World's worst quilter

Finally got some sewing done today. Decided to work on some postcards while I listened to the BRAC commision community hearing regarding the future of the Air Force Base here in Fairbanks. We had some great speakers and it was very interesting. What was also interesting was seeing what a crappy quilter I've become since I made my last quilt about 7 years ago!

For these postcards I thought I'd make a large background using quilting techniques and cut it up into postcard sized blocks. So I cut strips of 3 different fabrics and sewed them together. For interest I cut some of the fabric strips different sizes. After the first four I noticed the piece was getting kind of wavy. Oh yeah, you're supposed to sew the strips in opposite directions. So I did that for the rest of it and it was a bit better. Then I cut the resulting fabric piece into more strips - just in a different direction. Put a plain strip of fabric between the ones I cut up but didn't pay much attention to where things were lining up. I ended up with a pretty catty-wampus piece of fabric. Ah well. It's background anyway. Then I cut it up and stuck it to postcard sized Timtex. What to do next? Take out bags and bags of trims and appliques and try to figure out what will look good - what else! I rarely do these things with much of a plan in mind. I found an awesome huge black applique and starting cutting all the flower motifs off of it. Fused them to the cards and then used fancy trims to make stems and leaves. Ten more postcards and I'll be all caught up with my swap! Yay!

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Did you notice how orange has snuck in here again? I've a thing for it lately.