Postcard in the post

Three posts in 5 days, wow, this is a record!!!
I had to post today because I received some exciting post (in the mailbox) this morning. An envelope from Susan Lenz with the Postcard I chose from her swap. This was the last one left of her Endless Possibilities Series, which has these digitized words and other machine stitched rows of patterns upon painted, heat distressed bondaweb(?) The scanner does not pick up the metallic thread, but they are in there. I thought this would be a nice addition to my daughter’s 18th birthday book. Susan’s other postcards in this series included vintage keys, but this one doesn’t. Luckily I have a few old interesting keys from our garage doors here and also some I picked up in my favourite second hand yard- Restorer’s Barn. I will add one of these (Hope you don’t mind Susan?).
Susan also sent in this parcel an extra ATC which will join the other one in it’s frame above my sewing nook. (Have to get rid of a couple of children before I can claim a room to be a ’studio’.). And here are some pics of the book. I was going to leave space inside for the postcard but thinking about it while taking these photos, I think I’ll dangle it with a key from a group of machined cords on the front cover. The dangle here on the front cover is actually a necklace I made that she can take out and wear. Some bits on these pages, such as the 18 wishes, were taken from an altered book on the web by Karen. She has some beautiful work on her site, so take a look.Here are a few more pages, just scan through if you’re getting bored with the family snapshots.This last pic is the back cover with a poem I found while teaching at a school. I printed it on some red plastic sheeting that was part of the Country Road catalogue!
I have started working on the return postcard for Susan Lenz. Following the endangered life theme of the ATC I sent, this will be the Orange Bellied Parrot, which migrates between Tasmania and the south of Australia. Rather than just do one postcard, I am doing a large picture which I will cut up for a series of postcards. This is the initial sketch of a parrot (you’ll have to click on this, it’s a bit pale):
Here is the background with some silk fibres/hankies being layed on:
Here I have added some turquoise organza ribbon to the wing feathers and overlayed with a pale mauve chiffon scarf (from the Op Shop). It is pinned ready for FME.
Just one final note, Dale mentioned at the Australasian Quilt fair that she will be running a Wild Women (and song?) challenge so watch out on the Thread Studio website for that. Perhaps Dale could post a You Tube of her singing a wild women song. I’d like to see that!!!!
Cheers