ATC for my birthday

This birthday ATC arrived while I was on my vacation this past Fall. It's from CQI and was made by Hideko. I've always admired Hideko's wonderful stitching, so I'm extra pleased that I can see it up close.

Angel 8

This angel has a chain stitch dress, mother of pearl shell wings, a sequin head and wool hair.

Angel ATCs

I traded three of my angel ATCs recently. Here's three lovely new angels for my collection. This one is from Margreet in the Netherlands, she's very mischievous. I love the lace that Margreet used for her dress. This one with her pretty crochet dress and wings is from Annet, also in the Netherlands.And this origami angel is from Carey in San Diego.

Still sidetracked!

I knew if I kept going I would find my way to finish up these little atcs. Instead of cutting the piece of fabric 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, I added about 2" all around and just folded it back (as you can see in the photo below). Next time I will cut it a bit larger so that all the back is covered. I traded this one with Margreet.

I'm adding this on Tuesday. It started out as a piece of crazy quilting big enough to fold and completely cover the back as you can see from the bottom picture. The background fabric is three different shades of cream, and the stitching is a pretty variegated pink and cream perle 5 thread. The beads are silver, and the flowers are pink metallic on a pale pink organza ribbon. I traded this angel with Fat Quarter (Annet).

Getting sidetracked!

I shouldn't be spending so much time on these little ATCs! But they're fast to do (well sort of) and they're fun. I'm kind of taken with angels in general and I've found that this is the perfect subject for me on ATCs. The fun of it is looking for suitable wings, and they can be almost anything that looks right. It's easy to embroider the wings in and they look lovely with beads, but I really like the one I made with the silver leaves, and this one with the mother of pearl is really pretty even though it's not finished yet. (Note: finished now, and photo above is the finished atc). As usual, I'm struggling with the binding/finishing and have yet to find some way that I'm happy with. I did try the applique stitch on the one below, but the layers were too thick.

ATCs

I came across some ATCs on Flickr and I was intrigued to try them myself. After a bit of a struggle with the corners while finishing them off, I enjoyed making them. I tried two different ways to finish, in the blue ATC I cut the backing larger and folded and stitched it to the front, with the pink I used satin ribbon. Neither way made a neat corner and I've camouflaged the corners with beads and sequins. Is there a simple, neat way to finish?