Quilted postcard

It's Max's last week of school, and we wanted to give his teacher a thank-you gift. Monetary things aren't allowed, and we couldn't think of anything she needed for the classroom, so I was stuck for a while. But then, brainstorming with a pal at work, I suddenly realized, what about a thank-you quilted postcard? Yeah, I could do that! Here's what I did with some fabrics, thread, and beads from my stash, plus some photos I printed onto fabric with our Ink Jet printer. Not bad, eh? Recognize the picture? Just couldn't resist, it was so darn cute!

I'm really pleased with how the trees above blend into the fabric. Lucky I had this gorgeous green stuff in the stash. And I like the contrast with the blue on the back. Like the "stamp"? It's a picture from Max's first day at school, in front of his new cubby.

The fun rainbow variegated thread really pulled it all together. And it only took about 3 hours to assemble! Printed the photos and text, cut the fabrics, stitched the photos and text onto each piece of fabric individually (with some interfacing underneath to stabilize) added some stitching to highlight the arches in the picture on the front, sandwiched with some batting, and stitched around the edge. That was 2 hours, then quick random loopy quilting around the border from the top side for a little interest, plus machine-beading with as little help from Max as I could manage, and it was done (1 more hour, he watched some video about firefighters for the first half hour, then tried to "help" for the second).

Hmm. I think I should make all my quilts this size from now on. It's a very satisfying process - zip, bam, done. Just the design work and a little assembly, not all that repetition that you need for something meant to actually cover a bed. Very fun. I highly recommend the postcard quilt for a quick hit of quilting when the need strikes.