Blog

tierneytravels

24 Hours in Victoria, BC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Thought I would finish up the story of our 24 hours worth of adventures in Victoria, British Columbia which I began sharing in the posts A Delightful Bead and Button Shop in Victoria, BC  and Smelling the Roses in Victoria, BC.

We visited John’s cousin in Bremerton, Washington in July 2025 and made an impromptu decision to take the ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) for an overnight adventure.

The ferry ride was smooth until we crossed into Canadian waters and then it got pretty rough but luckily I had taken Dramamine for sea sickness and was okay.

I was pretty happy when the ferry docked after the 90 minute trip from Port Angeles to Victoria!

We stayed at the lovely Chateau Victoria Hotel and wandered around the Inner Harbour area/Downtown Victoria during our 24 hours in Victoria before taking the ferry the next day back to Port Angeles.

We had a lovely breakfast and delicious tea/coffee at Murchie’s Fine Tea & Coffee:

They had an amazing tea shop attached with lots of beautiful tea pots and tempting teas. I did bring some tea home!

We went to several “tourist trap” shops and John enjoyed having his photo taken in with various shop mascots:

We spent a couple hours at one of my favorite museums in the world the Royal BC Museum (where many years ago when I lived in Seattle and would visit Victoria, BC I saw the most amazing Leonardo DaVinci exhibit).

In front of one of my most beloved museums

We saw two wonderful exhibits: 1) Global Threads: The Art of Fashion of Indian Chintz; and 2) Beyond the Beat: Music of Resistance and Change.

John couldn’t refuse having his photo taken on the simulated musician stage with a guitar in hand at the Beyond the Beat exhibit:

We didn’t see 1/2 of what we wanted to see in Victoria and plan to visit next summer.

John fell in love with Victoria and we discussed visiting it every summer!

John has never been to Vancouver, BC and area I also love and we will also plan to visit Vancouver next summer too!

Bags Bags Bags, Finished Projects

Adding a Zippered Pocket to a Golf Shoe Bag

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in June I experimented with making a golf shoe bag using a modified version of the pattern I use to make drawstring bags (see June 30, 2025 post Experimenting with Making Golf Shoe Bags). The bags are lined with vinyl so that if grassy/dirty golf shoes are put in it the bag can easily be wiped out.

I made one for John and one for his cousin M who we went to visit in Washington State in July:

I wanted to make another golf shoe bag for another golfer in my life but this time I wanted to add a pocket to the front of the bag. So I used a front zipper pocket pattern from Noodlehead’s pattern for the Firefly Tote (see December 28, 2021 post Adventures in Bag Making: Firefly Tote is done!).

I forgot to take a photo of the bag back in my studio and here I am balancing it on my lap as we are driving to meet up with my golfer friend to give him his gift.

My golfer friend happens to be in the financial services industry so as a little bit of humor I added a money fabric liner to his zippered pocket:

He loved the bag and said previously he was just throwing his grassy golf shoes into the back of his car when he was done golfing. Now they can be in a nice vinyl lined bag!

A Crafter's Life, tierneycreates

Reacquainted with an Old Quilt

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Recently my friend K reacquainted me with an old quilt with emotional ties I had forgotten about.

I’ve been quilting since the late 1990s and I’ve made a lot of quilts, most of which I’ve given as gifts or in some cases sold, so you kind of forget some of the quilts after a while; and sometimes the emotional connection you had with a particular quilt.

One of the quilts I had forgotten about was a blue and white quilt that I made from a pattern many years ago (10 years ago?) and ended up sellling (for basically the cost of the fabric and the professional longarm quilting) to a quilting friend L who fell in love with it.

Last week my friend K was staying at L’s home in New Hampshire and ended up sleeping under that blue and white quilt I made (and had forgotten about) and sent me photos:

It was nice to see the quilt but I forgot the emotional connection I had with the quilt until K mentioned that the quilt had a spectacular backing.

I gasped as I suddenly remembered the backing I put on the quilt and asked K to send me a picture of the back of the quilt so I could see it again:

On the back of what one might consider a “quiet quilt” (blues and white in a traditional setting) I put what one might consider a “very bold” fabric!

At the time I made the quilt I thought the front of it was “boring” and decided to spice it up with a colorful backing fabric I found in my stash.

That fabric was from my friend Tracy who suddenly died a couple years after giving me the fabric which she found at a thrift shop.

I met Tracy at work back in the 1990s when I lived in Houston, Texas and we stayed friends for many years, occasionally losing touch but finding each other again. I started quilting while livingi in Seattle, Washington and she, unknown to me at the time, had also started quilting! When we reconnected a couple years after each of us becoming quilters we were very elated that we now shared the same hobby.

I however have some intense regret related to Tracy. Over a year before she died we were supposed to go to the International Quilt Festival in Houston in October, and I cancelled and said it would work better for us to go next year.

There was no next year quilt festival for Tracy as she passed away the following year before the festival. I had missed a glorious opportunity and memory with my friend because I delayed going to the event with her a year. I also missed an opportunity to spend time with her before she left this existence.

Perhaps this is why many years ago I decided to sell the quilt to L. L loved the quilt and the quilt was just making me sad, reminding me of Tracy’s passing and my regret on not going to the quilt festival with her.

Now of course I wish I’d kept the quilt and honored Tracy’s memory by still having a quilt a made with a backing she gave me.

However, all I can do now is be grateful that is being used and not in a closet somewhere tucked away; to remember not to wait to do special things with special people; and tomorrow is not promised.

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

“Toward 2050” Quilt Top Done

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post is a quick follow up to the “Toward 2050” – Volunteering to Make A Quilt Top .

After seeing the Toward 2050 exhibit and walking the labyrinth at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona in February, I knew I wanted to contribute to the project in someway and ended up volunteering to sew one of the “blankets” (what they were calling the quilts, ouch) to be made from 30 of the flags that people around the world created inspired by their feelings on Climate Change.

So I turned this pile of 30 – 9 1/2″ by 9 1/2″ flags:

Into this quilt top per the detailed instructions provided:

It was challenging as the flags were really more individual art pieces and likely not originally created to be incorporated together into one piece*.

I ran into issues of trying to sew through very thick materials; and dealing with flag original construction and design issues such as sections within a flag not fully stitched together.

*I am not sure if the original participants knew their flags would become “quilt blocks”:

But I got it done (and so appreciated sharing my challenges with my friend W who was also working on piecing a different set of 30 flags) and will mail to the Toward 2050 project team tomorrow for them to send it on to their volunteer longarm machine quilters to finish.

tierneytravels

Smelling the Roses in Victoria, BC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

More on our 24 hours in Victoria, British Columbia in July (which I began sharing in the post A Delightful Bead and Button Shop in Victoria, BC ), but today is a brief post on our delightful “floral experience” in Victoria.

In front of the Parliament building is a gorgeous rose garden.

If you remember from my post Agriculture Report: “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”, John loves roses and dreams of a big rose garden someday like his beloved grandfather had.

Well he was in heaven in the rose garden in front of Victoria’s Parliamentary building!

Here are some photos of the other beautiful roses/rose bushes that we spent time admiring:

As it was July it appeared everything was in bloom in this glorious Pacific Northwest City!

In addition to roses there were flowers all about the Inner Harbour section of Victoria, BC.

It’s such a beautiful place and I was so happy to return again after so many years. John and I now plan to visit every summer, he fell in love with Victoria (maybe it was the roses…).

Beads and Buttons, tierneytravels

A Delightful Bead and Button Shop in Victoria, BC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well we’ve finished up the endless saga of our Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska it’s time for a craft shop post – this time in Victoria, British Columbia!

In early July John and I headed to Washington state to visit his cousin who lives in Bremerton, Washington. On a whim we decided, as long as we were in the Pacific Northwest to add to our trip a visit to Mt. Rainer National Park, and an overnight visit to Victoria, BC which I’ve visited several times before (and absolutely love) via the Black Ball Ferry Line out of Port Angeles, Washington.

More on this Pacific NW adventure in future posts, but for now let’s focus on the fabulous time I had exploring the Button & Needlework Boutique in the Downtown/Inner Harbour section of Victoria, BC.

John and I were wandering after dropping off our bags at the hotel and we turn the corner and see this:

Walking into the Button & Needlework Boutique I was greeted with this delightful sight:

This shop is filled with embroidery patterns and supplies; yarn and fiber craft supplies; and loads and load of buttons!

The also had beautiful Japanese Sashiko kits and supplies, as well as beautiful examples of Sashiko stitching on display:

I couldn’t leave without picking up some buttons (I also bought a Sashiko kit which I forgot to photograph):

I fell in love with these owl buttons. There were many buttons to fall in love with but I behaved.

A Crafter's Life, Special Events

So I took a Watercolor Painting class…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Skipping around in my Summer of Travel stories to share a recent story (this past weekend).

I recently returned from a 3-day weekend in Portland, Oregon. I went with John to visit his son Z and decided to take a craft class in Portland one day so John and Z could have time on their own one day.

At first I looked into classes on crafts I already know – quilting, bag making or knitting/crochet. I couldn’t find any class that interested me on the weekend I was in Portland.

Then a crazy idea came to mind: I’ve been interested in learning to paint using Watercolors (not sure why I am so drawn to Watercolor but I am) – why not find a Watercolor Painting class?

I found two options at Wildcraft Studio School: 1) Introduction to Watercolor Painting; or 2) Color Theory: Watercolor.

I am very interested in Color Theory (see my post about my Colour Wheel Quilt – The Colour Wheel Quilt is Done) and the class said it was for beginner and experienced Watercolor artists.

So I selected this class. I figure I can watch YouTube videos to learn Watercolor painting techniques but I’d really like some hands on instruction with how to mix colors using the Watercolor paint medium.

Arriving to class this past Saturday I was greeted with a lovely courtyard in front of the studio as you enter (I ended up enjoying my lunch in that courtyard during our break):

I felt very intimidated as I sat down at my table – what was I thinking dabbling in Watercolors?!?!?

The class was comprised of women in my age group, one young woman and one man. They were a friendly and engaging group and I really enjoyed chatting with the two women who sat at the table with me.

The class was taught by the Seattle-based Watercolor Artist Robin Bundi who was kind, patient and an excellent instructor!

The class was focused on understanding color and color mixing and our primary class exercise involved creating color wheel mixing samples using different sets of primary color palettes.

The instructor had many amazing examples of how just a couple primary colors (some version of red, blue, yellow) can make an endless assortment of colors, tints and shades.

Here’s an amazing sample piece created by the instructor demonstrating how you can just use two colors (Ultramarine and Brick) to create a palette:

So I got to work and finally (sort of) got the hang of mixing colors.

And at the end of the class she had us each paint a small piece with basic shapes/improvisational design, using what we learned of color mixing as well as color washing techniques.

Here is the piece I made (yes, not ready for a solo exhibit in Watercolors yet, ha!) but I forgot to erase/lighten the original pencil lines I used (and then ignored) when sketching the piece.

I joked with the instructor when she critiqued the piece that it looks like I took some mind altering substances before I began painting – ha!

Now when I catch up on my sewing projects I am going to work through an Introduction to Watercolor book I found a couple months ago thrifting as well as watch YouTube videos on painting techniques.

I think my goal is to be able to make Watercolor cards to send to friends (for them to recycle – ha!)

Special Events, tierneytravels

Eating Our Way Through Frontier Days

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well I will close out my serious of posts about our ambitious roadtrip in July 2025 to Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska with a post about where the roadtrip adventures began – in Cheyenne Wyoming.

Before we headed to Frontier Days in Cheyenne, we wandered around downtown Cheyenne, stopping at the famous The Wrangler western store.

And being met with the largest cowboy boot selection I’ve ever seen:

John was a sport and tried on some boots which went so nicely with his shorts (not! ha!):

No sorry, as fetching as they looked, he did not leave the store with them.

Back outside there was a giant cowboy boot on display painted with western scenes:

To give perspective of how big the boot is here I am standing next to it and I am around 5′ 11″:

Then we headed to Frontier Days and ate our way through the Fairgrounds, ha!

It all began with a corn dog (I think I literally squealed with delight when I saw the corn dog booth as I hadn’t had one in like 8 years):

Then we found a booth with VERY amazing brisket birria tacos! They were so good we shared a second serving.

We of course had to get some lemonade to share in a commemorative cup when this booth, shaped like a lemon lured us over:

Yes we were on the verge of needing to roll ourselves out of the fairgrounds if we kept going, so we just admired the rest of the food from afar. Here a little gallery of some of the POOR NUTRITIONAL CHOICES we could have kept making 😉 :

Some of the foods sound like serious indigestion but they are probably fun to eat…

Fair Food makes me laugh – there is definitely some sort of competition to serve the craziest food that you’d never eat in your daily life. And of course they had things like deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Oreos. I am curious about the Pickle Pizza – I wish I could have sampled just a little of it to satisfy my curiosity!

After filling our tummies we headed to see the some of the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. I was good for about an hour and that was enough rodeo for me, I am not a big rodeo person. I can’t help myself I always start feeling bad for the animals like the little calves getting roped and tied. I know, I know, I’d never make it on the American Frontier! The bull riding was fun to watch for a while but then I started thinking about the bulls who didn’t want humans on their backs.

When I lived in Houston, Texas in the late 1980s to late 1990s, we used to go to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo once a year. I mainly went to see the livestock and I enjoyed seeing all the 4-H farm kids showing off their animals.

Then one year we went I absolutely fell in love with the cutest cow with fluffy ears. I was obsessed with this cow. I wanted to move to a farm and have a cow like that.

What a vaguely remember the cow looked like (image credit Depositphotos)

My late husband Terry said to me: “Yes we could adopt it and name it ‘Hamburger'”.

Oh no I realized – my sweet fluffy eared new friend was going to become a yummy burger someday! After that I stopped wanting to go to the livestock show – ha!

(I was a Vegetarian for a while when I was in my late teens/early 20s but bacon and the smell of burgers on the grill made lured me back to being an Omnivore…)

Oh so back to the Cheyenne Frontiers Day Rodeo – there was one moment during my brief time at the rodeo that captured by heart. The competition opened with a Native American/Lakota horse blessing by Mo-Brings-Plenty, a member of the Lakota Tribe who was also the Grand Marshall for the 2025 Cheyenne Frontier Days.

I took a little video of the end of the presentation as I was too enthralled at first to think to film it, but here is what I have:

I wish I had captured the whole thing.

Well that continues this series of posts. If you are just joining us, here are the other posts about our travels in Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Carhenge 

A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD 

Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks 

Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype 

Crazy Horse Memorial 

Deadwood, South Dakota 

Wall Drug


tierneytravels

Wall Drug

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

While on our ambitious Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska road trip in July 2025, we stopped at the iconic Wall Drug.

From Tripadvisor.com:

Once a humble small-town drugstore that offered free iced water to weary travelers, Wall Drug is now a buzzing 76,000-square-foot roadside attraction that draws travelers to this small city in South Dakota. Here, you can shop for Western-themed apparel at the shopping mall, snap a photo with an 80-foot brontosaurus in the kids’ area, and grab a 5-cent coffee and one of the best donuts in the U.S. at the restaurant. And don’t leave without getting the iconic Wall Drug bumper sticker—it’s free! Wall Drug is a great stop along a tour of the Badlands National Park. – Tripadvisor Some of our stores and the café may close earlier than our main store.

We ended up spending a couple hours wandering around and eating at one of their restaurants (and we did get a Wall Drug free bumper sticker for John’s toolbox).

John loves to sit for photos on benches with characters and here is John posing on a couple of their benches with their Western themed characters:

I first heard about Wall Drug in 2020 when I saw the movie Nomadland and the main character Fern (played brilliantly by Frances McDormand) stops along her travels to work at Wall Drug.

This movie is really tender to my heart and deeply touched me when I saw it in 2020. The main character Fern is a recent widow who has also lost her job when the town’s factory closes. She deals with her tremendous loss by putting everything in storage and embarking on an epic roadtrip across the US in an old van and exploring nomadic life.

There was a moment before deciding to move from Oregon to Colorado after my husband died in 2018 that I had considered such a journey. I watched a lot of “living in a van/RV” and “nomadic life” videos as I contemplated this option. It would have been Mike the Miniature Schnauzer and I on the road.

I am nearly done with my stories from our ambitious roadtrip in July, one more to go – Frontier Days in Cheyenne Wyoming. Here are the other posts to date related to our trip:

Carhenge 

A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD 

Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks 

Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype 

Crazy Horse Memorial 

Deadwood, South Dakota 

tierneytravels

Deadwood, South Dakota

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

During our ambitious Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska road trip in July we stopped for an overnight in Deadwood, South Dakota, a historic Wild West town which attracted legendary figures like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

A lot of the town is preserved as a Wild West style town and you get the feel of stepping back in the American West history when you visit.

John loves Bourbon/Whisky Tasting and we stopped at one of the many Whiskey establishments in Deadwood for a tasting.

I had to include some of the signs that made us laugh related to whiskey drinking!

Several times a day on the main street they have a recreation of the Wild West shootout with a couple of gunslingers!

If you don’t appreciate Wild West culture this would not be the place to visit, because it is over the top at Deadwood!

John and I had fun wandering around the endless gift shops/”tourist traps” and just had to take photos with a huge Sasquatch/Yeti/Bigfoot (where you are in the U.S. determines what you call this legendary creature):

John likes to play poker so he did spend the later part of the evening playing poker at one of the Wild West saloons (nope he didn’t win enough money to pay for our trip, ha!) while I relaxed in our hotel room working on my sunflower granny squares.

Here is a listing of the other posts to date about our ambitious trip and I think I have another post or so to come about it:

Carhenge 

A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD 

Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks 

Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype 

Crazy Horse Memorial 

Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!, What's on the Design Wall

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

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

During my Summer of Travel I’ve been working on my Sunflower Granny Square blanket as crocheting the individual granny squares is a perfect portable project:

Passenger in the car with my crochet project bag on my lap, crocheting through the road miles…

The last update on the Sunflower Granny Square Blanket I am working on was in January 2025 (see What’s on the “Design Carpet”: Progress on Sunflower GS Blanket).

In that January post I reported 39 granny square blocks done. I now have 91 blocks done as of this photo which I took before heading out on another recent road trip (to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico):

PLUS 10 more I finished on the recent New Mexico roadtrip (more in a future post on that roadtrip):

So in total I have 101 blocks done.

Here are a couple close up images of the different yarn combinations I used for the blocks (because I only wanted to use yarn from my stash); the ones with the green yarns represent sunflowers that are not fully open:

And I still need to make some more to make the blanket a little bigger. I might make 20 more, we’ll see. I am going to finish up all the remaining sections I’ve started which I think total 20.

Here’s my basket in the living room where I store my completed blocks (oh my will there be a lot of block ends to weave in someday!):

I’m going to do a different granny square block join than I did on the other three granny square blankets I’ve made. This time I am going to do a Single Crochet Join this time instead of the Join As You Go Method I’ve used in the past.

Single Crochet Join Example:

Image credit: Repeat Crafter Me

Join As You Go Example:

Image credit: Crochet 365 Knit Too

Oh something really cool I discovered – for the outside border of each sunflower granny square I used Lion Brand Wool Ease (an acrylic and wool blend) yarn in Wheat.

Image credit: Michael’s

Well when I was taking photos of the laid out granny squares on the “Design Carpet”, I was barefoot and ended up having to step on the laid out squares. I discovered THEY WERE SO SOFT under my feet and I think it is due to the border yarn I used for each square.

I think it will be a really cozy and snuggly blanket and now I really want to get it completed for the winter season!

tierneytravels, U.S. National Parks

Crazy Horse Memorial

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

While we were visiting South Dakota in July, we discovered that 17 miles or so down the road from Mount Rushmore (see my recent post Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype) is the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Since we were already in the area to see Mount Rushmore it made sense to see the Crazy Horse Memorial (which is a memorial in progress)!

According to Wikipedia:

“The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.”

Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people. His most famous actions against the U.S. military included the Fetterman Fight (21 December 1866) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25–26 June 1876). He surrendered to U.S. troops under General George Crook in May 1877 and was fatally wounded by a military guard, allegedly while resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members..”

Image credit: Crazy Horse 1842, nativepartnership.org

Before we took a bus to see the Crazy Horse Memorial in progress, we first stop at the Visitor Center and wandered around the Indian Museum of North America, “a large collection of art and artifacts reflecting the diverse histories and cultures of over 300 Native Nations.” (crazyhorsememorial.org/the-museums)

Then we got on the bus to travel to the Crazy Horse Memorial carving site which is on a private road.

Here are some of our photos from the site and I bet you can guess that the photos do not do the experience justice of seeing it in person, but unless I can teleport you all to the memorial this will have to do! 🙂

At the Visitor Center they had a model of what the completed memorial will look like someday:

As far as completion of the Crazy Horse Memorial – so far the head and left hand are completed; and according to Google AI:

“There is no definitive completion date for the Crazy Horse Memorial, and it is expected to take many more decades, with estimates suggesting a potential completion around 2037 for the horse’s head, arm, and hand, but the entire monument is considered a long-term project with no firm deadline, according to Summer Creek Inn and Wikipedia. The monumental scale and funding challenges, which rely on donations, have contributed to the lengthy construction time.” 

I’d like to visit it when it is complete someday, it will be spectacular.

tierneytravels, U.S. National Parks

Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As part of our ambitious and kind of epic roadtrip to Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska, we stopped at Mount Rushmore National Monument in Keystone, South Dakota.

John had been there before I said it was a “must see”, I trusted him but I wondered if it was worth the hype.

It is worth the hype.

Carved from a section of the granite face of 5,725 feet (1745 meters) above sea level Mount Rushmore are the 60 foot tall figures of four former U.S. Presidents: George Washington (1789-1797), Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) and Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865). These four U.S. Presidents are very significant in U.S. History. (A full listing of U.S. Presidents by year if you are curious is at The Presidents Timeline website).

According to the U.S. National Park website: “…surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota, tell the story of the birth, growth, development and preservation of this country…”

Here was our view of the national monument when you first enter the park:

Actually when we first arrived it was very cloudy and misty and we couldn’t see anything on Mount Rushmore, and then it suddenly cleared to reveal an amazing view.

We walked through the State Flags of U.S. States and it was fun to try and locate the State Flags for states I lived in my lifetime: Pennsylvania (only briefly), New York, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

After walking through the State Flags we walked down into the amphitheater area where very few visitors were (it felt like we had Mount Rushmore to ourselves compared to the busy upper areas) to spend time just looking at the Mount Rushmore National Monument.

It made us very reflective. After a while of sitting before these mammoth carvings it made us feel as if these four historical U.S. Presidents, each with major contributions, are looking over the U.S. today, watching.

I keep away from political discussions on my blog because I want to respect the different political opinions of others which stem from their life experiences and values, but I do want to share that we just started to wonder: “What would George Washington , Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln this of the U.S. today?. Would they be proud? Did the U.S. become what they hoped it would become?”

Not try to spur any political discussion, I just wanted to share some of our musings as we sat reverently and studied the monument.

After sitting with the monument we went back upstairs and visited the amazing museum exhbit that shared images, history and equipment from the carving/creation of Mount Rushmore October 4, 1927 – October 31, 1941. The exhibit shared photos of the workers who translated the vision of the the Chief Carver. (If you’d like to read the carving history of Mount Rushmore, which involved lots of dynamite see this link Carving History)

This placard in the exhibit particularly moved me:

To close out this post I just want to say that I like to imagine that the “Mount Rushmore Crew”: George Washington , Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are looking over the U.S. and are hopeful that it will transcend the current political situations and the “principles of liberty and freedom on which (the U.S.) was founded” will prevail.

A Crafter's Life, Knit and Crochet Away!

Spun for Me!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Just a quick post and next post I will return to my adventures in South Dakota.

Recently I returned from a trip to Southern Oregon to meet up with longtime Oregon based friends and during the trip my friend MJ surprised me with yarn she had spun!

I know, some of your spin yarn yourself and this might not sounds like a big deal but it was.

MJ told me the story behind the two skeins of spun wool she handed me and here her story paraphrased/summarized:

“Over a year ago I decided that I wanted to do something really special for you as my crafting friend. I wasn’t going to start quilting, and I can knit but I wasn’t going to knit you something. I know you are always working on knitting projects and I wanted to actually spin you some yarn as a gift. So a year ago I found a yarn spinning class with a woman who has a sheep farm and a yarn spinning business. She ended up becoming a friend and I’ve taken many lessons from her and rent a spinning wheel. I even got to know the sheep that the wool fibers came from and how wool from sheep is prepared to be spun into yarn. There will be more yarn from me in your future, be patient, I am slow but getting better with time.“

I asked my friend MJ if she was gifting others her spun yarn and she said “No, this is just for you”.

Wow, I feel unbelievably special – someone learned a new hobby just to gift me an amazing surprise!

Here is the photo I sent her when I got home of me loving on my new yarn.

tierneytravels, U.S. National Parks

Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in the posts A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD and Carhenge, in July we ventured on an ambitious and kind of epic roadtrip to Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska, some of our neighboring (and sort of neighboring) states to Colorado.

Since John retired, we are trying to see as many of the U.S. National Parks as possible over the next couple of years (and who knows what kind of funding they will have in the future to host visitors, their have already been serious cuts to National Park staff); as we feel they are some of the best parts of the U.S.

So during our roadtrip while in South Dakota traveling from Rapid City, South Dakota we stopped briefly at Wind Caves National Park; and then spent a large part of the day at Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park

Whatever images I share they will not do justice to the magnificence of this National Park.

As the park’s website states: “The rugged beauty of the Badlands draws visitors from around the world. These striking geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Ancient horses and rhinos once roamed here. The park’s 244,000 acres protect an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where bison, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets live today.”

First we stopped at the Visitor Center so we could get our National Park Passport stamped for Badlands National Park and pick up some souveniers.

Here are some of the amazing rock formations outside the Visitor Center and a section that John was brave enough to climb up:

After this initial stop we got on the Badlands Loops Road (Highway 240) and drove through the park. Here are some of the zillion photos as we made our way along the road.

As I mentioned whatever images I share they will not do justice to the magnificence of this National Park. Checking my photos after I took them and already anticipating the disappointment (ha!) I decided to take a video at one of the many glorious viewpoints on our drive through the park.

As I was about to take my video I cleverly (not so cleverly perhaps) decided to narrate the video using the placards (? not sure if that is the right term) at the viewpoint describing the view. Here is an example of a “placard”:

They were rather weather worn and difficult to read but once I started my narration I was kind of committed to complete it.

So here is the video, which I uploaded to YouTube in order to post, with my very monotone voice as I attempted to take the video and read the whole line of different “placards” before other people showed up at the viewpoint and blocked my view or wondered what the heck the crazy lady speed reading the “placards” was doing!

By the way it is VERY WINDY in the Badlands and the wind provides a soundtrack to my monotone awkward narration – ha!

Perhaps my lame videography provided you with a tiny bit better sense of the awesomeness of the Badlands.

Wind Cave National Park

Not much to report on this National Park. Unless you take one of the Park Ranger guided tours of a section of the Wind Caves there isn’t much to see. The wait for the guided tours was a couple hours. So we just looked around the Visitor Center, got some souveniers and got our National Park Passport stamped. We were wondering why it was free to get into the park and that is because you pay when you sign up for one of the tours.

In the Visitor Center they did have a cool diagram of the cave system.

So that’s our South Dakota National Park adventure!

We were tempted to pop over the Theodore Roosevelt National Park but it was quite a bit away and we’d already been to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial on the trip so far (next post).

Postscript

After I posted this post I discovered that John had taken a video on his phone also at Badlands National Park at the same viewpoint but without the narration. His video shows more of the 180+ view so I uploaded it to YouTube if you’d like to see it also. (Sorry it only has the wind as soundtrack no monotonous voice!)

Special Events, Studio

“Toward 2050” – Volunteering to Make A Quilt Top

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in May I shared in the very long post QuiltCon February 2025, Phoenix Arizona, that while in Phoenix, Arizona for QuiltCon 2025 I visited the Desert Botanical Garden and got to spend time at the Toward 2050 exhibit.

I was so taken by the exhibit that I wanted to be part of it if possible and signed up to volunteer to piece one of the quilt tops together.

But let me back up and first give you some background from that May 2025 post.

BACKGROUND ON TOWARD 2050

Here’s an excerpt from the Toward 2050 website:

“According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, global climate is on track to increase by 1.5° C by 2040, and with that, irreparable damage will likely be done to earth’s ecosystems if our course is not changed decisively and with haste. In the IPCC’s Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, clear goals and pathways have been defined to reverse our emissions of green house gases – 50% by 2030, and to arrive at net zero emissions by 2050, keeping the global rise in temperature to under 1.5° C in perpetuity. Hence, 2050 marks a very important point in our human history…

Textile work from makers from 45 U.S. states and 9 countries have become important parts of TOWARD 2050, which has culminated in this immersive installation at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona – February 8th through June 1st of 2025. Makers were called to create environmentally themed, textile panels in the style of “prayer flags”. Our goal was to collect enough double sided flags to define the pathways of ​this interactive labyrinth experience. That goal was met thanks to the generousity and commitment of all the makers participating in this project.” 

Here are some images from the TOWARD 2050 textile flags  labyrinth (which took over a half hour to the center and back) I walked during my visit to the Desert Botanical Garden.

I recently found this video on YouTube of the labyrinth I walked back in February 2025:

NEXT STEP: MAKING BLANKETS (QUILTS)

As you can see from the Toward 2025 website screen shot above, after the exhibit (and raising awareness), the next step is to make “blankets” (to me they would be quilts) to donate to communities that will “suffer future climate catastrophe).

From the Toward 2050 website here are the packets that will be sent out to volunteers and what they want the “blankets” to look like:

Images credits: Toward 2050 website

VOLUNTEERING TO MAKE A QUILT/BLANKET TOP

So I signed up and a couple weeks ago (while I was traveling) a package of 30 flags arrived in the mail:

Here are the 30 blocks laid out quickly on my design wall:

And here is a sampling of some of the blocks I was sent to piece together made from participants all over the world:

Volunteers are required to provide the fabric for the lattice and borders for the “blanket top” they are piecing from the Toward 2050 blocks (the “blanket” will then be longarm quilted by other volunteers).

I was planning to search through my fabric stash to find something that would work with all the different colors in the blocks when I received a gifted piece of fabric in the mail from one of my awesome penpals! (You know who you are and you ROCK! Impeccable timing!)

Turns out this fabric would work well with the blocks and I tested it out in the image above.

Talk about a serendipitous surprise!

I will of course share the pieced blanket/quilt top with you all in a future post once I get it put together.

Postscript

If by chance you are interested in participating, they are still looking for volunteers to piece tops using 30 of the textile flags the they will send you.

See the link below if you are interested:

Join us to make blankets from the TOWARD 2050 flags!

Toward 2050 overview taken from a nearby desert mountain. (photo courtesy of Bill Timmerman, Timmerman Photography)

tierneytravels

A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

The week of July 22 – 25, 2025 we went on an ambitious Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska road trip to the following events/landmarks:

I will blog about Frontier Days, Mount Rushmore, Wind Caves and Badlands National Parks, the Crazy Horse Memorial in separate posts, but for this post I will share some photos from our wander around downtown Rapid City, South Dakota.

Before heading to Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park, we stopped for a break in downtown Rapid City. It was my kind of place as it had a USED BOOKSTORE and a QUILT SHOP!

AGAIN BOOKS & BAZAAR

At Again Books & Bazaar I bought some used CDs (a future post about how I’ve rediscovered our stereo and CD player) and enjoyed looking at their large collection of used books.

QUILT CONNECTION, ETC.

What a lovely surprise to find Quilt Connection, Etc. quilt shop in downtown Rapid City! The staff was welcoming, helpful and friendly and they had a wonderful fabric selection.

If that wasn’t enough to be a friendly quilt shop with a lovely fabric selection, they had a surprise area downstairs…

That had this rack…

And if that wasn’t enough downstairs also had this magical tub…

I am always up to a challenge so I immediately worked on how many fabric scraps I could shove into the bag!

I made my way back up the stairs to see John patiently waiting in “The Husband Seating Area”:

They had many quilts on display and I really liked this Mount Rushmore quilt and this teal quilt which makes me thing of the teal quilts that Kate @talltalesfromchiconia coordinates each year for annual the Ovarian Cancer fundraiser.

But the quilt that really made me smile was this “Mrs. Bobbins” quilt with very humorous panels that only a quilter or someone who lives with a quilter can related to:

So what did I buy at the quilt shop? Well I got a $5 fill a bag, bag of fabric scraps stuffed to the max; and this Riley Blake National Parks Map panel:

It was a fun wander 🙂

A Crafter's Life, Special Events, tierneycreates

My Interview on Priorhouse Blog

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I sat down this morning to catch up on reading blog posts and to write a blog post and I discovered that Yvette @Priorhouse Blog has posted the interview I did for her blog.

A couple of months ago she invited me to be interviewed for her Summer 2025 series of blogger interviews. I accepted and here is the interview on her blog:

Hopefully clicking the above image where I’ve imbedded link to the interview works to open it.

If not here is the link: https://priorhouse.wordpress.com/2025/08/10/%f0%9f%a7%b5%f0%9f%a7%b6%f0%9f%aa%a1tierney-creates%f0%9f%aa%a1-%f0%9f%a7%b6%f0%9f%a7%b5-priorhouse-interview-august-10th-2025/

I was so honored to be invited to be interviewed for her blog.

🙂

(featured image credit: Priorhouse blog)

A Crafter's Life

How About Some “Happy”?

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Just a quick and perhaps silly post.

I use Amazon Photos to backup my photos and to pull photos from for blog posts. I was going through my photos to put together my next blog post about my travels when I noticed this:

The search bar states “Describe photos you’re searching for…”; so I thought I would try it and I put in the word “HAPPY” just to be silly and see the search results from my collections of photos I’ve taken over the years.

Well, here are most of the images I got that it pulled from my collection of photos and they made me smile:

Hope this post gave you a little bit of happy 🙂

tierneytravels

Carhenge

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This summer has been a “Summer of Travel”, and a little over a week ago we returned from a 4-day trip to Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

While in Alliance Nebraska, an overnight stop on our way back to Colorado, we visited Carhenge.

I bet most of you have heard of Stonehenge the “prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, England, known for its stone circle structure” (Google AI).

image credit: Wikipedia

Well the Carhenge is described as “Nebraska’s unique tribute to Stonehenge” (using old cars). You can read the history of the creation of this “roadside attraction” here – History of Carhenge, but here are a sampling of our photos from our visit to give you a virtual experience of seeing Carhenge!

I look forward to seeing Stonehenge someday when I visit the UK, but Carhenge was quite breathtaking in person. Very creative recycling of old cars!

Inside the gift shop was a humorous comic style poster by the designer about the attraction:

Thought I would share with you all a little fun from our most recent roadtrip.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever been in Carhenge (or the original Stonehenge) and let me know what you thought of it.

A Crafter Needs to Eat, Agriculture Report, Sunflowers!

Agriculture Report: The Sunflowers! (and other things)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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

Oh the Sunflowers!

I love sunflowers, I am actually obsessed with them. When I was in Asheville, North Carolina in May 2025 (see post Concerting in the Carolinas and More), I became obsessed with the menu for the eatery we stopped at for breakfast one morning – Sunny Point Cafe with it’s sunflower art:

And the very kind manager on duty gave me a laminated copy of the front of the menu to take home!

(I have it up on my studio and it always makes me smile when I look at it)

In Spring our friends R and D gave us packages of heirloom seeds from a family collection which included packets of sunflower seeds.

We planted them in the raised bed that John built in the backyard last year (see post John gets “ScrapHappy” too – new raised bed) and they did very well! They are now pretty tall and blooming!

Other Agriculture

In the raised bed with the sunflowers is our “bumper crop” of basil also from the heirloom seeds our friends gave us:

There is going to be some pesto in the future!

Here are some happy flowers around my front and back gardens:

It is a delightful time of year in relation to “Agriculture”!

Lasagna From the Garden

We also have fresh herbs and tomatoes growing on our deck patio garden. Along with the basil in the raise bed and tomatoes from the patio John and I made some lasagna for dinner on Sunday with handmade noodles and sauce from scratch.

We roasted the tomatoes for the sauce with garden herbs, garlic, onions and carrots; and then blended the roasted tomatoes. We combined this blended mix with a large can of San Marzano tomatoes, red wine, pepperoni, beef and bacon (we didn’t have prosciutto handy) and let it simmer for hours (the house smelled yummy).

With John’s handmade thin pasta sheets we were able to make an 8 layer lasagna layering the sauce with a ricotta mixture and mozzarella.

It was delicious and partially made from our garden! We froze the leftovers for a future meal.

We enjoyed eating it outside on the patio on a lovely summer evening with a nice bottle of red wine, caesar salad and garlic bread.

Special Events, tierneytravels

Birthday Colorado Roadtrip Part II: Leadville and an Emotional “Divide”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing the story of the Colorado roadtrip we took in early June 2025 to celebrate my birthday. For Part I of the story see the post – Birthday Colorado Roadtrip Part I: Glenwood Springs.

After leaving Glenwood Springs, we headed to see Leadville, Colorado  where John’s paternal grandmother grew up and he’d not return to since he was a young child.

To get to Leadville, we crossed the Tennessee Pass, elevation 10,424 feet above sea level, and crossed over the Continental Divide.

An Emotional “Divide“

As shown in the image above, the Tennessee Pass section of the Continental Divide is home to the 10th Mountain Division Memorial.

My late husband, Terry (aka “Terry the Quilting Husband”) was a HUGE military history buff, with a focus on the Napoleonic Wars (we visited Waterloo in Belgium), the Civil War (we visited Gettysburg), and World War II (he didn’t want to visit Normandy/Omaha Beach in France and I always suspect he stormed the beaches in a past life by how much the thought of visiting deeply disturbed him*).

*An interesting little story about Terry: His older sister, who helped raise him in a family of 7 children, told me after he passed, that when he was a young child he would set up very elaborate battles with his toy soldiers that were far beyond the knowledge, skill and understanding of a 4 year old child. She always suspected he was a former military person reincarnated or something.

He read/studied/engaged in historical miniature wargaming and military strategy gaming (historical battle reenactment on paper/tabletop game) extensively related to World War II battles and was quite the amateur historian when it came to the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division which is based out of Fort Drum, New York (Terry grew up in NY and when he served in the US Army as a Medic he spent time at Fort Drum). The 10th Mountain Division had an significant role in the European Theater of World War II.

I was very familiar with the 10th Mountain Division as Terry and I had many historical discussions during the 33 years we were together.

So when John and stopped at the memorial on our way to Leadville I was completely emotionally overwhelmed. Not only because of the memories of discussing the 10th Mountain Division for years with Terry; but because I knew Terry would have so loved to see the memorial. It would have made him very happy and moved him deeply.

I spent some time alone just being with the memorial and my thoughts (John was very understanding). It was a very emotional (Continental) Divide experience…

Leadville, Colorado

We continued on to Leadville and explored the town.

Exploring included wandering around downtown Leadville and visiting an independent bookstore and antique shop – The Two Dog Market; and a yarn/craft shop – Fire on the Mountain:

As well as a very quirky hardware and antique shop – The Western Hardware:

I got a little emotional again during our visit to this hardware store as in addition to historical miniature wargaming, Terry loved fantasy wargaming (like Warhammer 40,000 and Dungeons and Dragons). They had a display of the same type of fantasy wargaming figures that Terry had a collection of and liked to paint (see image above). I then had to spend some alone/emotionally reflective time with this display.

It seemed that the Universe was providing me with quite the memory and grief tinged day!

We also paid a visit to the famous (at least in Colorado) adventure clothing factory store Melanzana while in Leadville.

Here I am in the image above with my new Melanzana “hoody” and cap made with leftover hoody fabric.

After Leadville we headed to Breckenridge, Colorado and then home. I didn’t take any photos in Breckenridge but here is a post from 2024 on on my first visit there – Breckenridge and the Continental Divide (we crossed a different section of the Continental Divide – Loveland Pass – on our way there during of 2024 trip).

Closing the post with a random photo – somewhere that we stopped near Leadville.

Even though it was early June, there was still snow on the ground!

(As a I mentioned in the previous post: Leadville is the highest incorporated city in North America, sitting at an elevation of 10,152 feet/3094 meters above sea level)

Fabric Scraps Obsession, Studio

Framed Samples

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As part of my birthday gift, my sister sent me a collection of upholstery fabric samples.

My sister is the Sr. Construction Project Manager for a university and the Interior Design team she works with had a collection of upholstery samples that they were going to put in the trash. My sister knows I love working with upcycled fabrics so she rescued them and sent them to me.

The collection of samples were beautiful and I decided to experiment and frame four that really caught my eye to hang on the wall across from my studio.

They look even better in person, the hallway is a little dark even with the light on so it was challenging to photograph.

I haven’t decided what I am going to do with the rest of the samples butI’ve been collecting ideas on one of my Pinterest boards.

Outside Adventures!, Special Events, tierneytravels

Birthday Colorado Roadtrip Part I: Glenwood Springs

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing the story about how I celebrated my 60th birthday that I began in the post Birthday-ing with Bruno.

After our trip to Las Vegas (see post Birthday-ing with Bruno), the next part of my birthday celebration was a Colorado roadtrip in early June 2025 to Dillon, Glenwood Springs, Leadville and Breckenridge, Colorado.

I love Colorado and I want to get know as much of the state as I can/see as much of it as I can.

On the way to Glenwood Springs: Dillon, Colorado

We started out heading to Dillon, Colorado a small mountain town 10 miles from the Continental Divide; and is located 9,111 feet (2,777 meters) above sea level. In addition to Dillon, we stopped in the neighboring town Silverthorne, Colorado another small mountain town and visited the best Habitat for Humanity Restore (Thrift Store) I’ve ever been to!

Image credit: alignable.com

We spent an hour there wandering around and I found a lovely African basket there which I now use in my studio, along with a bunch of awesome CDs (I’ve rediscovered the CD player stereo component and have taken to listening to entire albums in the living, old school style!).

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

After Dillon and Silverthorne, we headed to Glenwood Springs and stayed at the awesome Hotel Maxwell Anderson.

Image credit: maxwellandersonhotel.com

John and I spent a lovely evening with our cocktails sitting in the room above on one of the sofas chatting about life.

During the day we wandered around Glenwood Springs (famous for it’s Hot Springs, which I refer to as “the community bathtub”*) and had a wonderful lunch at the historic Hotel Colorado which in “1905 became the temporary home for the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt and his assistants during a three-week bear hunting expedition. Already a fan of the state of Colorado, Roosevelt stayed at the Hotel Colorado on multiple occasions” (History of Hotel Colorado).

Here’s some photos from our lunch:

I love this quit when you enter the Hotel Colorado – any place with a quilt displayed when you walk in is okay by me!

Here are some of the “community bathtubs”* (the Hot Springs) that Glenwood Springs is famous for:

I love Glenwood Springs and have visited several times including taking the mind-blowing 6 hour train ride from Denver’s Union Station to Glenwood Springs (see posts Weekend in Glenwood Springs, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part III, and Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part IV). It is one of my favorite places in Colorado, so far!

*You might be curious as to why I refer to the Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs as the “community bathtub”. Well the two times I’ve visited them and soaked in them, they were bath water temperature and it was like taking a bath with a hundred other people!

A Stop in Minturn, Colorado

On our way back towards home we stopped in Minturn, Colorado which is near Vail, Colorado the famous resort/ski town, and visited a tiny whiskey tasting room in a little house for the distillery the Minturn Whisky Company.

We had an awesome time sampling the spirits and John bought home a bottle.

From Minturn we continued onto Leadville (the highest incorporated city in North America, sitting at an elevation of 10,152 feet/3094 meters above sea level), crossing another section of the Continental Divide which I’d not been to before and then onto Breckenridge and back home.

I’ll share our adventures in Leadville and Breckenridge in the next post, but to close this post here are a couple photos from our roadtrip when we stopped at various scenic areas for a break from being in the car. Sorry I do not remember where these are located but they were lovely (smile):

A Crafter's Life, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures

Remembering Mike

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s been a year since Mike the miniature schnauzer who was a “guest blogger” on my blog (smile) suddenly passed away at 14.

I came across this video which I uploaded to YouTube, which showed Mike enjoying life: instead of actually hiking at Castlewood Canyon, he was being carried around by John!

Just sharing this in honor of Mike…

Hopefully, you can recover from my terrible singing. While we were on our hike, I was composing silly impromptu songs!