Month: November 2023

A Crafter's Life, What's on the Design Wall

Denim Quilt Top Done and a Visit to a Fun Brewery

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello there, hope you all are doing well 🙂

Update On “What Direction Do I Go?”

I finished the quilt top for the quilt “What Direction Do I Go?“ which I most recently posted about in this post – Update on Various Projects.

The quilt top measures 55 inches by 55 inches (140 cm by 140 cm). I am still thinking through my plan on how to quilt it but I did decide what fabric to put on the back of it:

I have this awesome vintage Kas Richloom light weight upholstery fabric in my stash that I found at a charity thrift store shop a couple years ago. I think it will add a bright and happy touch to the back of the quilt.

The quilt is meant to be a wallhanging/art quilt so it is okay if the quilt ends up being a little stiff with the recycled denim and home decor fabric on the front and the upholstery fabric on the back.

I have some handmade items I am making as Christmas gifts so I need to set the quilt top aside for now and get to crafting gifts, but I’ll pick it up again after the new year (can you believe it is nearly 2024?!?!?)

A Fun Brewery Discovered

Thanks to one of the quilters I met at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Reception for quilters in the October 2023 issue of Quiltfolk Magazine, we discovered an awesome brewery near our house that seems to be custom made for me!

Fiction Beer Company! Two of some of my favorite things combined: craft beer and reading! This brewery was already in Denver and it opened a second location in Parker, Colorado in May.

The brewery is DOG FRIENDLY (we were able to sit inside on a sofa with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer), has a free lending library (take a book or donate a book), delicious craft beer, free bookmarks, and a friendly bartender who came and visited with us and Mike for a while when the bar service slowed up!

This brewery is Miniature Schnauzer approved (no worries we did not give Mike beer, but the bartender did bring Mike over a bowl of water and some dog biscuits!)

Fabric Scraps Obsession, From the Woodshop, Knit and Crochet Away!, What's on the Design Wall

Update on Various Projects

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

DENIM QUILT

Finally I’m sewing together the blocks on my recycled denim and home decor fabric quilt “What Direction Do I Go?“

I am trying something new to sew the 81 blocks together by working on 9 blocks at a time, numbering them and then semi-chain-piecing them into a square:

So far I have three squares, which is 27 blocks total, sewn together:

I really like the look of the individual blocks sewn together:

In the post Blocks Completed for “What Direction Do I Go?” , I mentioned I was trying to figure out the layout for the blocks on this quilt. Well I decided to make it look as if light was coming from the center and radiating out…sort of…well as best I could with the blocks I made. I put the blocks with the lighter or more faded denim in the center and the darker ones on the outer areas:

GRANNY SQUARE BLANKET

As I mentioned in the post What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall…, I finished crocheting 80 granny square blocks. I’ve started crocheting the blocks together and here is my progress:

It is a fun project to work on while watching TV and hopefully soon it will cover more of my lap (photo above) than it does right now (because it’s cold now in Colorado – 28 degrees!)

PANTRY UPDATE

A couple years ago John redid the pantry and built in shelves. Recently he repainted the pantry to a white with gray undertones and added a new butcher block shelf. He also added a motion sensor light that will turn out when you enter the pantry and turn off after a while when there is no motion; and 4 outlets so we could keep a couple appliances in the pantry and use them in there.

Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy November 2023: 25 Years of Scraps Exhibit

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.

What better way to celebrate our love of fabric scraps (what keeps us “Scrap Happy”) than to share some images of a wonderful exhibit I saw at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum on Scrap Quilts?

While I was at the reception for Colorado quilters featured in Issue 28 of Quiltfolk Magazine: Colorado (see post Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum Reception) I viewed and photographed some of their current exhibit: 25 Years of Scraps by the 19th Century Patchwork Divas.

Below is the placard on the exhibit if you want to read the background on this show:

There were so many wonderful scrap quilts at this exhibit, it was difficult to select which photos to share.

But here are my favorites – enjoy!

Scrap quilts are awesome, eh?

As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate @Tall Tales from Chiconia , Gun @Rutigt – G Adrian, Eva @bambisyr-evaj, Sue @From the Magpie’s Nest, Lynda @Life on the Farmlet, Birthe @Birthes rom, Turid @Den syende himmel, Susan @DesertSky Quilting, Cathy @nanacathydotcom, Tracy @It’s a T-Sweets Day!, Jan @The Snail of Happiness, Moira @The Quilted Snail, Sandra @Wild Daffodil, Chris @chrisknitsews, Alys @Gardening Nirvana, Claire @Claire93’s Blog, Jean @onesmallstitch, Dawn @DawnGillDesigns, Gwen @Deep in the Heart of Textiles/Textile Ranger, Sunny @The Adventures of Team Wil-Sun, Kjerstin @Quimper Hittys, Sue @Going Batty in Wales, Vera @lifebyacompassnotaclock, Ann @Ann F Stonehouse Quiltmaker, Dawn @myquiltprojects, Carol @Quilt Schmilt, Preeti @Sew Preeti Quilts, Nóilin @Paper, Pen and Mug, Viv @Where the Journey Takes Me 2, Karrin @Karrin’s Crazy World, Amo @View From Our Hill, Alissa @ Snakes & Cranes, Lynn @Tialys, Tierney @tierneycreates, Hannah @quietwatercraft

What's on the Design Wall

Blocks Completed for “What Direction Do I Go?”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A quick follow up to these posts:

ScrapHappy October 2023 – Recycled Jeans and Home Decor Fabric Scraps

What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall… 

As I mentioned in the first post on this quilt (ScrapHappy October 2023), I’ve tentatively named this piece What Direction Do I Go? and it is made from recycled denim jeans and recycled home decorating fabric scraps.

Saturday night I finished up the 81 blocks for this 9 by 9 block piece and I just thought I’d share with you what my design wall looks like with all the blocks completed:

Now it’s time to figure out the final layout and then get the blocks sewn together.

But first I seriously need to clean my sewing machine it was a LOT of lint from piecing denim and home decorating fabric scraps (many of which are synthetic type of fabrics).

Shows and Exhibits

I Got the Poster!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In this post Black Pioneers Exhibit Celebration, California Museum, Sacramento, CA in July 2023, I shared that I discovered that my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was featured on the poster for California Museum‘s leg of the nationally touring show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West, curated by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi.

What a huge surprise when I arrived at the show!

Well the show ended October 1, 2023 and last week I got to wondering “what became of that poster now that the show is over?”

On a whim I reached out to the exhibit team at the California Museum and one of the Exhibit Technicians kindly mailed it to me!!!

It arrived on Friday and we went and out and got a frame for it that afternoon.

I was going to hang it in my studio or somewhere upstairs in the house but John insisted we hang it in the living room (I used the term “we” loosely as I only advised if it was centered while John got up on the ladder and hung it):

We had a giggle that the poster coordinates with our decor (how thoughtful of the museum when they designed the poster, ha!); and coordinated very nicely with the quilt hanging over the banister:

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Knit and Crochet Away!, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures, Quiltfolk Issue 28, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve been taking a break from blogging after my push to do a daily blog post for the 31 days of October, my 10th anniversary month of blogging. Additionally recently I had a wonderful visit with out of town family that of course kept me from sitting down and blogging.

Here are some updates on my current adventures in creativity.

THE DESIGN WALL

Here is a follow up to the post ScrapHappy October 2023 – Recycled Jeans and Home Decor Fabric Scraps.

I now have 66 blocks completed and 15 more to go to make 81 blocks for a 9 by 9 layout:

This is not even close to the final layout, just blocks put up on the design wall to track my progress. I have a lot of cleaning to do on my sewing machine after all that lint from sewing denim and home decor fabrics!

THE DESIGN CARPET

This is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”.

I’ve completed the 80 crocheted granny square blocks for the next granny square blanket I am making. I am doing a 8 by 10 layout of the blocks and will set them in dark gray yarn as the lattice.

Mike the Miniature Schnauzer couldn’t wait to lay on the laid out blocks as soon as I moved away from them!

This also is not the final layout, just a general layout to show all the blocks (and a Miniature Schnauzer, ha!).

THE WALL

This is a follow up to the posts Quiltfolk Issue #28 Colorado Released (and I am in it!), Magazine in Hand, and Magazine in Hand, Addendum…. One of the other quilters featured in Issue 28: Colorado of Quiltfolk Magazine, reached out to me and shared pages from an extra copy of the magazine she had purchased in order to take it apart and put the pages featuring her in her portfolio.

I used the pages she sent me to make a display in my studio of the article I am in using these cool 11 inch by 17 inch frames I found. John did a great job helping me hang them.

I’ll close this post with a cute meme my sister sent me the other day as we all struggle with Daylight Savings Time (setting the clocks back 1 hour in the Fall and 1 hour forward in the Spring); that is US states that agree to play along with it (Hawaii and Arizona do not participate).