Changing my mind

I’m continuing to work on the postcards for the monthly Postcard Fabric Art Facebook Group. We’re now in the 70’s, and I’ve spent a lot of time changing my mind on this piece! Here is the finished one.

The Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik; he wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself. Over 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide – making it is one of the bestselling toy of all time. I never was good at this toy, but I’m thinking about buying one again and seeing if I’m any better now!

I wanted to show you my process for this postcard. I started with finding a picture of the Cube on the Internet. From there I sized it, and then printed it out. Now comes the fun.

So I take the print and put it on my light box.

I then take my fabric and iron on SF101, a light interfacing, to give it a bit of stability. Before taking it over to the light box, I draw a 5 x 7 rectangle on the fabric so I know where to place it. I’m using the Frixion pens. Their ink disappears with the heat of an iron. See this post about these pens.

At the lightbox I cover the print with my fabric and arrange the Cube where I want it to be on my postcard.

Next, I trace the Cube with my Frixion pens.

Here is my finished tracing.

Now to head to the sewing machine. I free-motion stitch over my lines. I have my print of the Cube nearby so I can see where the black needs to be heaviest.

It’s kind of bumpy, so I take it to the iron. This makes it flat, and also gets rid of any ink markings. I had already sewn around the rectangle before ironing since I knew it would be gone if I didn’t!

Now it’s time to color in the Cube. I’m using Posca pens. I love how they work on fabric.

Now to label the postcard. My hand printing sucks, but I thought I’d attempt it. Here I am free-stitching over my letters.

Next I moved over to my Elna SU so I could zigzag the edges.

I thought I was done, but really didn’t like my stitched words so I printed the words on fabric. So much better.

Now to add the printed words to the postcard. I just glued it down.

Nope, don’t like that – too much white. Sure wish I would have quilted the background! What can I do to change the look of this postcard? Add color. So I reached for my watercolors.

But that was not enough for me.

So I got my watercolors out again, and added color to the background.

And finally the finished postcard!

This isn’t my favorite of my postcards. Again, I wish I would have stitched it before I added the zigzagging and the label, but it’s okay for now. Next month it’s the 80’s. I need to start thinking about my subject since I almost didn’t get this one done in time! If you’d like to see my first six months of postcards, check out this post.

It is important to know that every artist takes turns,  and keeps pushing through. I used to just give up. If I didn’t like something I was working on, I’d just toss it out. I’ve found that if I keep pushing through I will come out with something better.

Just a reminder – don’t forget to vote. If you can, vote early. If you have a mail-in ballot, it’s recommended that you take it to the election office, since it’s getting late and the USPS can’t guarantee it will get to there in time.

That’s all for today. Hope you are having a good, if not creative day.