There's no place like Home

When you are on the road and away from home as often as I've been lately, you start appreciating that space you identify as home. Everyone's definition and description of home is different. Here's Pat's interpretation in the form of a fabric ATC and postcard. Both are little gems.

Can't stop admiring the details of embroidery and the beaded edge. I've made heart themed ATC's for a swap but this is the first in my collection.
My dream home will have a fireplace and on winter nights there will be smoke curling out of the chimney and a garden.
Thank you Pat for these exquisite little pieces of art. I have yet to begin on my part of the swap but I'll surprise you sometime soon.

I'm off again on a craft project at the end of the week. I'll be back in a fortnight to appreciate once more the comforts and quirks of the place I call home until then have fun and stay safe.

Leaves - March

Ann made this page for me.She sketched the oak leaves in her garden and then quilted the page.

Ann has made three pages for me. Two got lost in transit and finally the third made it from Berlin to Bangalore.

The reverse of the page and the most exquisite little ATC with fabric origami flowers. Thank you Ann, I really appreciate the persistence and effort you've made to make a page for me three times over.

Waiting for April Showers

Its hot with not a cloud in the sky, so as I wait for April showers let me show you what I have been upto.

ATC's for the 2009 swap on Stitchinfingers.I think everybody has recieved theirs so I can show you a picture of what I created.

Gina and Juliette have conspired and created a monthly swap, so if you are a fibre fiend here's your opportunity to explore a new format. More information here. A glass of lime juice is the best thirst quencher when the mercury touches 35 or there abouts and continues to rise. I've been crocheting these glass covers for my glass of lime juice and wondering ...... would anyone buy them if I started an Etsy shop. Would you? ( See Priya I'm actually working towards the Etsy shop ,this is the market survey) Obsessively making graphs of heart patterns. I've got enough to start a second sampler!!!! I've come to conclude with all the hours of blog hopping that the form of the heart is number one in the fibre world. Grapes to make homemade wine. It will get made tonight.

Finally I need to give credit to the invert tool in photoshop which provided me with a couple of hours of fun and the pictures in this post.

Another post about ATC's

I began this blog last year around this time.Its been an eventful year full of learning thanks tothe various interactions blogging affords you .
One such was the world of ATC's and the first opportunity to participate was Cyber Fyber .
Susan Lenz is a fiber artist and the brain behind the Cyber Fyber exhibition - an intenational event which focuses on the influence of internet access for fiber artists today.
I exchanged a postcard and an ATC with Susan. See them here. Susan has videos of the ATC's and postcards she has recieved if you'd like to see how varied they can be.
On Stitchin Fingers I joined the Fiber ATC group and did a couple of swaps, adding to my modest but growing collection of fiber ATC's.
Here's one I swapped with Anna. in the UK. I call this one "My Hippy Heart".

This one which I call "Heart of Gold" I sent to Gina in Australia who organised the first swap on Stitchin Fingers.Apologies for the blurry pic. I've joined the ATC trading group on Yahoo which has trades of cards in all sorts of media but I'm lurking for the moment because those trades are pretty elaborate ones but I'm learning new things there too - Steampunk for one.I wasn't aware of it as a genre until a couple of months back!

Now if you'd like to get started and trade ATC's there's The International Random ATC Swap which is a part of the Cyber Fyber event. Read about it here.

Cyber Fyber

I was alerted to the fantastic Cyber Fyber Exhibition while reading a post by Anna on her blog Serendipity .I was apparently not the only one because from what I've seen most people participating in The Take it Further Challenge are also participating in the Cyber Fyber Exhibition!

"CYBER FYBER EXHIBITION is an international event scheduled at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, USA from January 8th through 20th, 2009. The focus of this exhibition is to highlight the influences of Internet access for today's fiber artists."

Well, my participation in the exhibition is certainly the result of internet access and blogging. Blogland has opened up vast new vistas for me. Interacting virtually with people through their blogs who are geographically living half way round the globe is an enriching experience.

I'm trading ATC #81 and Postcard# 132 with Susan Lenz. By the time I got round to putting in a request to trade almost all 130 ATC's and 163 Postcards had been spoken for but I'm glad I'm participating. Now by some stroke of luck if I can be in South Carolina between Jan 8th and 20th 2009 the whole virtual to real experience will be complete!

Here are the ATC and Postcard I've created for the swap

The ATC is a little landscape - I think I was influenced by all the description of miniature paintings in "My name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk which I have put down for a while. The landscape is made of bits of tussar silk,embroidery and sequins. All hand embroidered and finished. The reverse has hand embroidered details of name, place, year and blog address on muslin.

The postcard has hand pieced tussar silk patchwork embellished with embroidery and sequins.The entire piece is handmade, the reverse has hand embroidered details of name, place, blog address and year on unbleached muslin.

Well I hope Susan will like them.I've had fun creating my first ATC and Postcard.I'll be visiting the post office in a day or two.