How To Make a Quilted Postcard Tutorial

Quilted postcards have to be one of the most fun things to make! When I was working with a group of  quilters across the country, we made postcards for each member of the group and mailed them across the country. What I ended up with was a beautiful collection of these gorgeous works of art from some wonderful women.  It is still a special treasure to me. 

My very dear friend Cindy Scraba has created and sponsored a wonderful postcard project that is giving back to a wonderful cause. Through the Canadian Quilters' Association, Cindy has created a Postcard Challenge of  quilted postcards that will then be sold at the national quilt conference in May 2018 in British Columbia Canada, with the proceeds going to the BC Children's Hospital.

Helping Cindy is another superb lady, Karen who is receiving all of these postcards before May 1, 2018 and will then have them ready to be judged and displayed at the conference! 

Now the best part!  The theme is 'Inspired By Nature' and there are cash prizes to be won!  Check out the prizes here!

I thought it would be fun to show you just how easy it is for you to make a postcard, so you too can join in the fun!

Supplies for a 4" x 6" postcard:

Fabric for the top - you won't need much, just some of your favourite scraps

5" x 7" stabilizer for the centre. Peltex is often used, or batting can be used, I like bamboo batting. 

5" x 7" for back of postcard. 

Two 4" x 6" pieces of fusible product (optional)

Instructions:

Design the front however you want, remembering that you have 1/2" on each side that is going to get trimmed, once all the layers are put together and quilted. The reason we went a little bigger is you know sometimes in quilting it can eat the fabric up a bit, so better safe than sorry. 

Your top of postcard can be pieced, fused, embellished... whatever you want. Think of it like creating a minature quilt! 

Postcard top - pieced, stabilizer for centre, back

Once you have your top created, you are going to put the layers together. If you are worried about movement, you can apply fusing to the wrong side of your postcard top and back and fuse them to your batting or stabilizer. Once you have your quilt sandwich, quilt it as you desire and add any embellishments you may want. Trim to a 4" x 6" size.

To finish your postcard, there are 3 common ways. The easiest is a simple satin stitch around the edges holding it all together.  If you like the ease of satin stitch but not the look, remember you can cover it with couched yarn or rick rack or even tiny buttons! 

TIP: When doing satin stitch around the edges, it sometimes gets caught on corners. In order to avoid this, start in the middle of each side and stitch right to the end. Go back and start in the middle of the side and stitch to the other end. This way you never have to start or maneuver around a corner. 

The second way is to do the traditional binding. If you usually use a 2 1/2" strip, you may want to downsize it to a 2" strip as the quilt is quite small. 

The last way is the pillow case method and you would need to do this method prior to assembling your quilt. Once your top is done, you will trim your top, batting/stabilizer and backing to 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". Layer it as follows: stabilizer/batting, then backing right side up, then postcard top, right side down. Pin carefully and  sew entirely around the postcard with a 1/4" seam except for about 3 inches in the middle of the bottom edge. Trim all around leaving an ⅛ inch, trim the corners close. Turn inside out, pushing out the corners carefully. Close the open seam with invisible stitches. Now quilt as desired.

Enjoy making your postcards, I bet you find it hard to make just one!