Tis the Season....

....to sew my heart out, but not be able to share anything with you!  My nieces read my blog, my kids follow me on IG, my SIL reads my blog. It's hopeless, any surprise would be ruined if I published photos before the big day.

Now that the VMQG has held their Christmas meeting I can share one recent make with you, though. I love this one. It's a little beyond the intention of the scrap swap we did (last month we all brought a sandwich baggie filled with our own scraps with our name concealed inside. Then we grabbed a bag off the table to take home and spend a couple of hours making something out of the scraps to gift back to the scrap owner).   I might have spent more than a couple of hours.

I made this machine cover for my lovely friend Berene. In the summer, she bought a Pfaff QE 4.0, the same machine I have. It was my plan to make her a cover for it (since she sews at her dining table) for her fall birthday, but I didn't manage it. This swap was a perfect opportunity and I was happy to score Berene's scraps! All of the wonky stars, patches and the strip along the top of the machine were in her scrap bag. The medium grey Kona were all scraps of mine from this quilt (which, by the way, is now quilted and bound - photos as soon as the rain stops here. I'm thinking maybe May).

Having the same machine made sizing a breeze.  The panel across the top of the machine has a piece of heavy weight interfacing under it so that the front and back sides drape vertically from the top of the machine. These geometric quilting lines are a triple stitch that I love using for stand out lines - here I used a 28wt Aurifil that has a lovely sheen. The cover is quilted with a fun backing fabric that I've enjoyed using on the back of various projects over the past couple of years (yikes, I'm almost out!).

The cover was finished just in the nick of time, so I didn't have a chance to take any photos - thanks for taking and sharing these ones Berene!

I plan to make another appearance prior to Christmas, but if you're taking a blog-reading break, then I'll take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday! xox

Merry Christmas from the Krista Elves

Happy Holidays to you and yours from K1 and her Flygirls

(K2 & K3)

This is the funnest free app EVER. Check out Office Max Elf Yourself at the app store. You can even choose your own music genre. Obviously, we are rockin' the hiphop isolations.

The Card - 2012 edition

My husband B has been incredibly busy. A regular stencil-cutting, colour-mixing, screen-pulling elf.  Every year he and my SIL continue the tradition started by their father in 1947. YES, 1947!  I've mentioned here before that my late father in law was a graphic designer (he first trained as an architect, but then pursued his love of cartooning and graphic design to become a talented artist and later, an instructor at the Emily Carr College of Art & Design in Vancouver).  Carrying on the family tradition is important to them and even though B is crazy busy at work, this one artistic outlet per year is not to be missed.  Sometimes he comes up with a concept and drawing on his own, sometimes we collaborate.  This year, we chose one of my photos from our family trip to France last March; the carousel at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

We started with the idea of a pop-art treatment, and with a lot of Photoshop work on the iPad, B flipped the picture, removed la Tour Eiffel and simplified colours.

All of the different colours have to be hand cut on separate stencils. A bit more work was required to simplify the shapes and reduce the colours to 6 (this is a LOT). With 150 cards printed, that means 900 passes of the squeegie. It also means sore forearms!

I don't have photos of every colour application since I was running a retreat all day Saturday when the first four colour runs were completed.  To give you an idea, here are some examples of trial prints that B uses to get the colour registration correct (these are printed on copy paper, before the good cards are printed), below.

While printing happens on our dining room table, cards are laid out all over every horizontal surface in the living room to dry between each colour run: the fireplace benches, the coffee table, a piece of cardboard propped across the arm chair and even some ironing boards.

All of the colours are custom mixed using a colour wheel for reference.  IKEA drinking cups and chop sticks come in very handy.

Lots of checking, remixing and re-checking.

It's a process, that's for sure. I mostly watch and stack cards to dry while B does all the hard work. It's very physical - a lot of downward pressure is required to push the paint through the tiny stencil holes and the silk screens. I simply don't have the hand strength required to print well.

Here's the final screen being masked off with tracing paper - this prevents paint from going through the silk that surrounds the stencil.

Lining up the card against paper registration tabs

I hope you enjoyed this little photo essay of our annual Christmas card screening. I just love sending these hand made works of art all over the world each year. We typically mail out about 90 cards, but we receive less and less every year. This is a major bummer. I love receiving cards and hope that people don't stop sending them. Staying in touch with real-life handwriting, even if it is only once a year, is so important I think.  We have a plate rail around our entire living room where we display our cards and visitors love to look at them and always remark at how many we receive (you've got to send to receive, people!).

So, how about you - will you be sending cards this year?  

It's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Welcome to Poppyprint!

These are all for a craft fair this coming weekend in Vancouver

Last week's 500 post celebratory giveaways are on their way to Brenda and Kara, so now maybe it's your turn! I'll keep this short and sweet since I know you have hundreds of giveaway posts to visit.  One winner will receive a custom camera strap made by me. Once a winner has been chosen at random from the numbered comments, I'll get in touch and we can choose an appropriate fabric for you.  I can make a wide strap for SLR cameras or a narrow one for smaller point and shoot: your choice!

The winner will get to choose their own strap fabric from my stash after we 

discuss colour/pattern and come up with some options!

 Please leave one comment for your chance to win! I will ship anywhere in the world (but you probably won't get it in time for Christmas if you don't live in Canada). The winner will be chosen Dec.7th.

SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: 

YOUR EMAIL must be linked to your comment, 

or written in your comment, in order for you to win.

Now you can head back to Sew Mama Sew for more fabulous giveaways. Thanks for visiting - come back anytime!

ETA: comments are now closed, thanks for visiting Poppyprint!

And the pillow goes to.....

The random number generator and I just had a little fun together. The first winner out of 207 comments is....

Sharing my work with friends makes me so happy, so it is with a great big smile that I let you know comment #50 came from my Instagram friend Kara who has won herself the Yo-Yo, It's Winterkist! pillow!! Woot! 

Comment #101 belongs to Brenda from Oshawa. Yay! Brenda, I cannot reply to your comment since blogger does not recognize letterpress id's, so please contact me with your email address and we'll figure out which passport holder you would like!

Congratulations ladies. See you back here for Sew Mama Sew giveaway day on Monday!