Hello Everybody, this is the tierneycreates Beastie returning for my 3rd and final installment about the quilt retreat I recently attended with Tierney and her quilting friends in Shelton, Washington at the Riptide Retreat.

If you are just joining us you can check out my other two posts: Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I and Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part II; as well as a post I let Tierney slip in yesterday day – Riptide Retreat 2022 in Black and White (I let her slip this post in so she could pretend like she had actually returned to blogging…).

In this final post in the series of my posts (of filling in for Tierney who fell off the blogging bandwagon for awhile) I wanted to share what the quilters attending the quilt retreat worked on. But alas, as my paws are not really good with the camera phone, I had to rely on Tierney to take photos and she did not take a lot of photos of much beyond the LITTLE WALLETS they worked on. But I will get to those in a moment.

She did take photos of one quilter’s quilt they were working on – the Legendary quilt – pattern by Elizabeth Hartman – also known as the “Sasquatch Quilt”. Tierney has made one herself in the past after seeing a couple of her quilting friends make on (see post A “Legendary” Christmas Gift and “Quilt Photo-bombing”).

Here is her friend Dana’s Sasquatch in progress on the design wall at the retreat center:

Dana has made the quilt several times in flannel and is now making the quilt in quilting cotton for a charity raffle. This is the same quilt in progress you saw pieces of in my photo from a previous post in this series, where I am trying to gain access to Dana’s rotary cutter (unsuccessfully):

Dana is using a rain drop printed fabric as the background for the quilt.

The other quilters were working on very cool projects such as a Japanese fabric tote bag and a very colorful quilt, but Tierney did not bother taking photos. Actually she was goofing off most of the retreat and just visiting with her friends or hanging out on the back deck overlooking the water. She was very unproductive.

I thought I was going to have to whip out my Beastnina and get working on the projects she brought. Below is a picture from earlier in 2022 (when it was winter as I have on the lovely Aran sweater that Helen of Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties (crawcraftsbeasties.com) knitted for me):

(And who needs a $25,000 sewing machine like the one in my previous post, when they have a awesome wool Beastnina?)

LITTLE WALLET MADNESS

Speaking of Dana, she brought several packages of pearl snaps, some cool fabric such as Essex Linen (Dana had put together awesome fabric combinations from her fabric stash for the quilters to make into little wallerts), and a SnapSetter set to the retreat so the quilters could make Little Wallets.

Tierney has a long history with Little Wallets (see posts such as Little Wallet Madness and The “Madness” Returns) but she stopped using pearl snaps and switched to velcro from her little wallet closure after the “Great Pearl Snap Disaster” in which no matter what she did, she could not get the pearl snaps to set right with the SnapSetter.

Well Dana did a “SnapSetter Intervention” with Tierney and had her practice putting on pearl snaps with the SnapSetter and a rubber mallet until she got it right and got over her fear of snap-setting!

Dana, Kathy, Judy and Tierney all made little wallets with pearl snaps and here is a photo of most of their little wallets they made during the retreat:

Here are some close up of some of the little wallet sets they made:

They stayed up until late into the night one night of the retreat (or early into the morning), making little wallets. This was the same evening the also had a silly dance party (sorry no photos) as this is what happens when you mix quilters, wine, and 70s Disco Music – ha! (Tierney had brought a bluetooth speaker to the retreat and acted as DJ for the entire retreat).

So, and I am not sure Tierney wants me to reveal this, but it was a 4 1/4 day, 4 night retreat and all Tierney has to show for it is 10 little wallets!

I will close this series of posts with sharing a couple photos from the small quirky country convenience store we walked to during the retreat. Here I am checking out the snacks:

(in case you are wondering, there was some naughty food at the quilt retreat – one evening the attendees brought back to the retreat a sampling of 5 different delicious desserts from a diner they went to for dinner…oh wait – Tierney just told me to be quiet because “What happens at the quilt retreat, stays at the quilt retreat”…)

And here I am in front of a very strange poster on the door of the convenience store. We could not figure out exactly what activities would be occurring at this festival…

Either there is a lot of hugging going on, people will be taking mushrooms, there will be alien abductions, or a combination of all the above…

Postscript

Thanks to Catherine @Cedar51 for her suggestion in the comments sections of my post Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I, that Tierney’s partner John the Woodworker, make me my own Beastie wooden desk so I no longer need to use the (sad) makeshift desk Tierney made me to write:

Tierney and I spoke to John (she does have a little more influence than I do) and he has agreed to make me my own wooden desk! I cannot wait to show it off someday to you!

Life in B&W, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

Riptide Retreat 2022 in Black and White

July 30, 2022August 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well thanks goodness the tierneycreates Beastie got my blog restarted with her two previous posts about the quilting retreat I recently attended in Shelton, Washington: Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I and Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part II.

She’ll be back tomorrow with Part III to finish the story, but I am slipping in today and sharing ten (10) B&W photos I took during the quilt retreat. I’ve numbered them, let me know which one(s) you enjoyed the best.

From the upper back deck of the quilt retreat:

From the lower back deck of the quilt retreat:

From the back of the quilt retreat on the beach level:

From my walk along the beach:

Black and White photography makes even the most mundane interesting in my opinion. The tire on the beach was sad (the pollution of our oceans) but beautiful at the same time when photographed in B&W.

My favorites of these ten photos are #4, #5, #9, and #10. I do love also the creepy mystery of #8 – the beach house obscured by trees.

I guess if I had to just choose one then I would choose #9. The beach was covered with oyster shells.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I am just briefly popping in on the story of this retreat, the tierneycreates Beastie will finish up the story of our adventures tomorrow.

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Quilt Retreats, Quilt Shop Tours

Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part II

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is tierneycreates Beastie and I am continuing my post from yesterday Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I about our adventures at the Riptide Retreat in Shelton, Washington.

So where I left off on yesterday’s post, one of the days of the retreat we headed out to Annie’s Quilt Shoppe .

Here I am all buckled up in the back seat of the car headed to the quilt shop:

And here is a little video on Mikelet enjoying the fresh air on the car ride through some back country roads to get to the quilt shop:

Mikelet was safe during the car ride, we only let him hang out the window when the car was going slow and Tierney did hold onto his back legs so he would not fall out!

I did look out the car window a little myself, it was so relaxing in the backcountry:

Finally we arrived at the quilt shop:

Here are a montage of images from my visit to the quilt shop, and most of them featured ME – because isn’t a photo better with me in it??!?!

We saw a $25,000 sewing machine while at the quilt shop and I had to take a photo with it.

It seems like a sewing machine would have to do a LOT for you in order to be worth $25,000. I think you should be able to throw fabric at it and it turns it into a completed quilt in 10 seconds or something!

Tierney and I did find some fabric to buy while at the shop, including the Figo fabric she ran out of when making her drawstring bags for her Etsy shop Textiles & Smiles (see post Three Part “Harmony” and Experimenting with “Mass Production” ), which all sold out. Now she can make some more bags! (Tierney really needs to restock her Etsy shop, it is looking pretty empty right now…)

Tierney has agreed to post tomorrow some of the Black and White photos she took during the trip (you know she has this fantasy that she is a real photographer, just check out her series of posts – Life in B&W; yes she is quite delusional..) and then I will finish up with Part III of my series of guests posts about the quilt retreat with a little about what was made during the quilt retreat (yes sewing actually occured).

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Quilt Retreats

Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I

July 28, 2022July 30, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well I am tired of waiting around for Tierney to do a blog post, so once again I’ve had to take matters into my own paws and do a guest blog post (if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post – I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).

Tierney was allegedly going to start writing blog posts again once she caught up on reading all her blogging buddies’ posts after her very busy summer (so far). But you haven’t seen a recent post from Tierney have you?

So I’ve pulled out my laptop and written a post to start to update you on our summer:

Pulling out my laptop and using my make shift desk since Tierney fell down on the job

A week or so ago (not sure at this point, the summer is a blur…) Tierney, Mikelet (my dog) and I attended a quilt retreat at the Riptide Retreat in Shelton, Washington with some long time quilting friends (including the lady who originally got Tierney into quilting).

Tierney wrote about this retreat (which has sort of been annual) in the past in a couple previous blog posts: The Fabric Incident, A Drawstring-bagalicious Retreat, Part I, and A Drawstring-bagalicious Retreat, Part II.

On the back deck of the retreat on the water, beautiful weather every day!

Tierney’s quilting friends who live in Washington state and drove to the retreat, brought her a sewing machine to use during the retreat so she wouldn’t have to bring hers on the plane from Denver to Seattle. Here I am supervising the start of her sewing on this loaner machine:

I am a little obsessed with rotary cutters since Tierney never let’s me play with them (see post Guest Blogger: October Quilt Retreat Part I), and I did try to get access to a rotary cutter one of the other quilters had lying around during the retreat but Tierney thwarted my efforts, sigh.

Not everyone was sewing at the retreat, one person was learning to crochet and I had to check it out:

I think I would need a Beastie sized crochet hook to attempt that…

As I am a Knitted Person (knitted by Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties – crawcraftsbeasties.com), I am not sure how I feel about crochet…

We had delicious food during the retreat, the Washington based quilters at the retreat pre-prepared a couple meals for the attendees including this homemade lasagne with from scratch tomorrow sauce and handmade meatballs:

Trying to figure out how to dive into that pan of lasagne when no one is looking…

In addition to eating and sewing (and lounging around on the deck overlooking the water), several of the quilters went on daily walks. I accompanied them on walks and here are a couple of photos from my walks with either the quilters or when I took my dog Mikelet (who was very well behaved at the retreat) on walks:

It was cool to be back in the Pacific NW and take Mikelet for a walk in the majestic wooded areas in the neighborhood of the retreat center!

As Tierney mentioned in her post A Drawstring-bagalicious Retreat, Part II about a previous visit to the Riptide Retreat, the owners of the Riptide Retreat also own Annie’s Quilt Shoppe a very reasonably priced quilt shop in Shelton, Washington.

So one day during the quilt retreat, we ventured for an outing to Annie’s Quilt Shop.

Tomorrow I will share photos from that adventure and more on the quilt retreat.

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

Update on “The Challenge”

July 12, 2022July 13, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I keep getting away from blogging as I seem to be having a very busy summer. We just returned from Chicago where we met up with my brother and his family for the weekend. Tomorrow my sister arrives and we go on a road trip to celebrate her birthday for a couple days and I show her a little of Colorado. Then the following week I head to a quilt retreat on the Washington coast.

I did in between traveling, get the quilt top done on the quilt I discussed in the post The Challenge… , of my friend’s late mother’s favorite clothes that she asked if I could turn into a quilt. As I shared in that post, here is what I started with:

The sweatshirt, T-shirt, jean jacket, jeans and shirts did not scare me. The sweaters, scarf and the velour robe did!

I bought woven interfacing (like 12 yards of it) and fused it to all the deconstructed clothing (my first step was to deconstruct the clothing).

I was able to pull out the logos on the t-shirt and sweatshirts; and embroidery on the jean jacket. After fusing all the non denim fabrics to the woven interfacing, I was able to cut them into 5.5 inch x 5.5 inch blocks and create 10.5 inch by 10.5 inch 4-patch blocks.

What to do with these sweaters?

I did consult with my friend Wendy who suggested Solvy, a water soluble stabilizer. Wendy has a lot of experience with Solvy. Wendy did a little workshop for me at her house years ago and I made a little thread bowl with thread scraps like in her book Fast, Fun & Easy Incredible Thread-A-Bowls: 2 Techniques-5 Projects-Unlimited Possibilities. I still had a sample of it that she gave me.

Solvy is a little on the messy side and I decided to just try using the woven interfacing on a section of one of the sweaters as a test. It worked, not perfectly, but good enough. I was able to cut some hearts out of one of the sweaters, and then fuse the heart to a 10.5 inch by 10.5 inch block and satin stitch it down:

Ta da – was able to use one of the sweaters

I did not use the other two sweaters, I am returning them to my friend.

So here is the completed quilt top which I will machine quilt myself to batting and backing fabric; and then figure out what to use for binding.

It’s not my greatest work as the fabrics were very challenging to work with and I cannot believe I added a thin polyester scarf to a quilt, but I did it! Don’t even get me started on the velour robe – the deconstructed fabric shed everywhere and was a disaster when I tried to press the blocks with it in it. But I made it work also…

It does look better in person, you’ll just have to trust me (smile).

When I get it quilted and the binding sewn down, I will give you all the final photo as well as what ended up being the measurements on the quilt.

From the Woodshop

From the Woodshop: Getting Control of “Spicetopia”

July 9, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My partner John and I enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. As a result we have a large collection of spices in our kitchen. We call our collection of spices “Spicetopia”.

Lots of spices, however the “organization” (= none) of our spices was not working to find the spices we needed in an efficient manner (like under 10 minutes, ha!).

Exhibit A – the state of the cabinet where “Spicetopia” was stored:

John is a woodworker and figured he could come up with a simple solution to organizing the spices but every option we discussed still gave us a cluttered or semi-cluttered cabinet.

Then we thought: what about putting the spices in an entirely different area – in a drawer!

So a couple Fridays ago, we began with purging and consolidating our spices. Why organize stuff that is expired or that we never use?

Yes, we had cocktails while purging spices, it was our wild Friday night!

After seeing what was left to find a new home for in a drawer, we purged one of our kitchen drawers and consolidated our cooking utensils (sorry no photos of this exciting event, ha!).

Then John built drawer organizers which were a series of slopped risers for the spices, out of scrap wood:

Slightly raised and ready to hold some spices!

And here is our new “Spicetopia” drawer:

Oh look, I can now easily find/identify our spices in “Spicetopia”

We put the spices in alphabetical order for even more ease of use! We did get challenged with things like “Cayenne Pepper”, “Black Pepper” and “Red Pepper” – do you file them under “P” for Pepper or their first name?!?!? But we figured out these complex life decisions…

And here is the cabinet without all those spices cluttering it (we also did some purging and organization of the entire cabinet):

John and I are weird, we find organizing our kitchen a fun thing to do on a Friday evening!

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

The Challenge…

July 1, 2022July 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My friend lost her Mom, who she was very close to, and she is having a difficult time with grief.

She’s kept some of her Mom’s favorite clothes and she asked if I would make a quilt out of them.

I agreed to making the quilt, without knowing what the clothes looked like as she planned to snuggle under the quilt and feel comforted by her Mom’s beloved clothing.

When she dropped off the clothing, I realized I had a challenge ahead:

I’ve made art quilts from recycled clothing; and when my Father passed, I made my brother and sister each a quilt from the T-shirts he used to wear, so I was comfortable with the idea of deconstructing clothing and turning them into fabric for a quilt.

However, I’ve never worked with knitted fabrics such as these in a quilt:

I think I can work the first two sweaters on the left into the design, but I might have to return the black and white sweater to my friend to just keep. I bought some special interfacing (and softer one, not the Pellon SF 101 I usually use that I think would be too stiff). I am sitting outside (lovely day) writing this blog post and sorry I do not feel like running upstairs and seeing exactly what interfacing it is – ha!

I also have this challenge – a scarf, but I think I can just use interfacing for it also and work it into the design: