Pattern Clash Notebook Cover

Early last year (2024)  I was playing with some fusible applique. I had some scraps and made a smaller piece - just for fun.  I had  no real plan for it. As far as I can tell, I never shared it.  In fact, I didn't even take a photo of it.   It went into the "I'll do something with this someday" pile. 

I am participating in a scrap challenge and the June prompt got my mental gears in motion.   The prompt: 

"A Clash of Ideas a clash of patterns, June is about challenging ourselves to design with unexpected pattern combinations."

I had assumed that I would finish this piece with all hand dyed or batik fabrics.  But how about a "pattern clash?"  I saw some red and white polka dot fabric on my shelf.  Hmmmmm....promising. The red will go with the color scheme, but the evenness of the dots clashes with the abstractness of this piece.   Next there was a piece of black and white batik - to tie in the small black and white bits in the fused image.  I made a "frame"  around the piece with those two fabrics.  And then, I  decided that it needed more blue.  So I added another frame. 

 

Somewhere in there, I decided to make curvy pieced lines as part of the design. And I also painted some blue on the back and white batik as well as some blue dots in the red fabric.   The decision to make it into a notebook cover was an easy one. Except!  The piece was too tall.  So I cut out a section and finished making the "quilt top" for the notebook cover. Then I layered and quilted it.  And started constructing this notebook cover.  Above is the front of it closed.  The collage shows the block prior to adjusting (top left) Closed notebook (top right)  The notebook opened out so you can see the batik strip that was cut out was not wasted (bottom left)  And The inside pocket with label.  (bottom right) The "pattern clash" doesn't clash in a bad way but it certainly changed the piece and make it more interesting.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

#SecretScrapChallenge2025
Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off - Re-Do edition

 For the Friday Face Off,  I did a re-do on last weeks drawing.  I think the skin tones look better. 

I also have this AI creation of an alien in the woods with hot dogs. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

FFO (Friday Face Off)

For the FFO, I have this face that I drew on my iPad using the Procreate drawing program.

I think it still needs some work.  I may start over on it. 

Linking to The FFO

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off

For the Friday Face Off, I have made a couple of AI images.  I decided to go with the theme of "Cosmic Cowboy."  

I have been so busy lately with other things that I haven't had a lot of time to sew, paint or create in other media. 

I will link with the Friday Face Off. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Landscapes, and a Birthday

I have been playing with some simple fabric landscapes.  It is always fun to try new things.  As I have lots of fabric to play with, I thought "why not?"  

Here are two landscapes that I made using hand dyed fabrics and one fabric that I was challenged to use as it represents one of my first quilts. 

The first is all hand dyed fabric. I dyed some of it and I got the other from an internet friend. 

Next up is the one with the challenge fabric.  See if you can find it in the photo before you read anymore.

The big clue is that it is the one that isn't hand dyed. 

The Red/Pink? dotted fabric has been in my stash since my early quilting days. 
I think it adds a bit of whimsy to this imaginary landscape. 

In other news, a certain lady in my life had a birthday party. 

She is 89 and she means the world to me. 

Happy Birthday, Mom. 

And with Mom's lovely face, I link with the Friday Face Off. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

AI Quilted Faces

I had planned to "get ahead of the curve" and have a post ready for this Friday Face Off.  Guess what?  I failed.  

So, I used Canva AI - one I haven't used before - to create some quilted faces.  Then I put them into a collage. 

I think these came out quite nicely.  It is possible that I will look at there for  ideas for more quilted faces. 

Linking up with the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off

Today I am going to show you a painting that I did long ago.  Then I am going to show some photos of myself and explain what happened and why. 

First the painting.  

Honestly the background is my favorite part of this painting. 

Now,  for the photos of me. 

First is from many MANY years ago. 

My eyes and particularly my eyelids are the reason I am sharing this photo. 

(yes, my eyes were "dreamy" in this photo.) 

Year later, those lovely eyelids were sagging as the tissue aged. 

The one on your left (My right eyelid) is particularly saggy. My eye doctor told me that if they were disturbing my vision, we could do a  blepharoplasty.

 And we did.  

For a few days after that I looked a bit like a raccoon. 

Yes that does look horrible, but it healed nicely and my upper lids are nice again. 

Sadly, insurance will not pay to fix the lower lids, so they are still saggy and baggy. 

If you are thinking "You could use Plexiderm."  Well, I tried it. The results were great ---for about an hour and then it failed. For me, it isn't worth the effort. 

I am linking to the Friday Face Off. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A Short Trip and FFO

Last weekend I went on a short trip to get away and recharge my mental batteries.  I went with three friends and we had a good time.  

While on the trip, we went to a restaurant and enjoyed some good Mexican food. My favorite thing is that they made the guacamole right at our table. We got them to put only a little cilantro in it because I am "one of those people who dislikes cilantro."   But as we walked in the door, I saw this and immediately thought " Here is my picture for the Friday Face Off."  

Thus I am joining the Friday Face Off for May 2, 2025

And just for the heck of it my "porch version" of 

Hard Times Come Again No More

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off and More

Here are a couple of faces that I created with Pixel Studio on my phone for the Friday Face Off.

And here is my latest art quilt creation using the wave technique. 

I think I need to work on choosing fabrics with stronger value differences. 

Linking to the Friday Face Off   

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Wavy Pieced Quilt and FFO

In my "free" time this week,  (spare minutes) I learned or rather worked on learning a new (to me) technique.  I purchased a tutorial from an artist in Tel Aviv to learn this.  Honestly I still need to work on my technique, but I am reasonably happy with this piece. 

I considered putting a pair of googly eyes on it and calling it my face for the week.  However, I did play with the AI photo creator on my phone again.  

I thought the piggys dancing on the fountain came out rather cute - but then I saw that one of the piggys has an extra leg.  Oops!

I know our host well enough to know that she will get a laugh out of this series. 

I started with a Rabbit - thinking of "Jessica Rabbit." 

I have never seen a rabbit with legs like that. Ha ha. 

Then I changed the rabbit for - can anyone guess???

Not just a skeleton, but one with a Sugar Skull head.  Oh yeah! 

And I decided she needed a fur coat since 'dem bones can get mighty cold. 

LOL

Linking with the Friday Face Off (FFO)

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A Finish and Friday Face Off

A few days ago, I finished my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt.  I got the binding all sewn onto the back by hand and gave it a wash.  I love the texture that washing a quilt gives it.  Here is the "portrait" (sorry, but it looks a bit washed out in the photo.)

And here is a close up of that lovely texture.

Don't you just want to touch it and curl up under it with a good book?

And here is the back showing the label

I love that binding with both the front and the back. 

Now for the Face of the week - I found an old photo of me. This was in my late teens, I think.

I was a skinny guy back in the day, but I wasn't bad looking. 

Happy Friday!

Linking to the Friday Face Off   

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

FFO 3-28-25

This week has been busy. I have been helping my cousin pack up all of my aunt’s things to move her to Pennsylvania. It has been quite a task. They leave today. 

For the Face Off, I have created a couple of AI images using my phone.

Once again, I was testing what I could achieve using words to create a picture. These were the best of what I was describing.

Happy Friday!

Linking to the Friday Face Off   

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Quilt Parade SAHRR

Many of you know that I have been participating in a Stay At Home Round Robin.  My quilt is almost completed.  The top is finished, layered and quilted.  The binding is made and attached to the front of the quilt.  I will be sewing the binding to the back by hand this week.  I am excited to be so close to finishing this quilt. 

Here is the completed quilt top. 

 The quilt top is all made of batik fabrics from Island Batik.  The backing is a solid fabric that was in my stash.  For the binding, I had an idea to use a batik that I have, but when I auditioned it I didn't like it with the front OR the backing.  So, back into the stash where I tried several other fabrics that didn't seem to play well with one side or the other.  Then I picked up a piece of Kaffe Fassett fabric that I have been "hanging onto."  It looked perfect.  I quickly cut off enough (there is only about 10" by width of fabric left.)  I cut it into strips and made a binding.  It is sewn onto the front of the quilt ready to be stitched to the back - and yes, I will be doing it by hand!  (a rarity for me.) 

Here you can see it with part of the front:

You may notice that I quilted it with a blue thread that really shows up on the front

of the quilt. I think that it ties the quilt together and adds an'

extra layer of design. And it is just fun!

Here is the binding with the backing:

The blue quilting thread is not as obvious on the backing.  However.  the texture 

will show beautifully once the quilt is washed. 

I  am linking to Quilting Gail for the Parade of Quilts. 

FYI,  I don't know what time the parade will open so you may see this before her post is live. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Faces

This has been a bit of a busy week and so I have some AI faces created on my phone to share with you. 

I enjoyed playing with the AI creator on my phone while I was staying with Mom one afternoon. (She was asleep.) 

For Nicole

This one is mostly because I wanted to see what I would get if I said "riding on a camel"

And my face from the only television commercial I have been in. 

Happy Friday!

Linking to the Friday Face Off   

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.