Rose Atkinson-Carter a London-based writer with Reedsy, reached out to me with an offer to write a guest post that tied quilting and writing together. I thought it was a fabulous idea, and here is her fabulous guest post!

How Quilting and Writing are Similar Creative Processes

by Rose Atkinson-Carter

This may surprise you, but quilting and writing are really similar. Sure, one is sewing fabric together to make elaborate designs, and the other is putting words to a page to tell a story. But, if you pick apart the steps of writing a story, they’re practically the same steps that you follow to create a quilt. I believe that if you can create a quilt from scratch, you can definitely write a book. Just follow these four quilting steps, and you’ll have a story in no time.

1. Pick a theme

Whether you love playing with colors and patterns in patchwork, or are more interested in the details of the sewing on a single-color background, you’ll want to choose an eye-catching design for your quilt. And while the technical, visual characteristics (i.e. colors, shapes, composition) are important, adding a theme to your quilt — like how this legendary quilt is focused on Bigfoot — can take your design to the next level.

“Legendary” quilt pieced by tierneycreates, quilted by Krista Moser, pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

In the legendary quilt, the artist deliberately uses colors and design elements to emphasize the concept of Bigfoot and his environment. The mossy, sylvan green and brown on a contrasting white background draws the eye to the quilted Bigfoot, who is made of classic quilting shapes of triangles and squares.

When it comes to writing, the same is true. When picking a theme — the thread running through your story — you can give your technical skills a sense of purpose and direction. Just as your theme on your quilt is supported by certain shapes and colors, the theme in a story is supported by a character’s actions and thoughts, or repeating ideas and motifs. What’s more, a well-developed theme is very effective at drawing your readers in.

When your story carries a strong theme, it will be able to reflect the reader’s own experiences or curiosity, leading them to think about your work beyond just when they’re sitting with the book in hand.

So for quilting and writing both, start with an idea for a theme, something that you can build off of toward a finished product.

2. Pick out your fabric

After creating your quilt design, you’ll want to pick out the perfect fabric. This will be the canvas for your masterpiece to unravel on, the ideal characteristics of which depend on the purpose of your quilt. If you’re making a coat or blanket, you’ll want to pick fabric that’s comfortable, won’t scratch, and something that will hold stitches for a long time. If you’re making a piece of wall art, you might choose fabric that’s more of a statement — something with texture, or bold colors.

The fabric you choose can make or break your project. To make this decision, you have to take a “big picture” look at your quilt’s theme and vision so that you can choose a strong foundation to advance your product from the get-go.

The same goes for creating a story. Sure, you won’t write your story on yards of quilter’s cotton, but it is important to determine the right structure for your story. Will the theme you pick be supported by a hero’s journey plot structure, or more of a simple three act structure? If you’re able to put together an outline (it doesn’t have to be super fleshed out) before you write, you’ll have a stronger start to the project as a whole. So take the time to pick a structure that helps build the theme you’ve chosen.

This is why picking a theme that you truly care about is important. Whether you’re designing on fabric or on the page, a theme keeps you guided throughout the whole process, reminding you with every step that the aim is to create a cohesive end product.

3. Sew it all together

Once you’ve gathered the materials that will support your theme, you’ll be ready to start sewing. If you’re creating a patchwork quilt, you’ll have quite a few pieces to create and arrange in just the right way. Swapping one triangle or granny square for another of the wrong color will distort the image you’re trying to create, so you have to go through the sewing process paying close attention to the details of your design. Much like the various elements involved in book cover design, you’ll need to weave together multiple elements that communicate a cohesive story or theme.

*Recycled Hope I: Recycled Road* by tierneycreates

This all will take time, as is the case with writing a novel. Even if you already have some plot points laid out, and now you just have to fill in the details, you’ll still have to pay careful attention to how it all fits together. Be mindful of plot holes or inconsistencies of character descriptions. If that sounds like a lot, the good news is that developmental editors exist to help you with these issues. Or if you can’t go pro, consider asking a writer friend to do a feedback exchange with you: creative exchanges are always fruitful!

4. Add finishing touches

After weeks of hard work, your quilt is almost ready for photos! You’ve sewn your design and everything is looking great. Now, it’s time to add any finishing touches. This might include ironing out any kinks, clipping any thread ends that have snuck through the fabric, or adding a border around the motif. At this final stage, you’re doing everything to make sure the quilt reflects your best work.

2018-01-10_13-51-55_544 — *Tree of No Hurry* by tierneycreates

In writing, this type of editing is typically known as copy editing. You’ve gone through the hard work of getting your words down on the page and cleaning up your story. A copy editor will help clean up the prose to make sure the story shines. Now, it’s time to cut those thread ends and close the quilt. As a final safety net, a proofread will take your writing to a professional level. Any grammatical errors, typos, or weird spacing that might have slipped by you will be caught by a proofreader, making your pages spotless.

If you can put in all that time and energy in creating a gorgeous quilt, you’ll have no problem at all getting a story together. Just remember your quilting steps, and your story will come together just as beautifully.

Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors with the world’s best self-publishing resources and professionals like editors, designers, and ghostwriters. She lives in London, and loves writing and crafts.

The Exchange!

January 26, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am fascinated with the talent of the knitters whose blogs I follow. One of those is @Mildy Granola who is the queen of knitting socks. I think her entire family (hubby and adorable kids) only wear her hand knitted socks.

I’ve never owned a pair of hand knitted socks and I am Terrified (yes with a capital “T”) of knitting socks (even though I can knit a basic hat so I know all about double pointed needles).

So when Sarah @mildygranola offered to make me a pair of hand knitted socks in exchange for one of my drawstring/project bag, I quickly said YES!

Here are the amazing socks she made me:

And here is the drawstring/project bag I made her with the fabric she requested:

Sarah was not particularly focused on the fact that the outside bag fabric was Tula Pink fabric, she just liked the raccoon fabric, so I did not use Tula Pink fabric for the inside bag. Instead I found this lovely floral fabric that coordinated better in my opinion.

Sarah of course has already received her bag and it is already featured in photo in her latest post: Quick Trip

I think I made out better than she did with my first pair of hand knitted socks!

tierneycreates

2021 Crafts in Review

January 24, 2022June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I better get this post out before the end of January! I’ve enjoyed seeing 2021 crafting retrospectives by my blogging buddies and thought I would do one myself.

So here is it is gallery format:

On one hand it seems like I made a lot of things in 2021, and on the other hand it seems like I definitely did not make all that I planned!

I am avoiding for some reason (unknown) any official New Year’s Resolutions this year but I would like to challenge myself to make more things in 2022 than I did in 2021.

I wish you an awesome year of creativity in 2022!

Give it up. Creativity, passion and a sense of purpose - The Digital Transformation People

What's on the Design Wall

What’s On the Design Wall: “Scraphenge”

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post is a follow up to my previous post What’s On The Design Wall: Stonehenge Scrappy Freeform Log Cabin, where I was using the freeform/improvisational log cabin block piecing technique – “log jamming” – to create a scrap quilt from my Northcott Fabrics Stonehenge line scraps.

I completed all the blocks and was deciding on a layout.

The layout I came up with was one in which the blocks set in other colors besides the cream Stonehenge fabric, were set in the center of the quilt (except for 4 I saved to use as cornerstones).

I decided to name the piece “Scraphenge” since it was made from Stonehenge fabric line scraps!

It is not a very large quilt, it measures 55 inches tall by 48 inches wide (139 cm by 122 cm).

Right now I am trying to decide whether to quilt it myself or send it to a long arm quilter. However for now I am just going to leave it up on the design wall as I have other projects in queue I want to work on (smile).

What's on the Design Wall

What’s On The Design Wall: Stonehenge Scrappy Freeform Log Cabin

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I mentioned in my post Things to Do When You Have a Bad “Cold”, that I’ve been working on a scrappy improvisational “log cabin” block style quilt. I thought I would show you my progress on the piece so far.

All I’ve done is lay the blocks out for now on my design wall, this is not the final design. I have a name in mind for the piece but I am keeping that under wraps until I see if the final design will work.

Each block is 6.5 inches x 6.5 inches and was made using scraps of Northcott Fabrics’ Stonehenge line which I love, as well as some small yardage pieces of Stonehenge I had in my stash.

The scraps primarily came from this quilt I made a couple years ago:

This was my pile of scraps that I started with for the piece currently up on my studio design wall which include scraps from the quilt above and scraps given to me by quilting friends:

Eventually I decided not to use the Stonehenge animal print scraps that someone gave me (and recently I donated a pile of them to a local charity thrift store so they can be enjoyed by another crafter).

Here are photos of me chain piecing the improvisational log cabin blocks via a technique I learned from Jackie Erickson at the Stitchin Post when I lived in Central Oregon.

Jackie told us in a class I took at the Stitchin’ Post that “log jamming” that is technique originated in Africa – the using of scraps to randomly put together fabric and create a larger piece of fabric, etc.

While writing this post I googled “log jamming quilting” to see if I could find any official history on this technique and found a VIDEO by the Stitchin’ Post about log jamming!!!

If you want to see a demonstration of the technique, here is the video – enjoy!

Jackie has a pattern she sells on making a log jam quilt and here is the link to it: Modern Log Jam.

I have used the technique I learned from Jackie on so many quilts over the years (as well as taught the late Terry the Quilting Husband to make quilts this way also – see post What’s On The Design Wall: Flannel “Log Jam” Blocks) that she holds a special place in my heart (and she is an awesome teacher!).

In her class she would use a shopping bag of random scraps and you just pull from that bag and “jam on” while chain piecing.

Okay I went off on a tangent on log jamming, and let’s get back to the story on this current log jam quilt in progress…

Originally I wanted to frame all the blocks in a cream colored Stonehenge fabric I had in my stash, but it turned out I did not have enough. So I used a smaller brown yardage as well as a couple fat quarters from my stash that I thought would coordinate.

Here are the resulting four (4) types of blocks:

Yes, I have not cleaned up all the loose threads from all that chain piecing I did. But I’ll do that as I sew the blocks together in whatever their final configuration.

For now they all sit on my design wall awaiting my further musings on layout…

tierneycreates, What's on the Design Wall

A “Legendary” Christmas Gift and “Quilt Photo-bombing”

January 10, 2022January 10, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I realized I had not shared a follow up to the August 2021 post Creating a back for a “Legendary” quilt. I received the quilt back from the long arm quilter just before Christmas and shared the finished quilt on my @tierneycreates Instagram, but not on my blog where I had talked about it in several posts over the years.

I was able to get the binding on right before Christmas and I gave it to my partner John for Christmas. Below are photos of the quilted quilt including where John keeps it on the sofa in the basement where his “man cave” is:

I was trying to take pictures of the back of the quilt and a miniature schnauzer slowly snuck into the photo (photo-bombing)!

Mike: Don’t mind if I sneak right on to the quilt while you try and photograph it!

Mike: Hi, I am cuter than this thing you are photographing!

This was taken before he got his haircut at the beginning of January. He got a bit furry through the holidays!

Oh the the extra tree block you see on the back of the quilt is by my friend Kathy, who gave me the scraps to make the quilt (plus scraps she got from our friend Dana). It was an extra she had when she made her quilt. That block reminds me/connects me to the love and generosity I constantly get from my long time quilting sisters!

Postscript

Thanks for all your well wishes on my January 5th post Things to Do When You Have a Bad “Cold”.

I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER! Unfortunately now John has my “cold” but it seems to be milder for him.

I’ve been making quite a bit of progress on the quilt I showed you I started while self-isolating due to me “cold”. I should be able to share on my next post what it is looking like on the “design wall”.

A Crafter's Life

Things to Do When You Have a Bad “Cold”

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s cold outside in the Denver Metropolitan area (with snow on the ground) and I have a “cold”.

I’ve put the word “cold” in quotes as I do not know if it is just your standard old fashioned winter cold, or our friend Omicron the COVID variant. Omicron, Omicroon, Omicruel, Omicrap, Omiramadingdong. Yup I so over all this.

Perhaps it is a cold, perhaps it is the COVID variant, did not go get tested as did not feel up to it and I’ve been isolating. My partner John has not gotten sick. We are vaccinated for COVID and the flu, etc.

I’ve been stuck at home with lots of fun “cold” type of symptoms but no fever. Actually the symptoms are about the same as every winter cold I’ve had before. Except add in the paranoia of maybe I’ve finally caught COVID.

My nutrition over the past couple of days have come from water, tea (so much hot tea), chicken noodles soup (homemade by John!), chicken broth (when the soup was way too busy for me), toast, jello, ice cream, and hummus (don’t ask me why but hummus worked for me today as food).

Sounds like all of Denver has it (perhaps I exaggerate) but I wonder if you have to just walk around in full protective gear to avoid it now.

My Covid 19 Protection Suit - Darth Vader - Choke | Make a Meme

Back to isolating – I’ve been stuck inside past couple of days but made it out once for a dog walk. I maintained social distancing and refrained from running up and kissing anyone I ran in to on my walk.

With memes and TikToks, teens lighten the mood of 'corona break' – The Boiling Point

But here is what I’ve been up to while being stuck inside over the past couple days.

QUILTING

Working on a scrappy quilt on my old Bernina using the “log jam” free form log cabin block style piecing, with my Northcott Stonehenge fabric line scraps:

(oh warning; the photos in this post will likely be crappy, as I feel like crap..)

I’ll share a whole post on this project once I get some full blocks done. Right now I am just “chain piecing” and trying to build each block up to 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches (a random block size I selected based on the size of the ruler I want to trim them with).

TAKING ON THE JUKI

This is embarrassing, but I bought a used Juki sewing machine for making bags (using heavier fabrics), etc. in I think Spring 2021 (2021 is a blur now, I am just making up when things happened in 2021 at this point) and I could not get it to work right because I was confused on threading it, etc.

So I just abandoned it and made it a mysterious sewing machine object on the other side of my sewing table from my Bernina (or “my beloved” as I like to call it).

I let the Juki stare at me anytime I sat at the table sewing on the other machine.

I learned to ignore the Juki and pretend it was invisible, but while being stuck at home I decided to actual get out something called a MANUAL (that I had printed out months ago and placed on the Juki as decoration…or perhaps to keep it company) and read the MANUAL. I also watched a couple YouTube videos on threading the Juki, winding the bobbins, fixing bobbin tension, etc.

It was all very dry reading/watching and it seems way more complicated than my Bernina (which basically functions as an extra body part for me) but I got it working!

So I am going to make myself make my next bag on it. No more neglecting it for my beloved Bernina…at least this is what I am telling myself.

GRANNY SQUARE PARTY

Sat around and made granny squares, creating a kingdom of crochet on the sofa table where I was stationed somedays:

READING

Reading the book Billy Summers by Stephen King, which is so good so far…

And finally reading random magazines I bought during the early days of pandemic in 2020 when they finally opened back up our local Barnes & Nobles bookstore and I pick up whatever looked acceptable enough to read!

AND LOTS OF LOTS OF NAPPING WITH MIKE

My dog Mike is a professional napper and he guided me into proper positioning for many naps of the past couple of days. Here he is demonstrating his solo nap technique.

Alas I did not take photos of me nappy curled up with him.

So that has been my life past couple of days. I apologize for any crazy grammatical errors I made in this post as I am too sleepy now to proofread.

I’ll close this post with this awesome postcard I found which is a positive way to think about having a “cold”:

30 Funny sick memes ideas | funny, sick, funny sick memes

Knit and Crochet Away!

Granny Squaring Again!

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In November 2020 I finished my first crocheted “Granny Square” blanket after teaching myself via YouTube videos to make a granny square:

I’ve been itching to work on granny squares again – they are a portable hand work project and great to keep your hands busy while riding in the car, waiting around, or just sitting about watching television in the evening.

In my yarn stash I found some variegated yarn and some coordinating yarns that I thought would make a cool granny square blanket:

Here are the centers I started making:

And here are the granny squares in progress and completed:

I have two different types: 1) center green, surrounded by variegated yarn, framed by rust colored yarn; and 2) center rust, surrounded by variegated yarn, framed by green yarn.

I will update you on my progress on the blanket as it progresses!

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop and Some New Year’s Day Hair Fun

January 1, 2022June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Happy New Years to all of you!

In this post I’ll share a gift my partner John made from wood scraps in his woodshop and then we’ll have a little New Years Day fun!

I love to save and use fabric scraps for my crafting and quilting projects, and my woodworking partner John does the same with his wood scraps. He is always trying to decide just how small a wood scrap to save.

Well for our friends who enjoy whiskey and bourbon tasting, he made a set of tasting trays from the wood scraps in his shop and put cool beveled edges to each tasting set.

We found chalkboard stickers at one of the home improvement stores and put a sticker/label on each taster-section along with some chalk, so they could mark what is in each taster glass. We also gave them extra stickers in case the originals wear out.

I think it was a pretty creative use of woodworking scraps and John designed the set himself!

Okay now for the fun, and WARNING: You will not be able to “unsee” what you are about to see.

My partner John has had a receding hairline for many years, and has a good sense of humor about it. One of his sons would tease him that he had a “cul-de-sac” on top of his head!

Cul-de-sac - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia — image of a cul de sac in case you are not familiar with this term

I came across a smartphone app called HairStyleLite where you can try on different hair styles. John being such a great sport and having a wonderful sense of humor, let me play with one of his photos to see what he might look like with a full head of hair.

Here is the original photo:

And here are some short hair options for John – ha:

There were a lot more hairstyle options, and I tried both female and male hairstyle options, so there was a lot of hysterical laughter. But here is my favorite one – John as an aging Rock and Roll Star (think of the lead singer of the band Aerosmith or something…):