Friday, December 19, 2008

My First ATC's - Finally......

I have committed to an ATC swap with 7 other people and really am pretty excited about this. I have never made ATC's before and as always my optimistic estimating was not even close as to how long creating 8 of these would actually take. I do admit that I am pretty hard on myself when it comes to my art and really wanted to do my best since 7 other artist will be getting these. Now I am not used to working on things this small and my first problem was actually losing one when walking from my painting area to my work area. No problem as it only took 40min to find it. Finally made it to the point where I was ready to thread paint a tree on each one and I put them all in a stack next to the sewing machine. First one went well then grabbed what I thought was the next one off the stack. I did notice right away that the second one was much more difficult to sew and thought that I would have to change my needle when I finished it. When I removed it from the machine I gasped with horror when I saw that I had grabbed 2 not 1 and had sewn them together! My immediate thought was OM gosh how can I fix this one. I did manage to carefully separate them without too much damage.
The process:
  • Painted a 16x12 piece of PFD fabric in bright sky colors with Setacolor paints
  • Cut fabric into 8- 4x3 pieces - at this point each one became it's own piece of art
  • Adjusted colors in sky of each piece, added a horizon line and adjusted water color to reflect the sky
  • Added largest land mass and painted land reflections
  • Added Angelina and some sparkle organza to water and then sewed white tulle over water area
  • Added other land masses
  • Quilted land
  • Touched up skys to add a few light clouds
  • Quilted water
  • Quilted sky
  • Thread painted trees
  • Finished edges
I plan to keep my least favorite piece for myself. Can you help me choose? Do you have a least favorite?

13 comments:

Purple Girl said...

they are all beautiful! just shuffle them and the last one in the pile is the one you get. I'm sending a link to this page to a friend who does ATCs all the time - thank you for sharing your technique.

kate

My Brain on Quilts said...

These are really lovely Judy. Lucky recipients in your swap!

Beth M said...

I think they are all beautiful! I agree with Purple Girl, Shuffle them up and keep the last one in the pile. If I was in your swap, I would love to recieve any of these.

Anonymous said...

Hi Judy,

They are beautiful! I wish I was in your swap!

Anonymous said...

These are absolutely amazing.

Karen Newman Fridy said...

They are all terrific! Just close your eyes and grab one for yourself...there's not a bad one in the bunch!

Wil said...

They are lovely! I wished I was in this swap.

Joanna said...

Judy, these are beautiful! You were able to put a lot of detail into such small pieces. I'm sure everyone will love them!!
Joanna

PaulineC said...

I agree with everyone else. They are all gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.

Sue Andrus said...

I also agree with the others... All of them look great!! So much detail in small pieces.... Just beautiful!

Elizabeth said...

I don't think that it is possible to pick a least favorite from this bunch!! they are all fabulous!!! I would be thrilled to get any of them !!
Beautiful work!!!
elizabeth

NEEDLEWINGS said...

Very lovely!!!

G Alice Owen said...

absolutely astounding. I'm more than impressed with your skill and the results of your labor. Keep up the good work and may 2009 be your year of creation.