My card is titled "My Favorite...Place." And where else would my favorite place be but the town where I grew up, where I spent the first 25 years of my life. I grew up in Santa Paula, California, in Ventura County. As you can see, the sun is always shining and the clouds are always perfectly white and fluffy. There are mountains on both sides that are green all year long (well, in my memories at least). The ocean breeze comes through and keeps everything quite temperate and the worst weather is when the Santa Ana winds blow. It's a small town, but one I'm proud to have lived in.
At the bottom of the card I stitched three sights that I remember vividly. On the right are three trees. Santa Paula is known for its citrus and avocados, and orchards dot the landscape as soon as you reach the edge of town (which is never far from where you are in town). These three trees represent the agricultural industry of the town.
At the center of the card is the building that houses the clock tower, which is located in downtown. The building itself isn't much to look at, but it always drew my attention whenever I went by. I'm pretty sure the clock didn't work. I remember it frequently showing the wrong time. Perhaps they've fixed it in the years since I moved away.
On the left is an image of the train depot, which includes a small art museum on one end and still has trains stopping by regularly for tourists and produce export. I loved walking on the raised wooden pathway because I always felt like the empty space underneath was echoing with the memories and long history of the place. Okay, so maybe that's more descriptive of how I feel now rather than how I felt as a kid, but still.
On the mountains behind, I embroidered a little texture and stitched the town's initials just like they appear in person. I love the dotted print that adds a bit of subtle color to the background. Oh, and the sky fabric? It's the same fabric I bought for my first ever swap. It makes me want to sing every time I see it, which is fitting for "my favorite place."
And here's the back of my card. I used my sewing machine's built in alphabet to write the letters, though I had to add the @ symbol and slashes by hand. I kind of amazed myself with the way it turned out. So professional-looking! I'm thinking of doing the same thing for mini quilt swap labels from now on.
I love the ATC I received. The front is pieced together like a quilt. The center square is a fussy cut print of a patchwork quilt that has been stitched around to give it more focus and interest. I love the phrase "make some quilts" that the maker included.
Here's the back of the card. You can see that the front and back threads around the border and star stitching are different colors, which I think adds a lot to the design on the back of the card.
I'm so happy with my experience for this swap. I had so much fun making an ATC to send and the opportunity to meet makers like myself. And Ali was such a great swap moderator. I'll definitely be signing up for the next round of ATC swaps. Check it out if you like making small art pieces.
Have you done an ATC swap? Have you done a fiber ATC swap? Let me know in the comments so I can join in on the next one.