Patchwork Fields / A Bird's Eye View July ATC Swap

It was a bit of a mad rush to get these cards photographed, swapped around and posted back out. The last card came in just a day or two before we went on holiday so the house was in chaos with suitcases and half packed bags everywhere - never underestimate how much stuff you have to take with you when you have a 16 month old baby! I sweet talked my other half into bathing and putting the baby to bed one evening and was crouched on the floor frantically photographing cards for multiple blog posts (assuming I would have time on the holiday to actually type up some blurb to go with them!), then swapping and cross referencing against my spreadsheet to make sure I wasn't sending art by someone to someone else who already had some of their work, and packaging them all up in the envelopes ready to go out the following morning. 

I was at work the following day so only had time in the evening to get the photos for the website up and running and completely forgot to put out a big generic photo to let everyone know I had posted the returns! Total scatterbrain. 

Anyway, they should all have arrived by now and I hope that everyone had a little heart-skippy moment to see their own handwriting on the front door mat. It heralds the arrival of the returned Stitchscape cards!

I thought this swap was particularly interesting. For those that took on the challenge of the Bird's Eye View element, it is very different thinking about what an item looks like from up above it and trying to make those things look like what they are to someone else. If that makes sense? There's an interesting clash of using the printed fabrics and the patterns on them but changing the context to looking down from above, as well as a slight clash of scales and perspective which is rather fun. 

There's a lot of very neat work here - some very talented hand stitchers! We had a new lady enter into this month too which is wonderful, it's so nice to welcome new members and to see what they come up with. 

As always, it's a fabulous mix of drawing, painting, dyeing, stitching, patchworking, machining, collaging.... anything goes really as long as there is fabric and stitching somewhere. Interestingly there was only one card which took the Patchwork Fields theme more literally I think with layered patterned fabrics stitched on top of each other like a patchwork and then a nice contrasting back stitch flower/plant/tree(?) over the top.

The sheep one makes me chuckle. It reminds me of a postcard where you have the birds eye view part as the main body of the card and then a humorous overlay of a single sheep in the corner. I wonder if it was based off a postcard?

All in all, a beautiful swap, with lots of different colours in which is slightly a surprise. I was thinking it would be more green with maybe some yellows and browns for fields at different times of the harvest year but actually it is very colourful! Do you have a favourite from this swap?