Month: April 2026

A Crafter's Life

Light Rail Adventures

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

We are getting settled into our new home and yesterday we decided to go and explore our new easy access to Denver’s light rail – Regional Transportation District (RTD). Previously we lived deep in “suburbia”, far away from public transportation.

So on Tuesday we headed to the RTD light rail station park and ride just a couple miles from our house (we could have taken the bus to the light rail station if we wanted to be purely public transportation):

We had around a 25 minute train ride and we were in downtown Denver!!! By car it would have taken us 30 – 45 minutes in traffic (or longer in rush hour) and then $10 to $20 for parking!

We arrived at Union Station in downtown Denver and we were greeted with a bookstore immediately when we got off the train!

After browsing in the little bookstore connected to the train station, we wandered around the historical interior of Union Station (built in 1881) and then around the lovely surrounding area.

We spent the afternoon exploring downtown Denver by foot visiting the Dairy Block area:

And Larimer Square:

We stopped for an adult beverage at GarageSale Vintage which is a bar and vintage/thrift shop in Larimer Square!

We ate a delicious taco lunch at a food truck parked in front a downtown office building and sat with office workers from the surrounding skyscrapers having lunch.

We also wandered around the 16th Street Mall (outdoor shopping street mall) area and wandered into this cool private feeling courtyard area in a residential section and had a nice break there:

Then it was time to head back to Union Station and take the train home.

But first we stopped at MilkBox Creamery in Union Station, got some delicious ice cream and sat outside on the 80 degree day to enjoy!

On the train ride back to the Park and Ride I did get a little hexie rosette sewing (I packed crafts of course for the train ride…which I thought would be longer…):

We returned to the Park and Ride very satisfied with our fun day of playing tourist in our town!

John and I came to the realization that we can actually go out to dinner now in downtown Denver (which has a fabulous culinary scene) via the light rail – the fare is very low, we don’t have to pay for parking; and we save time and money by taking public transportation!

Adventures in Paper Piecing, Knit and Crochet Away!

Starting a New Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A couple years ago on a whim I bought several skeins of Lion Brand yarn’s Re-Spun line of yarn. Re-Spun is yarn made from recycled plastic (see my post Plastic Yarn?).

I decided to make a granny square crocheted blanket with the yarn and crocheted up some of squares:

I hated them. They looked okay but they were too flimsy and didn’t feel right (not sure how to specifically describe it) and I didn’t think they would work well for a cozy blanket. I was crocheting them in the only granny square pattern I knew at the time.

So I abandoned them and put the granny squares, in various stages of completion, and the yarn away.

Then I taught myself via YouTube how to make the sunflower block granny square and made this blanket which is now sitting on the recliner in my living room:

Near the end of last year I stumbled upon a stash of the Re-Spun yarn in the thrift store for $1.99 a skein (it retails for $8.99 a skein now). I grabbed all they had (you can’t see all the colors in the image below but I’ll share more images of the yarn in a future post):

I think it was an “out of body” purchase experience, because when I got home I thought: “What were you thinking? You abandoned the project with the original three skeins of yarn!”

Then I remembered the sunflower pattern I loved (it made a very cozy blanket) and decided to do some frogging (I never heard this term before until I read it in the post of other bloggers and now I know it is unraveling your work) on the previous granny squares because it would be an atrocity to throw them away when I originally bought the yarn because it was “eco-friendly” – ha!

So after what seemed like tedious frogging, and then crocheting, I have made 58 centers for my new “flower” (they are not sunflower colors) granny square blanket:

I’m going to make a total of 100 centers and then move onto round 2.

Here is the pattern I am using in case you are interested:

I really like the instructional videos by Hooked by Robin!

So I am going to have a cozy “flower” granny square blanket for my library/dining room area. I’ll update you all on the progress.

Postscript

Little follow up on the post ScrapHappy April 2026: Update on the EPP Quilt:

I made myself work on TEDIOUS sewing the sides of the hexie flowers on the remaining 50 blocks. If I don’t start doing it, I won’t have anything to report for May’s ScrapHappy post on this quilt!

I got 6 done yesterday, 44 to go.

If only little magical creatures could sneak into my studio at night and finish them….

Image credit: https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/3900/3960/fairy_7.htm

Library Adventures

New Library for Me and a Poetry Surprise

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

If you’ve been with me for a while in the blogosphere then you know I love libraries. As an awkward introverted kid I used to hide out in the library all summer, riding my bike there everyday, and getting to know the librarians.

On this blog I used to do a regular series of posts called The Library Stack where I would share my latest stack of library books borrowed. I eventual stopped it as I figured readers were tiring of seeing my library borrows, ha!

Well Tuesday I went and checked out the library near my new home which is part of the Denver Public Library System :

Image credit: denverlibrary.org

After meeting the librarians (yes I am a complete library nerd) and introducing myself as new in the area, I went immediately to my favorite section:

And then onto the crafting section which was paltry…

But no worries, my small community library doesn’t have a large catalogue BUT I have access to the entire Denver Public Library system and I had already put a bunch of books on hold and was there to pick them up!

Mine! (The “Hoga”s)

While wandering around the the library I discovered they had a special display for National Poetry Month:

I grabbed one and what a delight when I opened it up later at a local brewery we stopped at for a beverage:

It was the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes!

How amazing and meaningful to me because I created a Langston Hughes quilt for the show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West.

So it was a very satisfying trip to my library with this poetry surprise!

I’ll close this post with my new Library Stack from my new library for those of you who remember me torturing you regularly years ago with images of my latest library stack 😉

(Oh I am very interested in making Bojagi curtains for my new house and this is what started my search for library books on the subject, so I could learn how to do the seams…)

Adventures in Paper Piecing, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy April 2026: Update on the EPP Quilt

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

April? It’s already April?!??!

Well hello, it’s the 15th of the month and I’ve rejoined the monthly ScrapHappy posting group hosted by Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia.

Here are links to the blogs of the ScrapHappy participants:

Kate, 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,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

Update on the Scrappy English Paper Piecing (EPP) Project

So here is my update on the scrappy English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexie rosette project I’ve been working on since 2016 that I previously posted about in this post – ScrapHappy February 2026.

If you are just joining us, it was inspired by this quilt on the cover of the premiere issue of Quiltfolk Magazine, Issue 1: Oregon:

Image credit: quiltfolk.com

This was my progress back in February 2026 when I had 37 EPP flowers machine appliquéd to scrap denim:

I’ve machine appliquéd 12 more blocks since then:

I’ve would have done more but there was this little thing going on in my life called moving house…

Here are the 49 blocks now completed:

I have 50 more blocks to make for a 9 by 11 (99 blocks) setting.

My little challenge is the remaining 50 blocks need my completion of sewing all the hexies in the rosette together! They are just a center hexie with 6 hexies sewn to the center but not sewn to each other…

So I need to settle in for some serious hand sewing to be able to report progress in May’s ScrapHappy post 🙂

Studio

Journey to My New Studio, Part 5 – Full Studio Tour

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well we’ve come to the end of my series of posts on my new studio in the upstairs loft of my new home. The previous related posts can be found in these links:

Journey to My New Studio, Part 1 ,  Journey to My New Studio, Part 2 , Journey to My New Studio, Part 3 , and Journey to My New Studio, Part 4 

Plus the Beastie Guest Blogger posts Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is a Disaster! and Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is…Fabulous! 

Thanks for reading this series of posts on my journey to put together my new studio and here is the full tour.

Full Studio Tour

The stairs up to the loft (photographed looking down from the loft):

Entering the loft:

Around the room:

Projects stored in baskets under studio table:

One of my favorite signs:

So the journey is complete and that is enough about where I create, it’s time for me to get back to creating! This will be my focus for my future posts 🙂

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is…Fabulous!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Okay, it’s tierneycreates Beastie providing a guest blogger follow up to the post Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is a Disaster! .

Tierney got her act together and got John Beastie and my tower house together finally and it looks pretty decent!

It’s located on a shelf in her new studio in the loft of their new house, which looks like it was custom made for the Beastie Tower:

I asked Tierney to help with a photoshoot of the tower as I do not have opposable thumbs.

Here I am on the top floor in my studio/closet:

The floor below is our library with a picture of John Beastie’s son Zach Beastie:

The next floor in the living room with a picture of John Beastie’s granddaughter Faith Beastie:

If you’d like to know more about our Beastie-sized record player it is in this post – Guest Blogger: Teeny-Tiny Turntable Adventures .

The kitchen is below the living room and Tierney added in some storage seating to our table:

Beasties get very hungry so we have a lot of food. Since we are knitted we don’t gain any weight with all we eat!

On the bottom level is John Beastie’s basement studio and game room. He likes to hang out there with Mikelet as it leads to the yard where he and Mikelet can play ball.

We are avid gardeners and find plastic plants very easy to care for!

Thanks for stopping by our relocated home.

Studio

Journey to My New Studio, Part 4

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Recently I moved and I am continuing my series of posts about setting up my new studio. Here are the previous posts:

Journey to My New Studio, Part 1 ,  Journey to My New Studio, Part 2 , and Journey to My New Studio, Part 3 (plus the pesky Beastie Guest Blogger post Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is a Disaster!)

One of the big things I had to deal with was to get all the boxes of craft books I had in boxes into some type of storage/holder/wrangler (ha!) at my new home.

First before we moved I did a lot of purging and then while unpacking at the new house I did a lot of purging.

Then John built me two bookcases from plumbing pipe and scrap wood – one for my books and one for my magazines.

It took me several days but I got them all organized!

The books are organized by publisher instead of topic this time (it was the mood I was in as I liked how publishers, like Stash Books and C&T Publishing have books of similar sizes. The magazines are just organized by magazine title and I did purge many while packing. Only kept the ones I really love (which unfortunately are a lot, ha!)

Next to each bookcase I have thrifted cushions that I used to have in the living room of my previous house, for sitting on while looking through books 🙂

Postscript

Oh recently I tried to return to Instagram and it was a disaster and I gave up.

I first reinstated my account, made a post, and tried to refollow anyone whose Instagram name I could remember that I followed before.

The next day I received notification from Instagram that they had closed my account for violation of their policy. It appears they did not believe I was a real human.

I followed the appeal process and uploaded a live video of me. That was not enough, they wanted a copy of my scanned passport or Drivers License.

I decided that the Universe was telling me not to return to Instagram, ha, so I just gave up!

Studio

Journey to My New Studio, Part 3

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing my series of posts on setting up my new studio in the upstairs loft of our new home.

See the previous posts  Journey to My New Studio, Part 1 and Journey to My New Studio, Part 2  (and ignore the Beastie Guest Blogger post Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is a Disaster!  because I’ve been working hard at putting their house back together!)

I have a new piece of storage furniture in my studio – a new Ironing Table/Storage Organization Unit.

For years I had this piece in studio that John made me that I used as an ironing table and storage:

John was unhappy with the quality of the piece (he made it in his earlier days of woodworking) and he wanted to make me a table/storage unit like the Outfeed Table he made for his woodworking studio:

So back in January he started my replacement table:

He finished right before we decided to buy the new house, and we decided to wait until we moved to thenew house to get it set up in my studio.

It is now set up in the new studio and it awesome!

I really enjoyed organizing my stuff in the drawers and labeling them:

It’s a very sturdy, well built table/storage unit and I love the area to keep extra cutting rulers, Cricut supplies and papers, and small cutting mats, etc.

Beastie Adventures

Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is a Disaster!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello Everyone!

This is the tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting along with John Beastie and our dog Mikelet (if you are new to this blog, my backgroudn story is on this post: I’m A Monster!!!; and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).

Tierney in her two previous posts Journey to My New Studio, Part 1 and Journey to My New Studio, Part 2 shared her challenges of getting her studio together and the new house. John Beastie and I were sort of irritated with this posts because she didn’t address what a terrible state our home, the “Beastie Tower” is after the move!

Here is what it looked like back in early February at the old house:

And here is what it looks like now! Chaos!

Yikes- our beautiful home is now a disaster!

All our stuff is randomly strewn about including on her studio table (which she has cleaned up a little bit):


John Beastie and I are so frustrated we finally just took Mikelet for a walk around the new neighborhood (it’s warmed up nicely, you will notice I ditched my sweater for my warm weather T-shirt):

I’ll update you all in the future to let you know if it gets better or if John Beastie and I need to take some sort of action…

Studio

Journey to My New Studio, Part 2

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing the story from the post Journey to My New Studio, Part 1…

By March 24 (according to the date on the photos) I got to this point on pulling my new studio together:

I also got to add this “sweet” thing to my life to help control my left knee pain:

Studio

Journey to My New Studio, Part 1

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s been a while since I blogged and I’ve missed reading the adventures of the bloggers I follow. I did recently attempt a full catch up and if you know I follow you and I missed your old posts I will catch them next time you post. I plan to return to regular blogging again 🙂

We moved to a new house on March 5th and then a little over a week later we had our first out of town visitors to the new house and they stayed for 5 days. Their visit was planned long before we knew we would suddenly be buying a new house and preparing our old house for sale.

John did so much work on the old house getting it ready for sale (goes on the market next week) and I did most of the unpacking. We completely exhausted ourselves and forgot we were “old” and shouldn’t try to be doing all that at once. John hurt his knees and back (but has since recovered) and I twisted my knee (which is getting better). We really abused our bodies for over a month!

I am taking the upstairs loft as my new studio in the new house and here is what it looked like after we moved in:

Before our visitors arrived we put our all energies into unpacking and setting up the main floor of the house and the guest room.

After our visitors left on March 22, I got to work on sorting out my studio. I began the “Journey to My New Studio” which I will share in a series of blog posts.

Here is what it looked a couple days after working on sorting it out – very scary but lots of progress:

You can see John trying to help me set up something on the desk I will be sewing at.

I absolutely hate clutter, and there were times I just sat on the floor and cried in frustration! I moved from a perfectly cozy little studio I had just recently moved into (when I changed rooms) and here I was setting up everything again!