This post is a quick follow up to the post Creating… on 07/27/16 where I discussed pulling out from my project pile and completing a set of “art pillow experimentations”.
I spent part of this weekend finishing up the rest of the little art pillows (they range from around 6 x 6 inches to 8 x8 inches for the large one).
Here is the full set of the finished pillows (notice my new tierneycreates labels on each pillow):
Here are the backs of the smaller pillows (made with hand dyed fabric found at a thrift store (it was quite the score!)
I was going list these three pillows on my tierneycreates Etsy shop as a set but I decided to just list them separately (they do look cute together though):
Here are close ups of some of the pillows:
I am posting this on Sunday night but you will likely read this on Monday, so I wish you all a wonderful week, and talk to you later!
I am inspired by her paintings! I might do a little quilt piece inspired by her work.
In Central Oregon we actually have a famous quilter and a well-known painter collaborating on art projects – Jean Wells Keenan (quilter) and Judy Hoiness (painter).
I am in love with the author Neil Gaiman. Unabashedly in love.
My love is not in a crazy obsessed “fan girl” sort of way (I have no plans to stalk him at Science Fiction conventions). My love is more a deep awe and respect for him as a writer and his incredible creative mind.
He is my favorite fantasy/science fiction/horror writer. His work transcends genre and I am not sure where he neatly fits. His writing is like HP Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien and Douglas Adams were locked in a room together until they created something wonderful.
I have read many of his works, some of my favorites being:
Trigger Warning (2015) – a collection of his short stories
American Gods (2002)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013)
Neverwhere (2009)
I have also read some of the Sandman series of graphic (illustrated) novels.
Most of Gaiman’s novels, I have listened to on audiobook. I remember several of them (if not all) being narrated by Neil Gaiman himself – my favorite type of audiobook to listen to: where the author reads their own work. Neil Gaiman has a delightful British accent and the timbre of his voice is nearly hypnotic as he shares his tales.
Before I started on a path, a couple years ago, of primarily reading/listening to nonfiction books, I only read or listened to fiction.
My favorite genre of fiction is Science Fiction and I love when it mixes with Fantasy (like a Tolkien or Fairy Tale flavor) or Horror (like an H.P. Lovecraft flavor).
I am currently listening to my first nonfiction book of Neil Gaiman – The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction (2016). It is an excellent collection of his essays and speeches and narrated of course by Neil himself.
photo credit: amazon.com
Neil Gaiman is a kindred spirit of mine related to his love of public libraries and bookstores. He shares in The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction (2016), wonderful stories of summers in the library as a child. He also pleads and lobbies for the protection/preservation of public libraries in the UK (where it sounds like they are in danger). He discusses how important libraries are in creating and fostering a literate society; and that reading fiction as children develops their creativity.
I am only 5 essays into the book but I am also enjoying the stories behind the development of some of his greatest works to include American Gods (2002). He also discusses his evolution as a writer and the sources of his inspiration.
Neil Gaiman is a huge fan of Ray Bradbury and in the preface/instruction to his book Trigger Warning (2015) he shares how Ray Bradbury inspires him and how he got to meet his childhood hero. I have read several of Ray Bradbury’s novels (including the mandatory Fahrenheit 451 required in my high school) but now I have a longing to return as an adult and an experienced reader to the science fiction classic and revisit them.
Thinking about taking a break from nonfiction, self-improvement books for a while and lose myself in worlds created by brilliant authors.
So what are YOU reading these days and what authors have you fallen hopeless in love with?
I realized it’s time for “Tierney” to return to “creating”…
This blog is not called:
tierneywritesaudiobookreviews;
tierneyshowsterrythequiltinghusband’sprogress;
tierneysharesherrandomthoughts; or
tierneyobsessesaboutsunflowers
The blog is called tierneycreates, so Tierney better get to creating! (I like the imaginary sense of accountability blogging gives me – like you all will be very disappointed if my blog does not live up to its name!)
So last evening, I returned to “creating” and pulled out the “art pillow experimentations” tops I started last year and discussed in the 12/24/15 post What’s On the Design Wall: Playing with Solids.
I was excited to pull these items out of the “set aside to work on later” basket (set aside for 7+ months so far!) and turn them into pillows.
So far, I started with this one:
And turned it into this little pillow which I have named Textured Desert Canyon:
Textured Desert Canyon (2016) by Tierney Davis Hogan
I was excited to use my new “tierneycreates – smiles & textiles” tags (see post Embracing Orange) for the first time on this pillow (can you see the little tag in the photo?). I had to experiment to figure out exactly how to make the tag work but I think I like the outcome.
I experimented with quilting with a solid color thread and then a variegated thread to try and give a lot of depth to the quilting.
What surprised me was the dense quilting gave the hand dyed solid scraps pieced into this pillow a suede like texture and appearance. I am eager to experiment more with dense quilting.
Now onto to working on the next four (4) pillows!
Postscript
I follow many wonderful blogs and recently one of the blogs I follow, Catbird Quilt Studio has begun an interesting series on The Future of Quilting.
Here are links below to the two enjoyable posts in this series so far:
This post is a follow up to the 07/14/16 post What’s on the Design Wall(as well as another post mentioned in the Postscript section)
Terry, “The Quilting Husband”, continues his “take over” the large temporary design wall in the hallway (temporary until we install a permanent large design wall in the hallway) with his piece in progress. Here is his current progress from the 07/14/16 post – he has now inserted strips of pieced recycled denim between the rows.
We love recycling denim. Did you know how much it takes to produce a pair of jeans and the impact on the environment to create one pair of denim jeans?
I read an interesting article in the Winter 2015 edition of Interweave’s Stitch magazine, “Denim; Shaping the World, One Pair at a Time” by Kathy Augustine (pages 16 – 17).
Here are some interesting numbers from this article to give you a perspective of what it “costs” environmentally to make a pair of jeans:
An estimated 2 billion pairs of blue jeans are produced each year. It takes one bale of cotton (approximately 480 pounds of cotton) to produced 215 pairs of jeans, or 2.23 pounds of cotton per pairs. One acre of farmland produced approximately 740 pounds of cotton and cotton requires about 1,000 gallons of water per pound of fiber, so it took 2230 gallons of water to make that pair of jeans you are wearing and the average American has 7 pairs of jeans.
So I get pretty happy when I am involved in denim recycling and letting the effort all that water go towards something that can keep someone warm and cozy or decorate their house after the denim is no longer wearable.
I will wait and see what Terry does with the rest of the fabric for this piece he is working on (like an interesting border?) and then I would like to make a table runner with smaller pieces of recycled denim and the scraps from his piece. I think it would make an interesting “Country” style table runner.
Postscript
My sunflower obsession continues, as discussed in the post Waiting for the Sunflowers. This weekend I went over a friend’s house who had massive amounts of sunflowers in her front yard . Several of the sunflower plants had reached “Sunflower Tree” heights (nearly “house-size” sunflowers!).
Here are some of my photos (note the sunflowers were towards the end of their blooming):
Of course I took some cuttings home to put in my sunroom!
(Okay Tierney! Enough with the sunflowers already, move onto another topic.)
Maybe. I cannot promise sunflowers won’t be mentioned again in a future post (smile).
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniatures Schnauzer’s latest musings on her blog page SchnauzerSnips.
Now that I am feeling “Grit”-ty, why not also become a “Bad#ss”?
Last week I finished the awesome audiobook, discussed in several previous posts: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016). As mentioned in previous posts, this book has inspired me to become more “gritty”. I want to have, as Wikipedia discusses “grit”, a “perseverance of effort” in overcoming of obstacles or challenges that get in my path!
Photo credit: Amazon.com
Here is one of the closing quotes the author shares in her highly inspirational book:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.- Theodore Roosevelt
After finishing this audiobook about “grit” and being “gritty”, I dove right into listening to my next audiobook: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincere (2013).
Photo credit: Amazon.com
I know I might have said in the past that other audiobooks were my favorite “self-improvement”/”self-help” audiobooks of all time – BUT – this one is it – this IS MY FAVORITE SELF-HELP AUDIOBOOK OF ALL TIME. (At least for now!)
The audiobook is read by the author who delivers her narration in a stand-up comedian style. The book is VERY entertaining.
If you could not tell by the title, yes, she does swear a bit in the book (quite a bit of “f-bombs” are dropped) but she is a definitely “keeping it real”. She shares many truths with her listener and challenges you to see the obvious truths right in front of you that you are avoiding.
She also shares many funny and poignant personal stories about her journey and growth.
I am not sure how to summarize just how awesome this book is; but I am 3/4 of the way through as I have been listening to it non-stop. If you check out the reviews on amazon.com you will see that there are 1299 customer reviews with an average of 4.5 stars!
This book is very empowering and I love how she addresses excuses that we use not to achieve what we want in life. Here are a couple gems from the audiobook:
When you hang out with whiners, pessimists, tweakers, bleakers, freakers-outers and life-is-so-unfairers, it’s an uphill climb to keep yourself in a positive headspace. Stay away from people with tiny minds and tiny thoughts and start hanging out with people who see limitless possibility as the reality. Surround yourself with people who act on their big ideas, who take action on making positive change in the world and who see nothing as out of their reach. ~ Jen Sincero
It never ceases to amaze me the precious time we spend chasing the squirrels around our brains, playing out our dramas, worrying about unwanted facial hair, seeking adoration, justifying our actions, complaining about slow Internet connections, dissecting the lives of idiots, when we are sitting in the middle of a full-blown miracle that is happening right here, right now. ~ Jen Sincero
You are loved. Massively. Ferociously. Unconditionally. The Universe is totally freaking out about how awesome you are. It’s got you wrapped in a warm gorilla hug of adoration. It wants to give you everything you desire. It wants you to be happy. It wants you to see what it sees in you. ~ Jen Sincero
There are so many wonderful pieces of wisdom in this book, many of which we already know in our hearts but keep hidden from ourselves.
I am starting to feel like I am on my way to becoming a “Gritty Bad#ss”!
Postscript
This is a follow up to my previous post Waiting for the Sunflowers – one of my readers asked me to share a couple additional photos of the two sunflower related quilts I had on the post.
Here is a better lit photo (taken outside) and a detail of the painted sunflower wallhanging I quilted (but I did not paint – it was a pre-painted panel):
And here is a photo of the entire “Ugly Sunflower Fabric Challenge” quilt, which I renamed “Cozy Sunflower Quilt” as it has a nice snuggly flannel backing to it (not very handy right now in the warm Summer but come Fall…)
Sunflowers are my favorite flower and they actually spark a sense of joy inside me when I see them. Currently I am waiting for the sunflower seeds I planted in my yard to mature into sunflowers.
So far I have sunflower plant stems sprouted from the ground with their leaves and hopefully soon I will have the flowers themselves. I’ve spotted a few sunflowers in full bloom in around the neighborhoods I walk and bike. The feature photo on this post is from such a flower.
Sunflower Obsession
I think my obsession began with a lovely gift I was given by my friend Michele many years ago – an artificial potted plant of sunflowers (that looked quite real). That potted plant began my collection of sunflower related items.
My sunroom is decorated in a sunflower theme (I tried not to overdo it and it keep it semi subtle) and here is the plant that started it all along with a couple other sunflower themed items in the corner of my sunroom:
Cozy Sunflower Quilt – designed/pieced by Tierney Hogan, quilted by Guadalupe Designs
I also have sunflower art around the house. Here is a sunflower vintage style piece of art in my sunroom:
And a sunflower wallhanging which I made from a painted fabric sunflower panel which I machine quilted:
If You Plant Them, They will Come
I am thinking of the line from the movie Field of Dreams (1989): “If you build it, he will come”. I am patiently awaiting the arrival of the sunflowers I have planted including those I planted in the raised beds that surround the outside of my sunroom!
I will have sunflowers peeking into my sunroom and not just sunflower themed items around the sunroom!
Postscript
I was luckily enough to discover the blog of a talented painter who has a lot of sunflower themed art: Brush of Dawn Oil Paintings. Her sunflower paintings make me smile whenever I see them.
Here is a bonus sunflower, from an old post, in an unusual color!
Of course I could not refuse sharing a quote about sunflowers:
I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.
I have accepted the color Orange is part of my creative life, as I discussed in my July 3rd post, Orange. As a matter of fact, I have done more than accepted Orange, I am embracing Orange!
This weekend I worked on restocking my tierneycreates Etsy shop. It is still far from the days when I had 90 items in my shop. My miniature kimonos continue to be popular and I recently sold 4 to a lovely person in Canada as well as 4 to various friends (I continue to fleece my friends in person, making them purchase my handmade items, ha! See the end of the post Quilt Retreat Weekend: The Projects)
Many of the miniature kimonos in the new batch I made feature the color Orange:
I have been building a nice button collection and I enjoyed selecting a button for each kimono.
My friend Dana gave me some wonderful buttons in May at our annual Jelly Rollers Quilting Retreat (she was my Secret Quilting Sister), I still have wonderful buttons from my friend Betty Anne’s mother’s antique button collection she shared. Additionally I used a couple of the buttons from my recent antique button acquisition during the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (see post 2016 Sisters Outdoor Show Part I).
Now it is time to get each miniature kimono with its hanging chopstick and coordinating embroidery floss for hanging (though some people have put them in shadowboxes instead of hanging). Then it is time for their individual “photo shoots” for their Etsy shop listings.
Figuring in the cost of materials, time to make them, and Etsy seller fees, I figure I make like $3 – $4 per kimono. But my Etsy shop is a fun hobby and I enjoy knowing that my handmade creations are in peoples’ homes around the country (and Canada!).
If I tried to live off my Etsy shop I really would be foraging for free neighborhood fruit (like in prior post) for sustenance – ha!
MORE ORANGE (Orange Labels!)
Recently I decided I wanted my Etsy shop items to look a little more polished by adding a professional label to some items. I will not add the label to the miniature kimonos but I will to future art pillow and table runner creations.
I purchased the labels from another Etsy shop (Wunderlabel) and guess what color they are in? ORANGE!
POSTSCRIPT
Speaking of color, I have been following a wonderful blog by a painter, Laura’s Create art every day. A couple years ago while taking a Jean Wells class on art quilting, she suggested that we also seek inspiration from the work of other artists outside of fiber/textile arts – like painters. I have started following the blogs of several painters and I am so inspired by their use of color and their creatively (oh no I see a future “Creative Inspiration” series blog post coming…)
Here is a post from createarteveryday.com with some seriously inspirational use of my new color best friend, Orange:
This a blog about my quilting and crafting adventures, but it is also about a Quilter’s Life and quilters have to eat! (If we did not eat we would be gaunt and wasted, face down on our sewing machines or lying across our piles of fabric…)
So this post is about food. A most wonderful food in particular – pie –Apple Pie!
As I mentioned in prior posts, I ditched hiking Pilot Butte for a while and instead I have been going on bike rides – at least 3 – 4 times a week. On my bike rides I would pass by a huge Granny Smith apple tree (or a tree with very “Granny Smith” looking green apples). The tree was in a neglected yard; in a house that looked like either the occupants moved out or were on a long vacation.
It became clear that the apples were all going to just fall to the ground and go to waste. I was torn between “apple theft” and watching perfectly good apples all go to waste.
I chose…(let’s not use the word “theft”)…Apple Liberation!
During several bike trips, I freed enough apples for a pie for myself and a pie for my neighbor (who is quite the baker).
Bike basket of apples!
During my second round of picking apples, a neighborhood resident on a walk sauntered by, and I felt obligated to explain what I was doing. He confirmed that it was the right thing to do and he grabbed an apple for himself and continued on his walk!
I would like to think when/if the occupants return to the house they will be happy that the apples did not go to waste.
Apples saved from rotting on the ground unappreciated
And now I have pie:
Apples are really happy when they are in pie!
And life is always better with pie!
More neighborhood fruit to come: I have spotted two neglected pear trees with fruit getting close to ripening!
The feature photo was snapped on my phone and is a section of the Three Sisters Mountains – I captured in the photo the “Middle Sister” and the “North Sister” mountain. Below is a snapshot from the information at the Three Sisters Viewpoint (you can stop here for a wonderful view of the Sisters Mountains, part of theCascade Mountain Rangeon your way heading to Sisters or leaving Sisters, Oregon).
REUNITED
Last week in a series of posts I shared my adventures at the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS), held Saturday July 9, 2016. Friday, I took off from work and returned to Sisters, Oregon to pick up my favorite hat and vest I had left at the Stitchin’ Post during a class I attended at the end of May (see post Adventures in Appliqué).
So now you are thinking: “Tierney, why are you just now picking up your favorite knit hat and vest in the third week of July when the class was the end of May?” You are starting to suspect that the hat and vest are not really that dear to me, right?
Wrong. I did not realize the hat and vest were gone until a couple weeks ago. I did not connect/remember needing a hat and vest at the end of May 2016 (I forgot we had a cold snap at the end of May before it heated up nice and toasty in Central Oregon). When I realized they were gone a couple of weeks ago, I thought I had lost them during the late winter or early Spring, I grieved their lost (the hat was knitted by a friend of mine) and moved on.
While I was at the Men Behind the Quilts: Quilt Auction and Calendar Preview (see postCountdown to Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show) I ran into my teacher from the appliqué class and she asked me if I had picked up the hat and vest I left at the end of May. I was overjoyed!
I tried to pick up the hat and vest on Saturday July 9th when I stopped by the Stitchin’ Post during SOQS, but it was a mad house there and one of the lovely staff members pleaded with me to try back the following week.
When we returned to Sisters on Friday July 15th and I was finally reunited with with my hat and vest (imagine a scene from a Disney or Hallmark movie where the animated hat and vest are running in slow motion into my open arms and I give them a loving embrace – queue sappy music and closing credits…).
A LITTLE MORE ON THE SOQS
I follow a wonderful blog Woolie Mammoth which focuses on “quilting happenings” in Central Oregon. It’s blogger Anna, also has a YouTube channel where she shares her adventures on the road quilting. Recently she posted a video of what it is like to drive down Cascade Ave (Highway 20 as it runs through the town of Sisters) before the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and then what it is like to walk around the show:
First my blogger buddy Claire of the wonderful blogknitnkwilt.wordpress.comhad one of her modern improv quilts in the show. It was fun to watch the progress of this quilt on her blog:
Without Orange There Would Be No Blue (2016) by Claire of knitnkwilt
Here is another quilt I loved at the show of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it was tucked away in a sweet garden spot at the beginning of the SOQS. I thought the colors were so wonderful:
At the SOQS we parked in one of the neighborhood in Sisters, Oregon and here is a wonderful stained glass insert a Sisters resident had in their fence:
Here are the cute furry creatures we took with us on a day trip to Sisters, Oregon on Friday:
While in Sisters, we stopped at the beautiful Sisters Coffee Company which looks like a mountain lodge. In the Fall and Winter (and in early Spring) it is nice to sit around the roaring fire in the stone fire place, sip your tea or coffee and read a book. They do not care how long you stay!
And finally, here is another photo of the quilt I shared in my post Adventures in Appliqué. This quilt was made by women in Uganda in collaborations with the Sisters of the Heart Foundation which was run by my appliqué instructor, Janet Storten. This quilt along with other quilts by women in Uganda were hung around the Sisters Coffee Company.
Okay, that is enough on Sisters, Oregon for now. It is a pretty special place to me!
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniatures Schnauzer’s latest musing on her blog page SchnauzerSnips.
It seems like a week (or even a day) does not go by without hearing of some new atrocity in the news. There seems like there is so much sadness in the world.
What gives me a sense of peace is remembering that there is ALSO so much happiness and kindness in the world. It is important to focus my energy and attention on stories of people doing good in the world.
During my days of garage sale-ing with my friend Pam, years ago, I came across the cutest little “knick-knack” that made me smile. I think I bought it for 50 cents at the garage sale.
I keep it on my desk in my studio, however I posed it in my backyard for the photo. I always keep one of my little schnauzer figurines with it (because schnauzers are part of what make me “live, love, and laugh”). My 50 cent investment has brought me priceless amounts of smiles.
I will keep sending my thought and prayers to those affected by all the terrible recent tragedies in this country and around the world.
I think though it is okay, for our own psychological and emotional well being, to take a break from the news (and social media like Facebook) for a while and just focus on our loved ones, our friends and our community; as well as sewing, quilting, or other crafting project.
It is also okay to keep on living, loving and laughing, despite what is going on in the world.
(Photo credit for featured photo – by Magnus Skarstedt, Duck, Duck, Goose Statue | White River State Park, Indianapolis, freeimages.com)
Continuing my series on What’s on the Design Wall: Projects in Progress…
Terry the Quilting Husband, fresh from his sale of two of his quilts during the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, is eagerly working on a new piece (maybe for the 2017 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show?).
Terry is using our new temporary “giant design wall” that I discuss in the post Whole House Crafting. Until we get the interior walls of our house repainted (someday) we are just using a package of Warm & Natural batting on one of our hallway walls. A future house project is to build a nice large design wall on this side of the one hallway in our little home.
Terry likes to work from parameters I start him off with and he does not like quilt patterns of any kind. I tried to help him learn how to follow quilt patterns, but he strongly prefers to work intuitively.
I had a stack of 2.5 inch strips from an old kit (for a very ugly table runner) that I was never going to make. After sewing sections of the strips together, he is going to inset denim between them some how. All his concept – I only gave him the strips.
Here is my stash of recycle denim he is looking through to complete his design:
The chair in my studio with my stash of denim scraps
This will be the last post in my series of posts about the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS). Here are the links to the previous posts if you are just visiting my blog for the first time today (welcome!):
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show began in 1975 when it’s founder, Jean Well Keenan, owner of the Stitchin’ Post, hung her quilts around town. It has significantly grown until then and you can read its history on the About Uspage of the SOQS website. If you are not familiar with Jean Wells Keenan, check out her website – jeanwellsquilts.com– she is an internationally renown art quilter, author, teacher and a very accessible and friendly individual. She has cultivated the Central Oregon Art Quilting community (please see my post Creative Inspiration: Quilting Mentors)
We have many awesome quilt shops in Central Oregon, but no shop compares to (or attempts to compare to) the Stitchin’ Post. It has the finest selection of unique quilting fabrics in the area and specializes in fabrics that appeal to art quilters. It also has art quilting supplies and a wonderful collection of books. It offers classes (in the “Textile Education Center”) that are geared towards the individual wanting to expand their quilting skills or the experienced art quilter desiring to develop new techniques.
I wanted to share some photos of what the Stitchin’ Post is like during SOQS – packed and crazy – and awesome! It is filled with the excited energy of out of town (and international) quilters, hungry to add beautiful new fabrics to their collections or plan a new project. You can barely walk around the shop and there are long lines of happy quilters smiling with their new finds in hand, visiting and making new friends while waiting on line.
I assume people I do not know, do not want their photos on my blog, so below I attempt to focus the photos on fabric displays with limited human subjects. Believe me this was difficult as the place was very packed!
Photos from the Show
I took a ridiculous amount of photos from the 2016 SOQS and I have not yet mastered using Smilebox to create a slideshow to post to my blog, so instead I will provide links from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Facebook page and the Stitchin’s Post’s Facebook page which are filled with images from the 2016 SOQS – enjoy!
And finally, here are some photos I had to post – an empty restaurant building in Sisters got an recycled-denim-jeans quilt makeover in honor of the 2016 SOQS with a “cowboy” stuck upside down in his jeans and boots in the building chimney!
Continuing my series of blog posts of photos and experiences from attending the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show on Saturday July 9, 2016.
Tierney’s SOQS Quilts
Part of the fun (or challenge) of putting quilts in the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) is finding where they are hung in the show.
In addition to the quilt, Recycled Doors, I had in the Central Oregon SAQA Doors Exhibit (see post 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Part II) I had 5 other quilts. I was only able to locate 2 of the 5 other quilts at the show.
Terry the Quilting Husband and I stumbled upon one of my quilts in an awesome location – in front of The Nest Design Studio. The aesthetic of my quilt hung outside a home design studio was exquisite. I am honored that the SOQS staff selected that location to hang my quilt.
Modern Bedtime – designed and pieced by Tierney Davis Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe
I discovered a crowd of people looking at the quilt and I could not resist: I introduced myself as as “the artist”, answered questions and posed for photos with the quilt.
I also loitered around the quilt for about 5 minutes to introduce myself again to the next group of people admiring the quilt. I got to chat with several lovely individuals, posed for a couple more photos with the quilt, and got some new tierneycreates blog readers!
Alas, the quilt did not sell. I might have priced it too high and it was not bed size as I had originally intended (for that story, please see the 5/1/16 post The Downsized Quilt). However, I am happy to have it back at home. It now rests on the back of the chair in my cozy reading nook.
Terry the Quilting Husband’s SOQS Quilts
The 2016 SOQS was Terry’s first time showing his quilts. He was part of the Special Exhibit: Made by Men. Here is a link to the Bend Bulletin article on the Made by Men Exhibit, which featured 27 quilts made by male quilters from 4 different states:
Terry tried to play it off but I could tell he was pretty proud having his five (5) quilts hanging in the special exhibit.
I dragged him over to several groups of people who were admiring his quilts and introduced him as “the quilter”. It was very endearing to listen to him answer questions on how a quilt was made and his design process!
Colorful Modern Squares – designed & pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne GuadalupeCharming You – pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne GuadalupeCozy Flannel Shirts – designed and pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne GuadalupeSquares Gone Wild – designed and pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne GuadalupeCozy Flannel Snuggle – designed and pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe
Two (2) of his quilts sold – Cozy Flannel Shirts and Charming You. He already has two quilts in queue for the 2017 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!
POSTSCRIPT
I continue to listen to and enjoy the excellent audiobook – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016), read by the author, first mentioned in my 07/02/16 post Grit.
The author discusses the famous “Bricklayer Parable” in regards to “job” vs. “career” vs. “calling“. Here is a paraphrasing of that parable:
A man comes upon three men laying bricks for a church being built.
He asks the first man: ‘What are you doing?’ The first man replies: ‘I am taking bricks and piling them one on top of the other and putting cement in between them.’
He asks the second man: ‘What are you doing?’ The second man replies: ‘I’m building a wall that will form the outside structure of a large building.’
Finally he asked the third man: ‘What are you doing?’ The third man replies: ‘I am building a house of God.’
All three men are performing the same job but they all have different perspectives on that task – “a job” vs. “a career” vs. “a calling”.
So far (and I am over 1/2 way through) this is, in my opinion, a truly inspirational five (5) star audiobook.
Continuing my series of blog posts of photos and experiences from attending the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show on Saturday July 9, 2016.
OUR QUILTS
Yesterday I had planned to continue my series of posts on the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) that I began on Saturday’s post 2016 Sisters Outdoor Show Part I. Then something happened – Sunday sleepiness!
I was so sleepy on Sunday (maybe due to all that walking around the quilt show on Saturday) and I was involved in several spontaneous naps (i.e. falling asleep in a book you are sitting in a chair reading).
It is Monday and I am fully awake so in this post I will begin to share (I think it will take 2 posts) what happened with the quilts Terry the “Quilting Husband” and I put in the SOQS.
Terry the Quilting Husband did sell two quilts at the SOQS (more on that later)! I did not sell any but it was great to have them in the show.
Photos of our quilts in the show will be shared over two posts, starting with the Central Oregon SAQA Door Exhibit.
Central Oregon SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Doors Exhibit – We were challenged with making an 18″ x 40″ art quilt/wallhanging that represented our interpretation of a door. You can find the story behind my piece Recycled Door in the post Update: Recycled Door.
The exhibit was displayed during the SOQS in the courtyard of The Open Door Restaurant in Sisters (a lovely place to eat with delicious food and excellent service).
My photo montage below does not do justice to the beauty and talent that went into these pieces by my fellow Central Oregon SAQA members:
It was very crowded around this exhibit and I had to take photos whenever there was a break in the crowd so some pieces may only be partially photographed.
Next post will continue “Our Quilts” with photos of Terry the Quilting Husband’s quilts and my other quilts from SOQS.
POSTSCRIPT
I am experimenting with Smilebox, a way to add slide shows to blog posts. I created slideshow of the above photos but could not figure out how to imbed directly into this post. If you would like to see the slideshow (well my attempts at my first Smilebox slideshow) the link is below:
In the next series of blog posts I will share photos and experiences from attending the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.
Terry the Quilting Husband and I went to the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show today! We arrived in Sisters, Oregon before the show opened (as traffic gets crazier and crazier towards 9:00 am when the show starts). Once parked, we went to Angeline’s Bakery for a delicious vegan cinnamon roll, coffee and tea. The feature photo on this post is the sign in the backyard dining area of Angeline’s Bakery. Sisters has several awesome bakeries and we selected Angeline’s as it was further away from the entry and figured the tourists wouldn’t find it until later in the show.
Imagine a sweet small town (population around 2500), surrounded by beautiful Cascade Mountains, a downtown area in old Western town style architecture, and lots of friendly and happy people. Now imagine every inch of that downtown area covered with QUILTS! That is what the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is like.
If you are a quilter or love quilts, you should at least once in your life attend the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon. Photos you see online do not do justice to the experience of attending the show.
BUTTON BLISS
While at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show today we stopped at the used bookstore on Cascade Avenue so Terry could look for a new military history book to add to his collection (at home, our two bookcases side by side are hysterical – one filled with crafting books and the other filled with military history and military strategy/wargaming books).
In addition to used books, the bookstore also sold – BUTTONS! Antique Buttons! I am always on the look out for cool buttons for the miniature kimonos I make for my tierneycreates Etsy shop. I found a rack of “Button Sample Cards” and picked up two cards of antique button samples (that were used by button salesmen to sale to garment makers).
Here it is – “button porn”:
I have button bliss!
More later on the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, I have to return to gazing at my buttons! I am in the mood to make more miniature kimonos now!
It’s Thursday July 7th, just one more day to get through until the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Showon Saturday July 9th! It will be the 41st annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!
Last night I attended the Men Behind the Quilts: Quilt Auction and Calendar Preview in Sisters, Oregon. My friend Susan made the quilt on the cover of the calendar (and my friend Betty Anne quilted it) and I joined them for the charity fundraiser dinner and to see how well Susan’s quilt would sell at the fundraiser auction.
The annual calendar, Men Behind the Quilts, is for sale online and in person at the Stitchin’ Post. This calendar features local attractive men from a wide range of age groups posing with beautifully crafted quilts in beautiful settings.
Many of the men are “scantily clad” in the photos but all “special parts” are covered up with a quilt – hence the name of the calendar “Men Behind the Quilts”!
It is a great fundraiser to support the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (the show director shared at the auction event last night examples from the huge price ticket just to put on this non-profit event each year – who knew it cost so much for closing off streets, advertising and port-a-pottys?)
During the event last night I got a formal introduction to the brilliant and dedicated blogger, Anna Bates of Woolie Mammoth. I consider her blog one of the premiere blogs of the Pacific NW! She has a huge following and posts excellent stories, interviews and videos. I am sort of a “fan girl” so it was so great to meet her!
Speaking of videos on Anna’s blog, if you want to get a feel of what it is like in Sisters, Oregon during Quilters Affair week (the week before the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show) and during the show, check out her blog at wooliemammoth.blogspot.comand watch the her videos and interviews with the nationally known teachers that teach during Quilters Affair Week as well as the happenings during Quilters Affair Week. She also has a YouTube Channel – Quilt Roadieswith videos of RV adventures and quilting!
Terry “the Quilting Husband” and I are excited to see our 10 quilts (5 by him and 5 by me) in the show. Here is photo from the post Putting the “P” in Procrastinationof our stack of quilts for the show:
Another fellow blogger buddy, Claire of knitNkwilt will have an art quilt in the show and I am looking forward to finding it and taking photos for her.
Sigh, I feel like a kid before Christmas …waiting…
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s blog on her SchnauzerSnips page for her latest musings…
Showing Some “Grit”
After posting on Saturday about having “Grit” (powerful motivation to achieve an objective) I figured I better get “Gritty” and work on getting my tierneycreates Etsy shoprestocked.
So I had a “power crafting holiday weekend” and made 17 sets of vintage beer coasters.
I was “coasting” with making coasters!Tied up with a beer ribbon and ready to gift to the craft beer enthusiast
They are now listed on my tierneycreates Etsy shop and I am very pleased and relieved. Now onto the stack of other projects for the shop. Perhaps someday I can return to having 90+ items listed on my shop instead of my recent low of 25 items.
I have been working on better photography on my Etsy shop items. Below is an example from my “photo shoot” for the vintage beer coaster listing:
Coasters in action!
Once I get some additional smaller items onto the shop, I would like to focus on building my collection of modern quilt table runner offerings.
I have decided to no longer try to sell quilts on my Etsy shop and instead focus on offering reasonably priced smaller items. I removed all the listings for quilts made by me or by “Terry the Quilting Husband” on the tierneycreates Etsy shop. We plan to show and offer those quilts at the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Show.
It is challenging to sell quilts online. If you are a quilter you know how much work goes into making a quilt – time, effort and financial investment. It is difficult (at least for me with my questionable photography skills) to show online how lovely a quilt is in person. A great example is I sold a quilt at the 2015 Sisters Outdoor Show that I struggled for a year to sell on my Etsy shop – which was listed for quite a lower price on the Etsy shop. In person the quilt was spectacular (based on feedback I received) but you cannot always capture the specialness of a quilt with an online photo.
Interestingly potentially customers have contacted me on an Etsy quilt listings to ask me if I am willing to negotiate on the price of a quilt. It appeared they were looking for mass produced department store prices on my quilts.
Additionally, and this might be a topic for a future blog post, I am temporarily burned out on making lap and bed size quilts. I am interested in focusing on making table runners or small wall hanging size quilts instead.
Naturally I have more ideas in my mind that hours I have available to work on projects (don’t we all?) and I still have that pesky pay-the-bills full-time job in the healthcare industry (and they don’t let me quilt while working – ha!)
I continue to enjoy the audiobook Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016) and I am finding lots of inspiration to keep moving forward on my goals!
POSTSCRIPT: VARIOUS RAMBLINGS
When I ride my bike or go on a walk a million ideas seem to pop into my head of things I want to share on my blog. I thought I would do a mini “brain dump” in the “Postscript” section of this post:
In a previous post, Good Listens, I shared my favorite podcasts. Recently I have added several new favorites to my list:
While She Naps with Abby Glassensberg – a crafter and craft business focused podcast by blogger Abby Glassenberg who has a wonderful blog by the same name. I am currently listening to podcast episode #53 which features an excellent interview with Sherri Lynn Wood (author of my beloved The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously).
Let’s Know Things – an engaging podcast by Colin Wright exploring and discussing different topics. He has a very relaxing voice and his topics are well researched and presented.
Chris Hogan’s Retire Inspired– I occasionally listen to Dave Ramsey’s podcasts on managing your finances and Chris Hogan is a protege of Dave Ramsey. Chris Hogan’s style is more appealing – he is warm and hysterically funny financial coach.
All of these podcasts are available for free on iTunes. I might discuss them in more depth in a future post.
You may wonder what become of my “Pilot Butte Walks” that I posted about in several posts in April and May. Well they are still on hold for now (first due to my knees, then due to hot days) but I am going bike riding several days a week now in the am before work. I bike ride in the back of an adjoining neighborhood where I discovered an empty block (new house construction that was halted) in which I can safely ride around and around the block listening to podcasts. I try to ride for at least the length of a 30 or 40 minutes podcast before heading home.
The Here and Now Habit by Hugh Byrne – I discussed this audiobook in several previous posts (see Listening and Reading and The Guest House). Well I felt that I got all I could get out of it and did not finish it. That of course is the beauty of free public library audiobook downloads. It grew repetitive after a while and I felt like it was time to move on.
I think that is enough “brain dump” for now. Thanks for reading my ramblings. It is time to go to bed and hope I continue to be infused with “Grit” to attack all the awaiting fiber projects!
Happy 4th of July, hope you all are enjoying your hopefully 3-day weekend.
I am re-posting a tierneycreates post from August 2014 (Properly Hung!) on a truly functional use for a quilt (besides keeping warm).
It continues to make me smile knowing something I made is being used as art and in a very creative functional way!
Properly Hung! (8/24/2014)
I received delightful news the other day from my dear friend in Austria – the quilt I made his son has now been “properly hung”.
The quilt, whimsical house blocks done in a Scandinavian palette (my friend is originally from Denmark), is not just “properly hung” on the wall of his house – it is FUNCTIONALLY HUNG!
There is an electrical panel in the hallway of their house and they creatively hung the quilt with a special frame that both disguises the electrical box and gives easy access! Brilliant, eh?
(It is always so pleasing as a quilter to know that a quilt you make someone is not sitting in a closet somewhere gathering dust.)
If you ask me: “Tierney what is your favorite color?” I would likely reply “Purple“.
There is very little purple in my recent art of utility quilts. There is very little Purple in my house. However, there is a lot of ORANGE.
I would never say that Orange is my favorite color but if you look at the background on my blog (which is a photo of a quilt I made based on an old tile floor); if you look at the quilts I have made over the past 5 – 6 years (art and utility quilts); and if you look in my fabric stash, you would think I was beholden to the color Orange.
Check out a photo of my living room area – notice a lot of “shades of orange” in the quilts on the wall?
I am not sure when my apparent and subconscious love of the color Orange began and I am not sure when it will end.
There was an article in the 2015 premiere issue of Room to Create magazine on “Color & Creativity” (page 8). In this article the publication discusses how color impacts mood. Here is an excerpt of what the article said on the color Orange:
ORANGE
Looking for excitement, energy and enthusiasm? Orange may be your soulmate.
I guess Orange is my “color soulmate”!
Do you have any color that keeps surprisingly appearing in your work?
POSTSCRIPT
I just realized that I had the quilt below on the wall of my living room for a number of years. I will be showing/selling it in this year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. The ORANGE is really strong and prevalent in this quilt!
Splendid Splendor – pieced by Tierney Davis Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe. The pattern is called “Slideshow”.
Just started listening to a fantastic audiobook (well fantastic so far) – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016).
The audiobook is read by the author (I love when an author reads their own audiobook) and explores the role of GRIT in the journey to success (however youdefine success).
…a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual’s path to accomplishment, and serves as a driving force in achievement realization.
Whenever I think of the word “grit”, I think of the movie True Grit (original 1969 and remake 2010).
This movie was based on a novel by Charles Portis (1968). This movie was about a teenage girl hiring a man with “true grit” to capture the man who killed her father. It is a story of dogged retribution for a wrong, as well as a story of valor and courage.
In the audiobook Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, the author does not discuss hunting down people who do you wrong (could you imagine reading a self-improvement book that focused on that topic, ha!) but explores “natural talent” vs. “hard work and perseverance”.
I am early in the audiobook but I am fascinated by the author’s anecdotal examples of individuals who society or schools wrote off as low aptitude and low achievers who went on to achieve great things due to their efforts, hard work, and perseverance. The author also shares how one teacher believing in one child that no one else believed in can make a huge impact on that child’s life and future. Teachers are higher life forms in my opinion and the lives they positively impact have an impact on society as a whole.
More later on this audiobook as I continue my listen…
Postscript
Speaking of “grit” (or my imaginary grit), I have been hard at work making items for the tierneycreates Etsy shop. I am taking a break from working on art quilts and instead focusing on making fun items for people to enjoy in their homes or give as gifts. I am working on make a bunch of the Vintage Beer Coasters (see the post Quilt Retreat Weekend: The Projects for the story of how I made 9 sets at a quilt retreat and left with retreat with 0 sets as the other quilters bought them all as gifts!)
Postscript Postscript
Do you remember the days of writing letters (on paper!) and adding a “P.S. P.S” after your initial “P.S.”? Well here is one more thought before I close this post:
I continue to enjoy all the blogs I follow by other creative individuals. I wanted to mention one blog post I recently really enjoyed from the blog Dewey Hopin which the blogger discusses interesting finds in the Economics section of the library, discussion of those finds and some wonderful humor:
The blogger, Feisty Froggy, is blogging through the entire Dewey Decimal system of the local public library in order; and shares favorite finds in each section. If you have followed my blog for a little while, you know about my love of and obsession with the public library.
I look forward to Feisty Froggy’s next post on the next library section!
tierneycreates 