Friday Face off and SAHRR update

I will start with the update on the SAHRR quilt I am making. I completed the other side part and have it all sewn together now.  

Oh my goodness, how I am loving this thing. I started with a rectangle so that it wouldn't be square but now it is almost square again.  LOL.  I will have to add strips at some point to the top and bottom to make it a rectangle again.   I am trying to stay within a color palette for this one.  So far, so good.  But, I confess that I keep wanting to add a red or a yellow in it. 

Will I be able to resist?  Stay tuned! 

Now for the Friday Face Off  I am sharing my face. 

In a weaving class, we talked about creating with eyes that shine. 

I think my eyes are shining with creative joy in this photo.

Ignore the fact that I need a shave in the photo.  Ha ha. You can ignore the 

"frosting" in my eyebrows also.  I am "too far gone" to cover all the gray. 

One comment I got said "I wish I were as creative as you are" 

My Reponse:

Here are a couple of things I have written especially for people who wish they were creative.
People say "You are so creative, I don't have a creative bone in my body."

I say "Of course you do."

The thing is that these people are afraid of failure. If you want to be more creative you need to accept failure as just one of the steps in the process. Do I fail? Ha ha! Yes, at least as much as I succeed. But I try to learn from it and go forward to create again.

Sure you will make a mess. You will waste some materials. You will be ashamed to show the thing you made. But you will grow. You will make something you ARE PROUD to show - and honestly that first something you are proud of probably won't be so great. But it is another step forward. And as you keep stepping forward, you get better and better. Your "failures" are not (generally) as bad.

You learn to laugh at your mistakes and fix them or do it again, without saying "I am just not that creative."

At that point, people will be telling you "You are so creative, I don't have a creative bone in my body." But you will know that they only need to channel what is innately there.

Creative work doesn't require that you start with talent. You just need to show up and be willing to try again and again. Mistakes are part of the process. Sometimes, they are a part of the joy of creating. And sometimes they are learning experiences.

-Gene Black

Have a wonderful weekend. 

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.

Stay At Home Round Robin Progress

This week's SAHRR round prompt is brought to us by Anja.  Her prompt is to use Half Square Triangles (HSTs) for the next element in your quilt.  I said "Hooray!"  because that is such a versatile block to add.  And even better as the "rules" are lax in this fun quilt along, I can add them to fill in the sides of Round One.    I am using the HSTs to make an HST Diamond block (there is probably a "real" name for it, but oh well, I will use my naming convention.  

So far, I have made two of the diamonds and added spacers at the ends to make it fit.  I also joined it to the quilt that is finished so far.  Here it is. 

The right side will be repeated on the left although the fabrics may be different. I do plan to stay with the same color scheme.   I am absolutely loving this so far.  Are you sewing with us?  I hope so, it is fun and at the end you will have another quilt top finished - of course you can add more at that point and make it bigger. YOUR Quilt YOUR Choice. 

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.

SAHRR - Round One

After realizing that Gail's post was where I was supposed to share my center block, I realized that Kathleen's post was Round One.   (I was late to start and got confused. I posted my center block on Kathleen's linky - mea culpa!)  I did blog that center block - hopefully you saw it. 

Kathleen offered the option of using a block that starts with your initial.  For me that would be a G.  So I Googled "quilt blocks that start with G"  and found the Geometry Block - along with a lot of others.  
But, I thought "quilting is really a lot of geometry so I will use it."   

Confession: I hated geometry in high school, even though I loved spatial/3D puzzles. 

I looked at my starting block and said "I think I want to use similar colors and for now anyway, I will stick with batiks."    I also thought "I can die cut those pieces!"  I cut them all using my Go! cutter and created this block:

Then I made three more of them. I will need to use fabric "spacers" to make it all fit, but it will work. 

Are this blocks perfect?  No way!  But they are Finished and that is better. 

Here are the four blocks laid over the central block so you can see that the colors are similar.

I am excited to see how this quilt comes together.  Yes, I am eagerly awaiting the post that 

tells us what to do for the next round. 

I really like having choices within the framework of the round robin. 

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

I don't have a lot to share today, but I did finish two more notebook covers featuring sugar skulls on the front.   They are similar but I did use different threads in the embroidery. Also the fabrics for the back and inside pockets are different. 

You may also notice differences in the quilting on each of these. 

My general "rule" for quilting is "Do what feels fun!"  

I generally follow that rule. 

Other participants for the Friday Face Off 

can be found HERE

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.

Stay at Home Round Robin - Center Block

I have decided to do a Stay At Home Round Robin quilt, following prompts from several other quilters. Gail, one of my friends from my days as an Island Batik Ambassador is hosting this event.  Since I haven't been very active making quilts lately, I thought this would push me into action a bit. 

For the first round each participant is to make a center block.  The block can be any size and is not required to be square.  I prefer quilts not to be a perfect square. My mom would say "oblong" so that is what I will call this starting block. One option is to use an existing block from your orphan block stash.  
 I found this fun piece that I made while teaching myself Seminole patchwork. 

It is roughly 11" high by 9 1/2" wide. The fabrics are all batiks from Island Batik. 

I still have a nice stash of batiks so it is possible that this entire quilt will be made from batiks. 

I will link you to Gail HERE  

Why?  Just in case YOU may want to join in the fun. 

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

Happy Friday, 

Here is a collage of a drawing I did on paper and recreated on the iPad in the Procreate program.

iPad version on left, markers on paper on right 

And another photo of me onstage, with my mouth wide open. It was a musical and I was singing my heart out.

Joining 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.

Cold and "spooky?"

Yesterday (Thursday) was one of our coldest days so far this year.  We had temperatures in the teens for a low and the highest temp was about 38º  - For Alabama that is cold, although I remember colder temps.  

Today I woke to see this 

Snow is unusual in Alabama. Today there is a "lot" and there is ice under it.

Those lights show that we still have electricity. That is good because bad weather normally causes some loss of power in this area. 

Today is Friday so for the Friday Face Off  I will show this work in progress. 

You can see dark circles through the eye fabric, that is because I let the 

embroidery machine sew the lines for the eyes.  Then the fabric was a

bit thin and those lines show through. 

The button on the nose is part of the fabric print.  I started to use those flowers for 

the eyes, reminiscent of the book Coraline. (If I had done that the eye circles would

not be showing. 

Happy Friday

Stay Warm!

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.

2025 First Finish - err Sort of....

Today, January 2, 2025,  I pulled out a piece that I have slowly worked on and decided to finish it.  Well, almost.  You see, I don't consider it finished until I mount it on a canvas so that it is ready to hang on a wall.  

I think it is lovely and I am very happy with it. 

The size is 13 by 10.5 inches.  I will mount it on an 11" by 14" canvas for hanging. 

The black border will virtually disappear into the black edges of the canvas. 

And for the Friday Face Off, here is a picture of me onstage. 

I am "one of the villagers" in Young Frankenstein.

I added the trim to a vest that I got from the wardrobe collection of the company. 

Friday Face Off is hosted by Nicole. 

I hope we all have a lovely and creative new year. 

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.