Month: November 2024

Independent bookstores, tierneytravels

I Fell for Greensville!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is the last installment on the series of posts I’ve shared about our trip to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) earlier this month. You can check out the previous posts Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…  and Visit to the Upcountry Museum in Greenville, SC for background on this trip and some of our other adventures while in the Carolinas.

In this post I’ll share some photos and experiences from the  Fall for Greenville Fall Festival that we attended during our 2 day trip to Greenville, SC. The “Fall for Greenville” Festival as is known by the locals as the “Fall Down” festival as it is 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday) of wine tasting, craft beer tasting, “bite of Greenville” food festival, and in general one huge downtown Greenville outdoor party!

According to the Visit Greenville website:

This family-friendly three-day smorgasbord of food and entertainment showcases 50+ local restaurants serving some 250-plus dishes with more than 50 beers on tap, wine vendors, and over 80 musical acts on six stages—it is an absolute must-do for food and music lovers alike. Sample wines, and learn about local beers. Sample wines, and learn about local beers. Top-name acts shine a spotlight on Greenville’s robust music scene with free entertainment on stages along downtown Greenville’s charming Main Street. Consider yourself invited to the Southeast’s most popular outdoor street festival

We spent two days at the festival and wandering around downtown Greenvile and here are some highlights.

Awesome Bookstore

During our first day at the festival we had a nice wander around M. Judson Booksellers, an amazing independent bookstore in downtown Greenville inside a historic courthouse building.

The coffee shop inside the bookstore had book themed drinks!

Nighttime at the Festival

The festival was so cool to wander around at night and it got really crowded at night (it was basically a huge community party). The weather was wonderful, we only needed a light jacket at times and we had fun joining in the community party!

If you are claustrophobic this would not be the festival for you at night!

Wine Tasting

We attended a wine tasting festival inside the festival (yes they had “festivals” inside the main festivals including a craft beer festival) and we even discovered some wine with quilting themed labels (photo is difficult to see but I put in arrows).

Cool Shops

Downtown Greenville is filled with lots of cool little shops including this one – Vintage Now Modern that we had a wonderful little wander through.

We loved the sign in the image above!

So Much Good Food

We had samplings of so many tasty dishes as the festival which was also like a “Bite of Greenville” festival with 50+ local restaurants showcasing their best dishes. Below is John enjoying some exceptionally tasty taco samples; and John and E posing with their new free aprons they got from the local newspaper’s booth (they both love to cook).

The Beauty of Downtown Greensville

Downtown Greenville was very picturesque and here are a couple photos showcasing some of the lovely sights including an image of the downtown area taking from a rooftop restaurant we ate dinner one evening.

After the Festival

After two days in Greenville, SC, the next day we headed back to Charlotte, NC (where we originally flew into from Denver/our friends live in Asheville, NC and they drove from there).

In Charlotte, after a joint lunch in downtown, the men and the women headed out on their own separate adventures. S and I went thrifting and the John and E met up with some of E’s Charlotte-based friends and went to a cigar and bourbon bar.

S and I also discovered a wonderful shopping, business and dining area created from an old industrial area – Camp North End.

While there we had delicious vegan ice cream (S doesn’t eat dairy) and a wonderful stationary shop where I indulged in some nice pens.

I fell for Greenville while visiting for the first time – awesome trip!

Special Events, tierneytravels

Visit to the Upcountry Museum in Greenville, SC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is sort of a continuation of the posts Variegated Yarn Surprise  and Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm… about our trip in earlier this month to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to meet up with our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

While in the Carolinas, we roadtripped (E and S brought their temporary rental car as their car had been totaled by a tree in the hurricane) to Greenvile and visited the he Upcountry History Museum to view the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. My quilt, Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet is part of that show.

Here are some photos of the museum’s interesting interior:

We headed upstairs to see the show and I discovered my quilt was on display as you first enter the exhibit!

I filmed a walk-through of the exhibit and uploaded it to YouTube (and I was so proud of myself figuring out how to add music so you wouldn’t have to just listen to my breathing!):

While I was there they museum’s Special Projects/Media Relations Director Meg Hunt came up to meet me, chat with my group (John, E, S and me) and take some photos.

Yes I am terrible at selfies…

I really appreciated her taking the time to visit with us.

Okay next post on the trip will be about our fun time at the  Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

Created using Layout (app)

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in my previous post Variegated Yarn Surprise, early-ish in November John and I traveled to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to visit our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

Originally we were going to visit them in Asheville (we made plans before September’s flooding disaster) and instead of canceling our trip (they are discouraging visitors to Asheville as they try to clean up from the massive damage), we decided to meet up with them in Charlotte, NC and roadtrip to Greenville, SC where my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was showing at the Upcountry History Museum as part of the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. We also decided to attend the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

I’ll post more about those two events, but for this post I wanted to share a fun stop we made during our roadtrip – a visit to a quilt shop, Carolina Quilt Studio, where the John and E became enthralled with a computerized longarm quilting machine at the shop.

I knew S, who is an elementary school teacher and a very crafting-orientated person, would keep herself entertained wandering around the quilt shop while I looked around, but I wasn’t sure if I would be torturing the husbands if I spent too long in the shop.

Well halfway through my wander around the shop I discovered the husbands had “set up camp” around the shop’s computerized longarm quilting machine that was quilting a quilt.

They were absolutely fascinated with it and didn’t want to walk away from it. They joked that if someone gave them some chairs and a nice glass of bourbon they’d be good for a while! (After we left the shop, John and E keep talking about the “cool machine” that did the quilting and asking how much something like that costs…new career for their retirements perhaps?!?! Ha!)

In addition to the husband-hypnotizing computerized longarm quilting machine, the shop had Shop Dog that wandered about looking for pets:

I am sure if they could have provided comfy chairs and bourbons, John would have placed the dog on his lap and settled in for hours of computerized longarm quilting machine viewing!

I found a couple items at the shop – some Art Gallery Fabrics for 1/2 off in their clearance rack and then this – a bin of FREE fabric scraps where customers could take whatever they wanted:

I was well behaved and carefully curated what I was going to take – only if it was a scrap I could really see myself using in a piece in the future and only larger scrap pieces. I ended up finding some nice Art Gallery Fabrics scraps in the bin. S, who is a teacher, found some free panels to make ornaments in the bin and plans to use them for a student craft project.

The quilt shop staff were very nice and I recommend the shop if you happen to be in the Greenville, SC area!

Knit and Crochet Away!

Variegated Yarn Surprise

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am fascinated by variegated yarn and how colors in the yarn flow into each other in a knitted or crocheted piece.

I needed a smaller project for a recent trip we went on to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC), which I will blog about in a future post, and so I randomly selected a variegated ball of yarn I found in my stash to start a new knit hat.

The yarn was either gifted to me by a friend; or was a ball of yarn I that I thrifted. The yarn was already rolled into a ball so I do not know what the original skein of yarn looked like. I could see some of the different colors on the perimeter of the ball or yarn but the whole set of colors was going to be a surprise to be revealed as I was knitting the hat.

Here is the yarn in the new yarn holder bowl I recently bought:

Here I am starting the hat on the Carolinas roadtrip I went out with our Asheville, NC based friends (who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville – we nicknamed our vacation “The Clean Shower Vacation” they only recently got running water and the water they have is very murky and gross to shower in):

Here is the variegation in the ball of yarn unfolding as I work on the hat (it’s been a fun surprise):

I am waiting to see when the dark purple which begins the hat will resurface.

Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy, Studio

ScrapHappy November 2024: Update on Denim Quilt

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 run by Kate and Gun. 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.

Update on the Denim Quilt

For this month’s ScrapHappy post, I am updating you on my post Now Quilting the Denim Quilt! on beginning the quilting the denim quilt I pieced from denim scraps (recycled old jeans) and home decorating/upholstery fabric samples scraps.

I finished quilting the quilt using an “organic matchstick” pattern and two different threads.

I decided to put a “facing” on/”face” the quilt instead of adding a binding on the edges. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of “facing” a quilt, here is the handy YouTube video I used to remind myself on how to do a facing as it seems like years since I added one!

Here is the newly faced quilt on the ironing table in my studio getting a good press:

Here is the back of the quilt showing the thrifted cotton tablecloth I used as the backing:

And finally, here is the quilt (still needing the facing edges sewn down) nearly completed:

Thanks to my friend Rick G. on photographing this quilt using his equipment.

So what name did I finally decide on for the quilt and what is my Artist Statement? The answer is below:

What Direction Do I Go?

54 inches by 53 inches

In my early 50s the direction of my life radically changed with the sudden passing of my husband who’d been part of my life since I was 20 years old. Part of my identity and all the direction of my life evaporated and I was left with the following life question: What Direction Do I Go? Made entirely with recycled fabrics including the batting, this quilt reflects my struggle to find a new direction.

I decided to stick with my original concept for the quilt that I discussed in an earlier post when I was piecing this quilt.

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

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part III

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Okay time to close out my series of posts about a road trip we took in early September with our Northern CA based friends. You can check out parts I and II in these posts: California Coast Adventure, Part I and California Coast Adventure, Part II.

We ended our road trip with a trip to Santa Cruz and spending a very fun evening on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park.

I haven’t spent time on a beach boardwalk amusement arcade and amusement park area since I was a child growing up in Long Island, NY. I really felt like a kid again on the boardwalk!

First we went through the arcade area and John and I got into an intense game of Pacman:

Then we headed to take a ride on the famous Looff Carousel which was featured in the 1987 movie The Lost Boys (as were other parts of the Santa Crux Boardwalk):

Image credit: Wikipedia

Me trying to take a selfie while holding on to a moving carousel horse!

The boardwalk was amazing at night and my friend K and I enjoyed wandering around looking at the rides and the naughty nutritional choices (ha!) while our husbands went to go ride the famous Giant Dipper historic wooden rollercoaster.

Somewhere towards the end of our roadtrip we stopped at an amazing farmstand along the highway. We passed by miles and miles of gorgeous farmland including lots of artichoke crops.

When we got back to K and M’s home we had to spend time with their sweet Black Lab puppy who we picked up from dog camp on our way back to their house.

John got attacked with puppy love our evening back!

On our way to the airport the next day to fly back to Denver, we stopped for lunch at Fixins Soul Kitchen in the Oak Park area of Sacramento. Our friends have taken us there before and we had another exceptionally yummy meal!

We also stopped at a lovely independent bookstore around the corner, Underground Books before heading to the airport and I purchased a new tote bag.

At the airport, we saw a curious sight – a man appearing to be traveling with a doll in his backpack. I got closer to investigate on the shuttle train to our flight gate and I’ll close this post with the photos I took and you can come to your own conclusion about his travel decisions…

Thanks for reading about our adventures over these three posts!

Fabric Scraps Obsession, From the Woodshop, Studio

From Journal Cover to Pillow

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Pausing my series of posts about my September trip to the California Coast to share my conversion of a journal cover to a pillow.

I made this journal cover from fabric scraps in the first Journey to Art Quilting class I took with Jean Wells at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon, likely around 2013 or 2014.

We were working on improvisational quilting exercises; and I remember I added the turquoise in because Jean said your piece needs a “surprise”, something unexpected, and she called it “a poison”.

For some reason I just just feeling tired of this journal cover and no longer wanted to use the journal it covered, I wanted to fresh start for creative journaling. However I didn’t want to get rid of the piece.

So I decided to make it into a pillow!

The class with Jean was very memorable, it was actually a workshop series where we met monthly (or it might have been bi-weekly). The piece which eventually because Abandoned Water Structure and was sold to the City of Seattle’s Portable Works Collection was started in this workshop:

Long arm machine quilted by Guadalupe Designs

For more on this piece see the post “Your Body of Water” Exhibit, Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery (in this post you will find the original image that inspired this piece – an actual abandoned water structure outside of Maupin, Oregon)

Oh and back to the pillow – for now I am keeping the pillow in the basket in the entry to our home in a basket under a table John built (see post From the Woodshop: Floating Top Hall Table).

Postscript

We had a chair at the top of the top floor stairs landing that I like to sit in and stitch. The other day John the Woodworker made me a little table to hang over on of the chair arms so I would have a table there.

It’s a cozy place to hang out and quietly stitch.

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part II

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is a continuation of yesterday’s post California Coast Adventure, Part I about our 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M along the Northern and Central California Coast.

We spent part of a day in Monterey  visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and wandering around the Cannery Row area.

We got s kick out of the penguins at the aquarium – they were so fun to see in person (though part of me wished they were back in their native habitats wandering around…)

After the aquarium we had some delicious dumplings at Jack’s Bao:

We also stopped for a yummy ice cream sundae treat on the water:

That same day John, a golfer, got his dream and got to see Pebble Beach the world famous golf course where golf championships are held.

We had a wonderful wander around the luxury resort and even snuck a little step onto the edge of the famous golf course.

We hung out near the cafe and I whipped out the granny square crochet project (I always travel with a project!).

I’ll continue our adventures in the next post!

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part I

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Catching up on sharing adventures we had this Summer and Fall.

In early September we flew to Sacramento, California and went on a spectacular 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M to and along the Northern and Central California Coast. Our roadtrip included stops in:

First I have to say: California is a very beautiful state and the Northern and Central California coasts have many breathtakingly beautiful areas! I keep thinking the Oregon and Washington coasts were the best on the Western Coast of the US but then I visit Northern and Central California coasts and WOW!

The first part of our trip involved hanging out at our friends K and M’s home outside of Sacramento and getting to know their relatively new puppy Maeve, a Black Lab. She is very sweet and very puppy (quite active):

They have a lovely home on a beautiful piece of land that backs up to the woods. I love this sign in their kitchen:

K is a quilter (I met her years ago when I lived in Washington State at a quilt retreat) and she has a cosy quilting room/studio in her home:

The first day of our roadtrip involved stops in Marina and Monterey.

Beach, ocean, blue skies, boats, delicious seafood, sea lions cuddling; and a woman drawing Mandalas in the sand.

We stayed at a lovely place (we rented an Airbnb house) in Marina for a couple nights of the trip so we had a home base for exploring the area.

In the evening we visited the Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey where they were having FestaItalia, the Italian Festival.

Then it was back to the Airbnb house to head to bed after a long day one of sightseeing. More of our adventures in the next post.

A Crafter's Life

And Now For Some Art Quilts

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is a continuation to yesterday’s post (Paper Piecing Paradise) where I shared that a week or so ago quilting friend and her partner; and attended the opening of two quilt shows at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

The second show opening at the museum was SAQA Wild. Per the museum’s website the show: A collection of Art Quilts submitted by Studio Art Quilt Associates members from an invitation to let their imaginations take them on a journey to a WILD place – ANY wild place. The exhibit includes pieces from 30 artists, many from our own state of Colorado!! WILD is a small word, with BIG opportunity especially when you live in the area of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. These art quilts use texture, shape, color and a multitude of techniques to take you to their WILD places.

Here are my favorites of the art quilts on display in the show:

Lots of art quilt inspiration in the show!

If you aren’t familiar with SAQA, it stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates. When I lived in Central Oregon I was an active member of our local SAQA group which at first was headed by Jean Wells an international known art quilter, author and former owner of the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon which held the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

I participated in their local shows and challenges for about 5 years.

After moving to Colorado in 2019 after my life partner, “Terry the Quilting Husband” died in 2018, I lost my “art quilting mojo” as well as my tolerance for group activities so I didn’t join the local SAQA group. (And in 2020 we had the COVID pandemic that stopped group activities for quite a while).

I’ve met some wonderful quilters in the 5+ years I’ve lived in Colorado and have been invited to join various guilds and groups but so far I’ve declined.

I remember the card my friend W sent me in 2020 that reads: “Give Yourself Grace“, and I continue to remember to do that. Perhaps I will join a quilting group in the future, perhaps not. Currently I am enjoying just working solo on project ideas and catching up on my backlog.

Adventures in Paper Piecing, Special Events

Paper Piecing Paradise

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve been working on an English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt forever and my most recent post on this quilt was in May – All 99 are finally done!.

Someday the quilt I finish will look sort of like this quilt from Issue 1 (October 2016) of Quiltfolk Magazine:

Well a week or so ago (not sure exactly as most of October seems like a blur) my quilting friend and her partner; and attended the opening of two quilt shows, one of which I will share in this post and the other in the next post, at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

The first show of the opening was all ENGLISH PAPER PIECED QUILTS – English Paper Piecing. There were so many amazing quilts and I am inspired to complete my quilt someday (smile).

Thought I share photos of my favorite quilts in the show, including the details on some quilts to show the immense EPP work that was done to make these quilts.

My photos don’t do the quilts justice and some of them I had to take at off angles as the exhibit was super crowded and it was difficult to get a photo of a quilt without a group of people in front of it.

The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum has a gift shop/quilt shop inside of it and it was open for the evening show. I wandered around the shop and then John wandered around it and found some fabric he liked – a mathematical themed print. I am going to make a laptop case for him out of it and will show share an image of the fabric when I post about the laptop case.

Here is John buying the fabric for his laptop case – his first personal fabric purchase in quilt shop:

Special Events, Studio

Now Quilting the Denim Quilt!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is a sort of follow up to my post: ScrapHappy October 2024: Recycled Hope .

Finally I am machine quilting the denim quilt I made last year which is currently called “What Direction Do I Go?”.

Here is up on the design wall before quilting:

Here it is in progress while I am quilting with the first color of thread (I used two colors):

Here it is partially finished (I am over halfway done with adding a second color of thread):

I am quilting it in a style I call “Organic Matchstick” quilting. Yes I totally made that phrase it. Matchstick quilting looks like this:

Image credit – Epida Studio – epidastudio.com/how-to-quilt-it-matchstick-quilting/

My quilting is a bit more “organic” with an occasional line touching or a little wiggle (why yes I of course planned that – ha!)

Here is the back of the quilt, I love the feel/texture of the quilting:

I cannot wait to finish it. I plan to do a “facing” instead of binding the quilt. Okay well back to work for me!

Postscript: Halloween Cuteness

Oh and here is some Halloween cuteness (yesterday was Halloween). We stopped over a friend’s house last night and they had two of their dogs in Hawaiian shirts dressed up as “Magnum. P.I.“ (if you remember that that 1980s show starring Tom Selleck):

Here are Pepi and Lewis doing their best Magnum, P.I. impersonations. Dolly the Aussie Shepherd was having no part in it!

Bet you can’t tell the dogs apart from Tom Selleck, right? Ha!

We had quite the giggle over the dogs’ costumes 🙂

A Crafter's Life

Pumpkin Picking

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

The middle of October, John and I went “Pumpkin Picking” at a Rock Creek Farm in Broomfield, Colorado with his 15 year old granddaughter, her parents and their dog. It was a gorgeous day.

I made my stepson, his wife and his daughter all “Fall Fun Bags” for the day with Autumn themed snacks, tea (all three of them love tea like I do), and other treats. I used recycled paper handle bags and decorated them with customized gift tags.

Here are some photos from our pumpkin picking fun include John and his son E being silly in the pumpkin field:

We also took them for their first trip to Buc-ees, a place I am not sure how to describe except as a “convenience store on steroids with a gas station”, for lunch.

I waited in the back of John’s truck with their dog (we sat outside in the truck bed), while they got their food (and treats) at Buc-ees.

John’s granddaughter had an awesome time (it’s a success when a teenager is fully engaged and having fun on a family event, right?) and we had a family picnic in the parking lot of Buc-ees using the truck bed!