What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the…Design Carpet

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s been a while since I’ve added anything to my series of posts:   “What’s on the Design Wall”, about my current project up on my design wall.

However as my tierneycreates Beastie shared in the post Guest Blogger: What the heck is going on here? , my studio is packed up and turned back into a bedroom for staging the house I currently live in for sale.

Not having a design wall up on the wall has not stopped me – I’ve discovered: The Design Carpet (patent pending, ha!).

2020-01-16_13-21-04_854But let’s back-up a moment, and tell you how this piece began and got to this point…

As I mentioned in my post From the Basket – English Paper Piecing, a couple weekends ago I attended a mini quilt retreat with a couple quilting friends in Poulsbo, Washington.

I brought a couple hand work projects from my basket of hand work (see post Inside the Basket ) and had EVERY INTENTION of only working on my hand work projects.

But…

My dear quilting friend Dana brought an extra sewing machine (one her her Berninas, and I love Berninas) and a BAG OF GRAY FABRIC SCRAPS for me to play with – oh no!

2020-01-10_18-11-38_9152020-01-11_15-35-55_903As you saw in the “From the Basket” post, I did work on my English Paper Piecing rosettes, but after a while I put them aside and STARTING PLAYING WITH THE GRAY SCRAPS! (I could not resist the temptation to play with fabric scraps)

Before you know it, as I shared on @tierneycreates on Instagram, I began creating freeform pieced/improvisationally pieced log cabin blocks (also known as “log jamming”):

2020-01-10_18-11-34_186And before I knew it, I had a pile of 138 blocks I made!

2020-01-12_08-01-18_2382020-01-12_08-00-38_602Once I got home, I could not wait to play with them and see what interesting pattern I could make with the dark gray and light gray framed blocks, So I decided to use the “Design Carpet”:

2020-01-16_13-07-40_412I began with creating a pattern with the dark gray framed blocks:

2020-01-16_13-07-51_784Then I worked on framing them with the light gray blocks:

2020-01-16_13-21-12_628I like the effect with the dark gray floating in the lighter gray blocks.

Since I took these photos, I’ve made additional progress and pulled out my sewing machine from the storage room (where you hide everything when staging a house for sale)!

Let me make a bit more progress on the piece and I will share in a future post!

Postscript

Let me know if you think I can patent the concept of the “Design Carpet” and make millions on my late-night infomercial selling “Design Carpets” and quit my day job and just sew all day!

“You can own your own Design Carpet for 5 easy payments of $99.99!

But wait, there’s more:

Buy one Design Carpet and get a second one for only $99.99 plus shipping and handling.”

– TIERNCO, DISTRIBUTOR OF THE DESIGN CARPET

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".

39 thoughts on “What’s on the…Design Carpet”

  2. Ah ha! Got the trusty sewing machine out. It was smart to store it where there was easy access. The light gray/dark gray blocks are wonderful. I hate to throw cold water on your design carpet business, but only people with bendable knees will be interested. Quilters get unable to do that as fast as their hair grays.

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    1. Oh Martha – thanks so much for the laugh! Okay since many quilters are in the “not so bendable knees” category, perhaps this idea will not sell very well – ha!

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  3. Reading your posts is always fun. What struck me this time is how clearly your enthusiasm shines through! It almost makes me want to suggest you to take this up as a hobby? :o)

    PS: You should absolutely look into patenting that carpet concept. What with all the ridiculous things that are patented these days, your concept here is – wait for it – well grounded! Ha! (But seriously, there’s a patent on double-clicking! Even on rounded corners on app icons! Those patent office clerks need a sanity check.)

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    1. I should take it up as a hobby 🙂
      Do you think there are enough gullible people in the world to actually buy the “Design Carpet”? Perhaps I should put together a proposal and seek out some venture capitalists ! 🙂

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      1. That’s the beauty of patents! You don’t have to make anybody buy those carpets. Let others build a giant quilt carpet imperium and THEN hit them with a giant patent lawsuit. Voilà, billioness overnight! Finally you will have funds to make THOB a global phenomenon!

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  4. Ten out of ten for ingenuity and eleven out of ten for producing a most stunning piece, with acknowledgements to Dana. Your post reminded me of the charmed life that quilters lead and the generosity of quilting friends.
    Congratulations on the formation of Tiernco and all the best with the patenting of The Design Carpet. (You could expand to include the Tiled Floor, Lawn, Wooden Floor, Double Bed as design platforms!)

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    1. Thanks Mariss 🙂
      Dana is so generous and we do live a charmed life! I like your ideas for expanding to Design Tiled Floor! The lawn might get complex for shipping to (gullible) customers 😉

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    1. You might be able to invest but first I have to find a venture capitalist that wants to invest as imagine how many carpets I will have to buy and imprint my company name on??!?! Ha! Thanks so much 🙂

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  7. You are just too clever…and productive..and resourceful! And that is the prettiest sewing machine I’ve ever seen. I have a box of scraps I’m currently turning into stuffed animals. Or, well, trying to since I’ve no idea what I’m doing. All these legs and heads certainly are a lot more difficult than sewing clothing!

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    1. I know – that is one pretty sewing machine – how could I not use it when she brought it for me to use? Thanks for your comments and I wish you much luck on your stuffed animal adventures! I hope you post some of them when you are done (or in progress).

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  9. I already told you “I’ll fight you for the design carpet patent” as I have a similar carpet and it’s where I lay out pages and various “lots” that need to be sorted out. My latest handmade book has more than 40 pages (that’s 80 when they are folded for the page)…

    But hey that’s great a friend would “enable” you in this way…good luck with having a new design wall, real soon – at your new pad!

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    1. Ha! Darn it – patent competition 🙂
      Perhaps we have to go into business together as CathTierco and sell the carpets to very very very gullible crafters 🙂
      Yes I was so lucky to have a wonderful enabling friend who fed into my fabric scrap addiction!

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  10. Design carpet? Genius! I’ll take 4! Well, as long as you promise to throw in the lovely quilt, and a test-drive on that Rolls Royce of a sewing machine 😍Great ideas just seem to flourish at these quilt retreats, I think I might take your lead and go on a “Beastie retreat” one of these days!

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    1. Perhaps as the initial customer of Tiernco we can throw in those extras – ha! Yes great ideas for happen at retreats! Imagine if you put together/hosted a retreat for all your beastie customers and we had all those Beasties together for the weekend – could you imagine the mischief?!??!?!?!

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  13. Not only can you make millions on the new design carpet concept, but I believe you can start an “up all night” quilt along!! I love log cabin blocks, there is something therapeutic about them. Also, our friend Dana’s lovely sewing machine came in handy when we were at OTR last Nov. 2019. I was able to fall in love with the Bernina all over again after most of my time spent with the Janome. I really enjoyed going back through your blogging journey. Well done with lots of love and talent. ❤

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  16. Haha. For years I had a design carpet in the living room located so that I could run up to the loft and get a good overview of the design. Then run down, switch 2 blocks, run back up…you get the picture! Happy days.

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