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".
As I continue on my journey to scale back my material possessions and focus on the important things in life, I realize I have donated a lot of stuff I no longer need to charity organizations but I have not given any of my handmade items.
It feels like I have not been really giving, as I have only given purchased items I no longer want in my life.
Giving seems more like truegiving, if you give something that is not as easy to part with – like a quilt (or two)!
So I decided to donate a couple small flannel quilts/baby quilts to Project Linus. I had them listed on my tierneycreates Etsy shop and I am taking down their listings and giving them away instead.
Ready for donation
If you are not familiar with Project Linus is a non-profit organization that provides homemade “blankets” to children in need. I am getting together with a couple of friends at the end of this month that have worked with Project Linus in the past and they are going to help me donate my quilts.
It feels like this donation is more meaningful donation than a load of unused kitchen gadgets to Goodwill.
Starting out with a strong idea and good intentions…
In this previous post, I shared my excitement over my sudden inspiration to create a traditional pattern quilt from nontraditional fabrics (recycled garment silks and linens). I knew it would be an experiment and in this first experiment, I created a traditional Ohio Star block from my collection of recycled silk and linen samples from garment manufacturing.
If you are not a quilter, an Ohio Star block is a “nine patch” block made from quarter square triangles around a central square. This block is a very traditional quilt block and was used in early pioneer and Amish quilts in the 19th century. The pattern I used was for a “Star-within-a-star” Ohio Star.
Ohio Star, recycled silks (in progress)
The plan was to make a small wallhanging. I pieced the Ohio Star block, and as I auditioned fabrics to use in the border, I grew more and more unhappy with the Ohio Star block.
At first I could not figure out what specifically was bothering me, as I was pleased with the color combinations/palette.
I realized what was bothering me – the piecing itself. My prior work with recycled silks involved intuitive free-form designs for art quilts. This was my first attempt at making a traditionally pieced structured quilt block from recycled garment silks and linens.
When I used to make traditional quilt pattern quilt blocks I would use crisp quilting cottons – this fabric was easier to manipulate to achieve accurate piecing and star points.
Working with silk and linen samples intended for garment making can be challenging, especially when attempting to accurately piece shapes such as star points. In order to work with the delicate silks, you need to put a backing/stabilizer material on the back of each silk section. Silk backed with a fusible stabilized can be cumbersome to cut into small accurate sections. Silk also frays.
So…to shorten what could grow into a very long and tedious story of my explanation why the Ohio Star was not working for me (and to avoid putting my non quilter readers to sleep), let’s just say: I was quite unhappy with the imprecise piecing of the block.
For a moment, I started to – just throw it away (gasp) ! Then I thought: let me try reimagining it – into some sort of “fractured” Ohio Star, where the accuracy of the piecing would not be as much an issue.
I sliced up the Ohio Star and sewed it back together into a new configuration. I revisited my stash of recycled silks and linens to audition other combinations to try to build some sort of abstract wall hanging art quilt piece around the “fractured star”.
“Fractured” Ohio Star
Frustrated and drained of inspiration, I put the piece and its potential coordinating fabric away. I did not know where to go next with them.
Time to let someone else “rescue” the piece
I have several previous posts about working with “rescued” and “recycled” quilt blocks. Another quilter started a piece/making quilt blocks and abandoned the project; I then “adopted” the project and created a new piece based on the original blocks and my imagination.
While sharing my dilemma with an art quilting friend (that I was going no where with my Ohio Star silk and linen experiment), my friend offered to “adopt” the piece and create an art quilt with it.
I was delighted! Not only was I delighted but I felt a great sense of relief! I realize a textile project is not a living being but I felt as if I had recklessly abandoned a piece in progress, filled with creative energy, to the lonely “Projects on Hold” box in the back of my closet.
My experiment is going to be adopted and go to a good and loving home, where it can grow into something wonderful!
(Yes I will share a photo when my friend completes the piece from wherever her imagination takes her!)
Life is a balance of holding on and letting go – Rumi
Yes I did it. I purged some of my HUGE craft book collection (see earlier post Craft Book Hoarder?!?!?).
Last April when I counted, I had around 370 craft books (on quilting, sewing, beading, knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, card making, etc.).
Last weekend, I was ready to again take on thinning out my craft book collection.
Over the past couple of years, I have been able to let go of a lot of “stuff” as I move towards a life focused on experiences, not “stuff”. I even let go of a large amount of fabric that I was keeping “just in case” (see earlier post The Fabric Purge!). My craft books, however, all seemed so precious, and it has been difficult to part with them.
Suddenly I was ready. Following the principle’s in Marie Kondo’s wonderful book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, and pulled ALL my craft books out and went through them one by one. This took nearly 4-6 hours to complete.
My primary criteria was: “Will I truly ever make something in this book?”. Using this criteria I was able to lighten my load by over 50 craft books.
The photo below shows the growing stack for DONATION in my laundry room.
The cool thing was even while I was re-shelving and organizing the books I had decided to keep, I was able to weed out even more that I realized I do not need.
Last Monday, with the help of Terry the Quilting Husband, I dropped off two huge bags of books to our local public library. They will either go into the library’s collection of craft books for circulation to library patrons; or they will go to the Friends of the Library which will sell the books to raise money for the library. One of the library staff gave me a huge “thank you” on donating the books – she was amazed how many of the books were brand new and in excellent condition.
I have no regret over the money I spent on these books I never used, because they are going to either circulate in my beloved public library or raise money to support library activities!
(Yes I still have a lot of books left and I love them all. Let’s see if next year I can do another craft book purge…)
(Be sure to check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s Schnauzer Snips page for her latest adventures and musing)
But First, More on “Trees of Winter”
Before I continue my series on sources of creative inspiration, let’s talk about winter trees a little more. I am still musing over the Winter Trees I discussed in yesterday’s blog post by the same name.
This morning, during our daily 2 mile am dog walk, I was struck again by the beauty of winter trees against an impossibly clear blue winter sky. Living in the “High Desert” of Central Oregon our winters have many days of clear blue skies. Compared, say to when we lived in Seattle, WA. (A fun town to live in, but blue skies were not that common; grey skies were considerably more popular there!)
So here is one more winter tree that captured my attention this morning, and then I will stop with the “Winter Trees” for a while (perhaps):
Creative Inspiration: Public Library Books
Since I was a child, I have been in love with the public library.
I remember a summer in my 10th or 11th year that I spent many days of my summer vacation at my small town’s public library. Books are magical. To have free access to all those magical books is even more magical.
For a time in my life I wanted to become a librarian, so I could spend a career among the books. I did not pursue a career in library science as an adult, but I kept my intense love of public libraries and of books.
I frequently patronize our local public library and I find their shelves filled with sources of creative inspiration. It would be very expense to buy all the books I would love to have in my personal library, and if you have read my post Craft Book Hoarder?!?!? it appears that I once tried to do that!
Embracing the minimalist, “scale back your life”, “living with less” movement, I borrow from the library, books that inspire me creatively. If the book turns out to be a “must, must, must have” then I will purchase it, but rarely.
Here is a recent stack of public library books filled with inspiration:
I have e-mailed our public library’s material purchasing department and thanked them for the wonderful selection of crafting, gardening, and home decorating books. I think it is important to let them know a patron really appreciates their well curated collection!
Postscript
In future posts I will share an update on “craft book hoarding” (yes, I actually let go of a large amount of craft books); and discuss one of the recent crafting books I borrowed from the public library that I absolutely had to own (The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously by Sherri L. Wood).
After my recent post on the completion of the quilt Tree Outside My Window (see Update on “The Tree Outside My Window”), I started noticing the beauty of “Winter Trees”.
These bare (or nearly bare) trees are such a thing of understated beauty. I do not think I fully appreciated their austere structure and simple elegance.
There they stand, naked, and exposed to the winter sky.
Last week and today on my walk with the dogs (or “the fur kids” as we like to call them) I photographed several “Winter Trees” whose beauty made me pause.
Below are my photos to share with you:
Of winter’s lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer’s secret
Deep down within its heart.
~Charles G. Stater
These photos were taken with my iPhone camera and are not copyrighted. Please feel free to download them if you find them inspirational in your artistic endeavors!
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s blog page Schnauzer Snips for her latest musings.
Quilt in Progress
Terry the Quilting Husband has been hard at work finishing another quilt for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in July 2016, hoping to get into the Male Quilter exhibit (in the upcoming weeks he will submit his entries to the selection committee).
Over the past couple of months he made 82 9.5 inch blocks from my flannel scraps using the log jam method (see previous posts on “log jamming”) and sewed them into 9 rows of 9 blocks each:
Rows of flannel scrap log jam blocks waiting to be sewn together
If you do the math – 9 rows with 9 block each equals a 81 block quilt. So what became of the 82nd block? I was wondering about that also and went into Terry’s “studio” (he uses the guest bedroom as his sewing studio) to discover the fate of the extra block.
Here is what I found: he kept one of the blocks that had a schnauzer in the center (from a flannel dog fabric scrap with different breeds) and displayed it in his sewing area:
Note: our guest room is extremely dog themed. You would not want to stay at our house if you do not like dogs – ha!
The Pillow
The one block displayed made me smile and I wanted to make it into something more permanent for him, so I made a quick little throw pillow for him with the block.
Now he is focused on sewing the rows together so we can get it to the long-arm quilter.
I suspect when the quilt is quilted, we are going to struggle with wanting to part with it if we decided to put it for sale at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!
I have been working on assembling the blocks designed from discards, from another quilter’s block piecing, and a solid coppery-rust fabric, into a piece called “We Will Not Be Discarded”.
I am playing with the block arrangements and looking at two different arrangement options for the 15 blocks in progress:
OPTION #1 – All blocks pointing the same way:
OPTION #2 – Blocks pointing opposite ways:
I am leaning towards Option #2 as it makes the piece appear to have more “movement”. Once I finish all 15 blocks, I will play again with the final arrangement.
We Still Will Not Be Discarded!
I am playing with the idea of making a second piece (“We Still Will Not Be Discarded!”) from the discards/trimming of the original discards! (And the scraps from the solid fabric they are set in)
That would be taking recycling to the extreme, right? The challenge does seems interesting…
Trimmed discards from the “trimmed discards” in my little trash basket – tempting!
This continues my series of posts on my sources of creative inspiration…
Two Journals, Two Different Purposes
I keep two journals. One journal for art quilting ideas and inspirations; and another journal for tierneycreates business, blogging and life in general ideas and inspirations.
The journal on the left, used for art quilting ideas and inspiration, has a handmade cover that I made during an intuitive design piecing class homework assignment. The lime green “sketchbook” on the right is what I use for tierneycreates, blogging ideas and life inspiration.
I got the idea of keep an art quilt ideas/inspiration journal from Jean Wells Keenan‘s brilliant books Intuitive Color and Design: Adventures in Art Quilting and Journey to Inspired Art Quilting. I was also fortunate enough to take her series of classes, Journey to Art Inspired Quilting, twice and see in person her wonderful inspirational art quilting journal.
In my art quilting journal I keep clippings from magazines and photos from my travels and nature that are future inspirations for art quilts. At first I had planned to use my art quilting journal for blogging ideas and tierneycreates business ideas. I discovered I wanted to keep the art quilting journal for quilt ideas and development. So I started a second journal.
I love both my journals, but I use the second journal (which I will refer to as the “tierneycreates journal”) more frequently.
The “tierneycreates journal” is where I write down ideas I get from listening to home-based business related audiobooks; books from the library on small business development and growth; quotes I find in magazines, books or hear on the media (radio, TED Talks, television, etc.); and any notes from searches on the internet (for example: What are the standard sizes for table runners that I should use for my tierneycreates Etsy shop table runners?).
I also use the”tierneycreates journal” to map out my future blog posts or blog post ideas. Sometimes I will spontaneously write a blog post, and sometimes I will write a post about a topic I have been thinking about for a couple of weeks and already fleshed out in my journal what I want to write about that topic.
I find it challenging to keep sudden ideas and inspiration stored in my mind. It seems that inspiration and ideas can come to you at any time. My journals provide a way to record them, even if they are only a skeleton of an idea that will need its internal organs and flesh added at a later date!
Postscript
As mentioned in my series of posts on Nonfiction Audiobooks, I continue to enjoy listening to audiobooks while I work on quilting projects.
I recently finished a wonderful and inspirational audiobook by Anne Lamott – Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moment of Grace (Riverhead Books, 2014). The audiobook was read by the author which is always a treat for me – you get to experience what the author feels should be emphasized in the reading of a book based on their vocal inflections.
This book is basically a collection of personal biographical essays on the author’s experiences. Anne Lamott tells these stories with raw, relatable, and passionate language from a deeply spiritual yet deeply irreverent perspective! So far one of my favorite nonfiction audiobooks of all time.
In the post The “Basted” Quilt, Dilemma, and Temptation I bemoaned about my dilemma of wanting to just let the large basting stitches on a quilt suffice as the quilting. Well I put on my “big girl panties” and made it through quilting it myself, using just straight stitches, 1/4 inch apart. So glad it is done! (BTW the whole I time I quilted it I was groaning “why didn’t I just let the long-arm quilter quilt this for me?!?!)
NEW “FURNITURE” ADDED TO THE STUDIO
In my recent post Inside the Studio I shared photos of my tierneycreates studio layout. This weekend I added another item to the studio – I pulled the sad ironing board out of the room and added a workbench table from Harbor Freight Tools. This table was on sale this past weekend for an excellent price. One of my Quilt Sisters gave me a heads up on this wonderful find. Terry “The Quilting Husband” got it assembled and we made a removable wide ironing board top for the table. I love it!
My younger brother surprised me with a new cutting mat for Christmas and I discovered the cutting mat fits nicely on top of the removable ironing board. I can cut and press small pieces on the same surface area. My brother has been very supportive of my quilting adventure (and he and his family has benefited from various quilts I have made them!) Past Christmases he has surprised me with quilting books I do not have! (I suspect he has a secret inside quilting connection, ha!)
MISC UPDATES
Handmade at Amazon
I shared in several prior posts how I was looking at listing items on Amazon’s new platform for crafters to sell their handmade items –Handmade at Amazon. I was accepted to become an “artisan” on this platform but I have decided to just stick with Etsy. I love the experience of working with Etsy customers and I think I would be stretching myself too thin with my full-time healthcare job, my tierneycreates Etsy shop, and the Amazon shop.
Terry the Quilting Husband’s Future Exhibit
Terry, the Quilting Husband, is going to submit 5 quilts to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show for consideration to be in the show. They will be having a special Male Quilter Exhibit. More details later this year!
Also Terry is looking at working on Quilts of Valor quilts to be donated to local Veterans, in the future. A Veteran himself and a military history hobbyist, this would be a wonderful was to combine quilting and his deep respect/wanting to honor those who served. There is currently a local project trying to get red, white and blue quilts to the oldest of the local Veterans, primarily WWII Veterans.
Upcoming Show
My The Wardrobe Meets the Wall collaborator and beloved long-arm quilter and friend, Betty Anne, and I are having an upcoming show at Twigs Gallery in Sisters, Oregon, opening the end of March. More details in the future.
This is technically Part II of yesterday’s post “Inside the Studio“. A friend suggested I share what is inside the closet in my studio.
Here are photos of the left and right side of the closet, which has sliding doors so I cannot fully open the closet to expose both sides at once.
The Left Side
The Right Side
I like to think I am organized. I know I am more organized than I used to be and I can find things fairly quickly. I bought a label maker a couple of years ago and have fully embraced its use!
Postscript
A friend shared a wonderful quote with me today that I have been mulling it over the entire day:
(Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s latest musing on her Schnauzer Snips page)
The title of this post makes it sound like a thrilling exposé of what really goes on behind the scenes at tierneycreates: drama, intrigue, maybe even a little scandal…
No not that exciting – just recent photos of my studio where I do my tierney-creating!
The back wall where I keep my fabric scraps by color, and my cutting table where I hide underneath those things that-are-not-finished (that brightly colored batik quilt it meant to distract the viewer from what is beneath…).
To the lower right of the photo you will see my mini design wall. I learned from a quilting friend that it is handy to have a smaller portable design wall.
My sewing machine and ironing board (two very essential items!) I got the idea from another quilter to cover my ironing board with a towel to make ironing smoother and easier. Sometimes I also use a cotton dishtowel to iron small pieces on.
My wonderful brother gave me the sewing table for my birthday last year and the leaf folds down and the table becomes a small cabinet if I need more room).
My IKEA Billy Bookcase of fabric! This organization came out of my massive fabric purge in 2015 (see post The Fabric Purge!). The curtains in the room are made from a sari my friend Jenny brought back from her trip to India for me.
My storage closet with custom made sliding doors which I first discussed in the post Rethinking a Closet. One door has sheet metal mounted to serve as a magnetic idea board. The other has batting attached to serve as a design wall (refer to all my posts on “What’s on the Design Wall).
I am not sure why I selected the color yellow when I painted this room 8 or so years ago. Somedays I think: “I am going to paint it white or some other neutral color”. Yellow can be overstimulating, but I simply embrace the over stimulation and decorate the room with brightly colored things – like this lovely quilt my friend Judy made me and several silk screen prints from an artist friend in my youth (the other silk screen is in the first photo).
I like to watch “quilting movies” (movies you don’t really have to pay close attention to) and documentaries while I am quilting on the screen below.
Another brightly colored piece of art in my studio – a wallhanging from my friend Betty Anne.
Well back to creating in the tierneycreates Studio – I better not keep that Design Wall empty for too long!
Happy New Year to you all! I love the idea of the “New Year” being a clean and blank slate to fill with new adventures, experiences, insights, evolutions and accomplishments.
I also love quotes and thought for my first post of the New Year, I would share some of my favorite quotes I collected in 2015 in my journal of inspiration.
LAO TZU
If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious you living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
LILY TOMLIN
Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.
JEN SICERO
Love yourself with a Kung Fu grip.
NINA SIMONE
You use up everything you got trying to to give everyone what they wanted.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.
RUMI
And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, “you owe me”. Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.
A flower from my Summer Garden to brighten your Winter (especially if you are currently living in a snow covered frozen tundra like me…)
Thanks to my dear friend in NYC whose partner is Finnish and travels to Finland at least once a year, I am starting to amass a nice collection of Marimekko Fabric. This Finnish fabric is boldly colored and has large scale and unique modern and Scandinavian designs. I find it so visually pleasing!
I am so completely in love with this fabric that if I were to visit Finland, I would have to bring a large empty suitcase just for my Marimekko Fabric purchases at the outlet in Helsinki!
My friend only is only able to send me a little at a time (she bring back from Finland only what she can transport in her suitcase with her other items). However, I recently discovered that in NYC there is a Marimekko Flagship store! Next time I visit my friend in NYC, I will have to insist her take me there! I am not sure she will be able to get me out of the store (no, no, no I will remember my commitment to buying less stuff and living with less…maybe…the Marimekko store may need to be an exception).
Below is a photo of my collection to date:
Confession: This fabric is so “precious” I have to admit I have only made one thing with the fabric so far: a small zippered bag for my friend who sends me the fabric.
One of the things I enjoy about blogging is it gives me an imaginarysense of accountability: that I need to follow through on my projects so I can post about them!
Here are some recent updates in case you wondered what became of the projects I discussed (hopefully worrying about whether I completed them did not keep you up at night…smile):
HANDMADE HOLIDAY CARDS
In my 11/12/15 post, Terry the *Not” Quilting Husband, I shared that I was going to take a break from quilting and work on handmade holiday cards. I did and finished about 20+ handmade holiday cards using recycled images from “dog of the day” calendars and scavenged items and images from other handmade or professionally manufactured cards. I am not posting photos as I want to respect the copyright on the images which belong to other photographers.
I used heavy cardstock for the cards in red or green and inserted (if I remembered) folded plain white paper to make writing the holiday greeting easier. Some of the cards I decorated with a ribbon tied through the center.
Lesson Learned: do not wait until Thanksgiving weekend to start making handmade cards!
KING SIZE QUILT COMPLETE
In my 12/6/15 post, What’s on the Design Wall: Backlog, I shared that I discovered 120+ 6.5 inch log jam blocks (scrappy pieced log cabin style blocks) that I had pieced earlier this year. I added in a couple extra blocks recycled from a friend’s discarded blocks and pieced a king size quilt! I will send it off to the long-arm quilter once I figure out what color to use for the backing. I want to do a solid color back, not a pieced back. I am going to buy some 108″ wide backing fabric for it.
I set the log jam squares to float in khaki-colored Peppered Cottons fabric, which I had listed on my tierneycreates Etsy shop. I decided to pull it from the shop and use nearly the entire remaining bolt of fabric to do the float blocks and wide border. I have a little left of the fabric but not enough to list on the shop any longer.
After applying to be considered as an “Artisan” on Handmade at Amazon and having my portfolio reviewed by their selection committee, I was accepted to be an Artisan on Amazon.com’s Handmade at Amazon.
I have several e-mails from Amazon to review and figure out how to set up my Amazon.com shop. I still plan to keep my tierneycreates Etsy shop and I am trying to figure out what to sell through Amazon and what to sell through Etsy. I need to sit down and do some product planning.
Of course, the full-time-healthcare-industry-pay-the-bills gig I have tends to interfere with my handmade item production time!
It all began 6 years ago when I attended a neighborhood garage sale and spotted a granny square afghan for $2. I picked it up and studied the amount of work, effort and love that went into making that crocheted blanket. Before I could stop myself, I exclaimed to the seller “Wow, someone put a lot of work into this and you are selling it for only $2? I hope someone does not sell a quilt I made for them for $2!”
The seller/home owner looked at me like I had lost my mind and replied “Well you can pay me more for it if it makes you feel better!” I gave her the $2 and quickly left the garage sale (before my foot reentered my mouth), but this began my obsession with “rescuing” granny square afghans.
I only daydream someday of making a granny square afghan. I have several craft books about making them (does that count?) but I have yet to make one. I so appreciate the work and craft that goes into making one.
The ones in the photo below are from garage sales and thrift stores. My most recent one (in the upper right hand corner) was a gift from a friend that got it for $1 at a thrift store.
Rescued Granny Square Afghans – all safe and loved in my homeI shudder at the thought that maybe one day one of my quilts that I spent months making (as I am sure these granny square afghans took to make) will be on sale for $1 – $2 at a thrift store or garage sale. Of course all crafters have to remember: Once you give someone a handmade item as a gift, you have to let it release it emotionally – you have no control over what happens to it next. (It took me awhile to learn this lesson).
As long as they do not become clutter in my home (just how many granny square afghans would be considered “clutter”?), I will keep “rescuing” beautiful granny square afghans and giving them the love and appreciation they deserve!
Every year our Miniature Schnauzers begrudgingly endure an annual holiday photo in front of the Schnauzer (and Dog) Themed Christmas Tree.
This year I want to share this photo (usually taken in poor light while trying to keep the dogs still by bribing them with biscuits) with my readers and wish you all HAPPY SCHNOLIDAYS and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Best Wishes,
Tierney of tierneycreates, Terry (aka “Terry the Quilting Husband”), Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer (Schnauzer Snips) and Mike.
POSTSCRIPT:
Mike: “Seriously, do they do this to us every year?!?!”
Sassy: “Yes and just wait till I write my Schnauzer Snips blog entry about it! Call PETA!”
Interested in experimenting with solids, I made these 6.5 – 8.5 inch pieced blocks a couple of months ago. I recently put them up on the design wall to decide what I wanted to do with them.
I am thinking of making them a series of little decorative modern art pillows to sell on my tierneycreates Etsy shop.
(In addition to the oranges, greens, yellows and purples blocks I did, I also made one with blues and one with reds but I did not like the combination of shades of the blues or reds so they got recycled.)
In my early days of quilting, I was rather impatient with the last stage of completing a quilt – “sewing down binding”. In my mind I was quickly sewing down the binding to the back of the quilt. In reality I was sloppilysewing down the binding to the back of the quilt.
Recently I went to wash an old (my early days of quilting) quilt, and discovered the binding was loose and missing in some areas.
I took a good and honest look at the stitches in the back of this old quilt, and I was APPALLED. Yes that is appalled in all caps because that is how I felt.
As you can see in the image below – on the left side of the rectangle is where the thread left the binding; and on the right side is an example of my sloppy stitching. (Yes, it looks like I was under “some chemical influences” with one eye closed, while I was sewing).
Gasp.
I am going to remove the old binding and redo the entire binding. This time I will carefully sew it down.
I did not realize I had an issue with being sloppy with sewing down binding until a couple of years ago when a friend asked me to help her sew down binding on her quilt. We were at a quilt retreat and in the process of taking a break from sewing and doing the local “quilt shop hop” near the retreat center.
I was sitting in the backseat with a couple other quilters (two were up front and one of the them was driving of course, as we have yet to afford the special QUILTER AUTOMATED VEHICLE that drives you around on its own to quilt shops while you visit with your friends and sew). My friend had a lovely quilt for her son that she was trying to finish and brought along to work on in the car, as it only needed its binding sewn down. So she gave me one end of the quilt to work on while she worked on the other.
She tried to be polite, but she had to remove and redo all the stitches I had done. This is when I realized (as the truth was now starring me in the face): that I need to take sewing down binding more seriously. Binding a quilt deserve the same level of care and patience that goes into piecing a quilt.
I committed to becoming a better “quilt binder” and my quilts over the last couple of years and had high quality binding stitching.
Interesting: once you get into the habit of doing something correct, sometimes you forget what you used to do in the past. I was in shock when I saw what I had done on the old quilt!
POSTSCRIPT
Originally when writing this post I was going to title it: “Quilter’s Hall of Shame: Binding”. However ever since listening to the audiobook of Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly (2015) I have no time for the concept or feelings of “shame”. I figure life is a learning and growing experience (for a summary of key insights I gained from reading this book, see my post Life is Nonfiction Part II) and I am not going to fill it with any feelings of shame.
Check out Sassy the Highly Miniature Schnauzer’s latest musing on her Schnauzer Snips page.
My sister loves wolves and I wanted to make her a quick quilt for the holidays. She and her family have been the recipient of many quilts from me over the years. These quilts were more complicated and elaborate quilts that a “panel quilts”.
She loves wolves and I came across this wolf panel a couple months ago and knew it would be an easy quilt to make that would give her a big smile! I finally realized that not every quilt made as a gift needs to be a major project, it is okay to do something quick but thoughtful!
The photo is not the best as I took it in a rush before packaging it up to send it across the country.
She already opened up her gift and loves it, so I can share.
Not all quilters are like me: saddled with a backlog of projects. I know quilters who (they are freaks!) work on ONE project at time, seeing it through completion, and not starting another project until their current project is complete.
My mind does not work that way. I am basically that golden retriever in the movie Up, who says “Squirrel!“when I see a new project to start. I am easily distracted and I tell myself I will get back to the current/previous project eventually.
I was having a bit of creative block on designing a new art quilt and I realize I need to work through my project backlog. So here it is sitting up the cutting table, festering:
In this pile under the cutting table, I discovered 120+ 6.5 inch log jam blocks (scrappy pieced log cabin style blocks) that I had pieced earlier this year. With the assistance of Terry the Quilting Husband, I got them sewn together and now they are on the Design Wall awaiting assembly of the rows.
I have a total of 10 rows with 12 blocks in each row. I am hoping that by floating the pieced blocks in a solid color border, I can make it a twin, full or queen size quilt top. I will post a photo when the top is complete (before it journeys to the long-arm quilter).
“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.” – Mark Twain
This brief post continues my series on Sources of Creative Inspiration.
I do not have the best photography skills, however occasionally take a really good photo, capturing a special moment, and I am really pleased.
I admire people who have a good photographic eye and take photos with strong composition. Sometimes I am creatively inspired by someone else’s photos.
An old friend of mine in New York took this photo and included it in a recent e-mail. I am drawn to this photo and would like to create a future art quilt inspired by this photo!
Autumn Beads November Light by Stephen Mead (2015)
I would love to hear about your sources of creative inspiration!
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ~Thomas Merton
I am a member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Quilt Associates), and in the most recent edition of the SAQA Journal there was a separate insert/form included in the mailing, inviting SAQA members to fill out (what I thought was a survey) a form related to their “Wild About SAQA” campaign and e-mail a photo of yourself, your completed form, and a photo of your artwork.
I thought it was part of a SAQA member registry where other SAQA members could see your survey responses, your photos and a sample of your quilt art. I e-mailed the completed and scanned form; the Tierney photo I use on my blog; and a recent piece Archaeological Dig: The Vessel.
A couple weeks after e-mailing the form and photos, I received an e-mail from a SAQA media representative informing me that my photo, responses and quilt would be featured in the December 2015 issues of Fiber Art Now magazine as an ad for SAQA. She included the pdf mock up of the ad already sent to the magazine for publication.
I am surprised and excited to be featured in an ad in Fiber Art Now.
(Fiber Art Now is a quarterly magazine for contemporary fiber arts and textiles. The ad is on page 30 of the Winter 2015, Vol. 5., Issue 2 edition of Fiber Art Now)
tierneycreates 