece into a show or a challenge. I have to get used to that.
And, I think, the bottom line is that I make my art to please me. I hope others like it and I want it to be exhibited (and sold to those who like it), but that isn't my main purpose. I'm very lucky that I'm retired from my other career and now I can pursue a passion just for me.

Reflection

Well, I got an email that my prayer flag quilt did not get accepted into the exhibit. Even though I am disappointed, I do like the quilt and it has a lot of meaning to me. The whole idea of prayer flags is very spiritual to me and I plan on developing the concept deeper in future quilts. I think this rejection pushes me harder into trying to see what I can create around the concept of prayer flags. Here is a photo of the quilt. I think how I portrayed the monk is a weakness in the composition. I'm not sure what the problem is, but somehow he just doesn't seem to fit in to me. Perhaps I'll take him off or cover him up with something else sometime in the future. The text on the flags and in the background says "Peace on Earth" in many different languages. The name of the quilt is "Spread Peace". Any comments you have would be appreciated.

Spread Peace