Author: 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".
Learning to Quilt, Special Events

Quilter’s Playdate: Backing, Binding, Quilting

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was planning on catch you all up on my summer travel but I’ve been in the mood to share some crafting and quilting related posts (oh yeah my blog is called “tierneycreates” so I have to pretend…).

In the middle of August I got together again with my quilting buddies J and D to help D complete her first quilt – a lap-sized truck themed quilt for her 1 year old grandson.

Wow – I’ve been quilting for 25 years and I forgot the learning curve with learning how to make quilts. There are a lot of steps to learn!

If you are just joining us and want to see the other related posts here 4 previous posts in order:

Taking a New Quilter on Her First “Shop Hop”

Quilter Playdate and Learning to Rotary Cut

Quilter Playdate: Learning to Piece

Quilter Playdate: Laying Out the Quilt and New Shelves 

When we met for the 5th time in the middle of August we covered some major activities:

  • Measuring for and putting together the quilt backing
  • Measuring for and cutting the quilt’s binding
  • Creating the quilt binding
  • Preparing the quilt top for longarm quilting
  • How quilts are quilted via a longarm machine (so help a quilter understand why their are specific requirements to prepare a quilt for longarm quilting).

On her own D finished sewing her blocks together (which she began during our session shared in the post Quilter Playdate: Learning to Piece.

(It was fun to see the fabric that J and I helped her select during our Quilt Shop Hop in June become a quilt!)

It was time to measure the quilt in order to piece the back to the correct length and width:

After that was figured out, D pieced the yardage for the backing together, reserving some of the backing yardage for the binding. J then taught her how to cut strips for and then piece together the binding strips:

Sometimes I wonder how on earth did I originally learn what I can now do in my sleep after 25 years of making quilt bindings?

J had her do a 1/8″ stitch around the edge of the entire quilt to protect from block edges separating during longarming:

Then J, who is a professional longarmer, treated us to a “behind the scenes” of how a longarm machine is loaded, programmed (for pre-program stitch patterns), and monitored. Wow it’s a lot of work!

It is pretty physical – we saw J climb under her machine and check adjustments, etc. but first we were fascinated with how the quilt top is zippered onto the machine:

And all the physical work of aligning the quilt top and quilt backing; and adjusting:

J and D had selected a truck quilting pattern for the truck themed quilt! It was fascinating to see how the computerized longarm machine “read” the pattern and progressed with stitching it onto the quilt!

We peeked under the machine frame to see the underside of the stitching on the quilt back – the pattern really shows on the solid color of the backing:

(Watching the entire setting up a quilt to be longarm machine quilted really help me understand why longarm quilters request that your backing is at least 4 inches (some request more) beyond the size of your quilt top.)

At our next together I will see the completed quilt – and see the conclusion to the journey that J (who did most the teaching) and I went on with D! Then the 3 of us will decide what project is next and we might work on the same quilt (or maybe a bag) together during our future Quilter Playdates 🙂

Knit and Crochet Away!

Update on Latest Granny Square Blanket

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Since in yesterday’s post you saw “crocheted Tierney”, I figured you should in the next post see what Tierney is currently crocheting.

This is an update on my blog post Starting a New Granny Square Blanket and here is where I am at with the 100 flower block blanket I’ve been working on since April 2026.

I’ve made 100 centers in three different yarn colors:

I’ve turned about 40% of those centers into “centers with a second round” (there are 4 rounds in this granny square block total):

I had a third round to go and then a fourth round in order to finish/square out each block and I was getting impatient, so I went ahead and finished all 4 rounds on six blocks to get a better idea of what the blanket will look like:

I have 6 different combinations with the 3 yarns as you can see in the image above. I will stick with these combinations unless I start to run out of yarn. I have 3 back up yarns (1 is the same yarn and the others are different shades of the same colors) that I will bring into the mix if needed. I think to be safe I will make as many full blocks as I can with the centers that have a second round on them; and save the centers with no rounds on them to use if I need the back up yarns.

I guess I could have actually planned, but of well – it will be a surprise to see how many other combinations I need to add to complete all 100 blocks!

And if you are interested in the pattern I am using, I have posted below the instructional video from YouTube:

A Crafter's Life, Knit and Crochet Away!

It’s Claire’s Fault ;-)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I had quite the giggle reading my blogging buddy Claire’s post “before the novelty wears off” in which she used Gemini (Google AI) to change herself into crochet/amigurumi.

I was so tickled by her images (which also included her dog turned into amigurumi), I had to do the same with an image I had on my laptop of John and I.

Enjoy my silliness below:

I guess AI left the crochet needle out in the image so we could crochet ourselves some legs – ha!

I also turned the original image into a colored pencil drawing using Gemini; and I think it came out pretty cool (even if you can see every wrinkle on my face highlighted, ha!):

Alright that is enough silliness for today 🙂

A Crafter's Life, Special Events

Dot Painting Class

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Somewhere in the middle of August, between trips to Canada (see post The World Needs More Canada) I took a Dot Painting class at Pinspiration in Loveland, Colorado with my friend J and her granddaughter P (who is 28).

I was inspired to take the class by this display in J’s amazing quilt studio (see post Project Linus Mini Retreat, Part II ) at her window well (basement window):

J and P had taken several Dot Painting classes before and most of the pieces were made by P who has become very adept at Dot Painting!

The class was taught by amazing Lori Wilson of Made for You Creations and the class attendee were painting a small “lazy susan”/turntable. She brought in some examples of her turntables and the class sample:

If you remember how much I LOVE SUNFLOWERS, I loved the sample in the second image!

So first we learned Dot Painting techniques and practiced with the color palette we selected from the available acrylic paints:

But here is my practice sheet (first image) vs. the instructors example (second image):

I was either too heavy handed or too hesitant but I got more comfortable with practice 🙂

Then it was time to put paint on my turntable (a little bit of fear setting in), but the instructor had marked the turntable with chalk markings to guide us.

And then I progressed from this:

To this:

Here are examples of some of the other students work in class including my friends J and P who are the first two images:

In the last image, the student deviated from the sample pattern we followed after making a mistake on one of the rounds and instead created a masterpiece!

It was such a fun class with lots of laughs, special adult beverages, and snacks!

J and I went thrift shopping in Loveland before class with some great finds, and P met us for a yummy dinner at PF Changs before class. A very good afternoon/evening!

The next day after returning home I bought a can of shellac and shellaced my turntable to seal in the paint and protect it.

I did buy one of the inexpensive toolkits the instructor was selling and some blackboard paint (the base layer for whatever you want to dot paint) and I want to try making something on my own someday. I am waiting invest in paints when I am actually ready and I’d like to do a mandala on a rock (and I recently found a book on doing just that at a second hand bookstore!)

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Quilt Shop Hopping in Northern California

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I threatened (ha!) in my previous post The World Needs More Canada , I’m going to start catching up on sharing my summer travels.

Back in May, which is “pre-summer”, we traveled to Northern California to visit our friends K and M who live outside of Sacramento and went on a road trip to see the John Muir Woods (see my post Visiting the Muir Woods ), enjoy some of the Northern California coast, see a quilt show (see my post Loomis Quilt Show): and to do some extensive quilt shop hopping in the Bay Area (my friend K is a quilter and we have very patient husbands, her’s acted as chauffeur to all those shops!).

In this post I thought I’d share some highlights from our quilt shop hop! (And yes, there was some fabric and pattern purchases from this shop hop, but I’ve since filed them all alway, so no photos, sorry

Bay Quilts

Our first stop was Bay Quilts in Richmond, CA, which I’ve been to before – 7 years ago when I visited K and M and their new pup for the first time in Northern California, right before I moved from Bend, Oregon to Colorado to start a new life.

Then we headed to New Pieces Quilt Store Shop in Berkeley, CA

New Pieces Quilt Shop

This was my second time at New Pieces Quilt Shop and it was wonderful to see it again 7 years later.

Next was another shop I visited last 7 years ago – Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics in Downtown Berkeley, CA

Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics

This shop is not a quilt shop (although they carry quilting fabric), they are a general fabric store with a focus on garment making fabrics and some quilting fabrics. Those of you who make clothes would love this place and they have a spectacular garment making fabric selection!

I really like their window displays like the one above!

The fourth and final shop in our shop hops was In Stitches quilt shop in Dixon, CA.

In Stitches

The previous shops were awesome but this one was my favorite of the shop hop. (I don’t remember visiting this shop before so it was a fun new experience.)

What made the shop my favorite was it had a sweet beautiful Golden Retriever in it – a Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy in training!

We got to pet it, with permission, and a dog always makes a quilt shop a better place!

So that concludes the shop hop, thanks for virtually coming along!

tierneytravels

The World Needs More Canada

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I fell off the “blogging-wagon” again as I’ve been involved with summer travel, most recently it’s been a couple Canadian Provinces in August – Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario. We also had cool train rides from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC; and from Buffalo, NY to Toronto, ON.

We just returned from a week in Toronto and I made several trips to Indigo – Canada’s largest bookstore, specifically one at Eaton Centre, where they had this awesome (and so true) display on the wall from the first to second floors:

It’s difficult to read but it lists some of the great Canadian writers, musicians, artists. etc. But all I could see were the words I was definitely feeling: “The World Needs More Canada“.

Yes I am currently having a love affair with Canada (can you tell?). I appreciated being welcomed with open arms by the kind people of Canada even though I am from a neighboring country that is not too popular in the world right now!

This short post is just to wave hi to my blogging buddies. I think I am going to backtrack to May on my pre-summer travels and catch you up on our travels (the tierneycreates Beastie even came along on one of the trips).

For now here is a cool photo of John and I from our travels. He used a photo editing feature which turns the photo into a pen drawing!

Quarantine Quilts, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy August 2026 – Making a Family Scrap Happy

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and I am part of the monthly ScrapHappy posting group currently hosted by Kjerstin of Quimper Hitty.

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

I already posted my update on my very scrappy quilt in progress on my August 10th post Very Good Progress on the EPP Quilt:

So I thought I’d just share something from my blog archives that I came across recently – the story of a very scrappy quilt created by my friend Wendy and a group of 4 boys ages 2 to 8 years during the COVID pandemic. I posted a little bit about this quilt in the Postscript section of my August 12 post Celebrating 25 Years of Quilting but I’ve removed it from the Postscript section to share in this post.

I have several new blog readers since 2020 when The Quarantine Quilt Project story was first shared over 5 guest posts by my art quilter friend Wendy Hill.

I think this story to truly ScrapHappy and worth sharing again. Not only did the quilt that came out of this project result in major family “ScrapHappiness” but the journey to complete this quilt brought a lot of happiness to a family struggling with four rambunctious boys stuck at home full time during the COVID quarantine.

Wendy distracted the four boys by working with them to create a scrap quilt for their parents. (And what an amazing and very personal quilt it turned out to be!)

I thought I would share for this month’s ScrapHappy post some highlights, in Wendy’s own words, about this project. The original 5 guest blog posts by Wendy Hill are linked at the end of this post.

The Quarantine Quilt Project

Below are section of text and images from Wendy Hill’s 5 guest posts about this project (All images and works are property of Wendy Hill, and cannot be used without her permission):

This is the story of two neighbors who banded together when the state government ordered a lock down because of the first Global Pandemic in over 100 years.

One day, I sent over a note which read “I have a bit of a crazy idea….”. I sent over a Big Bag of Fabric Scraps with instructions to fill up blank 8 1/2” by 11” pages with fabric pieces. Overlaps of fabric were okay but no gaps. I explained I’d sew the fabrics together to make “quilt blocks”.

The Boys had fun playing with color & texture, and they enjoyed seeing their fabric arrangements get transformed into blocks. As the number of blocks grew, they played with layouts on their floor. We agreed to make enough blocks for a quilt.

(Wendy had permissions from their parents to share images of the 4 boys on line)


Some arrangements were easy to sew together. I could sew pieces into smaller units, then assemble the units into a block. Other arrangements required me to be inventive. Sometimes the seam allowances created gaps, so I had to add fabrics. I added a solid pink to this block. I looked for fabrics that would “go” with fabrics in the arrangement.

Then this happened: The Hand Blocks! I surprised “The Boys” with machine appliquéd fabric hands (from outlines of their hands taken by their parents). I embroidered their name and age on each hand. 

Since I refused to do anything more than trim (or square-up) the precious blocks, I had to find another way to unify 65 blocks of all sizes. I sorted the blocks by height, the first bit of “magic”, to layout 8 rows of 8 blocks, saving the extra block for the quilt back. 

I’m eager to show off the Quarantine Quilt and The Big Giveaway where “The Boys” and their parents see the quilt for the first time.

Here are the full view photographs of the front and the back. (The quilt, with no sleeve, wiggled a bit being clamped to a bar for the photos.)

Finally the day for the Big Giveaway came. David and I spread out several sheets on our back deck. As we watched the kids scramble around the quilt (while staying 10’ apart), some of us burst into tears while the rest became teary. This project was definitely a good thing.

For the compete story about this “scrappylicious” quilt, see the links below to the series of 5 guest blogger posts written by Wendy for my blog about this extremely “ScrapHappy” project!

Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part I (Guest Blog Post)

Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part II (Guest Blog Post)

Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part III (Guest Blog Post)

Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part IV (Guest Blog Post)

Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part V (Guest Blog Post)

Wendy eventually condensed her write up into an awesome story that was published in Issue 18 of the magazine Curated Quilts: Collaborate, in 2022.

A Crafter's Life, tierneycreates

Celebrating 25 Years of Quilting

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Several years ago (It might even before I moved in Colorado in 2019), my art quilter friend Wendy Hill was working on a retrospective of her quilting journey. She was putting together a binder with photos of the quilts she made and stories.

Wendy suggested that I consider doing that someday and not just have online copies of photos of my quilts stored on my computer or posted to my blog.

I put that thought in the back of my mind and after a while forgot about it for the most part. Then this year I started thinking about how to archive part of my blog to save storage space on my blog since the plan I pay WordPress for is running out of space. Check out the Postscript section of my June 28, 2026 post Getting Down to Business for more discussion and musings on dealing with this issue.

In the Postscript section of my July 7, 2026 21 Ready to Applique! I discuss my recent discovery that  the Denver Public Library lets patrons print out up to 100 photocopies a day for free.

I tested this at first and converted some of my blog posts to pdf files (if you simply pull up a post on your screen, then click on “Print” and change the “Destination” from your printer to “Save as PDF”…this is how it works on my Macbook/MacOS not sure if it is the same on a Windows based device) and printed them out in color at the library. It worked well.

Then I remembered Wendy’s advice all those years ago – to consider making a binder about my quilting journey. I thought about the beginning of my quilting journey and realized I finished my first quilt around 2000 and if I went to 2025 (as I am still in 2026) I could put together a binder about my first 25 years in quilting: 2000 – 2025.

And I did!

It took about a month and combed through a lot of information on my blog. I am very glad I documented a lot of my quilting journey, especially since 2013 when I started my blog, on my blog. I also combed through old photo files and saved documents on my external hard drive that I back up documents on. Then I got to creating web pages into pdfs and selecting what to print out, etc.

I spent about 5 to 6 trips to the library printing out materials and ended with this binder filled to the brim with printed pages documenting my quilting journey:

tierneycreates: the first 25 years

Tierney’s quilting journey 2000 – 2025

The front of the binder has a photo of me at my first solo show along with images of my first official art quilt “Flying Triangles” and similar quilt “What Direction Do I Go?” made 11+ years later; and the back of the binder is the flyer for that show:

Inside the binder are stories and photos from my 25 year quilting journey, some examples are below:

(Image above: The home page to my blog, the first flyer one of my pieces appeared in, the first ad I was featured in, photos of completed quilts, my first quilt to be in a quilt show (Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2007), my first quilt and my pair of rescued miniature schnauzers Fritz and Snickers wrapped in that quilt; and galleries of non quilting items I’ve made over the past 25 years)

I am so thankful to have pulled so much information and photos off my blog and printed them out for free (in color!) at the local library.

I’ve maxed out the binder which was a binder I snagged for free, filled with sheet protectors, in the ‘Free” bin at a garage sale. I am thinking about having it bound into a book once I decide I’ve filled it with all that belongs there (perhaps a couple more trips to the library for printing…)

Wendy was right. This was a VERY GOOD and important exercise to do and it was very powerful to look at my body of work and my journey over the past 25 years of quilting. I cannot believe I am in my 26th years of being a quilter and I look forward to working on my 50 year retrospective someday (finger crossed) 🙂

By the way, much thanks to those of you who’ve been following my journey on line over the years and some of you have been with me since 2013 when this blog began!

Postscript

Still Working on Blog Storage Space Issue

I’m still working on the trimming down my blog storage project and I’ve decided to start with revamping my whole Portfolio, News and Events/Publications pages on my blog by combining them in some format and reducing down the images.

I am looking into WordPress page formats that will work and I was recently very inspired by what Mariss did on her Fabrications website/blog in her newly revamped Gallery of Works page.

Learning to Quilt, Special Events

Quilter Playdate: Laying Out the Quilt and New Shelves

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A follow up to the post Quilter Playdate: Learning to Piece the Blocks

At the end of July we met in J’s studio (she is my neighbor and I can walk over to her house – I now live in a community of quilters!) to continue to help D, a new quilter, make her first quilt.

This session was laying out the quilt on the design wall! D had pieced all her blocks and it was time to find a layout. I won’t clog up this post with photos of all the different versions we worked through but here is the final version (to my knowledge unless she went home and changed it):

I worked on my EPP project (hand sewing the rest of the rosette hexagon sides together) during our get together:

D was so sweet and had gifted J a brand new ice maker that she bought a couple years ago and never used. J had been wanting an ice maker for her little kitchenette in her studio (for a tour of J’s studio where we are meeting see my post Project Linus Mini Retreat, Part II):

J mentioned she wanted to add some shelves to this area so she could get tea and coffee supplies off the counter, etc. So I decided to call my husband John and see if he would pop over and install some shelves!

And he did!

J later sent me photos of how the area looked after she organized her coffee/tea service:

I am in love with embroidered coasters with cute sayings, my wonderful friend K has gifted me several over the years; and J as a gift for getting John to come over and put up shelves in her studio made me one in a saying I selected.

I choose this one that she already had in her studio:

It was fun select the fabrics and threads and then watch her amazing embroidery machine create it!

I think we are getting together again this Friday so I will get to see D’s first quilt all sewn together!

Adventures in Paper Piecing, What's on the Design Wall

Very Good Progress on the EPP Quilt

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update on the English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt I’ve been working on and off on since 2016.

My late husband, who was also a quilter, helped me make many of the the EPP hexagons for the “rosette” blocks in this quilt and there was a bit of an “emotional curve” to overcome to finish up this quilt.

In my previous update 21 Ready to Applique!, like the title reads, I had 21 more blocks ready to be machine appliquéd (I just couldn’t bring myself to hand applique the blocks as it would have been finished in 2036) to the recycled denim I am using as the background for the 99 blocks (9 by 11 layout) quilt.

I ended up preparing 25 blocks for applique and getting them machine appliqued:

I was quite pleased with myself after quite the bout of procrastination on this quilt (um…started in 2016…)

I trimmed the blocks once appliqued to 6.5 inches x 6.5 inches square and then added them to the other blocks up on the design wall to now have – 90 blocks completed!!!!

Yes I finished up to the 10th row – one more row (the 11th) of 9 blocks to go and then I can start putting the quilt together.

9 more blocks, 9 more blocks, 9 more blocks to go – yay!

Getting so close to this feeling…

Learning to Quilt, Special Events

Quilter Playdate: Learning to Piece the Blocks

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am back dating this post as I’ve been distracted with life and did not post as much as I would have liked to in July. So perhaps you will see more posts for me in August…perhaps 😉

This is a follow up to the early July post Quilter Playdate and Learning to Rotary Cut.

Starting in June, my friend J and I have been helping a new quilter D learn to make her first quilt (for her baby grandson). J, who I think has been quilting since birth, ha, is taking the lead on teaching and I am tagging along and offering occasionally useful advice from my 25 years of quilting experience.

It all began with taking D on her first quilt shop hop (see post Taking a New Quilter on Her First “Shop Hop” ) where she learned to select fabrics for a quilt and get yardage cut; then she learned how to rotary cut; and a couple weeks ago she learned how to piece, press/iron, and even chain piece her blocks together.

Here are some photos from that session:

Here is J demonstrating chain piecing (she is working on the same quilt in Christmas fabrics to create examples for D as she progresses):

I love chain piecing and I always laugh when my chain of pieced blocks gets eventually wrapped around my leg/ankle – ha!

It is really cool to be part of seeing a new quilter make her first quilt. I remember when I made my first quilt 25 years ago (I used to think I made it in 1999 but I figured out it was 2000). My first quilt was a traditional “Irish Chain’ pattern, here is a photo I found recently as I was cleaning up old photos:

Weird thing – I no longer have this quilt and I am not sure what I did with it! But I remember taking a nap under it after finishing it and being so pleased!

J showed us this cool little bag that she made for her daughter and granddaughter using a By Annie Pattern and we might get together with D the new quilter and do some bag making after she finishes her first quilt.

D is an experienced seamstress so she is very comfortable with a sewing machine. That has greatly helped her while working on her first quilt.

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Studio

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.

Learning to Quilt, 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 🙂

Adventures in Paper Piecing

Getting Down to Business

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Honestly – I am tired of the English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt I’ve been working on since 2016 and posting about during the monthly ScrapHappy 15th of the month posting group.

In my June ScrapHappy post (ScrapHappy June 2026), I mentioned I’ve only gotten 6 more EPP Rosettes (a flower like combination of 7 paper pieced hexagons) since May’s ScrapHappy post.

Well last week I decided I needed to GET DOWN TO BUSINESS and just get the quilt FINISHED as I am tired of working on it, thinking about it, and writing about it!

So I went from 6 completed rosettes to now 20 by just making myself sit in my studio and finishing sewing sides together of rosettes for MANY hours!

Do you see the mess of papers to the left – well that all the EPP hexagon papers I had to pull out of each rosette so I can applique them to their background squares.

This is the really tedious part of EPP – removing the papers:

I think the problem is that I had my late husband help me with wrapping the fabric around the paper hexagons and he was very heavy on the glue. He did most of his work helping me create the EPP hexagons back in 2016 and 2017 so the glue on the fabric has been sitting since that time.

After removing the papers, ripping them away from the glue at times, they hexagons/”hexies” can get deformed and I have to iron them back into shape before adhering them with a little bit of fusible to their background block to be appliqued.

(20 done and waiting to be pressed back into shape with an iron)

The true problem could be that I am the “World’s Worse EPPer” – ha!

Originally I used the traditional technique of stitching/basting them in place on the paper hexies. Then another quilter showed me the faster glueing method (which has special glue pens you can buy to use) and I thought “this isn’t too bad”.

I was guilty of not demonstrating to Terry the “light application of the glue pen” and he got focused on helping me to get a lot done (production mode).

But if I keep up what I am doing – focusing on finishing – eventually it will be done. I’ve already arranged for someone to longarm machine quilt it. As soon as I have the top done I want the thing out of my house to be finished, ha! I am not domestic machine quilting it!

Okay that was my whine ;-). I will torture you to future updates on my progress…

By the way I have 2 other EPP projects I started in 2016 when I became obsessed with EPP but they are aging in the closet for now (perhaps forever?!?!?)

Postscript

You’ll probably see more blog posts from me the rest of the summer (fingers crossed) as we’ve sort of slowed down on traveling (one trip per month and sometimes just a road trip instead of the craziness we had in 2025).

I really enjoy blogging, connecting with my blogging buddies around the world, and of course reading your posts.

I am starting to run out of photo storage space on my blog though at 13 years of blogging even though I pay like $96 a year for a WordPress plan with expanded storage space. I know in the beginning I didn’t think about resizing my photos; and even though I’ve been resizing my photos for years I think I’ve just posted too many photos. I also pay like $18 a year to have my blog web address be “tierneycreates.com” instead of the free “tierneycreates.wordpress.com”.

I’ve been mulling over an overhaul and audit of my blog for a long time. It might be time to archive offline or delete my early posts. I doubt any one is going back in my blog history and reading my posts from 2014, etc.

Honestly I am challenged with revisiting the older posts myself as many of the contain stories about my fun life with my late husband who was also a quilter. I’ve been mulling over doing a summary of all the “Terry the Quilting Husband” posts in some type of memorial essay and just having that as a page on my blog and removing all the posts.

Same sort of challenge (though not comparing the passing of my spouse to my dogs) with old blog posts that feature my late dogs Sassy, Snickers and Mike. Sassy had her own blog “Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer” which I archived.

I am thinking about doing a page for the dogs also with some fun memories and stories and deleted all the old dog related posts.

I tell you memories, even if fun and wonderful, can be rough. However for my own benefit I’d like to figure out some way to keep their memory alive on my blog. Just stuff I am mulling over, no decisions made.

(This is sort of a long Postscript, it could have been it’s own blog post!)

Learning to Quilt, Quilt Shop Tours

Taking a New Quilter on Her First “Shop Hop”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’m not sure if our day qualified as a “Quilt Shop Hop” since we only visited two quilt shops (the day got away from us) but on Friday I headed with two other quilters to Loveland and Longmont, Colorado for a day of quilt shop hopping, tasty treats/food, and a yarn shop.

My new community has a quilting group that meets monthly and I have new quilting friends in my life now! One of our members D is a brand new quilter (though she is a very experienced seamstress) and my buddy J and I decided we should take her on her first quilt shop hop to help her select fabric for her first quilt that she is making for her newborn grandson.

Now if you are a quilter, you know experienced quilters LOVE to get in other quilters “business” (ha!) and help them choose fabric for a quilt (just visit any quilt shop and you will see this is action).

So J (who has been quilting since birth I think) and I (since 1999) couldn’t wait for this road trip. Luckily D was of good humor and appreciated (being bossed around) the help to select fabrics!

J drove and I sat in back and worked on my latest granny square blanket:

(Previous post – Starting a New Granny Square Blanket – I’ll do an update on that post from April 2026 once I get a little further along on it.)

Quilter’s Dream

Our first stop was Quilter’s Dream in Loveland, CO (they don’t have a website but I linked their Facebook page) where we got to work helping her pull fat quarters and yardage for a beginner quilt pattern that D was making:

And we figuratively “held her hand” while she got her yardage for a quilt pattern cut from bolts for the first time:

(By the way the “Toilet Paper Quilt” I shared in the post The Funniest Quilt Concept I’ve Seen was in the loo at this shop!)

After all that fabric selection assistance and additional time wandering around this wonderful quilt shop looking for ourselves (it’s not like J and I weren’t going to shop too!), we were ready for a treat and headed to the ice cream shop next door to that quilt shop! (hmm…wonder if they get a lot of business from quilters, ha!)

Yes we were well behaved and did not tap on the glass…but we did longingly gaze at all the delicious sounding flavor options! (This shop also has a “liquor infused” ice cream selection but we thought that a bad idea at 11 am and fabric shopping!)

A couple ice cream cones later (only one person, ha) and we were ready to head to the next shop.

Maggie’s Sewing & Fabric

The second shop we visited (and fell into a hole in the space-time continuum because I think we spent a month there, ha!) was Maggie’s Sewing & Fabric in Longmont, CO.

We were greeted by an adorable pup as we walked in, which is also a good sign for me when I enter any shop!

They had quite the sense of humor in this log cabin themed quilt shop with fun displays like this Barbie fabric one:

A couple photos around this shop, which I really liked and didn’t want to leave:

Yes I spent some time visiting the Clearance section where they had some amazing modern fabrics for 30 – 50% off, as well as kits, panels and pattern. I ended up bring the kit (for 50% off) of this quilt home with me (hey, it begged me to take it home, not my fault!):

The shop dog saw us off after our long visit (which did involve some dog petting of course):

Yes we had ice cream (hours ago!) but we were now hungry for actual food and had a wonderful lunch at Teocalli Cocina in Downtown Longmont.

I had the most amazing salad with a spicy oil infused egg and lots of avocado (I love, love, love avocado).

As we came out of the restaurant we noticed that practically next door in Downtown Longmont was a yarn shop!

Longmont Yarn Shoppe

We couldn’t stop ourselves from wandering in since we all either knitted and/or crocheted.

While checking out (I bought a deck of granny square pattern cards) they had this awesome crocheted mandala on display behind the register, which reminded me I want to make one someday.

Believe it or not, we began our day with J picking us up around 9:00 am and it was now 3:00 pm! So it was time to head home and to wander how we didn’t have enough time to have fit in a 3rd quilt shop (unfortunately the one we wanted to go to next closed at 3:00 pm we discovered too late!).

Very fun day and it’s been a long time since I’ve had the pleasure of quilt shop hopping with other quilters and bossing around new quilters on their fabric selections – ha!

(I posted that meme above with humor as J and I were very respectful of D’s choices on fabrics and just acted just as facilitators…okay rather passionate and insistent at times facilitators..ha!)

A Crafter's Life, Quilt Shop Tours

The Funniest Quilt Concept I’ve Seen

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Today I went on a fun quilt shop hop with some new quilting buddies. I will blog about that tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to quickly share the funniest quilt concept I’ve seen to date – a toilet paper roll inspired quilt:

It was in the bathroom of one of the quilt shops we stopped at and I had quilt the giggling while visiting the bathroom.

One of the blocks of the quilt even had an empty roll of toilet paper!

Very creative but alas I did not ask for the pattern (if it even exists, ha!)

Special Events, tierneycreates

This is How We Create

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am excited to share that an essay I wrote on creativity will be part of the anthology This is How We Create, edited by Dr. Yvette Prior of priorhouse blog and PRIORHOUSE WRITES.

Here is the draft book cover:

According to Dr. Prior’s Book page on her PRIORHOUSE WRITES it is scheduled for release in September 2026. Based on other books listed on that blog page, I think it will be available as a paperback from Amazon, a Kindle book and perhaps other mediums.

I can’t wait to see the published book 🙂

A Crafter's Life, Special Events

You Just Never Know…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

When you make something for someone you may never know what becomes of it…and you may be pleasantly surprised…and even DEEPLY touched when you find out!

Back in 2023 I did a post A Reminder on Why I Make Quilts in which I shared my surprise that a baby quilt I made (now) 16 years ago for my “Danish Brother”‘s first born son was being used as a “family heirloom” in their family – passing it around to all newborns in the immediate and extended family. I was blown away and very honored 🙂

Well recently I discovered that my long time (and at times long lost) friend’s daughter, who is now 24, has been dragging around the baby blanket I made her 24 years ago! It went to undergrad and graduate school with her and is always by her side.

I made this blanket back when the “no sew/tied fleece” blankets were very popular.

During my lunch hour at my job in Seattle a group of us used the conference room to teach each other how to make them! It seemed like I made at least 10 of them on year to give as gifts on Christmas!

Example of a “tied fleece blanket/no sew blanket”:

Image Source: https://createkidscouture.blogspot.com/2017/09/kid-project-no-sew-double-layer-fleece.html

I met my friend K when I moved to Seattle, Washington in 1997 and we became fast friends. I was her doula when she got pregnant and was there for the birth of her daughter. My friend K moved to Bend, Oregon and it was because of her I discovered Bend, Oregon and spent 14 glorious years of my life there.

A couple years of living in Bend, she and her young daughter and husband moved to Kodiak, Alaska and we stayed in touch on and off over the years but not as often as we’d both like (life happens when you are raising a family and/or building a career). We reconnected after my husband Terry passed in 2018 and stay in touch on and off.

Recently she notified me that her amazing daughter just graduated from her Masters program, just got engaged, and still carried around the baby blanket I made her over 24 years ago! It is her security blanket and although pretty shredded, it is still beloved.

My friend K, her husband M, their daughter, and her fiancé were going to be in the continental US for a week and John and I decided to meet up with them for a reunion.

K sent me a photo of the very loved/shredded/in tatters blanket her daughter carries with her:

I decided I needed to make her a replacement.

I searched and searched but the original fleece pattern was not available however I did find another cute dog themed blanket to make her for our reunion:

For the back of the blanket I chose a fleece that celebrated her growing up in Alaska:

So when we recently met up with them, I got to take a picture of her daughter and her beloved 24 year old blanket:

It looks even worse in person, ha! It is so well loved. She said she actually has a box of pieces that she rotates.

By the way, here is what the blanket originally looked like (I was able to locate a phote online but not any resource in which to buy this fleece pattern):

Although it could never replace the original blanket I made her, I think the new blanket I gave her daughter was a hit (she appeared to be deeply touched)!

After we returned home from meeting up with them, my friend K sent me a photo of her daughter with her new Tierney blanket on her lap!

You just never know what a handmade item you give means to someone else (and that for 24 years they would make it an intergal part of their lives).

Postscript

06/20/26

Going through comments on this post, one person’s awesome comments made me think of that famous passage from the children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco (published in 1922):

“Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

(Source: Google AI)

Adventures in Paper Piecing, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy June 2026

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Greetings from someone who has been away from the blogosphere for a little bit.

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

This month I have little to report as I’ve been hosting out of town visitors; and traveling (3 trips in the past month) including a big emotional return to Bend, Oregon for my birthday in May. It was my for first time in 7 years since I moved to Denver after my husband suddenly died in 2019. I’ll blog about that return sometime in the future.

Following up on my May 2026 ScrapHappy post ScrapHappy May 2026 – Moving Along on the EPP Quilt , I did over the past month complete sewing together 6 more English Paper Piecing (EPP) rosettes.

Yes, that’s it for the past month since the May 15th post!

But I do have a couple random curious things to share to conclude this post.

Granny Square Shoes?

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you might note my obsession for crocheting granny square blankets like this one I completed in 2025:

During my recent travels I came across a pair of granny square shoes!!!! They weren’t in my shoe size and they actually did not look that well made but they were fun to look at!

Everybody Needs a Pair of Quilted Shorts…

I am a quilter and during my recent travels I came across a pair of quilted shorts that gave me a giggle too!

I think an old quilt was turned into clothing. I would suggest this a curious fashion choice, but no judgement if you need a pair of vintage quilt shorts to wear!

I bet the original quilt is “scrap happy” and was made from someone’s fabric scrap basket so these shorts might also count for ScrapHappy June 🙂

An Amazing Thought/Concept

I came across this sign in my travels and I think it is an amazing thought/concept to close this post.