Back in the Studio

It seems like it has been a year since I had some decent studio time.  But the last two weeks have allowed me to grab two full days for the studio, and I've had a very relaxing time.   I'm planning a lot more studio time in the next few weeks, now that I've caught up with all the stuff I postponed while on vacation. 

A friend gave me a gallon zip-lock bag of quilting scraps.  She knows I really enjoy working with scraps, and they are always a challenge for me.  This time, I made 31 strip-pieced postcards first.  This is one of them:

After finishing them, I had some small scraps still leftover, so I made some crazy-patched postcards from those.  Both the strip-pieced and the crazy-patched ones are machine embellished with Superior Threads' Glitter Hologram.  I used a about 1 1/2 spools for these cards.  I love this thread.  Used correctly, it stitches like a dream -- no kinks, no shredding, no breaks.    Here is a picture of one of the crazy-patched cards:

Today, I needed some invitations to a party, so I rubber stamped some watercolor paper and hand-painted the stamped image.  I made 16 of these:

Isn't this just a delightful stamp?  It was a fun way to spend this rainy afternoon, with Tropical Storm Andrea making its way through the region.