Why make postcards?

Annabel wants to know what these fabric postcards are, why everybody is doing them, are they frustrating because they're so small, and what does one do with all these postcards anyhow?

These little postcards are bits of fiber art that can actually be sent through the US Mail as is (after adding a stamp, of course.) The Art2Mail website has lots of information starting with how the Postcard Project got started, how people are making them, and some of the uses for the postcards. Virginia Spiegel's FiberArt for a Cause has raised more than $33,000 for The American Cancer Society through the sale of postcards both from the website and also at the International Quilt Festival. Other uses? Anything you can think of - collecting, trading, selling, whatever.

I feel that the size is a challenge because it's difficult to make a good composition in such a small space. On the other hand, it doesn't take a big time committment to do something that is only 4" x 6", so if one turns out less than spectacular, well, it's easy to just move on to the next one.

The ones that I have been working on are small studies and I've started on a larger (about 24" x 36") piece. I haven't solved all my construction challenges yet, and translating from small to large is not as easy as one would hope. I put a lot of stitching on the postcards, and I like the effect. Will I be putting that much stitching on the large piece? Haven't answered that yet.

I still am hung up on the template thing because I don't want to use them (i.e. I'm lazy). Maybe I will try just cutting big pieces of fabric and putting them together and fill in the holes as needed. Stay tuned...