PrairiePeasant

This quilted postcard was originally a mini quilt that I made at least 20 years ago. I didn’t have it hanging up anymore, so I decided to make it into a postcard. The postcards I make are donated to TFAM to sell at various venues where TFAM exhibitions are held. All monies raised from the sale of postcards goes to charity, and this year again our chosen charity is Harvest Manitoba (our local food bank).

This postcard was started at a retreat with TFAM , during an evening activity led by . Hand stitching over a background coloured with fabric markers. (And yes, I only finished it this week.)

After a bit of a slow start, I’ve started making fabric postcards for the 2026 postcard challenge for TFAM . There is a different theme for each month, and postcards can be made in any order. These are my first three:
January: Ice
February: Holiday
March: Music

If you want to see all the postcards submitted for the challenge so far, you can copy and paste this link https://www.tfamartists.ca/postcards2026.html or go to the TFAM website>Events>Postcard Challenge>2026.

All monies raised from the sale of postcards goes to charity, and this year again our chosen charity is Harvest Manitoba.

Almost one month growing indoors, but still too cold at night to plant outside!

1. I’ve been making fabric postcards again for TFAM after a bit of a break. This border fabric of quilts on a fence was calling to be placed in front of a house or farm.
2. Did you know you can print on fabric with a laser printer? I ironed freezer paper onto some cotton fabric, trimmed it to 8.5x11”, and then fed it manually through my printer. The ghost image beside my printed fabric is what the freezer paper looked like when I peeled it off. I wasn’t sure how well the toner would stay on the fabric, so I coated it with a thin layer of matt medium via my gel plate. I hope that does the trick! Images are from the online catalogue of the .

Quilt coat progress: I’ve cut out all of the pattern pieces, and zigzagged around them to prevent them from coming apart during construction. I’ve made my bias binding and am ready to sew this baby together! I also won at thread chicken when I zigzagged around the pieces.

My quilt coat panels have all been quilted in a diagonal grid pattern, and washed. I can see now why the instructions for the bamboo batting said prewashing the batting was not recommended–any batting that was extra and exposed on the edges became completely shredded in the washing machine! And also why the pattern said to make each panel at least 3” wider all around than the pattern pieces–they did shrink quite a bit!

Next is to buy a zipper, make bias binding, and cut all the pattern pieces out. This may actually get finished soon!

I’m getting back to my quilt coat project. Life intervened since I last worked on it. I found a blue Ikea cotton duvet cover at a thrift shop for the backing/lining and purchased a bamboo blend batting. Now I’m beginning to quilt them in a diagonal grid pattern.

I’ve got 4 panels (back/fronts/sleeves/hood), so it’s not too cumbersome to quilt each one. I’m using a Wonderfil Decobob 80wt thread on top, and a regular Guterman thread in the bobbin.

The design is improv log cabin tunnel blocks and the fabrics are mostly from my stash, including some hand dyed by me, some by others, some thrifted cotton clothing, and some vintage linens. I try not to buy too much new fabric, but there’s also a charm pack that I purchased at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns to help out a local quilt shop.

Sneak peek at a new long term project! I attended a workshop on Saturday hosted by TFAM with Julie Garcia on Photo to Thread Painting. It was a hand stitching class and so much fun! There will be a lot more stitches filling in this piece before it’ll be considered done.

This block pays tribute to Ismail Hussein Abu Hatab, a freelance photojournalist, killed on 30 June 2025 in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Baqa Café, a beachfront venue in western Gaza City. This cafe was popular with civilians and journalists, and at least 41 others were killed in the airstrike, and many more injured. I chose to juxtapose the beauty of the water with the bombed and burned out remains of the cafe. (Original image sourced from Reuters https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeqr73p8wyo).

This blanket square is in response to the call from for local makers to make a blanket square honouring one of the journalists killed in Palestine since October 2023. Today the number is over 300. Many more blocks are needed.

The following is copied from Craftivists United’s pinned instagram post:

“Craftivists United is calling on Manitoban activists, crafters, makers, and artists to contribute to a province-wide collective press blanket project to commemorate the 284+ Palestinian journalists and media workers killed since October 2023.

Targeting of the press is an attempt by Israël to silence truth and the firsthand accounts of Palestinians and genocide. We invite you to contribute to this project to honour each of the journalists, to express your grief and solidarity, and to speak out against attempts to silence, erase and censor Palestinian voices, stories and coverage of oppression, apartheid, and genocide.

You are welcome to contribute a square that you make at home, or one that you make with friends or family or in a community group. ...

Our intentions is to bring sew together the 270+ pieces in Spring 2026 and to travel it around Manitoba to raise awareness...

To join our project, please register at the link in our Instagram profile. Upon your registration you will be assigned the name of a journalist and provided with further instructions. If you have questions please connect with us via email at [email protected].”