Two Sundays ago, right before the Super Bowl game, I decided that I needed a studio refresh after I had completed my year long purge of my fabric stash.
It began in Winter 2023 while I was recovering from a broken ankle where I realized that 1/2 my fabric stash was fabric that other quilters had generously given me over the years. This happened with my fabric scrap stash and my UFO pile and I purged and donated what I didn’t want any longer.
It was now time to get really honest with my fabric yardage stash (again, as I’ve had other purges); and a couple Sundays ago I finished what I began in early 2023.
In addition to the fabric purge, I did some reorganization in my studio.
Here is my studio the morning of Super Bowl Sunday:
I realized I needed more vertical storage so I repurposed some of the wine crates I was storing scraps or fat quarters in and had John mount them to the wall:
And here is the “refreshed” studio right before it was time to sit down and watch the game:
Someone (or someones) are going to have a very happy surprise at the charity thrift store as I donated bags and bags of fabric. I now mainly have fabrics that I have selected/purchased or those others have given me that I REALLY LOVE.
I mentioned in my previous post What’s Going on in the Studio, that I was planning on enlarging the small lap quilt/wall hanging size quilt I made Go Boldly (quilt pattern by Elisa’s Back Porch Designs) which was 56 inches by 56 inches (142 x 142 cm), since I had a lot of extra blocks:
Well, here is the expanded quilt after I laid out additional blocks on my design wall (I still need to sew them together to the existing quilt):
As part of what’s up on the design wall is a sewn together quilt and the other part are individual blocks, I can’t tell you exactly how big the expanded version will be (without doing a lot of pesky math subtracting seam allowances, etc.). However what is currently up on the design wall measures approximately 86 inches x 86 inches (218.5 cm x 218.5 cm).
Believe or not I still have 48 sections leftover and I plan to make them into 12 blocks (each block has 4 sections) that I will piece together as part of the back of the quilt.
I’ll sew it all together after I finish machine quilting Strings Attached:
I thought I’d do a quick share of what is currently going on in my studio…
1) Sewing Machine Cleaning – it was time for a deep clean after I finished quilting SuperSymmetry Table Runner (see post SuperSymmetry Table Runner is Finished!):
2) Expanding Go Boldly – I decided to make Go Boldly bigger as I had more pieced blocks. Originally I was going to make two quilts with the block but now I think I will make one big one and then use any left over blocks for a pieced quilt back. I now have it up on the design wall to work on enlarging it:
Right now the quilt is 56 inches by 56 inches (142 x 142 cm) which is wallhanging or small lap size, but I should be able to bring it to large lap size or perhaps a bed size (perhaps…) with the expansion.
3) Strings Attached– I decided to go ahead and get it ready for machine quilting. I made the quilt sandwich with batting and backing fabric and I plan to just go ahead and machine quilt it with coordinating red thread and just get it done!
4) What Direction Do I Go – just waiting to start hand quilting in the evening in front of the TV. First I have to finish the gray granny square blanket I am working on in the evenings in front of the TV (see posts Guest Blog Post: Progress on “My Blanket” and Update on Some W.I.P.s on the crochet project). I received some awesome hand quilting advice from one of my blogging buddies and I cannot wait to start on it, I even put together my little hand quilting bag of supplies which is lying on top of the quilt in the image below:
I feel like I am really moving forward on my projects (because there are new ones I want to start but not allowing myself to until I finish these!) 🙂
All quilted and on the dining room/library table now!
After I finished quilting it and putting on the binding, I decided to launder it (and then try and iron out wrinkles) so it was ready for any future laundering after spills. I want it to be a “working” table runner that will stay on the table during a meal.
(Before company comes for dinner I will give it a better pressing, I was just so excited to put it on the table!)
I am plugging along with this great-to-work-on-while-watching-TV in the evening project. I’m working on attaching the 7th row of blocks. It will be an 8 by 10 blanket when done as I made 80 granny squares. I will add an extra border or two of the same yarn I am using as the lattice (to attach the granny squares).
As I mentioned in that previous post, I decided to use a collection of traditionally pieced “orphan blocks” that my friend Wendy gave me as the backing for this table runner.
I figured that if I got a stain on the front of the runner while entertaining, I could flip it over and use the other side!
I’ve completed the machine quilting of the table runner and just need to sew the binding strips together, sew on the binding, and sew down the binding.
For the quilting I just went with a simple double crosshatch pattern (no that is not a real pattern name, I just made it up on the spot), following the lines of the pieced blocks.
I plan to press it, ha! It just came off the machine and I just finished trimming off the excess batting and backing so it is pretty wrinkly!
I am so looking forward to hand quilting this quilt (yes I decided to hand quilt it)!
I got the batting and backing put together with the quilt top to make the “quilt sandwich”. I’ve also auditioned some threads (I plan to use multiple and to use pearl cotton weight) for the hand quilting.
Other WIPs Growing Inpatient As They Sit in Queue…
I have two more quilt tops awaiting quilting by me:
I haven’t decided on machine vs. hand quilting but if I do hand quilt it I have some cool threads I collected many years ago I want to use.
I will get to these two quilt tops eventually – ha!
I’ve been trying not to start any additional MAJOR projects before finishing my existing WIPs…but then some small projects might sneak in…you know how us crafters are!
Oh Mike wants me to tell you that he’s happy he doesn’t have to fill in for me with blogging since I seem to be back at it again (see his recent post Guest Blog Post: Humans Traveling and Dog Camp).
This leaves him more time for napping in the sun, on fleece blankets, in the upstairs bedroom (with the occasional waking up to intensely bark at people walking by and delivery trucks coming into the neighborhood).
Recently I mentioned in the postNew Use for the “Big Closet” , that I moved my fabric storage out of a closet and into my studio (so I could easily see what I have in my fabric stash and “shop at home”!). I thought I’d share the latest set up of my tierneycreates studio which is our former Master Bedroom that we turned into my studio in 2022 (see postA “New” Studio).
Here is the view when you first walk into the studio:
Here you can see my obsession with color and Aurifil thread (the color chart mounted on the wall is the Aurifil palette/catalogue):
If you are new to this blog and curious about that color wheel quilt I made, here is a blog post on it – The Colour Wheel Quilt is Done.
Here is my fat quarter and fabric scrap storage area:
Ironing station, cutting table and pegboard storage area:
Here is where I am storing my fabric, sorted by either designer or type (including solid colors, batik, etc.):
Here is my sewing table:
I probably should have turned on the light above for better lighting of the image but you get the general idea.
And here is the design wall:
Right now the room is carpeted, because it used to be a bedroom, and the plan in 2024 is to remove the carpet and install hardwood floors. I am also thinking of painting it a white or cream to brighten/improve light reflection.
Again, it’s been a while since I’ve written any posts for my blogging topic category – The Library Stackwhere I share my latest stack of local library books I’ve borrowed.
In this quick post I thought I would share my latest stack, recently acquired when I browsed the library “unrestrained” (by common sense and no longer being hindered by hobbling around in a walking book):
Yes it’s a bit ridiculous and I am not sure what happened to me while browsing (I guess I had an “out of body” experience) the library. It was the first time I was able to drive myself to the library and browse independently since I broke my ankle in January 2023.
Surprisingly I was able to haul all these books to the library’s check out station using a tote bag (and taking the elevator, there was no way my ankle was going to get me all the way down the library stairs!).
My plan is to flip through these books while I have breakfast each morning.
I think that is all the time I should allow this stack as I need to keep working on finishing my Colour Wheel Quilt that I most recently blogged about in this post Update on the “Colour Wheel” Quilt.
I just finished wrangling the quilt, with just the batting attached (to act as interfacing), under the sewing machine to machine applique down all those letters. So I am moving forward despite distraction from my latest (and unrestrained) “Library Stack”!
I use color in art quilts intuitively: selecting “what feels right” for a piece. I am inspired by combinations found in nature, color combinations that I see in publications, and colors that I enjoy seeing together.
Below are a couple photos from my inspiration board in my studio:
I also have a palette that I love to use, an example is in my quilt below The Lesson & The Equation:
You can also see my palette repeated in this poster from first solo show in April 2019:
(It’s funny but it took a while for me to realize that I actually have a palette that I repeat!)
That being said, I have studied “color theory” in both formal art quilting classes as well as by reading many books. For example I love Joen Wolfrom’s book Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color in Quilts (2000), the first book I ever read on color theory.
In order to challenge and “break the rules” when creating innovative art quilts, first you have to understand the rules! Although it might be disinteresting to some of the students in my workshop, it is a foundation of artistic creation and one I should cover during my workshop.
I realized that if I am going to teach an art quilting class next year (see post A Year of Finishes: The Pivot) I need to brush up on color theory. I thought the best way to do this was to create a project I found in the book Quilt Color Workshop by T. Bruecher, B. Greenberg, L. Goldsworthy, and J. Adams (2014), that I borrowed from the library.
I am making the Colour Wheel Quilt on the front cover, which will serve as a class visual for my workshop as well as refresh my understanding of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors; and Pure Color, Tints, Tones, and Shades.
I have a lot of sorting to do to find the strips from my large collection of fabric scraps for the piece.
Currently I am sorting through my box of Reds, Purples, and Oranges to begin the project (I’ve organized many of my fabric scraps into wine crates that liquor stores have my kind enough to gift me or sell to me cheaply).
At first it was tedious, but then it became fun. It is a productive way to revisit my fabric scraps.
I am having fun mapping out the 6-day workshop I will give next year. I am planning to ship to the venue a large amount of my fabric scrap collection for the students to use if they like during the workshop. I am ready to move on from my crazy fabric scrap collection* and start digging into my crazy fat quarter collection (and create more scraps – ha!)
*75% of my fabric scrap collection is from fabric scraps others have given to me. So it is from others’ fabric choices. I am ready to primarily work from my fabric choices in the future…
Funny how you get sentimental over a sewing machine…
Last year I got my Bernina Aurora 440 QE (Quilter’s Edition) sewing machine serviced at a local Bernina dealer called Thread Play with Bernina. It just needed routine maintenance work and a “tune up”.
The awesome Bernina Service Technician told me when I picked it up after the service was complete, that I had sewn over SEVEN (7) MILLION STITCHES the machine!
Wow that is a lot of stitches!
I got really sentimental when I found that out as this Bernina sewing machine and I have been together since 2006, when I did a “24 months same as cash” financing to buy it. It was the most expensive sewing machine I ever imagined buying. But I’ve made so many things on the machine from utility quilts to art quilts; and lots of craft projects like bags, I definitely got my money’s worth!
I started quilting around 1999, while living in Seattle, WA, on a basic Singer sewing machine. A year or so later into quilting, I upgraded to a Husqvarna Viking sewing machine. I thought I had made it to the “big time” on that $300 machine!
As a beginner quilter I bought my fabric at discount stores like Joann Fabrics in Seattle. After a couple years of quilting and being influenced by other quilters, I began buying more expensive (and higher quality) quilting cotton fabrics from Quilt Shops.
By the time I moved to Bend, Oregon in 2005, I only bought fabric for quilt projects at Quilt Shops and one of those shops was Sew Many Quiltsin Bend, Oregon.
Sew Many Quilts is a Bernina Sewing Machine Dealer; and every time I shopped there I began to drool over the beautiful engineered (that Swiss engineering and all metal internal parts) Berninas they had on display. Too many conversations with the friendly staff led to the purchase of my first Bernina!
Fast forward to 2022: My original Bernina is over 16 year old and although I’ve faithfully maintained it (nearly annual maintenance/tune-up visits; and staying on top of routinely cleaning and oiling it myself after each major use), the technology and features of Berninas has significantly advanced.
And now I am drooling over the latest Bernina models…
In early 2022, John decides to buy me one of the latest Berninas – the Bernina 770 QE Plus:
It is an AMAZING sewing machine, light years in features and functions than my old Bernina 440 QE.
But it just sat around looking pretty on the table in my studio, yet not being used. Despite my amazing new sewing machine, I keep sewing on my old and beloved sewing machine with 7 million+ stitches on it!
Recently I made myself put away the Bernina 440 QE and start using my dream machine the Bernina 770 QE. I made myself “break up” with my “longtime sewing buddy” and give the new machine a chance.
As part of the A Year of Finishes – 2023project, I worked on quilting and adding the binding to a table runner I made from Batik fabric scraps (see post Update on Batik Scrappy Table Runner) for a friend which I promised a table runner many years ago.
I just did straight line quilting with a Walking Foot but the quilting was a breeze and so quick! It took half the time (or less) than it would have taken to quilt the table runner on my old Bernina.
I am now at the point where I am sewing down the binding so the table runner is nearly done and ready to ship off to my friend.
After she receives it I will share the full photo of the finished piece.
I hope my old Bernina is okay sitting around in its case not doing anything. Sigh, I love that machine so much but I need to be with more awesome technology now! My first Bernina sewing machine will always hold a place in my “sewing heart” and I am so grateful it got my through 7 million+ stitches!
(What I’ve left out from this story is how in 2021 I impulsively bought a used Juki sewing machine, but I’ll save that for another post once I figure out what I am going to do with the Juki. We ended up not getting along very well…)
Postscript
While I worked on the table runner, Mike the Miniature Schnauzer lounged under my studio cutting/work table.
He looked especially cute because he was snuggling with his favorite toy – Beary. Mike used to rip out the crotches of his toys (we do not know why) but he stopped a couple years ago. John and I thought the photo looks like Beary is looking gratefully at Mike because he still has his crotch – ha!
John, my resident woodworker, was working on a remodel of our mudroom/laundry room beginning with a new bench (see post From the Woodshop: A New Bench and Beginning of the Mudroom Remodel ) but he is waiting on a new toy (a track saw) before he starts on the next part, the broom closet.
So he’s kept himself busy on the weekends instead with a couple projects for my quilting studio.
NEW EXTENSION TABLE
First he replaced the small plastic extension table with a pine slab on top that I was using next to my sewing/crafting table, with an actual table:
Here is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer checking out the new table:
The table has the schnauzer-stamp-of-approval!
Mike reviews the quality of John’s work (ha!) when he isn’t napping under the cutting table in the center of my studio:
Hopefully you can spot Mike somewhere in the schnauzer pillow…
MINI FRIDGE STAND
In the post The Horizontal Diaries, February 8, 2023, I shared that John had set up a breakfast station in the upstairs guest room when I was spend a lot of time resting (being “horizontal”) with my left leg elevated after breaking my ankle and having surgery.
Well I am spending less time horizontal these days and more time up and about; and I returned to coming downstairs for breakfast each morning. So we decided to move the small refrigerator (or “mini fridge”) out of the guest room and into my studio!
John built a stand for it and now I have a drink and tea area in my quilting studio:
I think John is encouraging me to spend as much time creating in the studio I can with beverages and snacks…
DECORATIVE STORAGE
When John was first teaching himself (via books and YouTube videos) on how to make drawers, he made a lot of practice boxes to start. He recently repurposed a couple of those practice boxes as some additional storage for my studio:
I think we’ve run out of projects for my studio for now, so John is probably going to return to making cutting boards (see post Never Bored When Making Boards (From the Woodshop)) until his track saw shows up!
Hey this is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer guest blog posting.
Recently I had to help my humans add additional lighting to Tierney’s studio (the former main bedroom, see post A “New” Studio). Since it was a former bedroom, it was not set up for studio lighting, so the humans thought adding a two sets of track lights – one over Tierney’s ironing station; and one next to her design wall would help.
The above photo is the studio during the day and if you look for the faintly drawn green arrows on the ceiling you can see where the track lighting was planned.
So first of course I had to go to the home improvement store and supervise the humans while they picked out tracking lighting and supplies for installation:
What would the humans do without me?!?!
John installed the track lighting. He had to get into the attic (via the main bedroom closet) and drill the hole for the lighting box as well as set up the wiring.
The attic has layers of insulation so John got very creative on how to try and decrease the amount of attic insulation coming onto the floor of Tierney’s studio by attaching an aluminum pan to the “hole saw” attachment he had or his drill:
After a couple hours of drilling, wiring and lighting installation, Tierney’s studio was suddenly filled with light!
I was of course exhausted after all that human supervision and it was time for a nap:
Hello this is tierneycreates Beastie, filling in for Tierney who has just returned from a couple days in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mikelet my miniature Miniature Schnauzer and I went with her, and we consulted/helped with the unpacking and organization of her friend J’s studio in Fayetteville.
(if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post – I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).
Tierney and J’s Central Oregon based friend MJ also met up with us there (and Tierney and I got to fly on the same flight from Denver to Bentonville, AR as MJ had a connecting flight from Central Oregon).
J had moved from Central Oregon (where Tierney and I used to live) to Fayetteville, AR and then had a major life changes and did not have the time and chance to unpack and organize her quilting/art studio. She invited MJ and Tierney to visit her and MJ came up with the idea that we could also work on getting J’s studio to the point where she could do her art again.
Here I am on my way to Arkansas – Mikelet and I traveled in Tierney’s backpack:
After visiting with J and MJ a while when we first arrived in Arkansas, we headed upstairs to J’s studio to see what we were getting ourselves into…
Oh dear.
Looking around, I realized we’ve got a bit of work to do.
Well I went ahead and set up a temporary desk in the tissue box so I could blog about our project!
Next guest post I will show our progress, but for now I will close out this post with a funny sign J had in her studio:
Yesterday I discovered treasures in my fabric stash: a collection of what I believe to be South African Shweshwe fabrics.
Many years ago, an art quilting mentor in Oregon had shared with me some of the bounty of fabrics she inherited from her friend’s aunt who had died, who was a world traveler, and had collected fabrics fromall over the world during her travels (primarily small samples and pieces, rarely yardage/metres).
I was able to select a sampling of fabrics from the huge stash of fabrics and I was attracted to a collection of blue and white fabric fabrics, that had a lot of texture to them, that I thought were Japanese textiles.
I end up shoving this collection of blue and white fabrics away with my collection of Asian fabrics and I did use a some of them to make this simple blue and white quilt years ago, along with a large collection of Japanese blue and white fabrics I got from the inherited stash:
I was just trying to put to use a bunch of the awesome fabrics I got from the late aunt’s stash, little did I understand the treasures I was using up….
So, as I shared in the August 2021 post Awesome Surprise Treats in the Mail!, my South African based long time blogging friend Mariss (@fabrications) sent me some treats in the mail all the way from the other side of the world, which included these awesome Nelson Mandela fabric pieces:
At the time I received these fabrics (June 2021), I did not make the connection to the similar other fabric in my stash, which I had mistakenly labeled as “Japanese”.
But yesterday a light bulb went on in my head (oh how dim my brain has been sometimes) and when I came across that stash of blue and white fabrics again, I took a close look at the label most of them had on the back:
3 Leopards fabric by the Da Gama Textile Companyin South Africa! A little further research and the fabrics appear (and please correct me if my brain bulb is being dim) to be South African Shweshwe fabrics.
From the Da Gama Textile company’s website, here is some background on Shweshwefabrics if you are not familiar with Shweshwe:
Shweshwe has a history going back thousands of years, with the shweshwe we know and love today making its way to SA for the first time in the early 1840s. Today, we produce shweshwe by the traditional processes, using a weak acid solution to bleach out distinctive designs. This gives the fabric an authentic look and feel, as well as the distinctive smell that consumers know and love. Shweshwe is a unique Eastern Cape fabric and Da Gama Textiles is aptly referred to as the “home of the original shweshwe”. It is not uncommon to see patrons taste, smell and feel the fabric before committing to a sale, to ensure the cloth is authentic. Shweshwe is sold by folded bolt and not on a cardboard core in roll form, staying as close as possible to its roots of origin. All of these unique characteristics date back to the long sea voyages from the UK to South Africa, which formed the original transport route for this cloth. A strong starch is used to preserve the fabric, resulting in the hard handle and distinctive smell, which disappear after washing.
The Shweshwe fabrics I am lucky to have in my fabric stash are so beautiful and have an amazing texture and feel to them. Here is a sampling of some of the fabrics I have:
All the backs are marked with either a full or partial version of the Da Gama Textile Co. label.
And here is the whole pile including the Nelson Mandela fabric that Mariss sent me:
I revisited that blue and white quilt I made many years ago and winced to see fabrics such as this example below in the quilt:
I was thinking: “I should have saved that fabric for something really special.” But then I remembered that I look at/enjoy this quilt every day as it at the foot of my bed on my partner John’s grandmother’s antique chest. So the Shweshwe I’ve already used in my stash has gone to good use!
POSTSCRIPT
I found this awesome blog post from 2018 by Urbanstax called What is Shweshwe, that is worth a read:
Thought I would give a little update on the memory quilt I am making for a grieving friend who lost her mother, with her mother’s favorite clothes. Here is a link to the previous post if you’d like some additional background – Update on “The Challenge”.
Here is the quilt top completed that I shared in that previous post:
Originally I was thinking of sending it out for professional long-arm quilting and my friend was going to pay for the professional quilting. Then I got concerned with there being issues over the unusual fabrics I had used in the quilt (acrylic sweater, polyester scarf, velour robe, etc) with the long arm quilting machine.
I discussed it with my friend and she was good with me quilting it myself (though it would not be nearly as lovely quilting as a professional long-arm) and she would give me money for the cost of the batting, etc. She is not a quilter and does not have expectations of super high quality machine quilting on my part – whew!
Last week I was trying to figure out the logistics of domestic machine quilting and thought I better hand stitch some of the blocks that have special logos, embroidery, etc. to secure them instead of trying to machine quilt around the logos. I found some heavy embroidery thread from my stash of thread of Sashiko* stitching and did some lap quilting (in the middle of the hot summer):
(*but wait a minute Tierney: I’ve followed your blog a long time and I do not remember any posts about Sashiko stitching…Why yes, I have the supplies and started a piece like 10 – 12 years ago…but someday I am really going to pick the piece up again and then blog about it..)
It was fun and for a moment (yes only a wee moment), I actually considered hand quilting the entire quilt. But I came to my senses as that would not be very fun in the hot summer and I would like to get this quilt to my friend, who is facing some other life challenges right now, sooner than in 6 months to a year! (Exhibit A – “Seattle Scrappy” which took me over a year to hand quilt – Seattle Scrappy is Done!)
Speaking of hot summer, I recently got my first full sized tomato (as opposed to the grape or cherry tomatoes I have successfully grown) in my little container garden on my upper back deck and I was so happy!
As I joked on my @tierneycreates Instagram account, I wanted to frame it! As of this writing, I now have two full sized tomatoes. Right now both tomatoes are sitting as decoration on my kitchen counter and I better use them before they go bad!
I am also celebrating the appearance of the first sunflower in my garden. I love love love sunflowers and I’ve blogged about them several times in the past especially when I lived in my house in Oregon where I grew sunflowers every year.
Postscript
We are at that point in summer (August), where for me I am OVER summer and the heat, longing for Fall/Autumn.
I was so longing for Fall that I made one of my favorite colder weather dishes – chicken pot pie:
I made two because we help feed John’s recently widowed father (John’s stepmother suddenly passed at the end of 2021) who lives nearby and he loves my chicken pot pie!
Yes it was lovely (not) having the hot oven, in the heated up kitchen due to the hot oven, in the hot weather outside. Brilliant, eh?
Also just sitting around one evening with that memory quilt on my lap hand quilting it made me yearn for cooler weather.
But then I reminded myself that come early March, I am only dreaming of warm weather! I have to always remember to just embrace the current season I am in.
So back to relishing in my 2 full sized tomatoes and my sunflowers (smile).
I keep getting away from blogging as I seem to be having a very busy summer. We just returned from Chicago where we met up with my brother and his family for the weekend. Tomorrow my sister arrives and we go on a road trip to celebrate her birthday for a couple days and I show her a little of Colorado. Then the following week I head to a quilt retreat on the Washington coast.
I did in between traveling, get the quilt top done on the quilt I discussed in the post The Challenge… , of my friend’s late mother’s favorite clothes that she asked if I could turn into a quilt. As I shared in that post, here is what I started with:
The challenge laid out
The sweatshirt, T-shirt, jean jacket, jeans and shirts did not scare me. The sweaters, scarf and the velour robe did!
I bought woven interfacing (like 12 yards of it) and fused it to all the deconstructed clothing (my first step was to deconstruct the clothing).
Deconstructing the clothing
I was able to pull out the logos on the t-shirt and sweatshirts; and embroidery on the jean jacket. After fusing all the non denim fabrics to the woven interfacing, I was able to cut them into 5.5 inch x 5.5 inch blocks and create 10.5 inch by 10.5 inch 4-patch blocks.
What to do with these sweaters?
I did consult with my friend Wendy who suggested Solvy, a water soluble stabilizer. Wendy has a lot of experience with Solvy. Wendy did a little workshop for me at her house years ago and I made a little thread bowl with thread scraps like in her book Fast, Fun & Easy Incredible Thread-A-Bowls: 2 Techniques-5 Projects-Unlimited Possibilities. I still had a sample of it that she gave me.
image credit – amazon.com
Solvy is a little on the messy side and I decided to just try using the woven interfacing on a section of one of the sweaters as a test. It worked, not perfectly, but good enough. I was able to cut some hearts out of one of the sweaters, and then fuse the heart to a 10.5 inch by 10.5 inch block and satin stitch it down:
Ta da – was able to use one of the sweaters
I did not use the other two sweaters, I am returning them to my friend.
So here is the completed quilt top which I will machine quilt myself to batting and backing fabric; and then figure out what to use for binding.
up on the design wall
It’s not my greatest work as the fabrics were very challenging to work with and I cannot believe I added a thin polyester scarf to a quilt, but I did it! Don’t even get me started on the velour robe – the deconstructed fabric shed everywhere and was a disaster when I tried to press the blocks with it in it. But I made it work also…
It does look better in person, you’ll just have to trust me (smile).
When I get it quilted and the binding sewn down, I will give you all the final photo as well as what ended up being the measurements on the quilt.
My friend lost her Mom, who she was very close to, and she is having a difficult time with grief.
She’s kept some of her Mom’s favorite clothes and she asked if I would make a quilt out of them.
I agreed to making the quilt, without knowing what the clothes looked like as she planned to snuggle under the quilt and feel comforted by her Mom’s beloved clothing.
When she dropped off the clothing, I realized I had a challenge ahead:
I’ve made art quilts from recycled clothing; and when my Father passed, I made my brother and sister each a quilt from the T-shirts he used to wear, so I was comfortable with the idea of deconstructing clothing and turning them into fabric for a quilt.
However, I’ve never worked with knitted fabrics such as these in a quilt:
I think I can work the first two sweaters on the left into the design, but I might have to return the black and white sweater to my friend to just keep. I bought some special interfacing (and softer one, not the Pellon SF 101 I usually use that I think would be too stiff). I am sitting outside (lovely day) writing this blog post and sorry I do not feel like running upstairs and seeing exactly what interfacing it is – ha!
I also have this challenge – a scarf, but I think I can just use interfacing for it also and work it into the design:
I have found a pattern that I want to use (I think) that I will share in a future post. Right now I have deconstructed the clothing and sorted them.
I am looking forward to working her Mom’s favorite T-shirt and sweatshirts into the design, as well as her beloved velour robe:
And the embroidery from her Mom’s favorite jean jacket should be fun to incorporate also:
I’ve deconstructed the jean jacket, saving the embroidered flower separately and saving any salvageable denim as fabric for the quilt.
I’ll update you as I make progress on this challenge!
I welcome ANY THOUGHTS on how to best interface the sweaters to incorporate them into a quilt.
My friend the quilt artist, quilt book author, and quilting teacher, Wendy Hill (@wendyquilter) was generous enough to send me a package of good mail the other week.
Inside the package were fabric scraps (small and large to very large) and completed blocks from when she was fascinated with making “Taupe” quilts.
She had an article in the July/August 2007 publication Quilters Newsletter Magazine which discussed Taupe quilts and featured her amazing Taupe quilt – Isotaupe.
Here is an image of it from her website (she now uses Instagram as her primary social media) Wendy Hill Quilt Artist:
image credit: wendyhill.net
This image does not do it justice, it is amazing in person; and I first saw either this quilt or another Taupe quilt of Wendy’s at an art quilting show when I lived in Central Oregon. It was before I knew Wendy as a friend, she was an amazing local artist and quilt book author.
I got to know Wendy through running in to her at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon. I believe it was at the annual Pajama Sale (see this old post of mine for information about the annual Stitchin’ Post Pajama Sale where you would get huge discounts on fabric if you showed up in the PJs before 8:00 am – Pajama Sale and Finished Pieces, a lot of great memories of attending that each year…), when I was working on my first Taupe quilt and Wendy consulted on fabrics and admired my blocks in progress (I cannot find a picture of that quilt which I gave as a gift to someone long time ago…)
So Wendy knew of my love for Taupe quilts and how much I was blown away with her Taupe quilts; and recently she was Spring Cleaning and sent me the lovely package of Taupe fabrics and blocks from quilts in progress that she decided not to complete.
Example of some of the blocks she sent:
Included in the package was also this pile of blocks:
I wasn’t sure of what pattern these blocks were supposed to be until I laid them out on my design wall:
Wow! The picture I took does not do these blocks justice as they are in a collection of amazing Taupe fabrics.
I knew I wanted to finish this quilt and I thought I could disassemble one of the blocks to create a pattern. Then I discovered from Wendy that this was a quilt she designed called SuperSymmetry and it was published in the October 2010 edition of The Quilt Life.
Here is a picture of the quilt SuperSymmetry from Wendy’s gallery page on her website wendyhill.net:
image credit: wendyhill.net
Isn’t it breathtaking?
I think I have enough Taupe scraps to finish the quilt as well as some Taupe in my collection such as these Japanese Taupe fabrics in my stash:
HOWEVER I am supposed to be focusing on working on my Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks quilt (see post And then there were 88), but I’ve become very distracted by the contents of the package Wendy sent me!
I also came across this pattern recently, which would look wonderful with Taupe fabrics, in the January/February 2003 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine I picked up at a thrift store for 50 cents:
But I made myself put the contents of the package Wendy sent me away, so I can get back to finishing the quilt I am working on.
You know us creative types, we can be subject to easily distractible “squirrel’ moments like the dog Dug in the movie Up:
“I have just met you, and I love you” – one of my all-time favorite movies lines, as well as one of my all-time favorite animated movie!
I must focus on my current project.
I must focus on my current project.
I must focus on my current project.
SQUIRREL!
Postscript
If you would like to learn more about “Taupe” as a color/concept, here overview of Taupe, from Colorpsychology.org:
Taupe is considered to be intermediate shade between dark brown and gray, which shares similar attributes of both colors. However, taupe does not describe a single color, rather, it is used to describe a vast range of colors from dark tan to brownish gray. Taupe is a neutral hue — neutrals are created by combining complementary colors (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel) which results in desaturated brownish colors or mutes — likewise, taupe hues are achieved by mixing together umber and white pigment.
The word, taupe, originates from the French word, taupe, and the Latin word, Talpa, which translates to “mole,” as it was primarily used to describe moleskin. Notably, variations of taupe have appeared on the Pantone Color Trend Reports over the years. Recently, ‘Warm Taupe’ was featured on the Fall 2016 color palette. Taupe provides the perfect backdrop to complement and offset brighter colors.
A week or so ago my partner John and I came up with a crazy idea: We have a large master bedroom and only use about 1/2 of it (the other 1/2 I used for occasional yoga and daily stretches) – why don’t we switch my sewing/quilting studio to the master bedroom and we move our bedroom to a smaller guest bedroom down the hall?
Yes, we’d have to access the master bathroom through my studio but we could keep the closets the same as our clothes are inside the master bathroom in a walk in closet at one end. So all we’d have to do (well it is a BIG “ALL”) is move a couple rooms of furniture around…
THE OLD STUDIO (IN A SMALL BEDROOM)
First, here is what my OLD studio looked like in one of the smaller bedrooms upstairs in my house:
Here is a little video tour of my old studio I posted to Instagram last year. I uploaded it to YouTube:
As you can see I had it jammed packed with stuff, but I made it work!
So over the past 3 – 4 days, doing a little here and there and then doing some big moves, we got rooms switched around. It took another day to get art, etc. hung and finishing touches.
THE NEW STUDIO (IN THE FORMER MASTER BEDROOM)
Here is the reveal of my NEW master bedroom tierneycreates studio:
I really like the table placed in the alcove (where I used to do yoga) with the windows on three sides. During the day it gets a lot of natural light to craft by and I have a nice view of a wooded area.
As far as our “new” small master bedroom, everything is going well so far. All our furniture fit and it feels rather cozy.
I cannot wait to get back to working on projects in my new big studio space!
In my sort of recent post, Preparing for Quilt Retreat, I shared that I was preparing for an upcoming quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends by pre-cutting blocks from the book Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks for a quilt, and saving them in individual packets so I’d be ready to work on each block at the retreat:
I ended up getting 20 of these cut for the retreat, so that is 1/5th the blocks needed for the quilt
Well, cutting the fabric for 20 – 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch blocks made a lot of tiny scraps, especially since many pieces/parts of the blocks were 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch or a little larger.
Here is my little bucket of scraps:
Most of the pieces were too small to use in anything, and I already have a collection of “leaders and enders” for sewing on my machine and did not need more.
So I decided to use the scraps as stuffing for some pincushions I needed to finish up, sitting in my WIP pile. The tops for the pincushions were paper pieced (see posts Paper Pieced Pincushion and Another Paper Pieced Pincushion & Amazing Thrift Shop Find), the bottoms cut and I needed to sew the strips around the middle, stuff them and put on the buttons.
Here is one of the pincushions getting stuffed with scraps:
And here are a couple images of a finished pincushion, all stuffed with tiny scraps (and thread clippings) that could have ended up in the trash (then landfill!):
I was feeling quite eco-conscious after using those tiny scraps (and thread clippings) to stuff the pincushion!
This time we worked on the Firefly Tote by Noodlehead. A month ago I shared photos of the quilt shop’s class sample of the tote:
Class sample photo 1Class sample photo 2
The pattern has instructions for two sizes – a smaller “project” size; and a larger “tote” size. I figured I would make the tote size.
I decided to make it in the same fabrics as the Range backpack also by Noodlehead that I made in the previous class and here are photos in progress during the class last night:
My partially finished Firefly Tote
That was as far as I got (photo above) during class and I still need to make the lining and the drawstring topper. I found the “blingy” gold handles at the quilt shop and they go with the shiny gold zipper I used also in my coordinating backpack, also found at the quilt shop.
One class attendee got way farther than I did, and she was making the “project” size tote bag. Here is her nearly finished adorable project size bag being held up by our wonderful instructor:
Another student’s nearly finished project size Firefly Tote
Another student in the class brought her finished Range backpack to class and it was so cool I had to photograph it – she has it lined with a custom Yellowstone map fabric she found on Spoonflower:
If you are just joining us, here is the Range backpack I finished a couple weeks ago from the class I took a month ago. As you can see my Firefly Tote will coordinate with it:
And speaking of backpacks, I am currently working on a commission project of a scrappy Tula Pink Range backpack for a gift for someone who is a Tula Pink aficionado. The family member who commissioned it as a surprise gift asked me to include lots of Tula Pink fabrics. I am trying my best but I have a limited range of her fabric lines (but lots of scraps!)
Lots of Tula Pink All Stars line fabric scraps in my stash
Here is my design wall in progress as I work on piecing together/creating my own “fabric” to start cutting the sections for the backpack:
This is just a little bit of the fabrics I am using, it will be super scrappy. I am going to first make “fabric” from the scraps and do some simple quilting on it to reinforce it before I start cutting sections for the backpack pieces. I will share a photo when it is done!
I have to set finishing my Firefly Tote from last night’s class aside for now as I need to get the backpack done and shipped so they can surprise their sister for Christmas!
Are you working on any last minute December projects?
Back around the beginning of November my blogging buddy in Pennsylvania, Claudia@claudiamcgillart posted this post about how she was making little people out of recycled eye medicine vials:
I loved how she was doing some very creative recycling with individual eye medicine vials that most people would have discarded into the trash.
Around the same time I was in the process of cleaning up my fabric scrap collection and pulling out the tiny pieces I was likely never to use. I started to discard the scraps into the trash bin (gasp) but then I realized they were the right size for Claudia’s eye medicine vial people (or other art projects she does with small fabric scraps).
So I sent her a package of small to tiny fabric scraps.
Then last week (or so…time is getting foggy at the end of the year) I received a wonderful surprise in the mail from Claudia – my own collection of little eye medicine vial people.
Here’s a close up of the little people in groupings of three:
For now I have them all hanging out on my white board ledge in the studio:
They definitely make the boring whiteboard more interesting!
First a couple questions related to the initial sewing on of the binding to the quilt:
Are You a Peeker?
When you first sew the binding onto to the quilt (before you hand stitch or machine stitch it down), do you peek after your first couple inches or so to see how the binding is going to look finished?
I do! I am a proud peeker! As soon as I have enough binding sewn on to the quilt I flip the edge it over to the backside so I can see how it is going to look:
It is just so pleasing to me and like instant gratification to see a preview of how the finishing quilt binding will look!
Do You Measure or Eyeball?
When it comes to turning a corner on a quilt when initially sewing on the binding, do you eyeball the quarter inch (or whatever measurement you use), or do you whip out the ruler and measure?
I am an “eyeballer” and so far it has served me well (but I have screwed up a couple times). Occasionally, as you can see in the image above, I do also pin it in place before sewing down the next section after turning the corner.
Now a couple questions related to hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt after you’ve initially sewn it on:
How Do You Do Your Corners?
After you finish initially sewing on the binding, do you sew all the corners of the binding first and then sew down the rest along the quilt; or do you just start at one section and work your way around the quilt?
What I do is preview the corners, that they are sitting correctly and sometimes leave some pins or some clips in the corner, and then I randomly select a place to start to sew down the binding and work my way around the quilt.
And the most private and personal question of all (smile):
How Do You Select Thread Color to Sew Down to Back?
I’ve always struggled with this – do you go with trying to match the color of the binding or the color of the backing/back of the quilt?
I went with what was in my sewing machine – a medium-ish gray and I hope it works between the medium-dark binding color and the light gray backing!
I think that is enough probing questions.
Okay, so in the comments below feel free to share your most personal binding related secrets – it’s OK you’re among friends (smile)!
Postscript
I was also going to ask how do you initially measure how much binding you need to bind a quilt? I eyeball it by holding up my fabrics strips, that will be made into the binding, up to the quilt. But many times I end up with this situation: too much leftover binding…
Okay we are doing this in sort of “real time” as I have not looked at the final poll results yet, and I am going to do it while I type this post!
Wait to back up in case you are just joining us – in my July 30, 2021 post Help Me Pick the Binding for Seattle Scrappy! I asked for my blogging buddies to vote on which binding fabric I should use for the quilt Seattle Scrappy which I recently finished hand quilting.
Thanks so much to those of you who voted, and the winner is (drumroll as I am about to peek at the results myself)…
A TIE BETWEEN FABRIC B AND FABRIC D!
Okay it is up to me to break the tie.
As much as I love fabric D, I have thought about several of the comments that were left on the post about framing the quilt in a darker fabric and I am going to go with Fabric B for the binding.
So I will start assembling the Fabric B binding and share photos when I get the quilt binded…bound…when I finish attaching the binding (smile).
Tierney is on vacation and she’ll tell you about her trip when she gets back. So I am going to step in and be the guest blogger so she does not go too long without having a new post on her blog (I know, I know, I am so awesome for helping her!).
Oh in case you are new to this blog: my name is tierneycreates Beastie and I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster. I was made by Helen of CrawCrafts Beasties in Dublin, Ireland. You can read my story at I’m A Monster!!!. You can also check out the other posts I’ve had to guest blog on (i.e. when the human Tierney falls off the blogging-wagon and I have to help) in the series of posts: Beastie Adventures.
A photo from last year of me writing a guest blog post
When I am not guest blogger posting, then Mike the Miniature Schnauzer has to guest blog post:
Someone else Tierney uses to do her work: Mike reviewing the draft of his guest post before posting…
Oh and now the subject of this post (which is not to just show how Tierney falls of the blogging wagon and we have to rescue her…) – I wanted to show you the recent updates to my home, which is also Tierney’s crafting studio.
Tierney’s partner John (human John, not to be confused with my Beastie fiancé “John Beastie”, see post Guest Blog Post: Mail Order Groom) has been busy in his Woodshop making things for her studio.
MY NEW “HIGH RISE“
Human John built Tierney a storage unit for her fat quarter collection and fabric scraps which she keeps in wine crates:
She’s also been known to store a Miniature Schnauzer in there:
THE TABLE
Last year from her local community board for free stuff, Tierney picked up a large black table to use for crafting. It was scuffed up but it worked:
Tierney was “making-do” with the table and covered up the scuffs with an old table cloth but John wanted her to have a decent looking table in her studio so he created a new tabletop for it! John created a pattern with wood like a “nine-patch” quilting block.
A month ago Tierney bought herself a used Juki sewing machine which is in the image above.
Alas, she did not buy ME another sewing machine, I have to just be happy with my Beastnina:
So those are the changes to my home, the tierneycreates studio!
Tierney will be back on the next post telling you about her trip and she might even catch up with reading her blogging buddies posts and responding to comments.
Until then, here is a sign she saw a couple months ago to give you some inspiration:
Yup. So much for my plans to do daily postings to my blog. I even asked Mike the Miniature Schnauzer, who guest blog posted on Sunday 2/21/21, to fill in like he did in the post Guest Blogger: Obsession with Making Crocheted Dishcloths, but he was busy napping and still seems irritated over some dishcloth-crocheting-while-riding-in-the-car incident… (I have a hashtag I use on Instagram sometimes for posted pictures of Mike: #miniatureschnauzerfirstworldproblems).
Rulers Gone Awry
This is probably not unusual but as a quilter I have a lot of different rulers and templates. I have the standard cutting rulers and then I have special rulers and templates I’ve collected over the years for various projects (or being lured by a demo at a quilt shop into buying a ruler/template I thought I might need someday!).
My organization of these rulers and templates was sort of haphazard and irritating to me. I thought that adding pegboard to my crafting studio would help resolve this – so I consulted with my partner John, aka “Mr. Woodworker” and he figured out a solution.
First he installed a floating shelf he built above where the pegboard was to be placed:
Then he cut the pegboard to fit the area of wall; and painted the pegboard to match the wall:
And then he installed the pegboard. Here is my original set up with the pegboard hooks and pegboard baskets were bought:
At first I tried giving tierneycreates Beastie and her dog Mikelet (see series of post Beastie Adventures) their own little balcony on the pegboard wall but they did not like it.
So I moved her to another area on my studio (she will probably do a guest post in the future to show you her new home and other changes to my studio) and repurposed that “balcony”:
The pegboard has been wonderful to organize my commonly used and miscellaneous rulers. For now I still keep my very large rulers (like my 15″ x 15″ ruler) on my cutting table:
“Mr. Woodworker” is building me a new cutting table in the future which will have slots for my large rulers underneath the cutting surface!
Postscript
My friend Dana was inspired by my new pegboard and recently she had her husband install one in her studio!
At first she was going to have the pegboard painted a neutral color like the color of her studio walls, but then she decided she wanted a pop of color:
I think she did an amazing job organizing her pegboard! Thanks to Dana for sharing images of her new pegboard.
tierneycreates 