My friend the quilt artist, quilt book author, and quilting teacher, Wendy Hill (@wendyquilter) was generous enough to send me a package of good mail the other week.

Inside the package were fabric scraps (small and large to very large) and completed blocks from when she was fascinated with making “Taupe” quilts.

She had an article in the July/August 2007 publication Quilters Newsletter Magazine which discussed Taupe quilts and featured her amazing Taupe quilt – Isotaupe.

Here is an image of it from her website (she now uses Instagram as her primary social media) Wendy Hill Quilt Artist:

This image does not do it justice, it is amazing in person; and I first saw either this quilt or another Taupe quilt of Wendy’s at an art quilting show when I lived in Central Oregon. It was before I knew Wendy as a friend, she was an amazing local artist and quilt book author.

I got to know Wendy through running in to her at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon. I believe it was at the annual Pajama Sale (see this old post of mine for information about the annual Stitchin’ Post Pajama Sale where you would get huge discounts on fabric if you showed up in the PJs before 8:00 am – Pajama Sale and Finished Pieces, a lot of great memories of attending that each year…), when I was working on my first Taupe quilt and Wendy consulted on fabrics and admired my blocks in progress (I cannot find a picture of that quilt which I gave as a gift to someone long time ago…)

So Wendy knew of my love for Taupe quilts and how much I was blown away with her Taupe quilts; and recently she was Spring Cleaning and sent me the lovely package of Taupe fabrics and blocks from quilts in progress that she decided not to complete.

Example of some of the blocks she sent:

Included in the package was also this pile of blocks:

I wasn’t sure of what pattern these blocks were supposed to be until I laid them out on my design wall:

Wow! The picture I took does not do these blocks justice as they are in a collection of amazing Taupe fabrics.

I knew I wanted to finish this quilt and I thought I could disassemble one of the blocks to create a pattern. Then I discovered from Wendy that this was a quilt she designed called SuperSymmetry and it was published in the October 2010 edition of The Quilt Life.

Here is a picture of the quilt SuperSymmetry from Wendy’s gallery page on her website wendyhill.net:

Isn’t it breathtaking?

I think I have enough Taupe scraps to finish the quilt as well as some Taupe in my collection such as these Japanese Taupe fabrics in my stash:

HOWEVER I am supposed to be focusing on working on my Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt (see post And then there were 88), but I’ve become very distracted by the contents of the package Wendy sent me!

I also came across this pattern recently, which would look wonderful with Taupe fabrics, in the January/February 2003 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine I picked up at a thrift store for 50 cents:

But I made myself put the contents of the package Wendy sent me away, so I can get back to finishing the quilt I am working on.

You know us creative types, we can be subject to easily distractible “squirrel’ moments like the dog Dug in the movie Up:

“I have just met you, and I love you” – one of my all-time favorite movies lines, as well as one of my all-time favorite animated movie!

I must focus on my current project.

SQUIRREL!

Postscript

If you would like to learn more about “Taupe” as a color/concept, here overview of Taupe, from Colorpsychology.org:

Taupe is considered to be intermediate shade between dark brown and gray, which shares similar attributes of both colors. However, taupe does not describe a single color, rather, it is used to describe a vast range of colors from dark tan to brownish gray. Taupe is a neutral hue — neutrals are created by combining complementary colors (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel) which results in desaturated brownish colors or mutes — likewise, taupe hues are achieved by mixing together umber and white pigment.

The word, taupe, originates from the French word, taupe, and the Latin word, Talpa, which translates to “mole,” as it was primarily used to describe moleskin. Notably, variations of taupe have appeared on the Pantone Color Trend Reports over the years. Recently, ‘Warm Taupe’ was featured on the Fall 2016 color palette. Taupe provides the perfect backdrop to complement and offset brighter colors.

tierneycreates

Comfort Quilts Needed

June 7, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My friend Chela let me know that the quilt group in Uvalde, Texas, called Quilts of Grace is looking for “comfort quilts“.

Here is the scrappy “postage stamp quilt” (but with 3.5 inch scrap squares used instead of the traditional 1.5 to 2 inch squares) that I packaged up this morning to send to the group:

I was ambitious on trying to save money to postage and tried to fit it into a smaller flat rate padded envelope…

Many different quilting folder strategies did not work, alas, and I had to put it in the larger flat rate envelope (which I should have done from the start):

I hope this quilt will comfort someone impacted by the devastating school shooting massacre.

Besides donating money to the victims fund and trying to make wise choices of who I vote for in elections, I’ve felt helpless in the face of so much devastation. This feels like something I can do to perhaps ease a tiny bit of suffering for those impacted. Hey even if someone give this quilt to their dog as a dog bed quilt, it will be something useful!

If you are a quilter interested in participating, here is the information that Chela sent me:

Library Adventures, tierneytravels

Peaceful Oasis at the Austin Central Library

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I was in Austin, Texas the week of 05/23/2022, the same week of the School Shooting Massacre In Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday 05/24/2022. I was staying in downtown Austin, where my partner John was attending a multiple day work meeting with his leadership team.

Tuesday 05/24/2022 I was coming out of the hotel gym after a great workout, about to go back to my hotel room, shower and then spend the day exploring downtown Austin, when I passed by the hotel bar area where news of the shooting was being broadcast.

I stood there dumbfounded and in shock, surround by other hotel guests who were equally in shock. The school shooting occurred 10 days after another horrible mass shooting that shook me to my core – the Buffalo, NY Grocery Store Shooting.

John was in a work meeting and could not be disturbed so I was left to spend the rest of the day in distress, flipping from news channel to news channel to find out more and more disturbing details while sobbing.

That evening I went to dinner an evening boat tour to see the bats that live under one of the bridges on the river that runs through downtown Austin, with John and his colleagues. At dinner we kept the conversation as light as we could and several of his Austin based colleagues talked about the amazing Central Library in downtown Austin.

Library? An awesome library?!?! Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that I am obsessed with public libraries. I’ve loved libraries since I was young (9 or 10?) and spent a summer at the public library nearly every day, riding my bike to the library every day and befriending the kind librarians who worked at the library and took me under their wing.

John’s colleagues mentioned that the Austin Central Library had a rooftop garden and amazing architecture.

Libraries to me are nearly sacred peaceful oases. I knew that Wednesday I needed to visit the Austin Central Library.

And I did. And it was a peaceful oasis and my spirit was centered and calmed for a couple blissful hours.

Here is the photo essay about that visit.

I walked a mile through the beautiful park (River Metro park?) along the Colorado River running through downtown Austin to the Central Library. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and in another post I will share photos from that walk as well as other photos of downtown Austin.

I entered the library on a lower level and I tingled with anticipation. Here are the stairs that greeted me that I could not wait to climb:

Before ascending the stairs, I noticed the library had an amazing high tech book return station:

After ascending the stairs, and being the library geek I am, I stopped at the information booth, informed the library team member who greeted me that it was my first visit to the library (and how excited I was to be there) and got a map to guide me through the library.

The library’s interior was amazing. The library has 6 levels, connecting with lofty ascending staircases. I explored all 6 levels!

The library has a huge clock that it can be viewed from any level and is as tall as a level or more:

This window, viewable from many levels, is just breathtaking:

I already heard about the rooftop deck and was planning on making that my last stop after exploring the other levels but then I discovered the library had a READING PORCH and I started on a mission to put together a “library stack” to take out to the reading porch.

I headed to my favorite section – Non Fiction – 700s to put together my stack!

I took my lovely “library stack” to the reading porch and spent a couple hours reading books as well as having a little picnic lunch I put together on the enclosed porch with views of downtown Austin:

It was so amazingly peaceful on the reading porch and I could only hear the bird song (there were trees filled with birds near the porch) and the sounds of traffic below. It was such a wonderful place to read my “library stack”(which I could only read/look through at the library since I was not a local resident).

After a couple hours in the reading porch and some reading of/flipping through the books in my stack, I returned them for re-shelving inside, and then wandered additional levels until I got to the rooftop deck.

A couple fun standouts on my way to the rooftop deck include the “Technology Petting Zoo” and the Board Game area – where you could grab a board game and play games with friends/family at the library!

I was not sure what to expect of a library’s rooftop deck but I was pleasantly surprised! It was huge, filled with people reading, visiting and lounging about. It had a garden area and amazing views of downtown Austin!

Here are some of the photos I took while on the rooftop deck:

I was craving something sweet and after the rooftop deck, I headed back to the ground floor of the library and had a cupcake at the library’s cafe called the Cookbook Bar & Cafe.

And guess what – the cafe was filled with used cookbooks! You could browse/flip through cookbooks while you ate (and I did) – it was glorious (and the cupcake I had was glorious!):

With my belly full of delicious cupcake and my spirit soothed by the energy of a public library, I headed back to my hotel, enjoying the scenery immediately outside of the library on my route back to my hotel.

I took a ridiculous amount of photos but I tried to select the photos that would give you a general idea of how awesome the Austin Central Library was to visit. Here is a little video tour if you are wanting more:

Oh and I thought this was pretty cool – I’ve never seen a library do this!

tierneytravels

Trip to San Diego October 2021

June 4, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well since I appear to have returned to blogging, I should finish up my story about my trip to San Diego in October 2021 and stay at at the Rancho Bernardo Inn/Resort when my partner John attended a conference (see post Rancho Bernardo in Black and White).

The Rancho Bernardo Inn is one of the prettiest hotels I’ve ever stayed and their property is amazing. As their website proclaims, they have 265 acres to explore and I think I explored at least a quarter of those acres during the 4 days I was there, while John was attending conference sessions, etc.

In the previous post about this trip (Rancho Bernardo in Black and White) I shared some of the photos I took in B&W. Now I will share the photos in color so you can see the true beauty of this place.

Here is the photo I consider the “money shot” from the stairway down to the spa and pool area – it was just breathtaking:

We stayed in one of the rooms off the golf course (and John did get to play golf one afternoon) and here was the view when you stepped outside our room:

I spent several days wandering about the grounds of the resort and here are color photos from that wander:

The food at the resort was amazing, very “farm-to-table” style of cuisine. During my wandering I discovered they have a “Chef’s Garden” on site and I guess that is why the meals tasted so fantastic!

In addition to wandering/exploring the grounds while John was at his conference, I also found a cozy nook off the main lobby, in front of the fireplace (it was October and got a little nippy at times) to sit and work on the English Paper Piecing project I brought (I always bring hand work when I travel):

I’ve been working on this project for years, and I should do a blog post update some time.

Although I wish I’d had more time with John to do some sightseeing while in San Diego, as he was so busy with the conference, I did manage to keep myself entertained for a couple of days.

One thing John and I did do together was go to Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day one afternoon. I’ll show you photos from that visit on the next post.

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Sampler Quilts, What's on the Design Wall

And then there were 88

June 3, 2022June 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Recently I’ve been hiding away in my sewing room to escape the world. I’ve been productive during my escape, and I’ve now completed 88 of the 100 blocks for Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt I’ve been working on.

This is not the final layout for the quilt, I’ll decide that after I finish the 12 remaining blocks. It seems a little overwhelming to decide the perfect layout for 100 blocks, but I am going to just try to make them look as random as possible (and try not to let the same color touch…we’ll see…).

If you are just joining us and are interested in the progression of this quilt, check out the previous post about it which also has links to the other blog posts on it – And then there were 70….

For the remaining 12 blocks, I decided to stop trying to find pieces long enough to make each block (a lot of the remaining blocks need fabrics of at least 6.5 inches) from this pile:

Instead I cleaned up my cutting table, putting fabric scraps away by color in my fabric scrap storage system:

And I am going to be very deliberate about color choices (based on what I have too much or too little of in my quilt so far) and shop for fabric scraps from my collection of fabric scraps organized by color in my wine crate storage unit:

I am going to try and use these remaining fabrics, from the initial pile, that I did not put away with the rest:

I want to try and repeat those fabrics.

I’ve decided on how to finish the quilt – I am going to sew the blocks all together in a 10 by 10 row with no lattice, and no borders. Just plain and simple, allowing the blocks to just shine through without any clutter.

I realize this will make it only a lap size quilt instead of a Queen or King size which you could get by using some of the layouts in the back of the book Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. Lap size works for me as I might actually just hang it on a wall and display it. I’ll decide after I get it back from the long-arm quilter.

Well back to hiding out in my sewing room and finishing up the 12 remaining blocks to get to 100 blocks, which at one point seemed so far away!

Postscript

I developed a sort of production system to sew so many blocks.

I would pre-cut a large amount (15 or more) of blocks; and then sit down and sew them, trying to use chain piecing as much as possible, even working on two or more blocks at the same time.

Well my partner John took an old folding table and put a wooden table top on it for me to add to my existing work table to act as a “return” and give me space for ironing while piecing and any trimming needed.

This really added to my efficiency in block making!

And here is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer hanging out under my sewing table while I am at work:

A Crafter's Life

Will Return Soon

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I will return to blogging soon, I’ve been struggling with all that is (continually) going on in the world.

For now here is a photo of Mike the Miniature Schnauzer “pillow nap stacking” (a term we developed, patent pending, ha!) with my partner John on top of a granny square blanket while John is nestled under a quilt.

Some days you just need a break from the news and a nap is a good strategy to refresh (at least John and Mike think so)!

Sampler Quilts, What's on the Design Wall

And then there were 70…

May 24, 2022June 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update on the Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks I’ve been working on since February.

I now have 70 blocks done, 15 more blocks since my previous post What’s On The Design Wall: Over 50% Done! . So I am 70% done (well if you do not count sewing all the blocks together, making the backing, and putting on the binding after I have it professionally long-arm quilted, ha!).

I am getting some use out of the Ring Light I bought last year and figured out (sort of) how to use it photograph these blocks on my design wall late at night when I didn’t have any natural light available.

I continue to enjoy “shopping” for fabrics in my pile-o-fabric-scraps, now sorted by color, to make each block:

If you are just joining us (and you are really bored and need posts to read, ha!) here are the previous posts on the evolution of this quilt:

Preparing for Quilt Retreat

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

What’s On the Design Wall: Not Losing Momentum

“Sewing-Block” Resolved by Sewing a Block!

What’s On The Design Wall: Over 50% Done!

I’ve been thinking about the layout of the final quilt top. There are many ideas in the back of the book – Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, but I am thinking perhaps of a Dear Jane Quilt setting and looking at ideas such as those I found on this link – Dear Jane Quilt Inspiration. Another thought is just sewing all the blocks together without any type of sashing/setting. But I’ll revisit these ideas once I’ve finished all 100 blocks!

I am now cutting the next batch of 15 blocks and looking forward to getting to 85!

A Crafter's Life

On Grief

May 19, 2022May 20, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

When coming up for a title for this post, I was thinking of my SA-based long time blogging buddy (and very talented textile artist), Mariss of Fabrications, who titles her posts “On…”.

So this post is “On” grief.

As many of you know I am a widow and lost my partner of many years back in 2018. In the earlier days of my grief I read books such as Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant (see post New Library Stack and Option B) and Resilience by Eric Greitens (see post Soup’s On), as I tried to navigate my new reality, but in general I have avoided books that primarily focus on grief and grieving.

That was until recently, now over 3 years since my loss, when I decided to read It’s OK That You’re Not Okay: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine.

I finished like book nearly 2 months ago and I am still thinking about it.

The book’s audience appears to be those with a new major loss in their life; and focuses on life shattering losses such as the death of a life partner or a child. It provides a different way of looking at grief and grieving from a therapist who lost her husband (she apologizes in the book to all her former clients who were grieving and how she counseled them before she experienced her own loss); as well as provides tools for grieving people to help their loved ones support them better during their grieving. It even has a whole chapter for those who are trying to support someone in their life who is grieving.

One of the greatest lessons or perhaps greatest insights I got from this book is: You cannot take away someone’s pain who is grieving, it is theirs that they must bear – all you can try to do is to ease their suffering (or at least not add to their suffering with things you do or say).

Here are a couple quotes from the book to share more of the author’s insights as a widow and a grief counselor/therapist:

The reality of grief is far different from what others see from the outside. There is pain in this world that you can’t be cheered out of. You don’t need solutions. You don’t need to move on from your grief. You need someone to see your grief, to acknowledge it. You need someone to hold your hands while you stand there in blinking horror, staring at the hole that was your life. Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.

When you try to take someone’s pain away from them, you don’t make it better. You just tell them it’s not OK to talk about their pain.

We need to talk about the hierarchy of grief. You hear it all the time—no grief is worse than any other. I don’t think that’s one bit true. There is a hierarchy of grief. Divorce is not the same as the death of a partner. Death of a grandparent is not the same as the death of a child. Losing your job is not the same as losing a limb.

The cult of positivity we have does everyone a disservice. It leads us to believe we’re more in charge of the world than we are, and holds us responsible for every pain and heartbreak we endure. It sets up a one-false-move world, in which we must be careful not to upset the gods, or karma, or our bodies with our thoughts and intentions.

Acknowledgment–being seen and heard and witnessed inside the truth about one’s own life–is the only real medicine of grief.

These quotes above are only the tip of the iceberg of all the wisdom and “truth-bombs” that the author drops in this book.

At the start of reading this book, I connected with many of the painful ways (causing more suffering) that some people in my life tried to support me during my early days of my loss. But as I got further into the book I thought about how they were doing the best they could with no personal experience in such a loss.

And I thought about the absolute disaster I was in the past in supporting people in my life who experienced such devastating loss, before I experienced such loss myself.

I thought in particular about a boss a used to have in the early 2000s who was an awesome leader, fun to work with and supportive. Then she suddenly lost her husband of 30+ years to a motorcycle accident. He was her best friend and they were inseparable. He was a long time motorcycle enthusiast and hit a random patch of gravel at high speed and was killed.

She was out of work for about a month and when she returned she was a completely different person. We (her staff) had pulled together money and sent flowers and a card, etc. and for some reason thought she would be okay when she returned after a month off, even if she was sad at times as expected.

Instead she was unable to focus at work, apparently heavily medicated (whether doctor prescribed or “recreational”) and pretty much non functional. This went on for months and finally she was convinced to step down from her position and let someone else take her job.

I am so sad that I was one of the staff members who was impatient with her, especially after a couple of months since her loss. It was like I expected her to “be over it”. I wish I could go back in time and hug her and apologize for how I just did not understand.

Fast forward to 2018 and my loss. I actually thought about her (after not thinking of her for years) about a month after my husband died. It was like “I get it!”

Although I did not use much medication (though in retrospect I would not have minded be numbed out of my mind for a while in the early days) to help me cope, I struggled focusing at my job or even caring about my job. I hid it and tried to be the same as I was but ultimately, when you lose the person who is your whole life, everything else seems so unimportant and meaningless.

Around the first anniversary of my husband’s passing, I had a colleague confront me about not getting an important project done on time, and all I could think is “but I am still alive a year after losing everything”. I tried to explain I was struggling with the 1 year anniversary but she did not get it, she was still annoyed.

I cannot fault her lack of empathy as I was guilty of such lack of empathy myself before experience such loss.

I feel redeemed though in my failures of supporting grieving people (I am skipping a couple other stories of how I was not the most helpful when people in my life loss their spouses before I experienced it myself) as I had an amazing experience connecting with a former neighbor who lost her husband last May. I feel so lucky to have been able to be there for her and listen to her journey, and share whatever she wanted to know about my journey as a widow.

It felt like I was paying it forward in honor of those who truly helped me in my journey, and continue to help me.

One of the most powerful concepts I gained from reading It’s OK That You’re Not Okay: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand is:

Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried.

I’ve come to accept that I will carry this grief with me the rest of my life. And that is okay. There is still much joy, happiness, and peace to still have in this life, even with grief by my side.

Feature image – Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Rancho Bernardo in Black and White

May 18, 2022May 24, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

We went to San Diego, California in October 2021 for a conference that my partner John was speaking at and stayed at the lovely Rancho Bernardo Inn/Resort.

I came across photos from this trip in my online photo album and realized I never blogged about it (wait – did it really happen if there is no blog post?!?!? ha!). Next post I’ll share color photos and an overview about the trip (including stopping by Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day) but for now here are some photos I took in B&W during my stay.

I like to pretend I am a photographer and do B&W photoshoots (see my blog post category Life in B&W if you want to see more of my delusional photography…)

Fabric Scraps Obsession, What's on the Design Wall

Scraphenge is Done and Hung

May 16, 2022May 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is a follow up on two posts about a freeform log cabin quilt I’ve been working on using Northcott’s Stonehenge fabric line scraps, that I named “Scraphenge”:

What’s On The Design Wall: Stonehenge Scrappy Freeform Log Cabin

What’s On the Design Wall: “Scraphenge”

Well Scraphenge is “done and hung“! I received it back from the longarm quilter last week (I used Missouri Star Quilting Company longarm quilting services).

I decided instead of a binding to put a “facing” on the quilt since I was going to hang it on the wall:

Instead of the cumbersome method I’ve used to put a facing on in the past, which I learned from an art quilting book, I searched YouTube to see if there was an easier method and voilà I found one:

And it worked perfectly! It was much easier than the previous method I was using!

So here is the quilt hung in the hallway next to the entryway to our home. I took a couple different photos as due to the stairways to upstairs and the basement it was challenging to photograph the quilt straight on:

Here is a close up of the quilting:

I love seeing the quilt as I descend the stairs from upstairs to the main floor:

The cool thing about this quilt is most of the quilt top is made from Stonehenge fabric scraps that friends have given me and some Stonehenge fabric scraps I had from a quilt I made. So the quilt top was primarily made from stuff that would have ended up in a landfill. I LOVE SCRAP QUILTS!

They are very happy recycling!

Sampler Quilts, What's on the Design Wall

What’s On The Design Wall: Over 50% Done!

May 13, 2022June 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s an update on the Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks I’ve been working on since February.

In case you want to see my journey on this quilt to date, here are the other related posts:

Preparing for Quilt Retreat

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

What’s On the Design Wall: Not Losing Momentum

“Sewing-Block” Resolved by Sewing a Block!

So my update is that I’ve finished 52 blocks!

In my previous post at the end of April, “Sewing-Block” Resolved by Sewing a Block!, I had completed 40 blocks. Recently I completed 12 more blocks:

I discovered while working on these 12 blocks that my current system of organization for the fabric scrap collection selected for this quilt did not work. My system was a haphazard pile:

So I spent the time organizing all the scraps selected for this project into piles of color. Now that I have a bigger studio now (see my post A “New” Studio ), I can leave these piles out on the table in my studio until I complete the quilt:

It might still look like a hot mess to you, but for me I can now “shop” by color and pattern easier.

Plus by organizing these piles I got to refresh my memory of what I have to work with; and got some ideas on how to use some of the multicolored fabrics at the top of the photo in future blocks I’ll be making for this sampler quilt.

48 more to go!

Postscript

I actually cut fabric for 15 blocks but I was only up to completing 12 blocks by last night (the deadline I gave myself so I could write this post):

But then this morning I had some renewed energy and completed the 3 additional blocks to bring my total to 15 completed since my previous post on this quilt:

So here are 55 blocks now completed! (Only 45 to go now…)

Books, Music, Podcasts, Guest Blogger

Guest Blog Post: 5 Novels that Feature Arts and Crafts

May 11, 2022May 11, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve decided to discontinue “other human” (so this does not include Mike the Miniature Schnauzer or the tierneycreates Beastie, ha) guest blog posts, as I want to just create content for my blog on my own (or content “channeled” me by Mike or the tierneycreates Beastie of course).

However the talented Rose Atkinson-Carter offered a couple weeks ago before I made this decision, to write an article related to two things I know many of you love: reading and crafting. Please see the bottom of this post for information on the London-based author of this guest post.

5 Novels that Feature Arts and Crafts

If you’ve ever tried looking for books about arts and crafts, the results are awash with innumerable ‘how to’ pamphlets, or nonfiction texts about artists and their work. While there’s nothing wrong with a good crafting guide, it’s nice to mix things up every so often. That’s why I’ve taken it into my own hands to curate a list of the best arts and crafts inspired novels.

If you’re struggling to find something artsy for your reading list, stick around for a few books you’ll definitely want to pin to your reading list.

The Lady and the Unicorn, by Tracy Chevalier

The Lady and the Unicorn is a historical fiction novel based around real works of art — six medieval tapestries made to form one large piece, thought to originate in Medieval Belgium — from which the author extrapolates a complex and affecting literary tapestry of love, lust, and betrayal. Though the narrative hails from seven different narrators’ points of view, the tapestries’ begins with budding nobleman Jean Le Viste, who commissions a tapestry to artist Nicolas Des Innocents, expecting him to depict bloody battles and passionate soldiers. However, after Le Viste’s wife (and Nicholas’s muse) throws down the artistic gauntlet, the artists desires lead him in another direction — to wax poetic about seductive flowers, unicorns, and numerous women.

Known for her previous bestselling novel The Girl With the Pearl Earring, also based on a work of art of the same name, Tracy Chevalier exceeds expectations as she breathes life into yet another mystery shrouding great works of art, turning them into the centerpiece about which every human desire orbits. Of course, this novel isn’t just concerned with desire between humans, but desire in every form — the desire to be useful, to be happy, to be inspired, and the desire to be free. This is a must-read for anyone wanting an insight into the decadent and tumultuous side of art.

Crewel World, by Monica Ferris

Though it’s labelled a ‘cozy mystery’, be warned that this mystery opens with a tragedy: the loss of our main character Betsy’s sister, a murder that took place in her very own needlecraft shop. In spite of its ‘cozy mystery’ label, this book begins with tragedy: the murder of our main character Betsy’s sister, who died in her very own needlework shop.

Following the murder, Betsy struggles to find her feet again, recover from grief, and take over the craft shop, all while a looming police investigation puts a halt to any hope of returning to normalcy. However, as is often the case with a good mystery novel, it soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems.

As she learns the ins-and-outs of the needlecraft, Betsy realizes that the police are dragging their feet over the investigation. Is it because they don’t have a good understanding of the craft itself, or is there something darker at play behind the scenes? Either way, the aspiring detective is certainly up to the task.

Monica Ferris’s breakout novel, Crewel World, the first in her expansive Needlecraft murder mystery series, is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat right until the end — and, as a bonus once you reach the final page, you’ll get a free embroidery pattern too!

The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton

Rose Atkinson-Carter is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors with some of the world’s best editors, designers, marketers, ghostwriters, and translators. She lives in London.

If you’re looking for a novel that blends crafting inspiration with a healthy amount of creepy mystery, then you’re sure to enjoy The Miniaturist. Set in the corrupt and glamorous seventeenth century Amsterdam, the narrative follows eighteen year old Nella Oortman as she steps into the unknown — an arranged marriage with famed (and wealthy) merchant Johannes Brandt. However, the house she marries into is not warm, but rather steeped in the secrets held by the merchant’s harsh sister Marin, the servants Otto and Cornelia, and the kind-but-distant Johannes himself.

So, where do the arts and crafts come in? Well, the clue is in the name. As a wedding gift, Johannes bestows Nella with a cabinet-sized replica of their house, which he commissions from a miniaturist. However, in the process of realizing the life-sized furnishings for the inside of the replica, packages start arriving — and peppered within what the family ordered are eerily accurate extra items. Indeed, the scenes, furnishings, and dolls are spookily true to events of the past, present, and the future. Given that, can Nella work out what’s behind this mystery all while surviving her secretive new family along the way? It’s worth finding out for yourself!

Last Wool and Testament, by Molly MacRae

Ivy McClellan is well known in the needlework community for being magically brilliant at her craft, as well as being the founder of a passionate group of needlework and fiber artists named Thank Goodness It’s Fiber, TGIF for short. Unfortunately Ivy eventually dies, leaving her shop (and the TGIF meeting place) to her beloved granddaughter, Kath Rutledge.

When Kath arrives to attend the burial, she discovers that nothing is as it was when she left — and local police officers now brutally nickname her grandmother as ‘Crazy Ivy’. The thing is: there’s been a local murder and, somehow, Ivy is the main suspect. On top of that, the title to Ivy’s house has been stolen and Kath is left with just a week to pack up and scrap together clues about what on earth happened. In the meantime, she manages to rent an apartment with an unexpected roommate — a specter — and that specter seems to be just as interested in Ivy’s case as Kath. So, if you can’t tell already, this story is sure to keep you guessing with its twists, turns, and knots, right until the very end.

How to Be Both, by Ali Smith

Paperback How to Be Both Book — Thriftbooks.com

Ali Smith’s ground-breaking novel, How to Be Both, borrows from art in both its narrative as well in the very format in which it’s written. For the latter, Smith borrows from paintings fresco technique to deliver a double take in the form of a novel, starting each halve of every print edition with a completely different narrative point of view.

For one half, you might end up with a narrative beginning with Italian painter Francesco, while, for the other half, you may start the story with a teenage girl named George, and vice-versa. Either way, both are intrinsically connected to the art world (as well as each other) and invested in what it may become. The two artists’ are worlds apart: Francesco’s narrative is contemporary to the Renaissance Italy in which the painter of the same name that inspired Smith lived, whereas George serves as a teenaged 1960s counterpart. Despite the two characters’ differences, the parallels between them, the love, and the injustice they experience are striking. If you’re interested in sinking your teeth into the inner workings of artists, their muses, Renaissance Italy, and a playful narrative structure all in one — this novel is for you.

That concludes my list of the five arts and crafts influenced novels that inspired me! Whether you prefer to use a pin, pen, or paintbrush, I hope they can be a suitable muse for all of your crafty needs or, at the very least, refresh your love for the arts.

Feature photo credit – Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

Studio

A “New” Studio

May 8, 2022May 8, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A week or so ago my partner John and I came up with a crazy idea: We have a large master bedroom and only use about 1/2 of it (the other 1/2 I used for occasional yoga and daily stretches) – why don’t we switch my sewing/quilting studio to the master bedroom and we move our bedroom to a smaller guest bedroom down the hall?

Yes, we’d have to access the master bathroom through my studio but we could keep the closets the same as our clothes are inside the master bathroom in a walk in closet at one end. So all we’d have to do (well it is a BIG “ALL”) is move a couple rooms of furniture around…

THE OLD STUDIO (IN A SMALL BEDROOM)

First, here is what my OLD studio looked like in one of the smaller bedrooms upstairs in my house:

Here is a little video tour of my old studio I posted to Instagram last year. I uploaded it to YouTube:

As you can see I had it jammed packed with stuff, but I made it work!

So over the past 3 – 4 days, doing a little here and there and then doing some big moves, we got rooms switched around. It took another day to get art, etc. hung and finishing touches.

THE NEW STUDIO (IN THE FORMER MASTER BEDROOM)

Here is the reveal of my NEW master bedroom tierneycreates studio:

I really like the table placed in the alcove (where I used to do yoga) with the windows on three sides. During the day it gets a lot of natural light to craft by and I have a nice view of a wooded area.

As far as our “new” small master bedroom, everything is going well so far. All our furniture fit and it feels rather cozy.

I cannot wait to get back to working on projects in my new big studio space!

Papercrafting

Quick Cards

May 3, 2022May 3, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well they were not so quick, actually it took me a couple hours to make 8 handmade cards.

My partner John has a new position at the company he works for and a new team that now reports to him. He thought it would be good to send them each a handwritten note and include a little coffee gift card or something. I offered to make them handmade cards.

I do love card making even if I am quite amateur at it. Here are a couple older posts on my card making activities:

Another Card Making Playdate

Card Making Playdate

Since I needed to make 8 cards and wanted to get back to my 100 Block Sampler I am working on as not to lose momentum (see post “Sewing-Block” Resolved by Sewing a Block!), I thought a quick way to make cards would be using old scrapbook papers.

I was really into scrapbooking for a brief period of time around 7 – 9 years ago. I decided – “No More Loose Photos” – and went through all my boxes of photos and basically scrapbooked my life up to around the early to mid 2010s. If the photo did not work in a scrapbook, then it was destroyed/thrown out. I really appreciated the completed scrapbooks after my husband Terry died in 2018, as when I was ready, it was a nice way to look through memories. Not sure if I could have dealt with all those loose photos in a box after his passing.

So I have a bunch of leftover 12 inch x 12 inch pretty paper collections from my scrapbooking period, even though I donated to the charity thrift shop any empty scrapbook albums as I am completely done with scrapbooking (and who has printed loose photos anymore?).

Here are the 8 cards I made with those papers:

And here is a gallery of some of the other photos I took of the cards:

I had some precut card stock which came in handy and saved time. I also used a sticker book with inspirational sayings which I put on the front of each card.

The cardstock was dark colors and John needed to write a readable note in each one to his team members, so I glued a folded white piece of paper inside each card to make it easier to write a note. The image below is an example from the previous set of cards I made in February 2021:

After making the cards, I decided it was time to deal with my ridiculous pile of scrapbook papers. Since I no longer scrapbook, I only need to keep the papers which would be useful in card making.

Here is the huge pile of scrapbook papers I weeded out – I am off this afternoon to donate them to the charity thrift shop and let someone else enjoy them!

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Sampler Quilts, What's on the Design Wall

“Sewing-Block” Resolved by Sewing a Block!

April 29, 2022June 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My sewing “mojo” was hiding somewhere for a while and I had little desire to sew. I had a “sewing-block“. Turns out the best way to resolve it was to sew a block!

I’ve been distracted from time in my sewing studio by some recent travel, visits from out of town friends, and a couple challenging recent life events. A couple days ago I knew I needed to get my back to sewing (as there is just so much fun stuff to be made) and decided returning to working on my Tula Pink City Sampler (100 Modern Quilt Blocks) would be a good place to start.

So I made block number 31 (I’ve already made blocks 1 – 30, see post What’s On the Design Wall: Not Losing Momentum):

Once you get started up sewing again, things get rolling, and I was able to make also blocks 32 – 40 over the next several days (my sewing was “un-blocked”!):

Today while taking photos for this post, I discovered I did not like the gray “frame” in one of the blocks (too overpowering):

So I redid it this morning with a red “frame”:

Now I have 40 blocks out of 100 now complete!

Not sure why my photos came out so dark from my design wall, I guess it was the lighting in my sewing studio this morning.

I am enjoying working from my piles of scraps selected for the 100 block sampler, and I’ve decided to just keep the piles out until I finish all 100 blocks.

I’ve been making a bunch of small scraps while cutting the fabrics for the 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch blocks and I plan to stuff pincushions like I did in this post – Stuffing it the Eco-conscious Way!

I plan to continue working on the blocks for the sampler and maybe whipping out a pincushion or two between sets of blocks if my tiny pile of scraps gets larger than my little basket for tiny scraps.

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Seven Falls in B&W

April 14, 2022January 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is just a quick follow up to Mike the Miniature Schnauzer’s guest blog post: Guest Blog Post: How to Completely Terrify Your Miniature Schnauzer.

What he didn’t share was that I took several cool (well I think they are cool) photos in B&W while we were on hike, as did my partner John. I thought I would share some of my favorites from this amazing hike (despite what Mike says in his post linked above!):

I guess the park had this sign to really discourage you from going off the trail:

I ALWAYS want to protect the privacy of snakes!

Knit and Crochet Away!

Update on the Latest Granny Square Blanket

April 12, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Howdy, this post is a follow up to the post What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket.

I’ve completed crocheting a 100 granny square blocks! Here they are in piles based on yarn combinations:

You will notice I do not have an even distribution of color combinations. That is because the blanket is very “scrappy” as it is made from a collection of coordinating thrift store yarns. I had similar but not exact colors and varying amounts of each color.

After sorting piles it was time to do the daunting task of laying it out on the “design carpet” of my living room.

My eyes were crossing as I tried to find a way not to have the same (or similar) squares touch each other but after a while I gave up and said “good enough” and settled on the layout above.

Mike the Miniature Schnauzer tried to distract me while I was sorting and laying out the squares, with his cuteness:

So I decided it was time for him to try on a granny square hat:

I am going to join the granny squares with brown yarn to make a lattice between the squares and then finish off the blanket with a green border, and perhaps a rust border too. We’ll see how it evolves, but first I have to put on a YouTube video on how to join the granny square blocks again (I forgot what I did on my first granny square blanket – Attack of the Giant Granny Square Blanket).

But before I work on joining the squares, I had to organize them into the layout I decided in someway, as I could not just leave them out on the “design carpet”.

So I figured out putting them in piles, with the top of the pile being the first square on the left for each row; and then numbering the rows. Here are the piles laid out:

As you can see in the images above, I ran a piece of yarn through each pile, so they did not get separated/out of order if a pile accidentally got knocked over.

I’ve been traveling a lot lately with my partner John going on his business trips with him and since I actually finished these 100 blocks a couple weeks ago now (so behind on blogging) and I can’t take all of them with me when traveling to start joining them into a blanket, I’ve started another granny square block series to work on while traveling!

I seem to be a little obsessed with making granny squares, they are the perfect portable travel project!

Guest Blogger, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Guest Blog Post: How to Completely Terrify Your Miniature Schnauzer

April 6, 2022January 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well it’s time for one of her guest bloggers to step in, as Tierney has disappeared from the blogging world for some time now due to “Hooman Life Distractions“.

I recently learned us dogs are supposed to refer to our Humans as “Hoomans” courtesy of looking at too many dog postings on Instagram. I guess they feel dogs are not very literate? Nah, I am going to keep called them “Humans”, as you can see I am literate enough to write guest blog posts.

In case you have not guessed it, this is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer here to fill in for Tierney and do a blog post.

Here to fill in (though it takes away from my nap time)

If you are new to this blog, I fill in from time to time and here are a couple samplings of my previous posts:

Guest Blogger: What Happens at Dog Camp, Stays at Dog Camp

Guest Blogger: Happy in My Box

Guest Blogger: Obsession with Making Crocheted Dishcloths

Once you recover your awe from the brilliant writing by a 12 year old Miniature Schnauzer in the links above, you can continue on with this post.

I am not sure if my Humans Tierney and her partner John will like this post, because I am going to tell you of how they attempted to COMPLETELY TERRIFY me by taking me on a day trip to Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, Colorado and making a death-defying vertical climb up the scariest stairs I’ve ever seen, with me in a backpack!

Here we are at Seven Falls before the terror started:

When I thought it was just a fun day out with the Humans…

Seven Falls, according to the Broadmoor’s website (yes Miniature Schnauzers are capable of online research, duh) Colorado Springs Seven Falls, is Colorado’s most majestic waterfall.

The only waterfall in the state on National Geographic’s list of International Waterfalls, and often called “The Grandest Mile of Scenery in Colorado,” Seven Falls is situated in a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon between the towering Pillars of Hercules. Take in stunning valleys, striking rock formations and golden prairies as you climb the challenging 224 steps to the hiking trails and the banks of glistening streams that feed the falls, and its 181-foot drop of falling water.

Did you notice the phrase in the quote above: “as you climb the challenging 224 steps…”? To me it seemed like they were climbing 224,000 steps to get to the top as I was looking our the backpack on the back of John’s back.

Here is the photo my Human Tierney took (she caught the photo during a moment that I had turned my head to take a break from the terror I was looking at below):

Why are they making me endure this? I was perfectly happy looking at the scenery from ground level

Oh! My Human Tierney just walked in while I am working on this post, and is now insisting that I share more photos from this day trip to show the climb was worth it.

My guest blog post writing is being interrupted by an irritating Human

Although I don’t agree, here are a bunch of random photos from our day trip to Seven Falls. Just know the photos I like the best are the one’s taken on the ground before the crazy climb, even if the Humans think the climb was worth it!

All I see when I look at these photos are rocks, rocks and more rocks. But the Humans seem to enjoy the scenery in Colorado.

Here is the scenery I really enjoyed: after we climbed back down the 224 steps (and the Humans’ legs were like jello), we found a nice place to have a picnic before heading home:

Now we are talking about beautiful scenery!

And here I am trying to convince the Humans that I’ve earned a sampling of their food:

So that’s the end of my story, here I am putting the finishing touches on this guest blog post:

I know I can edit this post better than my Human Tierney does her posts…

You will hear from my Human Tierney again after she catches up reading her blogging buddies posts (and she’s let them go too long without reading). Hope she gets her act together!

tierneytravels

California State Railroad Museum and Some More Lab Love

March 26, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in November 2021, John and I visited our friends who live outside of Sacramento, California. I have a couple post from that visit – Loved (or mugged) by a Lab and Exploring My Inner Ansel Adams (Lake Tahoe). Here is more on that visit.

CALIFORNIA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM

I love trains! When I was a kid we had an awesome old train set, courtesy of my paternal grandfather, that my parents would put around the Christmas tree each year. For a while I collected model trains and I’ve always loved riding on trains whether short distance or longer distances (for example see post – Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part IV).

So I was over the moon when our friends set up a trip to the California State Railroad Museum. I am not sure how long we spent in the museum (time ceased to exist while I was in there) but I remember them telling me: “Tierney we have to go now, we have other things to do…”

I took SO MANY PHOTOS of course, but alas it was quite dark in the museum so the photos are not my best. We began our time in the museum with a tour from a retired railroad man (the museum was staff with retired railroad people, likely volunteers) and then each wandered off on our own because there was so much to see.

Here is a sampling of some of the zillion photos I took:

Upstairs there was an amazing display of toy trains (oh my heart) – a family had donated their father’s extensive toy train collection, it was mind blowing!

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know I like to pretend I am a real photographer and take photos in B&W. Here are a couple of the B&W photos I took inside the museum:

Of course none of my photos do justice on how awesome the museum is to visit in person!

SOME MORE LAB LOVE

It was great to visit our friends and one of the best part of the visit was to spend time with my “dog goddaughter” Riley, the chocolate lab supreme!

Here is Riley and I in April 2019 when I first met her and we fell in love (they had just adopted her):

And here she is in November 2021 in all her grown up cuteness:

In case you need a smile, see above 🙂

Knit and Crochet Away!

What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Update on Granny Square Blanket

March 21, 2022March 21, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update on the second granny square blanket I am working on (the first post on it was in January – Granny Squaring Again!).

The weather has been weird in the Denver Metro area. We get teased with Spring with 60 degree Celsius days, and then the next day it is 20 degrees Celsius and a blizzard! I’ve been spending some of those blizzard days staying warm with a cup of tea and crocheting granny squares for my second granny square blanket.

Notice artificial sunflower in the background reminding me warm weather will return someday

Stack of granny square blocks on the blocking board John made me

I completed 63 granny square squares so it was time to lay out what I’ve made so far on the “Design Carpet” so I could decide how many more I need to make for a decent sized blanket:

Getting ready to lay out on the “Design Carpet”…

I decided to make the blanket 10 x 10, which is a 100 blocks, so I needed 37 more blocks.

I also realized I need some additional combinations to keep the blanket visually interesting. It is made from thrifted acrylic yarn (I paid one dollar or less for each skein) and I worked with what I had so it is very “scrappy”.

Here are the combinations I have so far:

Since taking these photos, I’ve started working on new combinations and here are some of the centers I’ve made:

Making centers (lower middle of image) for 37 additional blocks..

I still haven’t decided what color I am going to set the blocks in (like a sashing crocheted between them) but I am still leaning towards brown. I made sure not to make the outer color of any blocks brown so they will not blend into the setting yarn color and look smaller than the other blocks.

I just love working on these little crochet squares and it is mindless perfect crafting for in front of the TV in the evening or even sitting around visiting with friends.

Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part VI: Missouri Quilt Museum

March 20, 2022April 28, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is my last installment in my series of posts about my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.

If you are just joining us, here are the 5 previous posts in the series:

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA

MSQC Retreat Part III: Inside the Shops

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part IV: Greatest Fabric Scrap Sale of All Time

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part V: The Retreat Center Experience

Included in our MSQC retreat was a trip to the Missouri Quilt Museum (which is housed in an old school), and this post will share photos from that visit! There was so much to see, I’ve curated my photos to just share my favorite exhibits at the museum.

MINIATURE QUILTS

When we first entered the museum, we spent a bit of time in the Miniature Quilt Exhibit! The work that went into these tiny doll size quilts was amazing!

The photos above has a lap size quilt on the wall and to the right of it, the miniature version of that quilt!

FULL SIZE ANTIQUE QUILTS

There were many antique full sized quilts displayed around the museum, here are a couple samples:

ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINES

There were endless examples of antique sewing machines. I especially got a kick of the antique Bernina sewing machine.

TOY SEWING MACHINES

Even more amazing that the exhibits of antique sewing machines, was the exhibit of TOY SEWING MACHINES!

NATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM GALLERY

The also had a gallery of quilts on loan from the National Quilt Museum:

Here are a couple of my favorites from those quilts. The second one has dogs incorporated into the trees in the quilts, so look carefully.

COOL “MODERN” QUILTS

They also had some cool “Modern” style quilts on display include the head of Albert Einstein, a quilt made entirely from fabric selvages, and an amazing denim quilt:

It was amazing, strange and interesting to see such a jam packed museum of quilting history in a small town!

Thanks for joining me on the six part series about my visit to Quilt Town, USA!

Sampler Quilts, What's on the Design Wall

What’s On the Design Wall: Not Losing Momentum

March 17, 2022June 16, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A quick follow up to the post MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On.

At the quilt retreat I attended a couple weeks ago, I completed the first 20 blocks for the Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt:

Well last weekend, I did not want to lose the momentum on working towards completing the 100 blocks for the sampler quilt, so I made 10 more blocks:

This time I didn’t make the pieces for each block into little packets like I did for the retreat:

But I did pre-cut several blocks at a time before taking the pieces for 3 – 4 blocks to my sewing machine to piece together.

I had so much fun listening to music and sewing the next 10 blocks in the series.

I mainly worked from a pile of coordinated scraps I bought years ago from the Stitchin’ Post quilt shop in Sisters, Oregon:

It is fun to just riffle through the pile, coordinating fabrics for each block.

I thought about getting 10 more done, but it seems 10 at a time is enough in one sitting!

Here are the 30 blocks I’ve pieced to date up on my design wall – only 70 more to go!

To close this post here is a sweet card I came across that I sent recently to a friend. Hope it gives you are smile like it gave me:

Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part V: The Retreat Center Experience

March 15, 2022April 28, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Time to continue my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.

If you are just joining us, here are the previous four posts in the series:

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA

MSQC Retreat Part III: Inside the Shops

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part IV: Greatest Fabric Scrap Sale of All Time

Now to share with you what it was like to attend the retreat at MSQC and stay at the retreat center.

The retreat center, known as the Sewing Center is in the middle of downtown Hamilton, MO and is an old building converted to the retreat center and accommodations. I have photos below but if you want to see the official photos/info here is the link from the MSQC website – Sewing Center.

Here is the retreat sewing area:

Our group of 6 sat by the front windows. Here are photos of our assigned sewing area for our group when we arrived, and then when we got settled in!

We rented BabyLock Sewing machines from MSQC for the retreat since we were all flying in from various places across the country (Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Sacramento, CA) and did not want to deal with lugging our sewing machines to the retreat via airplane.

The retreat center sewing area has a large kitchen and a snack table area. The photos below include the snack table at the beginning of the retreat. I should have taken a photo a couple days in as it was packed with all the snacks quilters brought and put out to share.

Our meals were served at the kitchen and they were nothing to write home about, but they were okay. They did have some great desserts a couple of dinners. But here is an example of one of the meals:

You could also go out to eat at various restaurants around town. We went out a couple times to eat, and several of my quilting friends discovered an amazing Mexican restaurant in town.

We also discovered a brewery in town, Levi Garrison & Sons Brewery and several of my quilting friends and I had a nice pint while chatting with the wonderful bartender who told us stories from her life and town history.

The brewery did not serve food, so we picked up food at a local eatery and brought it in to have with our pint.

In addition to a couple meals out and a visit to the local brewery, we also had a delicious ice cream treat at the local sweet shop one day!

It was like 17 or 19 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it is never too cold out for ice cream! (We did eat it inside the sweet shop before re-bundling up to go back to the retreat center).

The sleeping accommodations at the retreat were upstairs. The twin beds had very comfortable mattresses. The main challenge was you had to like going up and down stairs – lots of stairs. (The retreat center did have a stair lift in the back in case you were “differently abled” and needed assistance to get upstairs).

I thought it was funny they had a chair on the landing of the first flight of stairs, in case you needed a break.

They also had a seating area at the top of the stairs when you finished your second flight of stairs to get to your room:

The bathrooms were lined up dorm style – they had plenty and they had decent showers (but no soap, you had to bring your own soap):

Here is an example of one of the rooms, it is the room I stayed in:

Here are a couple more photos of the upstairs sleeping accommodations areas:

One evening we were treated to a glorious sunset outside our window of the retreat center:

Everyone was out taking photos and of course it was cooler than my photos show.

During the retreat, we would periodically head over to the Main Shop and put stuff in our boxes to be shipped home. As I mentioned in previous posts in this series, they provide free shipping (of unlimited boxes) of whatever you purchase and any projects you worked on during the retreat, to retreat attendees.

I’ll close this post with a picture of me, taken by my friend Kathy, as I am leaving the retreat to take the shuttle back to Kansas City, Missouri to fly home:

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part IV: Greatest Fabric Scrap Sale of All Time

March 11, 2022April 28, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post continues my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends. The previous three previous posts in the series are:

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA

MSQC Retreat Part III: Inside the Shops

First of all, do not judge. I have a fetish for fabric scraps – ha! Okay that sounds a wee bit weird, but I would rather make things from fabric scraps than cut into yardage. I only buy fabric by the yard when I absolutely have to or the fabric is so amazing I cannot leave it in the shop (and it looks at me with puppy eyes saying “Tierney take me home…”).

So when I heard that while I was at the MSQC week long retreat there was a “Scrap Bag Sale” at the Penny’s Quilt Shop I shivered with excitement.

This not my first rodeo as they say, I’ve been to lots of fabric scrap sales where you fill a bag for a specific price, with as much fabric scraps as you can fit in (and yeah, I am ALWAYS up to the challenge to see how much I can fit in the bag they provide without it breaking).

But, I’ve NEVER been to a “scrap bag” sale where 1 yard, 2 yard, and even 3 yard pieces are considered scraps!!! Yes there were a couple pieces here and there that you might call “scraps” – like quarter and half yard pieces, but most of what was in their bins were larger pieces that I definitely would not classify as “scraps”.

What I heard from another quilter during the feeding frenzy (photo below) was that Missouri Star will pull pieces off the bolt that are 3 yards or less and put them away for the scrap sale.

Oh my.

What you are about to see was what could be considered a “super spreader event” as no one was wearing masks, but luckily the pandemic is tapering down in my part of the world.

Here is the FEEDING FRENZY:

And yes I was right in the middle of it. I stepped out to take photos.

Actually everyone was so patient, thoughtful and kind. It was the nicest frenzy you could imagine. Quilters would yell out what they were looking for and we would pull for them and toss to them what they were looking for. I got so much Kaffe Fassett fabric this way from the bins.

Also people would take a break from being in the bins and make way for other quilters waiting in queue. Actually you had to take a break for a while as it was sort of exhausting sifting through all those yard pieces of fabric and a bit claustrophobic.

You also needed a break to stuff your bag!

Besides finding AMAZING top quality quilting fabric (of like every fabric line you could imagine) one of the most fun parts of the whole experience was laughing with everyone there as you tried to stuff your bag as full as possible.

Here were the early stages of packing bags with “scraps”:

Notice how no fabric is reaching over the top of the bags.

Here is my pile of bags starting to grow (I did stop at 4 but later got one more) as I left them among the pile of coats (it was getting warm from all those people foraging through all those bins of fabric):

Then we heard that the shop did not really care how full you got the bag as long as all fabric was “touching” the inside of the bag. So things got creative…

Here are a series of photos on my quilting friends and I engaging in “creative scrap bag stuffing“:

We were laughing so hard! It got to be a real game of “what else can we fit in there?“

Here are a couple of my long time quilting friends and I resting after our scrap foraging. We were exhausted but happy! (Note, not all our group attended the scrap sale, some were back at the Retreat Center being productive working on their projects!)

And here I am with another expression of “pure joy” like in the previous post (and note it was not just because of the amazing deals but that I was hanging out with friends, lol):

When we returned to the Retreat Center, Jessica, one of the Retreat Coordinators, challenged us to see how much yardage we had inside one of our bags.

One person had 27 yards of fabric inside ONE of their scraps bag. Yes that was 27 yards of fabric for $10.95! Most people had between 20 and 26 yards of fabric packed into ONE scrap bag.

One of the attendees actually ironed and folded her finds (show off, ha!):

I did not. I took all my scraps from the sale to the Main Shop for packaging up to send home to me! As I mentioned in the first post in this series (I think), MSQC will ship whatever you bought or worked on for FREE to you if you are attending a retreat so you don’t have to figure out how to get it home. (Yes they are encouraging attendees to shop to their heart’s content).

So, a couple days after I returned home from the retreat I received two boxes in the mail:

And here are the “scraps” I got from the sale:

I won’t tell you the total amount of fabric, because I did not even count the yardage.

I just ironed the fabric and incorporated it into my stash…while giggling…

Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

MSQC Retreat Part III: Inside the Shops

March 10, 2022April 28, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

So I downloaded 81 photos for this post from my Amazon Photos (I backup all my photos to Amazon Prime Photos) account, and then I realized that is ridiculous!

This post continues my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.

The first two posts in the series are:

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA

I tried to make the first post in the series about what I worked on during the retreat, trying to make you think I was oh so productive during the retreat.

Actually I spent a lot of time with my friends wandering around the 13 specialty quilt shops they have in the town (if you’d like to see the full list see this link – MSQC Quilt Shops), in addition to the non quilting shops (like the yarn shop)! Here are some photos from those wanderings.

…and there might have been some purchasing involved…

FIRST STOP: THE MAIN SHOP

Our first stop was the Main Shop where we picked up our badges that got scanned with every purchase.

The Main Shop has numerous little “vignettes” previews of each of the 12 other shops, which are specialty quilting/craft supply shops, so you can see a sampling of what you might find in each shop. Here is a vignette of the Modern Shop inside the Main Shop as an example:

The second day of the quilt retreat, they sent us on a scavenger hunt to see all the shops and get a little treat/prize at each shop. Some of the photos below are from the scavenger hunt on the second day and some of from our first day wandering (as soon as we got into town, our feet hit the pavement to shop!)

Me on the scavenger hunt with my friends, yes that is the look of pure joy 🙂

They gave us cool bags as part of the scavenger hunt, at one of the shops, to hold our goodies from the scavenger hunt.

THE YARN SHOP – ONE BIG HAPPY YARN CO.

A couple photos from inside the yarn shop. I was well behaved as I have a decent stash of yarn and I am not a proficient knitter or crocheter (I get by), but it was fun to look!

Yes are you into the fiber arts, I bet those photos above were “yarn porn”, at least they were for me!

BATIK BOUTIQUE

Now pretend you hear the below statement read by Rod Serling writer/narrator for the classic TV series – The Twilight Zone…

Imagine if you will, a quilt shop, that only has batik fabrics…in every color and style you can imagine…

Here are photos from our wander around “The Batik Zone“!

I just realized, it would be too much to share photos from every shop so I will just stick to some of my favorites.

MAN’S LAND

They had an area connected to the Machine Shed shop called Man’s Land where husband’s could hang out while their wives went crazy shopping around Quilt Town, USA!

Here are some photos from Man’s Land. It was quite cozy, but no they did not serve any “adult beverages” there, even though it looks like it would be a nice comfy pub to hang out in!

THE MACHINE SHOP

The Machine Shop connected to Man’s Land was a cool shop where you could buy sewing supplies. Here are some photos from that shop:

PENNY’S QUILT SHOP

One of my favorite shops was Penny’s Quilt Shop, which was the old JCPenney’s Department Store (Hamilton, Missouri is the birthplace of James Cash Penney who founded J.C. Penney Company) into a quilt shop.

This quilt shop specializes in solids and blenders, and here are some photos from that shop:

It is also the shop that on Thursday of the retreat had the Scrap Sale, so I spent extra time in this shop. I share more about the dream Scrap Sale in another post in this series.

FLORALS

The most beautiful and serene shop (in my opinion) was the Florals quilt shop. The photos I share below do not do justice to how lovely this shop was decorated.

Here is my friend Judy making some yummy selections in the shop:

Thanks goodness I had recently re-organized my fabric stash at home and gave myself a limited budget for shopping (as I do not really need anymore fabric), otherwise I would have gotten in my trouble in this shop!

MODERN

I have so many photos that I had to cut it off somewhere so the Modern Shop is the last shop I will share photos of from our wander. As the name implies it was filled with “modern” fabrics with lines such as Cotton + Steel, Ruby Star Society, Riley Blake, etc.