Month: July 2026

Studio, Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger Post: Studio Closet Complete

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello there, you haven’t heard from me in a while…

This is the tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting (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).

I told Tierney I would handle putting this post together. She is still trying to finish up that English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt she is so very tired of…

Tierney did a series of posts back in April about putting together her studio in her new home (Journey to My New Studio, Part 1 , Journey to My New Studio, Part 2 , Journey to My New Studio, Part 3 , Journey to My New Studio, Part 4 , and Journey to My New Studio, Part 5 – Full Studio Tour ) but she never showed you her studio closet.

That is because it was a “hot mess”.

Well she’s finally got it in order and I will give you a tour!

But first let’s talk about me. Did you know that like Tierney I am a knitter? I like to sit in the chair in the bedroom next to Tierney’s studio and work on my knitting:

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered Tierney was storing Beastie sized yarn in her studio closet!

That is her mini yarn collection, she also has regular sized yarn.

Oh so I should probably return to the tour of her studio closet…

She stores her fat quarter collection, her yarn for knitting and crochet, precuts…way too many precuts, some of her tote bag collection, the flannel and home decor fabric, her projects in queue; and her Cricut machine and supplies.

Most of the yarn Tierney has in her stash was either found at charity thrift shops or given to her by a friend cleaning out her yarn stash.

So that’s the tour of her finally organized studio closet. I sure hope she makes something with all that stuff…

Oh and more about my life (Tierney’s is so boring)…

My partner John Beastie (if you are new to this blog you can read about him in this post Guest Blog Post: Mail Order Groom) has moved the foosball table and the Skee Ball out of our garage at Beastie Towers and now he has more room in his garage on the first level of the towers.

If you want a full tour of our Beastie Towers see this post – Guest Blogger: The “Beastie Tower” is…Fabulous! 

A Crafter Needs to Eat, A Crafter's Life, Agriculture Report

Correspondence, Charcuterie, and Cute Roses

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Yes this post is about random stuff and I am really stretching the alliteration…

Correspondence

During my late teens and into my twenties I had regular pen pals. These pen pals including a friend who was studying in India and she would send me wonderful letters from India; and a friend who was studying abroad in Europe – Italy and the UK. I would get awesome long letters on a regular basis. It was the 1980s and 1990s and e-mailing was not yet a thing (public access to the internet wasn’t even a thing).

Then during the later 1990s into the 2000s and beyond, with e-mail and eventually texting and social media expanding, “snail mail”/postal mail correspondence evaporated from my life except for occasional cards/letters from my friend in Denmark and then Austria.

I missed writing and receiving physical correspondence with different people. It is so wonderful to hold a letter/card in your hand and read it instead of staring at a computer screen.

But over the past couple of years “snail mail” has resurfaced regularly in my life and I love it!

I’ve met a couple people through blogging that I correspond via postal mail with on a fairly regular basis as well as several friends around the US and the world that I’ve known in person. I’ve discovered a community of people who love sending and receiving letters.

I have a friend in Arkansas who is an excellent pen pal with exceptional penmanship (my handwriting is terrible and sometimes I just send typed letters inside a card) who is also very talented at decorating envelopes which makes the card or letter inside even more special.

Here is a recent envelope I received from her (and the dreamy card of reading a book on a train):

The sticker made me laugh – think I want to be a shenanigan enthusiast!:

Another fun envelope by the same friend (enclosed in another envelope with the postal address):

I have a California based pen pal who is an incredibly talented card maker. I’ve dabbled in card making but I am currently trying to use my large stash of purchased/thrifted cards.

Here is one of her amazing cards I was lucky to receive:

I keep correspondence in keepsake boxes and it’s fun to revisit cards and letters!

Charcuterie

I am obsessed with charcuterie boards and I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to charcuterie and I even bought the book The Art of the Board by Olivia Carney:

I’m still learning how to put together a good charcuterie board but I jump on any opportunity or excuse to make one. Recently I had a neighbor (who is a vegetarian) over to lunch and made with with my homemade hummus:

I know, I know, it’s not all on the same board and I am using little bowls which is probably cheating, but I am working on improving my “charcuterie-ing’ – ha! I’d like to get to the point of creating sunflower cheese boards like those pictured in the screen shot above of my Pinterest board.

Cute Roses

Ending this post of random stuff with an update from the July 12th post Agriculture Report: An Evolving Garden. Our roses in pots are now blooming big time. Here is an example of one of the pots which contains cute pink roses:

(I used marigolds in my rose pots for natural pest control)

ScrapHappy, What's on the Design Wall

ScrapHappy July 2026: Experimenting

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and I am part of 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,
 Maggie and Wizzy

For my ScrapHappy post this month I am skipping an update on the scrappy English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexagon flower quilt I am working on since I recently posted about it in the post 21 Ready to Applique!. I am currently working on machine appliquéing 21 blocks. I will post an update when I am done with those blocks.

So instead I am going to share a scrappy experiment I began working on a couple months ago that is on my design wall. Using recycled decorator fabric samples/scraps and recycled denim scraps, I started playing with some improvisational design and created three blocks:

I don’t know where I am going with it and for now it will continue to sit on my design wall until I finish my EPP quilt.

Once that EPP quilt is off my design wall, I am looking forward to playing in this basket of denim and corduroy scraps; and decorator samples again!

Agriculture Report

Agriculture Report: An Evolving Garden

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

What is an “Agriculture Report”? Well I was inspired by  @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report” (and this title always cracks me up) that are actually updates of what is going on in her garden. I just had to adopt this same title for updates on what is going on in my garden/my “garden report”

In March John and I moved to a new home and since March we’ve been working on settling into to our new place. Part of our settling in involves setting up a new gardens.

The Old House

I loved my little garden(s) at my old home – it was spread among the front bed of the house, the upstairs deck; and in a raised bed that John built:

The New House

We’ve starting putting together a garden-ish experience at our new home. The front and backyards have very different layouts than my previous home. Also the front yard landscaping is controlled by the community association and I have to get special permission to make changes (which I will eventually do but not right now).

If you remember my June 2025 post Agriculture Report: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” in which I shared John’s love of roses that he inherited from his beloved grandfather, one of the first things we did this summer is try to put together a little “rose garden” but this time using pots as we are in a “water wise” community and they control what you can plant and where you plant at your house.

Above you can see our collection of shrub roses and a couple perennials in pots along our back fence.

I also snuck into the pots some basil, oregano, thyme, mint and rosemary because I can’t imagine summer without fresh herbs.

Recently new friends we met in the neighborhood and have over for dinner brought us a stained glass garden gnome made by one of them who is a stained glass artist.

I remind myself we are just getting started and figuring stuff out. It took years to get my previous yard/garden how I wanted it.

Patience, patience, patience is my mantra 🙂

We did have some concrete work done in our new backyard, extended the small concrete patio that came with the house.

We bought a new large patio umbrella and added some pull down shades; but all our old front porch, patio, or deck furniture fits in our new backyard.

Here is John enjoying a snooze in the backyard today.

It’s been weird having neighbors behind us – I’d gotten so used to having an open space behind my house. The neighbors aren’t bad, it’s just getting used to partially seeing/hearing people right behind you where they are in their backyard at the same time!

Adventures in Paper Piecing

21 Ready to Applique!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A quick follow up to the post from June 28 Getting Down to Business. I’ve been working on finishing up my pesky English Paper Piecing hexagon flowers quilt that I began in 2016 (because I am weary of it!!!)

Made more progress – I have 21 blocks ready for the sewing machine to applique the flowers to the background denim fabric, then trim to 6.5 inches by 6.5 inches.

(So happy about my progress I took two photos!)

Once the 21 blocks are done I will add them to the rest of the blocks (currently 65) on the design wall:

AND that will bring me to a total of 86 block completed! Only 13 more blocks to go after that! (I can see the finish line, I can see it!) for 99 blocks for my 9 by 11 blocks setting.

Okay I will continue plodding along to get this quilt tope D-O-N-E!

Postscript

I also wanted to follow up on the Postscript section from the post Getting Down to Business, where I discuss my challenge with running out of media image space on my blog after 13 years of blogging and paying for an upgraded plan.

I recently discovered something very cool (and sort of unbelievable): the Denver Public Library lets patrons print out up to 100 photocopies a day for free. Yes, you read that correctly – 100 copies a day!!!

Here is what it says on their website:

So it sounded too good to be true and I suspected it was 100 pages per library card or something like that, total, for your lifetime! So I called the library and verified it is 100 pages per day!

I am still in disbelief as I used to pay 25 cents per copy at my other library system.

So I have the option of printing out in black & white OR color, old pages from my blog if I want to make some type of book of my old posts! Also they have mobile printing and I can upload documents from my computer and then retrieve them at the library!!! (Is this all a dream?!?!)

I love having this option available as I still work on figuring out what I want to do to decrease my media files stored on my blog (I got to clean house in some capacity!)

A Crafter's Life, Outside Adventures!

Hiking Around Barr Lake State Park

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My friend J is an avid hiker and is introducing me to local hikes in our area. Recently we went on a hike at Barr Lake State Park a wildlife conservation area, a bird sanctuary; and a premiere bird watching location in the Denver Metropolitan area.

J is training with her granddaughter to do a “14er/Fourteener” which in Colorado is known as climbing/hiking to the top of one of the 14,000 feet above Sea Level (4267.2 meters) mountains in Colorado. (Colorado is famous having the most in the US – 53 mountain peaks 14,000 ft or higher, Alaska comes in second with 29 peaks, California with 12, and Washington State with 2).

So hiking the 9 miles around Barr Lake State Park is a good start to prepare for a 14er.

The highest I’ve been in Colorado (or anywhere else) is 12,000 feet above Sea Level when we visited Rocky Mountain National Park. I can tell you at 12,000 ft I was really feeling the altitude! Luckily I use to live at around 6000 ft above Sea Level and now I live at around 5300 feet so my body has a little bit of altitude acclimation. I think it would take me a while to train for a 14er…

Some photos from our hike:

In the photo above you will see an example of the numerous elevated wooden bridges they have around the park so that you do not disturb the wildlife.

The park also had a bird watching area near the water (many varieties of water fowl visit the lake) with a built in set of binoculars if you did not bring your own!

It was so beautiful and peaceful on our hike with many bird sounds/songs in the background. I want to return there is John and bring a picnic and take him on a hike there!

A couple of videos if you would like to see more about what it is to hike at Barr Lake State Park.

Special Events

Quilter Playdate and Learning to Rotary Cut

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in the post Taking a New Quilter on Her First “Shop Hop”  my friend J who I met in my new neighborhood at the community quilt group, is helping a new quilter D make her first quilt and I am tagging along (and occasionally being helpful as an experienced quilter).

Today we met up for a “quilters playdate” at J’s studio (which I featured in the post Project Linus Mini Retreat, Part II) and J taught D how to use a rotary cutter to cut her fabric into the sizes required for the pattern.

D made great progress on cutting her fabrics out with a rotary cutter for the first time:


While I worked on making some little wallets as something easy to work on while I visited with the group:

I gave D and J each a little wallet to keep.

J worked on the Plover Pouch by Noodlehead using pretty Tula Pink fabric:

She also showed us on her design wall is amazing and complex Judy Niemeyer pattern she was working on (pattern piecing and applique!):

I am intimidated!

J is a Judy Niemeyer pattern expert, has taking many classes from her; and made many of her complex paper piecing quilts. J was even selected to longarm machine quilt one of the cover quilts for one of Judy Niemeyer’s pattern booklets!

She thinks I should make one someday…

I’m just trying to get through my English Paper Piecing quilt from heck!

But I do have the pattern for the Plover Pouch and will make that one someday 🙂

The three of us are meeting again next Friday to teach D how to sew a quarter inch seam to piece her quilt together. J will be doing most the teaching and I will provide moral support!

A Crafter's Life, Knit and Crochet Away!

Crocheting to the Concerts

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This week I attended two free concerts (I love my new neighborhood/community) and worked on my latest granny square blanket during both of them.

The Denver Concert Band played a concert at the community center in my neighborhood:

And we attended a free concert at our local farmer’s market at the community park:

Both concerts were awesome and I got a lot of crocheting done!

Hope to share progress in the future, it’s in a boring state right now and I want to complete some entire granny square blocks before official post about it 🙂