ATC Holder

Day 9: 31 Day Blog Challenge. Random picture of the day: Crazy quilt square

I have a new camera.  I needed another, easily transportable, camera because the battery cover of the old one broke off. Apparently, you can buy battery covers, which is all I need, but my camera is too old to get such a thing. Anyway, it is a good excuse to get a new one. It's a Canon Powershot.  I tested it out. Zeus likes it.

Since I am working on a binding for the Droid quilt, it has made me think of my next project I want to start.  There are so many, but I think I should do something that has been on my list for a long time. I do not know if people still make ATCs, but I've been wanting to make a holder for it since they were popular.

An ATC is an Artist Trading Card. It is a tiny art piece, exactly 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  It can be made out of fabric or paper.  It is always gifted and not sold.

I made a prototype of an ATC holder.  I want to make a quilt with folded corners that will hold ATCs.    Something like Kate's Advent Calendar, which I also want to make, but I picture this one to be bigger. Right now I am thinking 100 or so spaces, even though I don't have 100 or so ATCs. Here is my sample. This is using fabric that is already out, but the plan is to use neutral fabrics so that the ATCs can shine on their own. I did think about keeping the inside fabric slightly patterned, so that it wouldn't look too empty if it isn't filled up all the way.

Here it is with an ATC inside it.  It is a little big for the ATC, but I worry that making it too tight to fit in the ATCs. The corners would hide too much of the ATC and there wouldn't be a lot of room to maneuver or deal with slightly mis-sized ATCs.

The sashing is too big and is overwhelming for the ATC. Maybe the inside fabric should be very plain, like black or white since it makes a frame for the ATC. I can fill in blank spaces with quotes on paper or some such other things.

 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I found fabric and pieced the backing for the drunkard path quilt. I also pressed the top and the backing, as well as the binding fabric for the Droid quilt.  I sewed the binding on (still have to handsew the other part, and made the sample block I showed on this post.  My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  290 out of 343 sessions
Success rate: 85%

Linked to:
 15 Minutes to Stitch 
Oh Scrap! - I used scraps to make the sample
ScrapHappy

Prize ATCs

A few weeks ago, I announced that it was my Blogiversary and I would send a prize to a winner who wrote a comment on the post by August 30. That date has come and gone, and I have decided to send a prize to everyone who commented on that post.  I have emailed all of them to let them know they have won.

Here are the ATCs I created. I chose a beautiful fabric and quilted it on some Krafttex. Then I cut them up to size and individually decorated them, using pictures of quilts and words from a Connecting Threads catalog and a brochure from the LQS. That background fabric was hard to coverup, but I forced myself since the quilts and words were pretty too. I added some embellishments here and there.

Celebrate!

I decided to wear my sparkly sweater today. Most people would reserve sparkly for parties and celebrations, but I just felt like wearing it today.

Then the first two blogs I read say I have plenty of reason to celebrate.

Tanya tells us that it is Girl's Day. Michele tells us that it is Women's History Month.

I checked my calendar I got from the Oriental Trading Company. Here are some other things you can celebrate:
National Craft Month
National Nutrition Month
National Women's History Month - yep Michele wasn't lying.
Red Cross Month
Umbrella Month
Hoops Month

And just for today, we get to celebrate National Anthem Day.

So Happy National Anthem Day! Shall we have a sing along?

P. S. Friday is Dentist's Day, in case you needed to plan ahead.

Weekend

Hello blog reader, and Happy Vaentine's Day. Thanks for coming back.

Things are slowing down a bit at work, and I have the weekend off - the first of the year. To celebrate, I let myself wake up without an alarm clock. Let my body tell me how much sleep it needs. It appears that I need 12 hours of sleep! It was very refreshing.

Then I got up and started thinking about all the things I wanted to do. Cleaning is high on the list, as is making the ATCs for the birthday swap. Return some unread library books. While the library is open, for a change. Maybe make a quilt or two. Just kidding about that one. I'm not that out of it.

Then I remembered, that I have a lot of work to do for my other job.

I guess I don't have the weekend free after all. That's all right, it is fun, and I get to make my own schedule.

Hope yours is a good one.