A Block and Design Playtime

I have several pieces left over from a layer cake (10 inch squares.)  So I decided to see what I could do with them.  I cut two squares in half.   One 5x10 (blue) was cut into 5" squares.  The other was cut into two 2.5x10 strips.  I took one yellow 5" square and cut it into two 2.5x5 strips.  
The short strips are sewn to either side of the blue square.  Then the long strips are added to complete the frame. Giving this block. 

You could stop here and make more blocks to make a framed block quilt. 
You should have a 5" yellow square leftover and enough blue to make the reverse image.

This is 8" unfinished

OR

The block can be cut into four units by bisecting it in each direction

like this:

Then you can rearrange the pieces. 

This first option is far less interesting once you start laying it out

The option below is far more fun for layouts.

This block is about 7.5" unfinished. 

If you only used two colors, you could make the quilt below. 

Or using one color for the strips and two alternate colors

 for the center,  you can get the one below. 

Of course I think scrappy would be amazing, just use a 

charm pack and a background fabric for the strips. 

Here is an alternate layout. 

I could have come up with more ideas for this, but 

you can make some blocks and play to make your own creations.

If you do this do share some photos with me. 

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 couple of Placemats

A friend moved into a smaller home.  It is quite cozy.  The kitchen/dining table is a nice, although simple, wooden table.   I saw that he is using two potholders as placemats.   You know, I just felt that I needed to fix that. 

Therefore, on Tuesday, I grabbed up some scraps and sewed a bit of patchwork.  Some strips were added to bring them up to size.   Then they were layered with batting and backing. Next up they were quilted using the walking foot - just because! 

The variety of fabrics (scraps) makes these really eye-catching in my opinion.  While they aren't exact matches, enough fabrics repeat to make them a nicely cohesive pair.  Even the bindings were made of leftover bindings with a couple of scrap pieces to extend them.  
My hope is that they will be enjoyed and bring a nice bright spot to a friend's table. 

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.

Another "Dark Alley" Sculpture

This may be a mild addiction.  But, I am enjoying the creativity and possibilities of sculpting "ugly faces." 

Therefore, I present to you, Bruno Roccia, the second in my series of "Faces you don't want to meet in a dark alley." 

Bruno is a big guy who works for someone else. He is usually works as

a bodyguard and does whatever "Da' Boss" tells him to do. 

Bruno is not a thinker, that isn't his strong area. Rather, Bruno is the muscle. 

He is very good at making people remember to do what they need 

to do to make his boss happy.  

Barbara asked about the tools I use with the polymer clay.  To be honest, 

my fingers are my primary tool. Still I do need a few things to help in places 

where my fingers don't seem to fit.  One of them is simply a wooden skewer, 

like you would use to make shish-kebabs.   But I do use a couple of tools from 

my painting supplies. One of those is a palette knife that I have had for years.

The other is a "color shaper" that I bought to move paint  around in abstract

or non-representational paintings. 

Both of them have been well used.  The flat blade of the palette knife is useful

for cutting pieces of clay. But it is also useful for mark making in the clay. On 

the previous face, it made pock marks in the face and wrinkles. 

The shaper is good for (surprise) shaping the clay. When a place needs 

smoothed, the cupped inside surface is good for adding a softly rounded area.

At the sewing machine, I have nothing to show. That doesn't mean I haven't sewn

anything. Rather, I have done some mending.  I have also replaced the elastic 

in the waistband of a pair of pajama pants that I enjoy wearing when I relax. 

I wonder if you feel "creative" when you repair something.  I know, that

I felt quite creative when I fixed the elastic band.  While it isn't 

original work, it is "re-creating" and giving new life.  

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.

Sculpted Face

My friend, Barbara, at Artistic Living has been sculpting faces from paper clay.  I don't have paper clay in the absurd amount of crafty supplies that live with me.  But I do have some polymer clay. I have a nice sized container of white Sculpey clay.  So I took some of it and tried my hand at sculpting a face.  Following Barbara's thought of "face I don’t want to meet in a dark alley. "   This face appeared after some time playing and coaxing the clay.  

He looks as if he has been in several fights in his lifetime.  But if you ask, he may reply " You should have seen the other guys!"   Most of the "scars" were added intentionally.  However the scar across his chin is a bad join in the clay.  I just accented it with paint and made it a "feature" Haha.  His nose is a bit crooked and has an odd shape. It was broken in a bar fight years ago and he did not have it fixed.  

In the construction, I was going to put a ball of aluminum foil as the base. Then I saw some smooth rocks that I had attempted to paint on (I hated the results.) So I grabbed one and use it as the base for this fellow. Here is another one that I may use for the next face.

You can see some paint around the edges. That doesn't matter at all once it is covered with they clay. 

Of course there are some more of these rocks in a bag ---somewhere - but I am not going to search for them.  That might result in finding more squirrels. 

Mom, my brother, and I worked on the puzzle for a while and got to this point, but I never shared the photo. 

As you can see, all that was left to do were parts of the birch trees. 

Those were the hardest parts. 

But we finally conquered it. 

My brother showed up with a new puzzle even before we finished this one.  

I think this is it but I am not sure.

We will have fun with it next. 

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.