It is getting close to the one year anniversary of when we lost our beloved Mike the Miniature Schnauzer. We don’t have any immediately plans to get another dog in the near future (we want to keep being able to travel on a whim right now) BUT we are enjoying other peoples’ dogs!
A couple days ago we went over our friends house for dinner and got to enjoy their 3 days and 2 visiting dogs. Especially Olso the sweetest little doodle (not sure what kind of doodle mix) who took to me and made me his own for the evening:
What a cutie pie! I kept kissing on him all evening, I was in love! He didn’t want to get down from my lap and would growl at the other dogs when they got near me!
Here are photos of the rest of the dogs:
In the photo above, Oslo is asking to be put back on my lap and not have to mingle with the other dogs. I wanted to sneak Oslo into my tote bag and take him home with me!
In addition to visiting with friends’ dogs, I appreciate all the nice people I meet on my daily walks who are walking their dogs and let me pet them! (The dogs I should clarify, I am not walking around trying to pet people – ha!)
I decided to “re-bind” a wallhanging size quilt I made years ago from a panel that I have hanging in a little alcove in the stairwell from the main floor to the basement:
I put the quilt together fairly quickly and did simple quilting on it years ago. I put a quick binding on it using the same Stonehenge fabric I used for the border of the quilt.
This binding has irritated me for years. I felt like I should have used black fabric to binding it, which would “frame” the piece. I have lots of pictures in black frames next to the wallhanging and it just seemed like a black binding was what the quilt needed to pull the whole alcove together.
So one day on impulse I cut the old border off and put on a new border!
I like it MUCH better and now it frames the wallhanging!
(By the way, the photos underneath are travels/adventures that John and I have experienced together since we met 6 years ago.)
In late May we traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate my 60th birthday Part I (I wanted to two part birthday trip and the second part was a Four Corners/Mesa Verde National Park/Durango/Ouray/Pagosa Springs trip which I share in other posts).
So yes I just said it – I turned 60. It’s very shocking. I’ve been blogging since I was in my late 40s (October 2025 is my 12 year blogging anniversary) and when I turned 50 I kept it pretty secret in the blogosphere as I didn’t want my readers to know I was “that old” (ha, that is no longer old). At first I was going to hid the turning 60 but why – who cares?
Actually I only feel like celebrating getting older these days as 1) I can’t age backward so I’m stuck with it; 2) my mother only got to live to her early 50s; 3) my late husband passed at 58; and 4) I am in good health (at least in my mind).
Originally I was going to spend my 60th birthday in Bend, Oregon where I lived for 14 years before moving to Colorado in 2019. It would be my first time returning in 6 years since my husband Terry died suddenly in December 2018 and I moved in April 2019.
I was planning a wonderful reunion with several groups of Central Oregon friends, staying at several houses; and the opportunity for several of them to meet John for the first time.
But I couldn’t do it. Not yet. I ended up disappointing several groups of friends and giving a lot of apologies. I just could not return to the place where I “lost it all”. Grief is weird and people react different ways to big life losses.
I guess I am still reacting to the loss of my wonderful life partner and life in Central Oregon by not being psychologically able to return…at least not yet.
So I had to rethink what I wanted to do for my 60th birthday and I came up with a strange combination: 1) go to Las Vegas and see some type of major show (Bruno Mars); and 2) go on a major Colorado roadtrip!
So on part one of my birthday celebration we went to Las Vegas, Nevada for a couple days and saw Bruno Mars in concert at the Park MGM Resort (where we also stayed) in Vegas.
It was one of the best concerts we’ve ever been to in in our lives. They locked up your phone when you entered the concert venue and no photography was allowed so I haev no photos from the experience to share.
Here is a video I found on YouTube from 2024 to give you a taste of his music and talent if you are not familiar with Bruno Mars:
It was a cool experience watching a concert without anyone having their phones recording the show, taking photos, or checking their messages, etc. The entire audience, including John and I, were laser focused on the show without any distractions.
We had really good seats and discovered later in the show when Bruno Mars pointed her out and gave recognition to her progeny that we were sitting a tiny section over from Katherine Jackson, the mother of the Jackson 5/Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson! She was the special guest of Bruno Mars for that particular show so we kind of had a once in a lifetime experience to sit within 100 yards of the mother of Michael and Janet Jackson! The woman sitting in front of us broke down crying as she said she was a huge Michael Jackson fan and to be sitting close to his mother completely overwhelmed her!
(Security ushered her out of the show before it ended so no one got to bother her)
In addition to seeing Bruno Mars in concert, we enjoyed a fun couple of days wandering around Las Vegas and going to the exhibit I always stop and see when I am in Las Vegas – the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.
Their current exhibit is Glam Menagerie: A Surrealist Summer. Here is the 3D tour if you’d like to see: Glam Menagerie 3D Tour.
Here are some of my photos from the exhibit:
We always enjoy yummy dining experience when visiting Vegas and in addition to stopping at some of our favorite places (Eataly, Taco El Gordo, and Din Tai Fung) we had a scrumptious breakfast at Paris Las Vegas Hotel in their Parisian themed restaurant Mon Ami Gabi.
I had the lemon curd and raspberry crepes and they were a “spiritual” experience in breakfast dining!
It was a good part one celebration and in future posts I’ll share our adventures during the second week part of my 60th birthday celebration.
Once plated the dish we topped it with a little fresh parmesan for an extra boost.
It is very easy to make and I was able to use fresh basil from my garden. If you have a better growing season where you like than we have in Colorado, you might be able to use tomatoes from your garden too.
John made fresh pasta (he has mastered pasta making…as much as an American can…he daydreams someday of going to Italy and attending one of those “learn pasta making with an Italian grandmother”workshops we’ve seen advertised) for the dish. According to this chart below, he made Tagliatelle:
Warning: this dish requires you to turn on your oven and you might not want to do it in the summer heat. This dish is fun to enjoy in other seasons too 🙂
Buon Appetito!
Postscript
This past weekend my brother and sister and my nephews met up in Baltimore, Maryland to hang out and go see the new Superman movie. I sure wish I lived close enough to join them (but I love Colorado so much!).
Thought I would share this sweet selfie they sent me with the four of them together. I love my family so much!!!
This was buried as a “Postscript” section in one of my posts from 2020 (Curating a Home Library) and I thought it deserved it’s own post.
I enjoy browsing charity thrift stores for treasures but I’ve come across some very strange items over the years. I wonder when I see these items: 1) Why did anyone originally own this item; 2) Why did someone donate this item; or 3) Who is going to buy this item?
During the height of the COVID pandemic in Colorado, when most retail stores were closed, Colorado considered thrift stores as “essential” stores and let them stay open. John and I, all masked up, would visit thrift stores as something to do and to work on putting together our home library.
Here are my top 5 favorite “curious” finds that gave us a chuckle (and I promise you I did not buy any of them):
Number 5: If you need a lamp and a place to store your leftover yarn, would this not be the perfect solution?
Yes it’s – YARN LAMP!
Number 4: Patriotic pants – they defy any further comment (but my apologies to you if you happen own these…)
My husband John is graciously modeling them
Number 3: Donated photo frames with family photos still in them.
I could not believe how many donated photo frames I came across with family pictures still in them at various thrift stores, like the example below. Wouldn’t you perhaps remove your family photos before donating?!?!?
It would be funny to buy the frame and keep the photo displayed and confuse people…
Number 2: An outfit for a very adventurous and crafty person.
Though it was on display way before Halloween, I think this was supposed to be a suggested Halloween outfit (hopefully as you would get a lot of stares should you select it for a cocktail party…)
Interesting use of pom-poms!
And Number 1 is…
Something that you absolutely cannot imagine living without…
A cattle leg (yes real cattle leg) with hoof attached Barometer!
Yes, now you can remember the favorite steer you raised on your farm and know the current barometric pressure!
It’s nearly 5 years later since the original post sharing this find and it still remains the number one most “curious” thing we’ve discovered at a thrift shop!
My regret is I did not buy the Cattle Leg Barometer and put it away as the ultimate future “White Elephant” Christmas gift! (Could you imagine the look on someone’s face when they opened their gift!)
Well it’s been quite the Summer of Travel (after a Spring of Travel) so far; and I thought I’d dive into sharing my adventures with a little tour of a quilt shop I visited for the first time in Durango, Colorado in June 2025 – Stitch.
We visited Durango, Colorado as part of a Colorado roadtrip. In May I turned a “milestone birthday” and we’ve been celebrating with travel and adventures that I’ll share more about in a future posts.
Stitch is located in charming downtown Durango and has a warm and inviting atmosphere and friendly staff.
Here is the antique sewing machine vignette inside the front window (first image above):
Here are scenes from inside the shop:
And here is where I got into trouble (ha!) and invited fat quarters that I did not need to come home with me:
I mean I got one free, how could I turn down the deal?
And here is the sign in front of the shop to lure you in…
(Because quilters need to be lured into quilt shops…)
John saw all the drawstring bags I’ve made and asked me if I could make him a golf shoe bag for when he goes golfing (one of his main hobbies besides woodworking).
We found a bolt of nylon fabric to line the golf shoe bag and I altered the Sotak Handmade pattern I use for drawstring bags to make it longer for a golf shoe bag. After I made a test bag, I made John a bag.
Here’s the photoshoot:
The nylon liner in the bag is backed with fusible fleece that I had to carefully iron from the fusible fleece side to adhere to the nylon without damaging the nylon with heat. The nylon lining will allow John to easily wipe out any dirt from his golf shoes that gets in the bag.
John told me that “men like long drawstring cords” (Perhaps he secretly did a national survey of preference, ha! And what about women golfers – do they have drawstring preference??!!?!) and so I used long cords used for drawstrings on clothing for the drawstrings for the golf shoe bags.
We are going to give the test bag to his favorite cousin who is also a golfer. They should look adorable on the golf course with their handmade golf shoe bags – ha!
I love Colorado and I’ve been lucky to live here for a little over 6 years.
In 2019 when I was considering the move to Colorado and not sure if it was the right thing or not, the Universe gave me a sign, and this ad was the first thing I saw when I opened a magazine to read while I was still deciding:
That ad did not lie, I feel “truly alive” here!
I want to share that feeling and my love of Colorado with friends and family who come to visit, so I placed my completed Pieces of Colorado quilt in our daylight basement guest room:
In addition to celebrating Colorado, I wanted to celebrate the beauty of the U.S. National Parkssome of my country’s most beautiful and precious lands.
So throughout the guest room I have framed posted of National Parks especially those that John and I have visited (together or in our previous lives) and ones we plan to visit in the near future. I thrifted the pictures – got them from a book on the art of of National Parks posters that was not in good condition but most of the pages were.
I also thrifted all the other art/decor in room, including the beautiful rug which I found for $12 at a Goodwill Outlet (we cleaned it very well).
And John made the bedside tables which include built in outlets for easy access to charging devices for guests.
He also built a little bookshelf for the “guest library” where I keep books that I’ve already read and want to keep for guests to read while they visit and/or take with them home.
Here’s a tour:
Here’s a closer look at some of the cool Colorado and National Park art I found at thrift stores (many for under $5):
I struggle with buying anything new these days and there are so many treasures at thrift stores (plus I am keeping stuff out of landfills and giving them a new home).
On the desk in the guest room (we did buy the desk years ago new), I have a collection of thrifted books on National Parks below a thrifted radio:
Yes that is a National Park (Grand Canyon) thrifted mug holding pens for guests to use (I have a thrifted note pads in the desk drawer).
I also have a basket where we are keeping any maps, brochures or pamphlets were pick up while visiting National Parks for guests to look through (along with some unused slippers for them we’ve collected from hotel stays):
When designing our guest room I wanted to have the things I wished people would have for me when I visit and so we stocked the guest room closet with two (relatively inexpensive) bathrobes so our guests can feel cozy:
I hope this doesn’t sounds like a “soapbox” but I feel strongly that if people spend their money and time to come and visit you, you should make them feel VERY welcome. When traveling it is challenging to be away from your comforts of home so we try to give them as many comforts as we can.
We have our guest bathroom well stocked with what we think guests might need so if they are visiting us they don’t have to worry about bringing a lot of toiletries. We also make sure there are plenty of fresh towels. We’ve even put a little hamper basket in the guest room closet for their dirty towels, etc.
People might think we are “over the top” in our hosting but we want to honor each person who visits our home.
I guess this thrifted sign in our guest room we hung above one of the windows sums it up:
Oh wait, this post was supposed to be about the Pieces of Colorado quilt being hung, I think I digressed – ha!
(By the way if this post left your eyes rolling in your head, just accept that John and I are weird…ha!)
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“…
Yes if you were in around in 1970 you might remember this song sung by Lynn Anderson – Rose Garden with it’s catchy line: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”:
This song popped into my head as I was snapping some photos for this post on my early summer garden.
We are starting our own “Rose Garden” in the front yard’s raised bed and hope to someday have a large rose garden in the backyard. I love roses and roses are VERY special to my husband John.
John was very close with this paternal grandparents growing up and being at their house was his favorite place to be as a kid. At 14 he even blew off a big school dance to go hang out with his grandparents.
According to John his grandfather had a magnificent rose garden and John would hang out with his grandfather as he tended his roses. It was always his secret dream to have his own rose garden someday. We are working on making that happen.
Slowly, over the past couple years, we’ve been adding roses to the front bed:
Here are some of the other flowers currently in bloom, primarily perennials, that we’ve added in to to keep the roses company:
We’ve run out of space to put roses in the front of the house. So we are planning to change the landscaping of the backyard someday, removing the rocks that border the fence and replace them with garden beds with soil so we can plant a large rose garden in the backyard.
We also have plans (perhaps too ambitious..) to build a greenhouse where the raised bed currently sits and relocate the raised bed. My Pinterest inspiration board is getting full of images of greenhouses!
For now we have plants in pots and a raised bed that John built last year:
I am growing lots of sunflowers from seed in the raised bed (they are doing well so far); and growing a couple other flowers from seed and trying to grow basil from seed, which seems to be working so far.
We bought one rose for the backyard that was on sale and a beautiful red color and for now we have it in a pot until we redo our landscaping (big undertaking) in the future:
I also have my annual tomatoes and herbs growing on my upstairs back deck:
So this concludes my “Agriculture Report” and I just realized I did basically Promise John a Rose Garden – ha!
I haven’t shared an updated tour of my quilting/crafting studio in quite a while. I thought I’d share a current studio tour and share how I’ve decorated and equipped it with many thrifted items bought second hand from charity thrift shops (local and found during my travels).
My studio is located in the former Primary Bedroom of the house. A couple years ago my husband John and I decided we didn’t need that much room for our main bedroom and moved to a smaller bedroom. Originally it was a carpeted room but in summer 2024 John put in a floor.
Here is the current view of the studio when you walk in the double doors:
The cutting table is comprised of two adjustable desks from World Market set at their highest position. John built a shelf that connects the two desks to provide additional storage.
Underneath I store the bulk of my yarn collection which includes a lot of thrifted yarn(last year I came across cheap collection of gorgeous and usually pricey fingerling weight sock yarn in brand new condition at a thrift store that I couldn’t leave the shop without for the imaginary day I start knitting socks…):
I use wine crates from liquor stores (which I either got for free or for a couple dollars) to store my fat quarter fabric collection (which I admit is a bit obscene…). And no I did not drink the wine formerly in the crates in order to obtain empty crates, ha!
John built the shelving unit below the wine crates in the first image above where I store some of my cotton fabric yardage; as well as the ironing station in the second photo.
Most of the art in my studio is thrifted including these two pieces that I love:
If you aren’t familiar with my story I am a widow who moved from my awesome life in Oregon to Colorado in 2019 to begin anew and reinvent my life (which included meeting John, a widower, and starting a new journey). Early on I had doubts about my big life move but signs like this remind me that I am where I need to be; and to “embrace new beginnings”.
I have a thing for fabric scraps (though I’ve culled my ridiculous collection of fabric scraps over the years and donated many bags of scraps to charity thrift shops) and I store my fabric scraps by theme in thrifted baskets in a shelving unit that John built me a couple years ago.
I have most of the baskets labeled with wooden tags and thrifted adhesive letters. In addition to fabric scraps I have some specialty fat quarters and my collection of fabric panels. The two baskets on the second to last shelf are gifts from an Oregon based friend who had her friend crochet me these baskets/bags from recycled plastic shopping bags!
Here is another shelf unit that John made using plumbing pipes and wood. It houses more of my cotton fabric yardage as well as thrifted various thrifted fabrics to include silks, wools and synthetic home decorating fabrics. On the bottom shelf are containers filled with projects waiting to be made.
The shelving unit contains a very important item in my studio: the candy bowl which I found at a thrift store:
Occasionally you need a sweet treat while you are creating!
My sewing table was a free table I got from neighborhood online forum offering used items for free or for sale. John made a topper for it to expand the surface area and put openings in the table to run cords through.
Above the table is the sign: “Happiness is homemade” that I found at a thrift store a couple years ago. It always makes me smile.
In addition to several of my sewing machines, I have various supplies, goodies, a radio and a bluetooth speaker for crafting music, on my sewing table;
All the jars and containers on the desk as well as the decorative plates holding pincushions, etc. are thrifted. Many of the buttons in the jar of buttons and the little spools of ribbon in a jar are thrifted. The wooden sewing box that says “Clarks…Making Cotton” is from John’s beloved grandmother. I am honored to have it my sewing space and I store larger buttons in it.
John built a little extension table for my sewing table and under that table I store MORE containers with projects waiting to be made; and projects in a thrifted basket.
I love the view out my studio windows next to the sewing table. I am surrounded by Aspen trees and it feels like I am in a treehouse.
The little art flags that hang on the window were discovered for $1 all bunched up at a thrift shop. They appear to be images painted on colored kraft paper and using a low heat iron I was able to smooth all the little flags out and hang them at the window.
Above the windows on each side of the sewing table are shelves that John built filled with more thrifted baskets and various decorative boxes storing supplies and fabric scraps:
The area rug in the studio is a Ruggable washable rug that I found for $5 at a thrift store. These rugs retail for over $300! I laundered the rug and purchased the special rug pad for the rug from Ruggable so it would lay properly.
Do you see the exercise ball and thrifted basket to the left of the rug? In addition to a sewing studio, I also use this space as my morning stretching/yoga studio, layout out a yoga mat.
John gave me his old bar mini fridge (which I’ve liberally covered with stickers from my travels) and I added in a tea station to the top of it which includes thrifted containers and baskets for tea and biscuits; and thrifted mugs for tea:
Must have tea and biscuits while crafting!
Maybe I need more tea and biscuits as here is the design wall in my studio that John built which is EMPTY right now as I finish up sewing the binding down on the Pieces of Colorado quilt (see the post Quilt in Progress: “Pieces of Colorado” Update #2):
And finally, the tierneycreates Beastie (made by Helen @ Crawcraft Beasties) hangs out in my studio in her “apartment” box made by John.
The antique sewing machine music box in the “apartment” below was a thrift store find gifted to me by my stepson and his wife a couple years ago.
Thanks for stopping by for an updated studio tour and to see what I’ve collected from thrift shops for my studio!
For the second year in a row I am participating in the annual group Ovarian Cancer Charity Fundraising Quilt headed up by the lovely Australian based quilter Kate C. @talltales from chiconia.
I made two 12.5 inch by 12.5 inch blocks and shipped them off to Australia on Monday. (By the way I have a really good friend and penpal in Austria that I regularly mail letters and I made sure to clearly enunciate the country to the my regular postal clerk and make sure envelope was going to “Australia” this time and not “Austria” – ha! My Austrian based friend years ago sent me a funny magnet with a kangaroo with a slash mark over it that read: “there are no kangaroos in Austria”!)
This year’s theme is “Tealing All Our Stories” and we are to make bookcase shelf themed blocks. Check out Kate’s blog I linked in the first paragraph if you’d like to see some of the blocks she’s received from other quilters around the world.
So if you haven’t guessed, we needed to make teal, the color used to represent Ovarian Cancer Awareness, the feature color in our blocks.
I had a fat quarter of tiny stripe pattern Figo fabric I won at QuiltCon in February (see my post QuiltCon February 2025, Phoenix Arizona if you’d like to read about my first trip to QuiltCon), that reminded me of pages in a book seen from the side of a book and that was my inspiration.
I created two blocks of stacked books view from the pages side:
I happened to have in my fabric stash some unusual ombre teal fabric that sort of looked like mountains and I used that as the. background for my book stacks to represent Colorado where I live.
In order to unify all the bookcase blocks, Kate asked us all to put a 1 inch finished border around our blocks and that is why you see a cream border. She also asked us to use a dark teal as the background for whatever image we create for our blocks.
Fingers crossed the blocks arrive safe to Kate’s house in Australia (and don’t wander over to Austria, ha!)
If you are interested in the progress of this quilt please follow Kate’s blog @talltales from chiconia; and I will try to post an update on the quilt when she has the layout complete (she does a tremendous amoung of work on these annual charity quilts, the rest of us just have to make a couple blocks and ship them off!)
Postscript
I’ve fallen a bit behind in blogging as we’ve been enjoying the late Spring/nearly Summer warm weather and going on some fun holidays and roadtrips – from day long trips where we come home at night to trips over several days. I’ll blog about some of them in the future.
This past weekend we went to the community garage/yard sale and picked up some fun items, each for $2:
A leather top hat for John (for fun or costume wear):
And a lovely cast iron Japanese tea pot set for me:
In this post I want to share an update on my Colorado themed quilt, which will be hung in our guest room, that is made from panels I picked up during the 2021 Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop.
The quilt arrived back from the professional longarm quilter who used an Aspen Tree Leaf pattern (Aspen trees are so Colorado and I have several in my yard) for the quilting.
I have the binding sewn on as well as the hanging sleeve. I just need to sew them down and then hang the quilt!
Speaking on Aspen trees, the Aspen trees next to the windows in my studio (on the 3rd level of our house) are in full bloom now as are all the other deciduous trees in our backyard.
Once again I feel like I am crafting in a treehouse!
Postscript
I mentioned above I just need to sew down the binding and then it is done. But alas, that will have to wait because first I need to work on two blocks for the group Ovarian Cancer fundraiser quilt that Australian-based quilter Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia is spearheading again (see her post Ovarian Cancer Quilt 12: Tealing All Our Stories).
I think I am the only U.S. based quilter participating again this year. Correct me if I am wrong and you are participating.
The theme is a bookcase quilt and since I love books (and libraries…and bookcases), I had to participate! I’ll share my blocks in a future post. Check out Kate’s blog if you want to see some of the blocks the group working on this charity quilt has made so far.
We recently returned from a trip to Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina to visit friends in Asheville and to go on a road trip to Charlotte, NC to see Billy Idol and Joan Jett in concert at the PNC Music Pavillion. Yes you read that correctly, rockers Billy Idol (68 years old) and Joan Jett (66 year old) are still rocking in their late/mid 60s!
The Concert
Joan Jett opened for Billy Idol and performed her catalogue of hits (most of the songs I knew). We had fun singing along to songs like “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, “I Love Rock’n’Roll, and “Bad Reputation” (if you are familiar with this song, we were all loudly singing, off key, “I don’t given a d*mn about my bad reputation…”, ha!).
My favorite performance of her opening act was her cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s song “Everyday People”:
A very timely performance with all the interesting stuff going on in my country the past 5 months…
Sometimes I’m right, I can be wrong. My own beliefs are in my song. A butcher, a banker, a drummer, and then makes no difference what group I’m in.
I am everyday people! (yeah yeah)
There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one for living with the black one trying to be a skinny one Different strokes, for different folks! And so on, and so on, and scooby-dooby-doo. (oooh, sha sha!)
We’ve got to live together! I am no better, and neither are you. We are the same whatever we do. You love me, you hate me, you know me and then, you can’t figure out the bag I’m in.
I am everyday people! (yeah yeah)
There is a long hair who doesn’t like the short hair for being such a rich one that will not help the poor one. Different strokes, for different folks! And so on, and so on, and scooby-dooby-doo. (oooh, sha sha!)
We got to live together! There is a yellow one who won’t accept the black one who won’t accept the red one who won’t accept the white one. Different strokes, for different folks! And so on, and so on, and scooby-dooby-doo. (oooh, sha sha!)
I am everyday people!
Billy Idol was amazing as was his band. I smiled when he said his granddaughter was in the audience. Mr. “White Wedding”, “Dancing with Myself”, “Eyes Without a Face” is a grandpa now – awesome!
I took a couple video clips but they weren’t worthy an upload to YouTube but if you want to virtually experience the concert I attended here’s the full concert someone posted from the week previous in Tampa, Florida – you can see grandpa Billy rock out (warning: there is some profanity in the performance):
We road tripped from Asheville, NC to Charlotte, NC in our friends’ electric car – a Ford Mustang EV. It was my first time going on a road trip in an electric car and the 130+ mile (209 km) road trip was very smooth!
We arrived to the concert early so we had fun “tailgating” in the concert parking lot having a picnic from the car’s trunk/boot.
Touring the Post Hurricane Helene Devastation
In late September 2024 Hurricane Helene devastated large sections of Asheville, NC (in addition to other areas of North Carolina and surrounding states) but our Asheville based friends live in a housing community on a higher elevation than the lower areas impacted by the river flooding. During the hurricane and after they lost utilities (water, power, cellular service) but their home was not damage. Their previous car however was destroyed by a fallen tree. Thank goodness they were not in it!
While we were visiting Asheville for a couple days before heading to Charlotte they drove us around some of the areas devastated by the floods that still have not recovered.
I took a bunch of photos but they seemed too sad to post, homes and business lost (not to mention all those lives lost) so I thought I’d just share a couple to give you a little taste of what I saw.
On a happier note, my friend S and I spent a day during our visit thrifting and going to bookstores while John and E toured whiskey and cigar bars. We met up for dinner at a sweet outdoor eatery in the River Arts District in downtown Asheville.
Cats Obsessed with Lace
Our friends have two cats and the cats are obsessed with LACE! This was discovered accidentally when S trimmed some lace off a skirt she didn’t want and left on the floor. The cats battled over the lace. She had to cut it into two pieces so each cat could have their own piece of lace!
Here is one of the kitties enjoying their evening “lace time”:
Garden Tour
I’ll close out this post with some images from an amazing eatery in Asheville we visited for breakfast one morning – Sunny Point Cafe.
The restaurant has a wonderful onsite garden where they grow and harvest the produce that they serve at the eatery! You can eat in the garden or just wander around after eating in the main restaurant. It was so zen I didn’t want to leave!
Back in August 2021, John and I drove around the southern Front Range area of Colorado to visit the quilt shops in the 2021 Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop.
Each quilt shop on the shop hop had a small panel, displaying something about Colorado, that you could purchase for $5 and make part of a Colorado themed quilt or use individually in project:
And then there were several Colorado themed larger panels to select from that you could buy to make a Colorado themed quilt including this one shown in a sample quilt in one of the shop hop quilt shops:
Here is another sample quilt using the same panel combined with the small panels each quilt shop participating in the shop hop had available:
While attending the 2021 Rocky Mountain Shop Hop, I bought this panel (“Welcome to Colorful Colorado”), collected the small panels from each quilt shop we visited along the shop hop, and bought this pattern – Pieces of Colorado.
And then they all sat in a box together for 4 years…
Recently I decided to finally make the quilt (which is wall hanging/small lap quilt sized) for our basement guest room which I was in the process of redecorating. Originally due to some waterfront/boating art John had from his previous life, the room was ocean/beach/sea themed. But we are “landlocked” in Colorado and the closest ocean is roughly 1000 miles away; and I thought we needed a theme that better represents where we live.
So I thought for our visitors, the guest room should celebrate Colorado as well as the amazing National Parks we have in my country.
At a later time I will reveal the remodeled guest room (and all the National Park themed art I havw added) but for now here is MY version of the Colorado themed quilt (“Pieces of Colorado”) in progress (I finished the quilt top) that is going above the bed in the guest room:
In addition to the large and small panels, I used several yards from my collection of Peppered Cottons in green and saffron. I will be using a brown Peppered Cotton for the quilt binding to “frame” the quilt.
Here’s the backing fabric that I found thrifting. It is a heavy cotton duvet that I disassembled to salvage the fabric:
So right now the quilt top and back are with my long arm machine quilter getting professionally quilted. I can’t wait to put the binding on and hang it on the wall (I will make a hanging sleeve for the back) when it returns!
Postscript
Here is the inspiration for the “Welcome to Colorful Colado” panel:
This sign is located at various borders between Colorado and neighboring states.
It was also the 2021 commemorative Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop pin that I got when I completed my “passport” by visiting all the shops on the shop hop!
Sending thanks out to those of you who’ve followed the journey of this quilt completion. A special thanks to Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia who inspired me to work on this quilt as part of the monthly ScrapHappy online group she helps run (the blocks for my quilt are entirely of fabric scraps, many of them from other quilters).
If Kate hadn’t inspired me, the quilt might have continued to be an old UFO (unfinished object for the non-quilters) for endless years!
Quick story behind this quilt: I began working on blocks for this quilt at a quilt retreat back in 2017 (yes 8 years ago) when several of my quilting buddies were working on blocks from Lori Holt’s book Farm Girl Vintage. I am not into the “farm girl” aesthetic but the blocks looked so fun; and I was drawn into the fun and excitement my friends were having making the blocks.
But the blocks got put away to gather dust (because I didn’t know what I would do with such a quilt that didn’t fit into my more Bohemian decor aesthetic) until I did an audit a couple years ago of my UFOs and decided I should finish the quilt.
And now finally the quilt is done!
I hate binding quilts and decided to try out of new technique for binding the quilt per this YouTube video:
It worked and I ended up with nice crisp corners, which I’ve always struggled with:
The finished quilt measures approximately 96 by 97 inches (2.44 meters by 2.46 meters) and it was a bit unwieldy to try and photograph for this post. First I tried photographing it on my front porch draping it over the railing and photographing the front and back on the rail:
Then John got a long board of wood from his woodworking project pile along with a couple of woodworking clamps and clamped the quilt on. He held it above his head while I took photos.
Yes there is a shadow up top but I didn’t want to ask him to redo it in another location. This photo is good enough!
And here is a little section of the quilted back of the quilt with the Cortez Mill Flour sacks and disassembled recycled duvet cover:
So my future plan is to send a photo to the Cortez Flour Mill so they can see what I did with their flour sacks!
I thought I’d jump back into blogging by sharing my experience attending the Modern Quilt Guild (MSC)’s annual quilting convention, QuiltCon, for the first time. The convention was held in Phoenix, Arizona in February 2025. (Put the kettle on and get your cuppa ready, this is a long post…)
I’ll also share a couple extracurricular activities we did in Phoenix while there for the convention, which included a trip to the Desert Botanical Garden, the Phoenix Art Museum, and one of the Frank Lloyd Wright workshops Taliesin West.
QuiltCon 2025
I attended QuiltCon for the first time with a quilting friend (who was also a “first timer”) and our partners, and saw some really amazing modern quilts! The quilts were hung from curtained panels and when I first walked into the huge convention space and it looked like there were miles and miles of quilts to see!
So many impressive quilts and here is a tiny sampling of some of my favorites:
The artists/quilt names on these quilts in image order: Jennifer Candon/Chasing Rainbows (who had many fabulous quilts shown at QuiltCon), Steve Moe/Finally They Danced, Jane Rundle/Nurturing the Pod, Irene Roderick/Desperados, Emilie Trahan/Out of the Blue, Jennifer Candon/Modern Dresden, Jenny Hayes/Fokus, Wendy L. Starn/What Did We Do? What Will You Do?, Nikki Woolsey/Wild Geese.
In addition to the endless rows of quilts, there was a large (and seemingly endless) Vendor area:
Look at all those handmade bag samples in the image above! I wanted to buy all the patterns to make the bags (but I did not as I have many bag patterns already that have not been opened!)
Wandering around the Vendor area I got to meet several favorite quilt book authors and fabric designers including Elizabeth Hartman, Anna Marie Horner, Denyse Schmidt, and Blair Stocker. It was fun to meet/chat with the authors of some of my favorite patterns, books and fabric.
During QuiltCon, there were numerous interactive “Make and Take”s at various vendor booths where you could make a project for free (they supplied all the materials). I worked on an embroidered eyeglass case project at one of the “Make and Take” tables, but I’ve not finished it…
The samples in the images below are the talented instructor’s work.
Quiltcon was 4 days long but I only attended Day 1. Next year I will return to Quiltcon (which will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina), this time with a group of quilting friends, and likely attend the full 4 days. There is so much to see and do! (John will stay home this time).
Desert Botanical Garden
We attended 1 day of Quiltcon but we were in Phoenix, Arizona for a total of 5 days. Before QuiltCon we spent time hanging out with my friend’s sister (who we stayed with for a couple days) and visiting various sites of “artistic inspiration” like the botanical garden, the art museum, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s workshop.
My friend, her sister and I spent a day at the Desert Botanical Garden enjoying their collection of cactuses and other desert flora (the guys were golfing at one of the zillion golf courses in Phoenix).
However what really stood out during our visit to the botanical garden was their exhibit Toward 2050.
Here’s an excerpt from the Toward 2050 page linked in the paragraph above:
“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.”
The exhibit was breathtaking and I walked the entire labyrinth (which took over a half hour to the center and back) that the handmade flags were arranged in. Photos will not do the my experience justice but here are some of my photos from the experience:
After I attended I found out from a friend that she made a flag for Toward 2050. I wish I’d known early so I could have found it and sent her a photo.
Phoenix Art Museum
We spent a half day at the Phoenix Art Museum and John, the woodworker, fell in love with an amazing piece of wood art we came upon in the exhibits:
I hope John makes a piece like this someday!
Taliesin West
One of the major highlights of our extracurricular activities before we went to Quiltcon, was visiting renown architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s workshop Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.
A blurb on it from the franklloydwright.org website:
“Wright’s beloved winter home and desert laboratory was established in 1937 and diligently handcrafted over many years. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged, Taliesin West possesses an almost prehistoric grandeur. It was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, making it among the most personal of the architect’s creations.“
The venue ticket included a self guided audio tour that was amazing. It included a primer on basic architectural concepts so you could better appreciate what you were viewing.
I took a ridiculous amount of photos but here is a sampling of my tour experience:
John is a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design style and he was very naughty in the gift shop!
One thing I did realize after visiting Taliesin West is that Frank Lloyd Wright was heavily inspired by Japanese aesthetics and design. I appreciate his work but I am thinking he sort of “reinvented the wheel”.
Other Adventures in the Phoenix Area
My friend’s sister has a winter home (she lives in Colorado during the warm months and Arizona during the cold months) in a gorgeous suburb of Phoenix in a horse owner/rider community surrounded by amazing walking trails. Each day we went for a walk on the trails (and I got fresh Meyer lemons from a tree along the trail!) and we visited the horse ranch where my friend’s sister keeps her horses.
The home we stayed in was comfy and well appointed with two fun German Shepherds to play with!
Photo above: One of the pups needed to know where were at all times (the “herding” instinct), and ambushed us while we were in bed!
One day we walked a couple miles on the trail with the dogs to the local outdoor taco stand which had delicious food and “horse parking”!
Nothing like riding your horse to the taco stand!
My visit to Phoenix was pretty memorable and I so appreciated the hospitality of our hosts and my friend for making it happen.
I did make a “hostess gift” for our arrival – a set of horse themed drawstring bags:
And then upon returning home, I made a “thank you” gift primarily focused on her sister’s husband who had taken our partner golfing three days in row – a golf themed drawstring bag filled with a sleeve of his favorite golf balls:
Okay you’ve probably worked through your pot of tea now so I will end this long post.
Postscript
I’m working on overhauling my blog and rethinking it. It’s been 12+ years of blogging and I want to freshen it up as well as clean out some old stuff.
It might seem like progress is slow but I now have 39 completed blocks on the sunflower themed granny square blanket I work on whenever I am in the car, traveling on a plane or train, or just hanging out somewhere.
Here’s what August 2024 looked like:
And here we are in January 2025:
39 blocks done! I would have more done but there are 4 time consuming rows to each block (which I work on in batches “production style”).
I have a stash of 23 more blocks completed through row 3 to finish up that will bring me to 62 blocks:
Then I will decide when I have 62 blocks done just how big I want to make the blanket.
For now I’ll keep taking my zipper bag with my blocks in progress and yarn around with me!
I know, I know, but a week or so ago they were taking down the Christmas tree display at my favorite library (see my 2023 post O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Trees… for images of their awesome 2023 holiday season display) and I just had to run around and take photos of the 2024 themed Christmas tree displays before they all came down!
So here we go:
In case there are any you couldn’t figure out, they are in order: Beetlejuice, Winnie the Pooh, Super Mario, Garfield, Cat in the Hat, Charlotte’s Web, Curious George, How to Train Your Dragon, Little House on the Prarie, and Indiana Jones.
I remember seeing library staff in November setting up the trees. A lot of work and creativity goes into these trees each year. There were many more trees than I share above but many of them had been taken down by early January.
I do love my library and I appreciate they do special things like this:
And in the Women’s restroom they have free feminine products for the community:
The library is such a wonderful place!
Postscript
Just a little beginning of the year silliness: John and I love to go to the store HomeGoods and wander around looking at stuff we don’t need.
Well the other week we found these ridiculous items (my apologies if you already have these in your home or want to add them to your home) – a giant box of fried chicken sculpture, and a giant stack of pizza slice sculpture. We laughed pretty hard at these sights!
Also if you look closely at the image above, you will see on the floor a giant sculpture of a stack of Oreo cookies. Please note I used the term “sculpture” very loosely – ha!
“Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation.”
This post is a follow up to yesterday’s post 2024 Travels. When writing yesterday’s post looking back on my big travel events in 2024 I realized I left off a significant trip, an Oregon Coast road trip with our friends MJ and J.
This trip was significant because it was the first time I was able to return to Cannon Beach, Oregon, where my late husband and our dogs would visit yearly for vacation.
First John and I flew into Portland, Oregon and visited his son who lives there. It was awesome to see the quilt I gave my stepson on the sofa in his apartment, apparently being used and enjoyed 🙂
After a day and a half in Portland we drove our rental car to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast.
It was awesome and emotionally overwhelming to return to Cannon Beach. With John’s support I was able to visit many of the favorite places that my late husband Terry and I used to always visit including Center Diamond Fabric (the wonderful little quilt shop); the little cafe across from Center Diamond Fabric; the awesome bookstore the Cannon Beach Book Company (with a sofa!); and the Screw & Brew – a hardware store turned into a brew pup!
Although it was a bit of am overcast day, we also walked over to the beach so John could see Haystack Rock:
It was quite the emotional experience to return. Here is what I share on the Instagram post I did back in October 2024 on this return to Cannon Beach:
(I returned to) Cannon Beach for the first time in six years since my life changed forever in 2018. It was hard to be there, but it was good and healing. I got to return to my favorite quilt shop on the Oregon coast and have delicious hot chocolate in one of the cozy cafés of Cannon Beach. The library had a book sale AND we stopped at the bookstore! (Public library + independent bookstore in the same day = Bliss)
After our jaunt to Cannon Beach, we drove to Pacific City, Oregon to meet up with our friends MJ and J who we rented a home near the beach with for a couple days. After we got checked into our rental house we all walked to the beach to enjoy an amazing sunset:
From Pacific City we went on various days trips, roadtripping along the Oregon Coast for a couple days and returning to our home based in Pacific City. We went on some wonderful hikes, checked out various areas of the coastline, had lots of delicious seafood (Colorado is landlocked so whenever we are near the ocean we eat as much fresh seafood as we can!), and spent one morning doing some beach clean up and returning a jellyfish to the sea.
It was a memorable trip and I think it was healing to return to Cannon Beach. In the spring this year I am going to do something big (and hopefully healing) and return to Central Oregon/Bend, Oregon for the first time in 6 years. Until now I’ve been emotionally unable to return to the place I lived for 14 years and where I left a piece of my heart (and maybe my soul) when I moved away in 2019 after my husband suddenly passed at my home there in 2018.
But as I’ve mentioned to my other widow friends (both online and in person): “Remember: We can do brave things, and we are stronger than we realize!”
Here’s a summary of my travel adventures in 2024. I’ve included the link to the blog post about our adventure if you’d like to read/re-read about that specific adventure.
I noticed there are some day trips I posted on my @tierneycreatesInstagram account but never blogged about (I just discovered this when I went searching for these imaginary posts I thought I wrote on my blog!)
It was a pretty fun year of travel!
Postscript
John just read this post and reminded me I left off a major trip we had in October 2024 – to Portland, Oregon to visit his son and an Oregon Coast road trip! It was momentous trip and I think I will do a post on that trip for tomorrow’s post 🙂
I’ve enjoying seeing galleries/summaries of what my blogging buddies made in 2024 and thought I would share the same type of post. I thought I would share my finished projects (no other work to be done on them) and my open/ongoing projects (that I hope to finish in 2025):
Finished
Curiously I did’t finish a lot of projects in 2024 but here are the crafting projects I actually finished 2024:
Unfinished
Here are the pieces I began in 2024 and didn’t finish; or worked on in 2024 that I started before 2024:
You might be thinking: “Tierney, you didn’t get a lot done in 2024”! That’s what I am thinking but then I did a lot of traveling in 2024 – see my next post.
I’ve enjoyed the posts some of you have written showing how you’ve reinvented, remodeled, revitalized, refurbished, rescued, etc. an item that was headed to the rubbish heap/landfill; and made it useable again. I wanted to share how I rescued/remodeled a blanket that was not working.
During the pandemic I discovered at Costco these magically soft and cozy blankets: Pendleton Sherpa Fleece Blankets. They were on sale and I bought it in King size.
Found this photo on eBay, I bought the King size version
Photo credit – eBay
Well the blanket has become worn out and I ended up buying a newer one a couple years ago. It is still a super fleecy cozy and I was using it as a blanket in the basement, however it was cumbersome to use to snuggle under on a sofa as it was king-sized blanket (meant for a king-sized bed).
My initial options were to 1) keep using the huge bulky blanket; or 2) donate the blanket. I was leaning towards option 2 but then I realized that the charity thrift shop I donated it too would like throw it own as it the blanket was worn down in several areas and it might not be resellable.
So I decided to cut the king-size blanket in half, overlocked stitch the edge and turn it into TWO blankets!
I don’t have a serger so I had to overlock stitchthe blanket and then I trimmed as close to the edge as I could to clean up the fibers (I didn’t take a photo).
John and now each have a cozy large lap-sized fleece blankets to snuggle under when watching TV in the basement!
Cabinet Building in Progress
While I was remodeling a blanket, John has been busy in his workshop making a cabinet for the upstairs primary bathroom. For years I’ve just had shelves about the “water closet” room the toilet in the primary bathroom resides in, and finally John is adding a cabinet.
Here are some images of his project in progress:
When he finishes the cabinet I’ll share the completed piece in its own future blog post.
tierneycreates 