A Year of Finishes - 2023, Quality of Life, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the Design Wall: Go Boldly

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is a follow up to the June 23rd post What I’ve Been Up To and What’s on the Design Wall.

For the Quiltfolk Magazine photoshoot (see posts Quiltfolk Magazine Photoshoot, Part I and Quiltfolk Magazine Photoshoot, Part II ), I wanted to have a quilt in progress up on the wall. The magazine editor had suggested it a day prior to the photoshoot and the quilt I had in my “UFO Stash” that came to mind were blocks of brightly colored “Crazy Curve Circles” that my friend D had given me a couple years ago (see June 2020 post Tweaks to the Tierneycreates Studio).

D already pieced a lot of the blocks; and I ended up piecing the rest of the sections together that she cut from the templates but had not pieced. She also gave me fabric and I made some additional blocks using the templates she also gave me.

Here is what the quilt currently looks like on my design wall – I’ve made a small version of the quilt pattern designed by Elisa’s Back Porch Designs:

There was a lot of piecing to get the whole quilt together – first the individual sections into a four patch, resulting in 16 blocks; and then sewing the 16 blocks together. I thought about making a larger quilt (I am so many blocks left over) but I just wanted to get this one done and move on to my other projects.

This quilt is part of the project A Year of Finishes – 2023, and it was mentioned in this February 15th post A Year of Finishes: Audit of Existing Projects, Part II as one of the outstanding UFOs I have in my stash.

I’ve decided to hand quilt it as a late Autumn/early Winter project, and use this dusty collection of hand quilting threads I bought at a sewing expo show in Seattle, WA early in my quilting days (2000?):

I think they are YLI threads.

So I am taking this quilt off the design wall and putting it away until the cooler weather when I’d want to have a quilt sitting on my lap while I hand quilt it.

So what to do with all the leftover blocks?

I’ve decided to make the large version of the quilt Circle Dance which includes both the larger “Crazy Curves” blocks (the one I made) and the smaller ones:

The pattern says “63 inches by 70 inches” but I think I can make it even larger with all the blocks I have left over. I will need to make the small “Crazy Curves” from the small template from the extra fabric D gave me.

I might start that in 2024 or 2025, who knows. I have so many projects in queue!

Next up on my project list is sewing on and then sewing down the binding for my black, white and gray scrappy freeform log cabin quilt – Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White (see post ScrapHappy June 2023: “Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White!”  if you’d like background on this quilt), which is back from the longarm machine quilter:

And to close out this post, here is my Human Manager, Mike (see previous post) who is irritated I was taking a photo of the quilt on my design wall and not playing with him and his bear.

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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".

22 thoughts on “What’s on the Design Wall: Go Boldly”

  1. Tierney, your picture of Mike and his bear made me laugh out loud! He has perfected the disgruntled look. I’m also impressed that his bear has 4 limbs, a nose, two eyes, and stuffing. Does he offer other dogs sessions on how to treat your toys kindly so they last longer? If so sign Summer up. Circle Dance sounds like a fun use for the extra curves.

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    1. Oh Beth…there was such a history of violence with other toys…even a crotch ripping on one of the toys! One of my friends who used to watch Mike when I lived in Oregon and would go out of town, still teases me about the trauma she endured seeing what Mike did to “Lambie” (a sweet stuff lamb dog toy). But then we found these bears made by Kong that are super reinforced against miniature schnauzer viciousness.
      Thanks for your comments!

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      1. What you’re saying is that there is hope for Summer who finds great satisfaction in chewing off the eyes and ears of her toys then pulling stuffing through the holes. In all fairness to Summer, missing limbs and decapitation are a result of a round of tug of war with Adi. If Kong stuffies have survived Mike then we might need to give one them a whirl. Thanks for the recommendation!!

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  4. Mike, your expressions are priceless. Tierney, I love this pattern and the vivid colors as well. I’m impressed that you were able to pull this out and get it camera ready for the next day. That was quite the ask. I can’t wait to see and buy the magazine.

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  6. Gorgeous splashes of colour! Mike is exceptionally gifted in the eyebrow department, isn’t he? It does make looking cross very easy – how do you find he goes with looking happy?

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