Studio, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on My Lap

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is a follow up to my post Slow Stitching and a part of my continuing series: What’s on the Design Wall, featuring my latest projects in progress. 

I titled this post “What’s on My Lap” for two reasons: 1) The obvious: I am hand stitching the quilt,  so it is on my lap of course; and 2) As a follow up to the hilarious comment from Sandy (or Cindy?) of Gray Barn Designs, (one of my favorite quilting blogs to follow) on my 03/21/17 Slow Stitching post:

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Oh yes, I might do a future post titled “What’s in My Head” if Gray Barn Designs does not beat me to it! Of course that would be a very long post. Way too many design ideas going on in my head.

Update on ‘Recycled Road’

I decided to name to piece Recycled Road, even though I have not written the Artist Statement for it yet. I am having so much fun slow stitching it! (Notice in the photo below I included my shoe so you could see it really is on my lap!)

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I am not looking to win any “hand quilting technique competitions” but I have fallen in love with the whole experience of hand quilting. All the fabrics in this art quilt, for our local SAQA group annual themed show, are recycled (jeans, corduroy pants, corduroy shirt, tweed jumper, curtains, home decor fabric sample, and sweat pants!) and they have a wonderful texture.

I especially love stitching through the sweat pants material. It is so soft and supple and I like to brush my hands along the fabric after stitching a section (ok Tierney are you getting weird now with your hand quilting?!?!?). Was that “oversharing”?

Interestingly, Terry the Quilting Husband’s two sisters and mother are quilters and one of his sisters is really into hand quilting. My sister-in-law Sue is a serious quilter. Like a paper piecing and hand quilting quilter. She is an expert hand quilter. I remember years ago watching her hand quilt while she was visiting us and thinking “yikes, why would anyone want to do that?”

Now I get it. I was teasing Terry the other evening as we sat in front of the TV and I hand stitched: “Terry, I have become your sister!” (In reality, the only thing I have in common with Terry’s very talented quilter sister, is that we both hand quilt now. My skills are light years from hers!)

I feel like I am on this cool ongoing journey related to my quilting, even after 17+ years of being a quilter.

(I will unveil a photo of the entire piece once I have it completed. I have to keep up the suspense…or at least the imaginary suspense…)

Postscript

I do plan to return to more Farm Girl Vintage blocks in the future. Hopefully!

 

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

16 thoughts on “What’s on My Lap”

  1. OK, you mentioned artist’s statements, and I HATE writing them. Mine seem to mundane compared to the stuff some people write. So, how about doing a blog on how to write a good artist’s statement?

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  3. T: Thanks for the shout-out! Cindy is working on what’s in her head — I just suffered through the trauma of dealing with what’s on my head LOL!. Love, love, love the new art quilt sneak peek. You are my goddess for experimenting with hand-quilting — it seems like a perfect excuse to start collecting cool thimbles.

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    1. Thanks so much! I do need a thimble! I am using a sad thimble (an old office supply item…a rubber finger? turned into a thimble). Thanks for letting me know it was Cindy – both of you are awesome and thanks for reading 🙂

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  5. What an interesting combination of fabrics. I bet it does feel very soft and soothing in your hands and in your lap. I wold agree that hand quilting, if done on a small scale, is very therapeutic, relaxing. On a large quilt…..not so much. I’m over the top excited to see the finished masterpiece.

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  6. This looks very cool. I’m eager to see it when it’s done.

    I’ve hand-quilted one project and was surprised at how much I enjoyed the process. It took a long time! But was very satisfying in a variety of ways.

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    1. Thank you! I am torn between eager to see it when it is done and wanting to draw out the pleasure of slow stitching – but – duh, I could just start a new hand quilting piece after it 🙂

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  7. I saw this on Facebook; you might like the group Wise Craft Quilts, based on the book of the same name, all about using pre-loved fabric–and the group members would definitely love to see your piece!
    I am fascinated by all the different types of textiles in your piece. I never would have thought of using sweatpants, especially not with the shiny, satin — but it works!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks so much and I will check out that group! I appreciate you checking out my blog (and yes the sweatpants were probably crazy but a fun experiment and…it seems to work…at least in my mind – ha!)

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