I’ve been blogging about this quilt for 7 years, it is my oldest UFO. I won’t even bother linking previous posts as there are a lot of tierneycreates posts about this English Paper Pieced quilt, I will just give you the history and bring you up to speed.
In October 2016 the first issue of Quiltfolk Magazine (which was about Oregon quilters and I lived in Oregon at the time) was published and I fell head over heels in love with the quilt on the magazine’s cover:
I was determined to learn English Paper Piecing (EPP) so I could make this quilt and I purchased a book about how to do and enlisted the help of several quilters with EPP experience. My late husband Terry helped me punch out the hexagon templates from scrap card stock paper and in 2017 I began the journey to make 99 hexagon flowers (each one has 6 EPP hexies, so 594 hexies were needed) to make this quilt. I primarily used fabric scraps to make the hexies.
After a while I became proficient at making the hexagons or “hexies” to build the hexagon flowers for each block, and assembling the hexagon flowers. Over the next 7 years I would sporadically work on this very portable project. This project has been around the U.S. as well as to Ireland in various little project sacks I’ve stored it in.
In late April I went on a trip to New York City with my sister (separate post to follow) and finished the last of the 99 hexagon flowers at a tea house in Brooklyn that we frequented during our trip.
Tea and Hexiesin Brooklyn
Here are the 99 completed hexagon flowers:
Some of the hexagon flowers configuration are repeated because I had a lot of those scrap fabrics to work with such as the piles at the top of this image below:
And some have few to no repeats such as these solid color hexagon flowers at the bottom of the image below:
And finally I used up the left over hexies in various colors of solid color scrap fabrics to finish up the hexagon flowers (see the bottom of the image below):
So now that the 99 are done, I will use fat quarters to put together coordinating background fabrics to each hexagon flower.
If you are interested in learning EPP there are lots of free instructional website and videos online like this one:
Well you haven’t heard from Tierney in a while so I figured it’s time once again for me to step in and update you on what we’ve been up.
This is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer who lives with Tierney and John, who despite not having opposable thumbs is able to write a guest blog post from time to time.
Tierney and John had an upstairs deck that was on the verge of collapse. John had tried bracing some of the rotting sections a couple years ago but they were one crazy human-deck-dinner-party (you know if the humans started jumping up and down on top of the deck while dining) from a total deck disaster!
Their awesome friends from Bend, Oregon (where Tierney and I used to live) MJ and J (J has a lot of deck building experience) came and visited us last week; and thus began 4 days of deck demolishing and rebuilding.
MJ and Tierney documented the whole 4-day long project with photos; and I am going to share some of their photos (it’s impressive enough that I can write without opposable thumbs, taking photos with a smart phone would be nearly impossible…but with the right dog treats offered, I could try…) in this post.
First they had to take the existing deck-of-terror down:
The backyard got to looking crazy and there was no place for them to play ball with me (humans are thoughtless)!
Plus they kept chasing me back inside because they didn’t want me to get any splinters in my paws (perhaps that was thoughtful…but I wanted to play ball!!!)
Luckily and I had Tierney and MJ (the female humans) hostage in the basement den binge watching television shows and eating snacks while paying attention to me:
Here I am with MJ, one of my favorite humans in this world (she is lucky I love her!)
John and Tierney made sure the visiting humans ate well, making what looked like delicious breakfasts each morning; and what looked like tasty dinners in the evening like the Chicken Piccata with homemade pasta and Caesar Salad they served one night:
I did get nervous while they were working on the deck as it looked like the humans working on it could fall at any time. They of course made sure I was safe (which is what is most important).
Tierney and MJ helped out the male humans John and J by running some errands including a trip to Home Depot for something called “shims”. Of course Tierney and MJ took me with them and I had to help them find the shims:
You might notice Tierney has a bandage on her thumb – it’s not from working on the deck but carelessness while chopping carrots…
I was concerned when there was an attempt to scan me twice while we were in Home Depot – don’t they know the cash value of me would break a price scanner?!?!?!
We also took a trip to Target to buy J some additional clothes as he had “Man-packed” where he forgot to pack all the clothes he needed for the trip. Little did MJ and Tierney realize that there was a “Service Dogs Only” sign in the entry of the store (oops!)
No one said anything to MJ and Tierney about how I didn’t belong in there as they wandered around the store except to say “cute dog”. Well I guess that was my one and only trip to Targetunless I pursue a career as a Service Dog (but I am too grumpy to do that).
By the 4th day the male humans finished up the deck and they were so happy! Here are photos of the last stages of putting the deck together and making it livable again:
The deck is not completely done. John has to order something called “matching trim” for the deck, add post caps (whatever those are), and do some painting. But the deck is now very usable! The humans could even have a crazy human-deck-dinner-party if they wanted.
The last day of the project, the humans went out to dinner and then relaxed in the basement den for a movie night. If you look closely at the lower right hand section of the photo below, Tierney is actually working on the quilt she is hand quilting (see her post Hand Quilting Go Boldly) and perhaps sometime this year she will finish it!
Note: J and John are only snuggled as a joke for the photo, they did spend the 4 days working hard, not snuggling.
By the time we took MJ and J back to Human Storage aka “the airport” as humans call it (see the blog post “Human Storage” and Airport Lore) I was pretty tired because managing humans is so exhausting!
On the way to drop them off in Human Storage and then when I returned home
Well that catches you up on major recent events in my life. I will work on getting Tierney to blog on what she has been up to (before the deck project she had just returned from a trip to New York City with her sister) and to have her work on catching up on all her blogging buddies posts!
You’ve heard of “animal rescue”, well I’ve been involved with “handmade basket rescue” (smile)!
I know, silly, but when I am at a charity thrift shop and I see a handmade basket, I seem to need to bring it home!
Recently I picked up this basket at a thrift shop:
Which looks like a larger version of a Sotak Handmade basket pattern I made in the past:
On closer inspection turned out it was the same pattern!
I know the work it takes to make this basket, so how could I just leave one in excellent condition for only a couple dollars in the thrift store unloved?!!??! (Yes these are the justifications I tell myself…) I just had to give it a home 😉
I have this collection of Art Gallery Fabrics scraps that I plan to use to make this quilt my friend D made me – Then Came Jone’s Nova Star:
So I thought my new basket would be the perfect vessel to store those scraps:
Here is another basket in my studio (different pattern) I rescued a couple years ago from a thrift shop which houses a collection of precut flannel squares:
I hope I come across more of these baskets in the future when thrifting, as a crafter who appreciates the work that went into them, they are a special and useful find!
I was getting suspicious about Spring in Colorado. We had a streak of some wonderful weather with temperatures in the 60s to even 80 degree F (16 – 26 C) and I thought Spring was really here (even did a garden clean out in preparation for Spring planting) and then BAM – SNOW STORM!
But the snow is gone and the first trees to really pop in my section of Eastern Colorado are really popping – the Crabapple Trees!
This scene from my daily walk yesterday made me really happy:
Yay! The smell from the flowering Crabapples was so deliciously fragrant, especially coupled with the warm weather (70 degree F yesterday).
I am starting to believe it is really Spring (until the next snowstorm, ha!)
Oh and with Spring comes new musical adventures:
John used to play guitar when he was a teenager and was sort of a guitar prodigy. He shared he could have had a career in it if he had pursued when he graduated high school. Instead college and life distracted him and he never played again.
For the past year he’s been talking about wanting to pick up the guitar again, but hasn’t bought a guitar. I found a guitar at Costco (some of you might be cringing, ha, but it is at least a Yamaha guitar) – a Keith Urban guitar with lessons included, and convinced John we should buy it.
Well John is currently enjoying relearning the guitar! If you are on Instagram you can pop over to @tierneycreates and see John practicing his guitar.
Just wanted to share a quick up on my quilt in progress “Go Boldly”. This is a follow up to this post from March – Update on “Go Boldly” .
I am hand quilting it and really enjoying working on it (I put hand quilting the denim quilt “What Direction Do I Go?” on hold for now) and I’ve made quite a bit of progress laying it on my lap nearly every evening and working on it.
At first I was only going to hand tie it at each corner but then I decided to actual stitch the curves. Hand tying it did help stabilize it as it is nearly a Queen-sized quilt.
Here is the front of the quilt on the floor of my studio, all wrinkly from having it on my lap for hand quilting:
And here is the back of the quilt which was pieced from the leftover blocks and leftover fabric:
Here are a couple more photos of the quilting and Mariss @Fabrications has NO NEED TO WORRY that I will fly over to SA and steal her hand quilting teaching opportunities – ha! But I don’t plan to enter it in any shows and hand quilting it makes me happy 🙂
I am using some rainbow colored variegated heavyweight thread from a collection of thread that I bought back in 1999 at my first sewing expo show! Good thing I didn’t get rid of it – ha! I did use it “someday” as I probably kept telling myself to justify holding onto it 😉
As I mentioned in the post Rock & Roll Icons’ Guitars and Outfits, John and I recently returned from a trip to Miami and Hollywood, Florida where John attended a poker tournament.
Before John played in his day long poker tournament, we spent a couple days wandering about in Hollywood and Miami (South Beach), Florida.
Here’s a little photo travelogue of some of our fun adventures.
HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA
We stayed at the Marlin Beachside in the Hollywood Beach area, right on the beach:
Images credit: Tripadvisor
They had free bikes for guests, so every morning we went for a 8 – 10 mile bike ride along the beach on the boardwalk and then to breakfast:
Nearly every evening there was a free rock concert on the boardwalk by a cover band. Some of them were kind of “cheesy” but one evening they had an amazing band that did excellent Classic Rock covers. Here we are enjoying the music!
SOUTH BEACH, MIAMI, FLORIDA
We had a rental car to get around and we spent an afternoon in the South BeachArt Deco Historic District in Miami.
Our wandering about the outdoor shopping district began with a visit to an amazing German bookstore – Taschen Books. There are only two US bookstore locations for this store – in Hollywood, California and in Miami, Florida.
The store featured mind blowing oversized coffee table books, which started at around $80 USD in price. My favorite of their books was one about the world’s most beautiful libraries:
They had on display an amazing book on Ferrari race cars that retailed for $7500 USD and was encased in a special display case, which John, a race car buff, enjoyed looking through with the required white gloves on his hands.
Image credit; Taschen Books website
Wandering around the shopping area, we came across a very cool window display at one of the many art galleries around the Art Deco District – a display of human sized matches with human heads!
We had paella for lunch under a tree in one of the outdoor courtyards in the Art Deco Historic District. While waiting our food, beautiful flowers keep falling from the tree about onto my plate.
Something special about flowers falling from the sky and arranging themselves on your plate while you await your delicious meal.
Finally the paella arrived and I removed the flowers from my plate to make room!
Towards the end of the meal a rain of a liquid substance came down on John. Turned out a HUGE Iguana in the tree above was spitting at him or something!
We didn’t realize at the time it was only a harmless Iguana – our mind went to other things like a poisonous Gila Monster! So we paid the check quickly and got out of them – ha! The restaurant staff gave John some clothes with some type of cleaner on them to clean his arms where the “Iguana-rain” had fallen!
After that we wandered over to a jazz concert in the park in front of the beach area and then wandered along the beach
It was nice to put my toes in the Atlantic Ocean!
We had a wonderful trip and thanks for reading!
(IFor someone who lives very far away from palm trees, it was cool seeing palm trees bending with the wind at dusk along the beach!)
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
In last month’s ScrapHappy postScrapHappy March 2024: Revisting Farm Girl Vintage, I shared that I had pulled on a rather old quilting “UFO” – a VERY SCRAPPY sampler based on patterns from Lori Holt’s book Farm Girl Vintage, in which I had completed 19 12-inch-blocks.
Now a month later I realized I should start actually working on completing it since I pulled it out and talked about it! While going through everything in the project box I came across a MYSTERY that I will discuss a little further in this post.
First I got all 19 12-inch-blocks up on my design wall, so I could make it real that I was actually going to work on this quilt (smile):
Then I looked through all the scraps and a couple fat quarters/section of yardage I’d set aside for this project, removed them from the bag I had them in and filled the project box with them:
Now comes the MYSTERY: While doing this I discovered at set of 25 log cabin piecing like small blocks in several stages of piecing, along with scrap fabric cut for additional rows around each block:
What the heck??!!??!
I couldn’t figure out what the heck I was planning to do with these, it did not make sense. It had been several years since I worked on this quilt and all I remember was that I was tired of having the quilt unfinished and was planning to do something to quickly finish it. But what was I planning to do with these 25 blocks in progress??!!?
It was very frustrating and I started to just set them aside and donate them to one of the local charity thrift stores (fabric scraps are very popular items) when I was done with the quilt.
But then I looked (three times it took me) through the Farm Girl Vintage book and discovered there is a block in the book that looks like what I was trying to piece – the Haystack Block:
Image credit: from the Farmgirl Vintage book by Lori Holt
And I had already made one of these blocks:
But the mystery was not solved because why was I trying to make 25 of these blocks in apparently a smaller version?!?!??!
Have you guessed it yet? Did you solve the mystery with what I’ve just shared so far?
(I thought about just ending the post here and making you wait until tomorrow to find out but I am not the quilting Agatha Christy, so I will just tell you, ha!)
I remembered two things:
There are TWO block size options in the Farmgirl Vintage book– you can piece a 6 inch or a 12 inch finished sized block; and
There are various block layout/setting options in the back of the book
So looking through the setting options in the Farmgirl Vintage book I discovered this setting called Square Dance:
Image credit: from the Farmgirl Vintage book by Lori Holt
So I must have planned to make one more 12 inch block and then set the blocks in this setting using 6 inch blocks like in the image above.
I did discover that I might have needed 30 6-inch-blocks to accomplish that setting with 20 12-inch-blocks. So I was 5 blocks off, but at least I solved the mystery and now knew I had devised a plan and hadn’t lost my mind and was randomly piecing blocks – ha! (Have some fun and do the math and see if I am right…if you are really bored…)
So with the mystery solved, I was able to form a plan of what I want to do to finish this quilt:
Keep this same setting idea – use the Square Dance setting layout
Instead of 1 more 12-inch-block, make 6 additional 12-inch blocks to make the quilt 25 12-inch-blocks/ a 5 by 5 12-inch-block layout
Complete the in progress 25 6-inch blocks and make 10 additional for the 35 needed for the Square Dance layout for 25 12-inch-blocks (again, feel free to check my math/count for how many 6-inch blocks I need for the setting)
Yay! Now I can move forward and plan to report more on the progress on this old UFO in May’s ScrapHappy post.
POSTSCRIPT
While sorting through the project box I also discovered these:
I’ll discuss them next month in my post on this quilt and what I might do with them (I have to think through it). I seem to be obsessed with not throwing away these flour bags!
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
I spent a day at the Hard Rock Hotel wandering about and donating some money to slot machines while John was in his poker tournament.
The hotel’s decor was a tribute to Rock & Roll and when you first enter the hotel they have guitars on their doors:
The also have a guitar shaped Guitar Hotel!
Image credit: kayak.com
The hotel had an AMAZING collection of Rock & Roll memorabilia, primarily instruments (mostly guitars) and outfits that Rock & Roll icons played and wore. For those of you who love music like I do, I thought you might enjoyed some photos of their displays.
The Guitars
Here is a selection of some of the awesome guitars on display:
In case you have trouble reading the sings below the guitars in the images above, they are in order: Lenny Kravitz, Tom Petty, Geddy Lee (Rush), Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, and Nancy Wilson (of Heart).
The Clothing
Here is a sampling of some of the outfits worn by Rock & Roll icons they had on display:
The signs might be difficult to read in the image above so here are the artists attached to the clothing in each image in order: The Supremes, John Lennon (The Beatles), Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, George Michael, Keith Moon (The Who), and The Temptations.
Of course the images I share in this post do not do justice to what the guitars and clothing looked like in real life. It was amazing to see the displays of Rock & Roll history in person.
The hotel and casino was beautiful inside and I really loved this entire wall of seashells they had on display:
More on our recent trip to Florida in another post, just wanted to share a little about my visit to this hotel/casino.
Needle-arts crafters (knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch and other needlework) seem to be good people based on those I’ve met through blogging, so I thought I would try for the first time to join a Knit/Crochet Group instead of a quilting group.
One of the area libraries, Arapahoe Library, had a Knit/Crochet Group that met once a week.
I already belong to three Denver area library systems (have library cards), so why not add one more to my list (they are fairly laid back on who can get a library card and there are a lot of libraries systems in the Denver Metro Area), so I went to visit one of the Arapahoe Library branches for the first time – the Smoky Hill Branch.
I was so surprised on my first visit as this branch had a cafe, an awesome used bookstore, and a free seed library where you could take 3 packets of seeds a day!
Of course I had to browse through a stack of used books (that I didn’t buy) at their bookstore while enjoying a hot chocolate and a danish at the cafe:
Other cool things I discovered while doing a self-tour of this library was kits for book groups which included 10 copies of books, and an awesome Craft book section (where else would I have headed first, ha!):
So for the past three weeks I attended the weekly meetings of the Knit/Crochet Group and I met some nice people. Here I am at the group meeting working on another knitted hat; and checking out a wooden yarn holder bowl another attendee’s woodworker husband made her:
I decided not to continue with the group as the venue was too large (space for 17 people) and I wasn’t getting any work done on my project and I was getting a little overwhelmed by the crowd, all their energy and stories. I appeared to have fully transitions to an Introvert post-pandemic!
I might try another group someday in a smaller venue.
FINALLY in April 2024, Tierney has finish the blanket and has put it on the upstairs guest bed as the warmer weather season covering (though she appears to be confused as it is not officially “warmer weather”, we are just getting warm days here and there):
I know, I know, you were hoping to see me stretched out on this bed relaxing like you did in other posts, however I am boycotting this blanket as I wanted it to only be for ME as she led me to believe while she was making it!
Happier times when the blanket was in a configuration that worked for ME…
Oh Tierney has come in the room and bugged me while I am writing…
Don’t bug me while I am writing! A lot of concentration is required when you don’t have opposable thumbs!
Oh, Tierney stopped by to ask me to tell you she got a cute new radio while thrifting last year during her trip to Florida with her sister (see the post Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida) that she placed next to the bed in this room:
She says it is a “Tivoli Radio” and she got it for only $5 when normally it would retail for over $100 and it has a wonderful sound. This means nothing to me as a dog, but I am passing this along at her request (why doesn’t she just write her own darn posts if she wants to share something??!?).
Okay I have to go find somewhere to nap now after all this typing and I can’t just go lay down on the bed behind me as I am boycotting it…
(Oh and I am not going to even address that weird post Tierney had yesterday – Imagining Mike Playing Sports – I am going to learn how to use that app and write a guest blog post with images of Tierney playing sports!)
I downloaded a new app on my iPhone called MS Copilot which can generate AI images based on instructions.
There was a tiny bit of a learning curve on how to word things so the AI could understand what I wanted, but here is Mike my Miniature Schnauzer playing with three of the professional Colorado based sports teams.
The Denver Broncos Football Team:
He’s trying to catch a pass to then score a touchdown!
The Denver Nuggets Basketball Team:
(The AI used an older team uniform for the Nuggets, not their current one) Mike is getting ready to shoot the ball into the hoop!
The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team:
Mike is going to send the hockey puck into the goal net!
I know there are a lot of scary things about AI but this app appears to be one of the non scary, fun things!
A couple weeks ago I decided to organize my paper-crafting supply stash. Before I started quilting, I started card making with a group at my job in the breakroom at lunch time (I guess paper-crafting is a “gateway drug” to quilting, ha!).
In my stash I had a stack of calendar pages I picked up somewhere (thrift store) from 2016/2017 of Colorado nature scenes. For a moment I thought about just recycling them, but then I thought: I could make a set of cards for visitors that they can use as sort of postcards to send Colorado greetings to their friends and family back home. (I might even provide them with a PEN to write with and STAMPS for mailing, ha!)
I’m still working on the cards, but here is a close up of the ones I’ve completed so far:
Since I had to trim off the section of the calendar page that provided the details of the photo, I hand wrote the details on the bottom.
The only problem is I do not have the original calendar book and so I do not have the name of the awesome photographer who took these photos to credit. I did indicate on the back of each card that these are recycled cards so no one will think I took these wonderful photos.
So the plan is to keep a stack of these cards on the writing desk I moved from the library (when we got the dining room table to put in the library, see post A Table Runner for the New Table) to the guest room. I am glad we were able to fit the little table in the guest room as I know when I am visiting someone I appreciate a little desk in the room.
(Oh and if you are wondering what the is document with the quote “Be yourself…” behind the cards in the images – I am working on creating my first journal – it is going to be on my first 5 years in Colorado. I was inspired by my friend J who is a prolific journal and amazing artist!)
Every Winter I say to myself: “I should share this story on my blog”, but then Winter passes and I forget. Well it just turned Spring and there is still a little bit of snow on the ground in Colorado so I am giving myself permission to go ahead and share it now instead of waiting until next Winter (smile)…
If you are new to this blog let me give you a little bit of background to the story I am about the share. I am a widow and my husband John is a widower. We were each together with our late partners, who both passed in 2018, for over 30 years (I was with my late husband Terry since I was 20 years old). John and I met in 2019 when I left Bend, Oregon and moved to Denver, Colorado to try and start a new life after my devastating loss.
John and I have each lived quite a bit of life before we met each other and one of the fun parts of getting to know each other has been sharing our life stories. In this post I am sharing one of my favorite stories John has shared.
Misadventures in Ice Fishing
Years ago John and his brother-in-law went ice fishingin Deckers, Colorado. (If you’ve never heard of “ice fishing”, I put a hyperlink above for more information).
It was a 10 degree F day (-12 C) and when they were done fishing, they went walking across the frozen river to get back to his brother-in-law’s truck which was a mile away. While traversing the frozen river, the ICE BROKE near the shore, and they fell into the icy river. They pulled themselves out of icy river and shivering they agreed that no matter what they would keep walking and not stop until they got the the truck (if they stopped they could become hypothermic and run into life threatening issues).
They had to walk close to a mile to the truck feeling like they were freezing to death. When they got to the truck they started the truck, stripped down to their underwear to get the freezing cold clothes off their skin, and threw their wet clothes into the back of truck.
Driving back to John’s brother-in-law’s house and running the heat in the truck at full blast, suddenly they saw law enforcement lights behind them, it was a Colorado State Trooper following them and signaling for them to pull over.
Image credit: Colorado State Patrol
So there they were in only their underwear, two middle aged men on 10 degree F day (-12 C) driving around in a pickup truck, and a Colorado State Trooper is pulling them over! There was nothing to do but pull over to the side of the road and face the State Trooper!
When the State Trooper walked up to the passenger side of the truck and saw the two men in just their underwear he did a double take. John and his brother-in-law immediately said to the State Trooper: “This isn’t what it looks like, he is my brother-in-law”. Then they went on to explain what had happened after they went ice fishing, the breaking of the ice and fall into the river, and why they were only in their underwear.
The State Trooper (who was probably trying his best to keep a serious face) said: “The reason why I pulled you over is there were clothes flying out of the back of your pickup truck onto the highway”. The State Trooper didn’t give them a ticket and let them just continue on their way home to get warm (and get some clothes on).
If only they had thought to put the wet clothes in a more secure place they wouldn’t have given the State Trooper a story he probably still tells to this day!
Postscript
To my dog Mike, my late husband Terry was his whole world.
One of the very sad things that happened when my husband Terry died was that he passed suddenly at home while alone with our dog Mike the Miniature Schnauzer. Mike had to be with Terry’s body for a couple hours before I came home to discover him.
I thought Mike would be traumatized for the rest of his brief dog life and I tried to give him all the love I could after Terry died while dealing with my terrible grief and my trauma of finding the love of my life dead on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.
I remember taking Mike on walks after Terry died and every time Mike would see a man in the distance walking towards us, he would wag his tail and think it might be Terry joining us. It was unbelievably heart-breaking.
Then I met John after moving to Colorado and Mike (who is a “guy’s dog”) completely fell in love with John and I think John healed Mike’s heart.
Here is a photo that always makes me smile – Mike all snuggled to the new love of his life – John:
Here is a follow up to the post The Expansion of “Go Boldly” , and an update on my progress on this quilt which I expanded from it’s original size of 56 inches by 56 inches(142 x 142 cm) to 82.5 by 82.5 inches (2.1 x 2.1 meters) by adding additional blocks:
I figured since this was the quilt in the background of my photoshoot for the October 2023 Issue 28: Colorado of Quiltfolk Magazine I should go ahead and finish it.
image credit: Quiltfolk Magazine
(A little background on this quilt: my friend D started this quilt four years ago and didn’t want to finish it so she offered me the initial pieced blocks, the templates, and the fabric she bought for the project. I’ve pieced about 50% of the blocks for the quilt and the rest were pieced by D.)
So I got all the blocks sewn together and discovered it was nearly Queen bed size when I laid it out on the guest bed:
I had a bit of remaining fabric and some blocks leftover, but I didn’t want to expand the quilt further.
I decided I didn’t need it to be a real Queen sized quilt as I didn’t plan to use it as a bed quilt as the colors do not go with my decor.
I did however want it to be a colorful large lap quilt to have at say the foot of a bed. So I pieced the remaining blocks into circles as the center part of the back of the quilt:
From there I used remaining fabric to build out the quilt back to be a little bit larger than the quilt top:
Yes it is a messy wrinkly mess as I didn’t iron it before I took the photo. This is the back in progress, I added one more row of fabric to each side to make it bigger than the quilt top.
It will basically be a reversible quilt with the pieced back.
I’ve decided to tie the quilt instead of sending it out for professional long arm quilting. I have some cool heavy weight colorful threads I plan to use to tie it. They are close to thickness of embroidery floss.
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
For this month’s post I decided to revisit an old UFO (unfinished object) in my stash that I started at a quilt retreat years ago in 2017 (see postFarm Girl Vintage, Part I) – a scrappy sampler quilt (using fabric scraps and my fat quarter stash) made with blocks from Lori Holt’s book Farm Girl Vintage.
I pulled out the bag of scraps for the project:
And I pulled out the 19 blocks I had completed:
Here are close ups of some of the 19 blocks I pieced:
I think before I moved to Colorado 5 years ago, I was starting to work on finishing this quilt by making additional blocks and then selecting the setting for the sampler blocks. I also discovered some partially pieced block section with the 19 blocks:
I’ve decided to put this UFO in queue to work on next when I finish the two current quilts I am working on.
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
It’s been a while since I’ve shared what my husband John has been working on in his woodshop in our basement.
Recently he finished an Outfeed Table to butt up against his Table Saw. According to Fine Woodworking: “A good outfeed table is essential for safe woodworking, because it allows you to control the workpiece as it moves past the blade and off the back of the table saw. Without it, you’ll have to push down hard on the back of long boards, which makes it difficult to guide them safely past the blade.”
That sounds like a good idea! I want John to keep all this fingers so anything that makes woodworking safer I support 🙂
So John watched a bunch of YouTube videos and then set about designing an Outfeed Table that worked for him and his small woodshop.
He laminated the top of the Outfeed Table to make it easier for the wood to glide on it. It was his first time laminating and it seemed a little scary but we watched YouTube videos together (I provided moral support) and it was easier than he thought it would be!
The final stage was to add “bench dog holes” that allow you to clamp pieces on the Outfeed Table while woodworking. He used a special template to do this and he was pleased with the results:
It looks a little messy because this is the woodshop in use – I forgot to take photos when he first made the holes.
Speaking of the “woodshop in use”, John has been teaching his eldest son to woodwork starting with making cutting boards. They get together once to twice a week afterwork and on Sunday afternoons. They’ve made a lot of cutting boards so far including a 3D cutting board.
It’s been a great father-son bonding time!
They’ve also been working on a serving tray to replace an old store bought serving tray that is on its last leg.
They have another side to add and then handles.
And they’ve started their first big project together: a new entertainment console for the basement movie area. So far they’ve made the top of the piece.
It’s going to have a Scandinavian furniture flare, like our bedroom dresser that John made a couple years ago:
(By the way, someday John will be selling his cutting boards online through his shop Mighty Moe Creations, we just have to figure out what platform that will be besides Etsy.)
I finished the hat made with two leftover balls of yarn (both I think someone gave me as I do not remember using the yarn before) – a ball of blue variegated yarn, and a ball of denim blue yarn.
Here is when I got it to the double pointed needle stage (my favorite as it means it is nearly done!) while riding in the car:
And here is the photo I take as a tradition when I have the hat nearly done with the double pointed needles sticking out of my head:
And here is the completed hat:
I actually finished the hat while we were at dinner the other night with John’s former work colleagues. So I will close this post with gratuitous photos of the Burrata Salad and Meatball Pizza we had while out to dinner 🙂
People at dinner laughed when I threw the completed hat on my head at the end of the get together that I’d been working on all evening.
On to a new hat (one can never have enough hand knitted hats) to work on while passenger-ing in the car!
This is an update on the recycled denim and home decor fabric quilt I am hand quilting – What Direction Do I Go, that I previously updated you on in the post What’s Going on in the Studio.
I had this home decor/upholstery weight fabric as a backing:
OUCH! That did not work well for hand quilting! It was difficult to get the needle through the denim quilt top, the batting and the backing!
So then I tried taking off the backing, to put on later when I was done quilting using some type of envelope backing method, and just hand quilting with the quilt top and the batting.
BAD IDEA! My lap ended up covered with lint from the backing – ick! My sweatpants were a FUZZY MESS!
So I found a new backing for the quilt, this time a thrifted recycled cotton table cloth – very easy to sew through.
So now back to working on hand quilting it (after I trim down the backing a little and re-press/iron the quilt top again).
Per the advice one of my blogging buddies gave me, I only work on quilting it until my fingers get tired. I wasn’t going to use a hoop, but I think I might try out a large-ish old hoop I have and see how it is to hand quilt it using that (if I can close the hoop with the thickness of the denim!)
One of my favorite bag designers is the Netherlands based designer Svetlana Sotak of Sotak Handmade. The drawstring bags I’ve made (feels like I’ve made hundreds of them) is based on her pattern. I like that she supports small businesses by licensing them to sell items make from her patterns by purchasing the pattern.
It was time for me to try out a new pattern so I made a friend who loves to knit a project bag from the Sotak Handmade pattern – Denver Tote with knitting/yarn themed fabric by Ruby Star Society fabrics.
I was proud of myself because I installed a magnetic snap for the first time on the liner and reinforced it with heavy weight interfacing so the snap did not pull on the liner (which has medium weight interfacing attached).
Next time I make it I might make coordinating handmade handles. I was trying to coordinate the handles with the drawstring that is part of the bag too.
Oh and speaking bags, I don’t think I’ve shared this lovely tote bag I found while thrifting that I love to take everywhere, especially to the public library to pick up my holds!
Here is my latest library stack I brought home with the tote and so far I’ve really enjoyed the bookCool is Everywhere.
So it was time to start an easy mindless project – a hat – in the same pattern I always use – ha!
Me in the car, knitting away from my passenger seat…
It’s actually going to be a two yarn hat as I am using up two different smaller leftover balls of yarn. I had enough of the variegated yarn you see in the photo above to get that far and now I am adding in a denim-ish colored yarn that is close to one of the colors in the variegated yarn.
We’ll see how it comes out…it’s for me anyway so as long as it is a functional hat I am good!
Oh a friend sent me this the other day and it gave me a giggle, so I thought I’d share with you all and I hope if you have a dog they do not need to contact this “Pawfirm”! (Mike could contact them as we are guilty of this…)
Two Sundays ago, right before the Super Bowl game, I decided that I needed a studio refresh after I had completed my year long purge of my fabric stash.
It began in Winter 2023 while I was recovering from a broken ankle where I realized that 1/2 my fabric stash was fabric that other quilters had generously given me over the years. This happened with my fabric scrap stash and my UFO pile and I purged and donated what I didn’t want any longer.
It was now time to get really honest with my fabric yardage stash (again, as I’ve had other purges); and a couple Sundays ago I finished what I began in early 2023.
In addition to the fabric purge, I did some reorganization in my studio.
Here is my studio the morning of Super Bowl Sunday:
I realized I needed more vertical storage so I repurposed some of the wine crates I was storing scraps or fat quarters in and had John mount them to the wall:
And here is the “refreshed” studio right before it was time to sit down and watch the game:
Someone (or someones) are going to have a very happy surprise at the charity thrift store as I donated bags and bags of fabric. I now mainly have fabrics that I have selected/purchased or those others have given me that I REALLY LOVE.
This is Mike, the Miniature Schnauzer that lives with Tierney and John. If you are new to this blog I guest blog post time to time. I want to update you on the gray granny square blanket (MY BLANKET) that Tierney has been working on as I am a little annoyed.
(Here I am working on the blog post)
(And here I am slightly irritated that Tierney is disturbing me while I write)
Tierney should have finished by now the gray granny square blanket by now – she has joined all the 80 granny squares together by whatever strange human magic she uses to join them.
But now she’s decided she wants to make the blanket large enough to be a summer bedspread in the upstairs guest room so she is doing something called “adding a large border” while requires her to use that weird needle (she calls it a “crochet needle”) and go around and around on my blanket so it will get bigger.
Here is the blanket after she put all those squares together and started doing some weird bordering of the blanket.
The good thing is while she’s been doing her bordering, I’ve been able to get some naps under the blanket even if she occasionally disturbs me when she spins the blanket while bordering.
Yes, I am a “Napping Professional”.
I want her to stop this silliness and just set the blanket down somewhere that I can just private enjoy it.
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
For this month’s post I am happy to report that my little wallhanging (measuring 28 x 28 inches/71 x 71 cm) Strings Attached, pieced from my stash of solid color scraps, is done and hung on the wall:
I quilted it with bright red thread and let’s see if it shows up better in this second photo I took:
Not really but use your imagination that you see bright red thread 😉
The pattern for Strings Attached is from August 2021 issue of AmericanQuilter Magazine, pattern by Lori DeJarnatt. I tried to mimic the color selections of the sample in the magazine as much as I could as I really liked it! (My quilting is denser than the sample in the magazine as I made a mistake on my first row of machine quilting when my hand slipped…so I made just repeated my mistake to make it consistent, ha!)
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
Back in early January in the post 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, I mentioned I might do a 2023 Recap of my travel in 2023. Since we are now halfway through February I decided to skip that 2023 recap, but I will share a trip I went on in early December 2023 with my sister that I didn’t post about in 2023.
So my awesome sister, who knew that December is always a challenging time for me (12/13/23 was the 5th anniversary of my late husband’s passing), came up with the idea that we should go on a “Sisters’ Trip”/do something fun in December to distract me.
She randomly selected Englewood, Florida because it is near the coast, had nice Airbnbs (she loves to stay in Airbnbs) and seemed to have a low touristy/laid back vibe. My sister loves to visit places are on not highly touristy but have a cozy vibe.
We stayed at a cottage above a garage at a house near the beach and was called “The Tree House”. The charming elderly proprietor lived on site and had decorated it in a quaint vintage “shabby chic” style with Asian influence:
The house’s garden was amazing and had a little pool as well as lots of scenic seating and wandering about areas:
And there was a garden kitty to pet:
We were able to walk everywhere including the charming downtown and only used our rental car a couple of times. One of those times was when we went on a thrift shopping excursion one day (my sister LOVES thrifting and introduced me to it years ago).
Here I am with a fantastic Marimekko purse I found for $5 at one of the thrift shops:
We visited a giant resale and flea market type of shop where we browsed for hours it seemed and ended up getting ourselves each a teddy bear as a souvenir of our fabulous time together:
It appeared to be a family run shop and we made the teenage boy running the cash register laugh when we were checking out our bear purchase, by making the bears talk to each other and him. It was fun to be so lighthearted and silly with my sister!
This sign at the shop made us laugh:
Ha!
We ate lots of seafood, as I live in a “landlocked” state and whenever I am near fresh fish, then fresh fish and I are together!
We also went to the beach and had a lovely afternoon wandering about the coastal area:
Because it was not a high touristy area we got to hang out with “the locals” and spent each morning at an awesome coffee shop walking distance from our cottage. We hung out one morning with an elderly gentleman (Englewood appears to be a large retirement community) who was from Colorado and his very friendly dog who seemed to know every other local that came into the coffee shop. We had fun chatting with people while eating our breakfast in the living room like seating area at the front of the shop:
You can see in the first photo that the dog is getting his regular “pup cup” of whipped cream.
It seemed like a wonderful and friendly place (with a super laid back vibe) plus the temperature was wonderful in early December – 60s to 70s F (16 – 21 C) – but I was attacked by a zillion mosquitos (they seem to love me) and I do not think I could live in Florida unless I walked around with a mosquito net on – ha!
I’ll close my little travelogue with a magnet that was on the refrigerator of the cottage we stayed in that made me smile!
I mentioned in my previous post What’s Going on in the Studio, that I was planning on enlarging the small lap quilt/wall hanging size quilt I made Go Boldly (quilt pattern by Elisa’s Back Porch Designs) which was 56 inches by 56 inches (142 x 142 cm), since I had a lot of extra blocks:
Well, here is the expanded quilt after I laid out additional blocks on my design wall (I still need to sew them together to the existing quilt):
As part of what’s up on the design wall is a sewn together quilt and the other part are individual blocks, I can’t tell you exactly how big the expanded version will be (without doing a lot of pesky math subtracting seam allowances, etc.). However what is currently up on the design wall measures approximately 86 inches x 86 inches (218.5 cm x 218.5 cm).
Believe or not I still have 48 sections leftover and I plan to make them into 12 blocks (each block has 4 sections) that I will piece together as part of the back of the quilt.
I’ll sew it all together after I finish machine quilting Strings Attached:
tierneycreates 