So occasionally I should probably feature a quilt in one of my posts (smile).
We recently returned from a visit to Fort Worth, Texas for a wedding. Terry the Quilting Husband’s nephew got married to a lovely woman. I gave them a quilt as a wedding present.
I do not know what I was thinking, but I did not take the best photos of the actual quilt before shipping it off. So before you get to my photos, I want to show you the official image of the quilt by the quilt designer.
The pattern is called JOY and the pattern designer is Whirligig Designs. The finished quilt measures approximately 89″ x 106″.
The pattern photo:
Photo credit: Stitch ‘N Time Fabrics
And now my photos…
I used batik fabrics similar to those used in the sample for the pattern photo. The quilt was quilted by Guadalupe Designs. Unfortunately I did not take any photos with the details of the quilting (or any photos with decent image quality, ha).
The newlywed recipients are currently on their honeymoon and perhaps at a later date I will ask them to take a better photo of the quilt and send to me. I am a pretty sure they did not take the quilt on the honeymoon with them!
I made a nice quilt label for the back of the quilt and emphasized that the name of the pattern is “JOY” and wished them much joy in their life together. I sort of miss the quilt but they seemed pretty happy about it (I shipped it to them before the wedding) so I hope the quilt has a happy life the lovely couple who received it!
My wonderful Sisters-in-laws and Mother-in-law, who are also quilters, helped finance the creation of and professional long-arm quilting of this quilt. I included their names in the label. I was “assigned” to be the one to make the wedding quilt for the newly wedded!
Postscript
Normally I travel with a medium or large backpack. I am not a formal suitcase kind of person and I like to travel as light as possible. However since I was going to a wedding and needed to bring dressier clothes and shoes, I had to pull out the traditional rolling suitcase.
My rolling suitcase is a black suitcase and looks like the zillion other suitcases traveling through airports. One of my Quilting Sisters (see posts Quilting Sisters, Part I and Quilting Sisters, Part II) Lisa, gave me an awesome luggage tag that made my standard plain black rolling suitcase stand out:
My suitcase was easily to locate in the crowd…and I felt like a “Bad *ss” when I picked it off the luggage cart!
Today we are traveling home from Fort Worth, Texas. Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH)’s nephew got married in a beautiful ceremony at the Hyder House in Fort Worth. I will have photos and stories to share in an upcoming post(s) about the Hyder House and a tour of a Fort Worth area quilt shop. I got to go fabric shopping with three of my awesome quilter sister-in-laws – 2 from NY and 1 from Texas!
TTQH and I are sitting in PDX (Portland airport) awaiting our plane to take us back to Central Oregon and I happened to check my e-mail. I discovered a recent e-mail from an Etsy customer that made my heart very warm and happy.
I made my tierneycreates Etsy shop inactive in late 2016, nearly 3 years after opening it in December 2013. I miss the interactions with customers but it was too much to keep up with as I work full time (and I would be very hungry if I tried to live off my Etsy shop). So I was very surprised when I had an e-mail on an Etsy Conversation (how Etsy customers communicate with Etsy sellers) from a sale in January 2015!
I used to collect special edition Barbies and the vintage ones I occasionally sold on Etsy. The sale that the customer was contacting me about occurred nearly a year and a half later ago and was for this Little Debbie Barbie:
Here is what the customer said in her Etsy Conversation:
This is a long overdue thank you – the doll was beautiful and the woman who received it loved it. Her husband, who had passed away drove for Little Debbie and so this was a wonderful keepsake. Thanks again!
What a fantastic surprise – I have a huge smile on my face knowing that something that no longer brought me joy was able to bring someone else some major joy!
This was a great lesson that: It is NEVER TOO LATE to say THANK YOU!
The Dewey Hop/Feisty Froggy has accused the tierneycreates blog of being “versatile, informative, fun, and original“!
In order accept this award, I must list the rules (slightly altered by Dewey Hop/Feisty Froggy per her confession, ha) :
THE RULES:
You have to thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog!
Nominate bloggers of your choice.
Link the nominees and inform them about their nomination.
Share some facts about yourself.
NOMINEES:
I (like Dewey Hop/Feisty Froggy) will do my best to nominate people who really are versatile, informative, fun, and original. Bloggers, please don’t feel that you have to participate if you don’t want to, but you do deserve this honor whether you participate or not.
(NOTE: I would definitely have nominated Dewey Hop but then this would be a circular nomination, ha!)
I follow many wonderful blogs and for this nomination I tried to focus on those with a very wide ranges of topics and/or uniqueness.
SHARING SOME FACTS (QUITE RANDOM FACTS):
I constantly listen to audiobooks. I am never without an audiobook queued on my iPhone and usually I have two audiobooks going at once. Currently I am listening to Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World by Admiral William McRaven (U.S Navy Retired), which I will discuss in a future post.
I love dogs’ noses. When not kissing the noses of my two rescue miniature schnauzers, I am admiring other dogs’ noses. Cats noses are pretty cool too.
For most of my life (age 11 forward) I have loved horror films. Classic horror films (Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf-man…anything with Christopher Lee or Bella Lugosi); haunted house horror films; slasher-films, Japanese-style horror (The Grudge, The Ring), and silly horror films (like Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.). Then, suddenly about 6 months ago, I stopped enjoying most horror films and stopped watching the genre (except for the occasional classic horror film). It just seemed like there was too much horror already in the real world, I did not want to watch fictional horror on film anymore.
A couple years ago I had decided to become a runner without listening to my sister who said I needed to get orthotics and good sneakers. I ended up with Plantar Fasciitis and a Morton’s Neuromaon my feet and had to wear a walking boot for several months. After my rehabilitation, I now stick with walking. I never really appreciated my feet until they were not working very well. Now I treat them very well – custom orthotics, high quality sneakers and shoes, and daily foot exercises to avoid a return of Plantar Fasciitis (or have to get another one of those icky foot injections to treat the Morton’s Neuroma).
Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH) and I are craft brews/microbrews aficionados. I never liked beer until we lived in Seattle and we met people who introduced us to craft brewing. In 2004 we traveled to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Denmark on a beer tasting and friend visiting vacation. During this trip, TTQH, who is also a Military History buff specializing in the Napoleonic Era, got to see Waterloo. This was definitely one of those “Bucket List” items for TTQH. To get to Waterloo battleground and museums, we traveled from Brussels via train and then bus; and I had to pull out my very rusty high school French to get the last leg of the journey to Waterloo (no one spoke English on the local bus)!
Lion’s Mound, Waterloo (Photo Credit: European Traveler)
This post originally appeared on the Improvisational Textiles website on May 23, 2017. It is being moved to tierneycreates.
“YOUR BODY OF WATER” EXHIBIT, SEATTLE MUNICIPAL TOWER GALLERY
My piece Abandoned Water Structure (2015), is on exhibit April 5 – July 3, 2017 at the Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery.
It is being shown as part of the Your Body of Water, Part IIexhibit and was purchased from Tierney in 2016 by the City of Seattle/Seattle Public Utilities/Office of Arts & Culture.
From the Seattle.gov website for the exhibit:
Your Body of Water, Seattle Public Utilities’ (SPU) newest additions to their portable works collection, are a visual exploration of our connections to water and how it is protected and cared for by SPU. The poet Jourdan Keith, who created the theme, explained it to mean the following: “We are all bodies of water, connected to one another through the water web. Your Body of water is connected to streams, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and tides, to toilets and faucets…to present homes, childhood homes and ancestral ones by memory, by the water cycle, by stories.” The exhibition will feature 15 contemporary artworks ranging from paintings, photography, prints and sculpture.
Abandoned Water Structure was inspired by the White Falls Power Plant near Maupin, Oregon. Below is my original photo.
The White River Falls Power Plant and located at White River Falls State Park in the Tygh Valley of northern central Oregon. Here is a link to an article, Nature and modern history mix at White River Falls, by station KATU on the history of the hydroelectric dam and powerhouse that was built in 1910 and decommissioned in the 1960s. Around 6 – 7 years ago, we went on a day excursion to White River Falls and I fell in love with abandoned power plant. I took many photos and the photo below inspired the piece:
Using recycled silks and linens from garment manufacturing set into a gray ombré, Tierney turned the photo into the art quilt shown below. Guadalupe Designs used the same photo as inspiration for detailed quilting.
Here are some detailed photos of the piece:
The show’s curator, Deborah Paine, with the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, was kind enough to send me photos of the piece in the Your Body of Water, Part II show:
In my 08/25/16 post, Artist Statements, I shared my struggle with writing Artist Statements for art quilts. In my more recent (03/30/17) post, What’s on My Lap, I again mentioned my struggle with writing Artist Statements, and Mary ofZippy Quiltsshared the following:
I could not turn down a suggestion for a blog post!
In my first post in August 2016 on Artist Statements I only whined about having to write an Artist Statement and then shared my completed statement for a piece that was being shown at the 2016 Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF).
This time I thought I would do something more than whining!
So I spent time researching information about writing Artist Statements and used that information to write the Artist Statement for this piece below – The Recycled Road:
The Recycled Road (2017) by Tierney Davis Hogan
Here are the basic details on The Recycled Road, I will use these later in the post to write my Artist Statement for this piece:
It is made from recycled materials: denim jeans, corduroy pants, corduroy shirt, curtains, sweat pants, home decor fabric scraps, and a tweed jumper
The art quilt is the second in quilt in my series The Recyclings (yesterday I decided the name of my series)
I hand quilted this quilt to give it an organic feel
This quilt was inspired by the Central Oregon SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) group annual exhibit theme “Pathways”.
The piece measures 18″ x 40″
I hand quilted the quilt to give it an organic feel
General Artist Statement vs. Artist Statement About A Work
A bit of research reinforced what I heard in the art quilting community – that there are basically two types of Artist Statements: 1) A general statement about you as an Artist; or 2) a statement about a specific piece of artwork.
General Artist Statement
A couple of years ago at one of our Central Oregon SAQA group meetings, we broke into small groups to do an exercise to work on our (General) Artist Statements, the about our art and ourselves as an artist.
I was overwhelmed by this exercise for several reasons: 1) Our Central Oregon SAQA group contains many real textile artists and art quilters – I mean nationally and internationally known artists – I was completely intimidated; 2) I was a new art quilter, recently transitioned from traditional quilting to dabbling in improvisational art; and 3) I was not sure if I could really consider myself an “Artist”.
Several experienced art quilters in the group shared with me examples of their professional artist Artist Statements, which I politely accepted and graciously thanked them for sharing, but it only intimidated me more (it was a “deer in headlights” experience).
A couple months later, I realized I was just not ready to write my General Artist Statement, and that was okay. I had not established what I feel is a solid and cohesive body of textile art. Currently I am working towards this and in the near future I hope to write my General Artist Statement.
I found some great resources online for writing General Artist Statements that I will use in the future, here are the links:
One of my favorite discoveries on advice on writing General Artist Statements was the article “The Artist Statement & Why They Mostly Suck” on the website bmoreart.com. I loved this quote:
“A good artist statement should enhance what a viewer sees in your work and provide a concise handle to approach a visual piece. It should be accurate, well-written, and correctly punctuated. It also should be specific to your work and offer unique insight into your process.”
Jean Wells Keenan, textile artist, has a wonderful example of a General Artist Statement on her website jeanwellsquilts.com:
Artist Statement About A Specific Work
It is my goal/dream someday to write a well-crafted General Statement about my body of work and how I approach my art, someday. For now I am just trying to write an Artist Statement about a specific art quilt.
So I searched online for inspiration on writing Artist Statements specific to a piece of work. At ArtsyShark.com I found these helpful tips in the article: “How to Write an Amazing Artist Statement” that could be applied to either General Artist Statements or an Artist Statement on a specific piece of art:
Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing your artist statement:
The ideal length is one to three paragraphs.
It should be in first-person.
You should not tell your audience how to feel or what to look at.
You want to inform your viewer but not overly explain things – leave room for the viewer to make his or her own connections.
Ask yourself: Is this writing specific to my work or can it be about anyone’s?
Don’t use phrases like: I hope, My work aspires to, My goal is, The Viewer will, These paintings (do something).
Remember: The key to an amazing statement is to write A LOT, then edit, edit, edit. You should go through at least 3 drafts. This is not something you can do in an evening – it’s going to take time, so find the best time of day that works for you to write, such as over morning coffee. Write in a way that feels comfortable – type or write long hand.
My favorite guideline I discovered online for writing an artist statement for a specific piece of art, was from the website hysterically named – Getting Your Sh*t Together: making life better for artists (gyst-ink.com). Here are highlights from this websites had the following Artist Statement Guidelines:
An Artist Statement is a general introduction to your work, a body of work, or a specific project.
It should open with the work’s basic ideas in an overview of two or three sentences or a short paragraph and then go into detail about how these issues or ideas are presented in the work.
You can include some of the following points:
Why you have created the work and its history.
Your overall vision.
What you expect from your audience and how they will react.
How your current work relates to your previous work.
Where your work fits in with current contemporary art.
How your work fits in with the history of art practice.
How your work fits into a group exhibition, or a series of projects you have done.
Sources and inspiration for your images.
Artists you have been influenced by or how your work relates to other artists’ work. Other influences.
How this work fits into a series or longer body of work.
How a certain technique is important to the work.
Your philosophy of art making or of the work’s origin.
The final paragraph should recapitulate the most important points in the statement.
Ask yourself “What are you trying to say in the work?” “What influences my work?” “How do my methods of working (techniques, style, formal decisions) support the content of my work?” “What are specific examples of this in my work” “Does this statement conjure up any images?”
Consider – Who is your audience? What level are you writing for? What will your statement be used for? What does your statement say about you as an artist and a professional?
Okay, Ready, Write (The Draft)
I could have spent all day online looking at examples of Artist Statements, but now it is time to write my draft statement for the piece The Recycled Road:
The Recycled Road (2017)
18″ W x 40″ L
Recycled denim, corduroy, cotton jersey, wool and rayon.
Designed, pieced and hand quilted by Tierney Davis Hogan
Artist Statement (draft)
The Recycled Road is the second piece in my series The Recyclings, small art quilts from recycled materials.
Inspired by the theme of “Pathways” for the 2017 Central Oregon SAQA group annual art quilt exhibit, this “pathway” begins at the orange corduroy boundary between the multicolor “road” and the plain gray “road”. This “road” continues beyond the top edge of the quilt; as it has no boundaries beyond the limits we set on our own imagination. The pathway in this quilt represents one of many roads traveled by our creative spirit.
Using improvisational piecing techniques, I created this piece from all recycled materials (denim jeans, corduroy shirt, corduroy pants, tweed jumper, sweat pants, curtains and home decor fabric scraps. Seeking a bit of adventure in working with recycled clothing, I used an old pair of faded and threadbare gray sweat pants to create the edges of the road. I hand quilted the piece to give it an organic feel. Hand quilting the recycled fabrics was an unique multilayered and meditative tactile experience.
Most of the fabrics were not reusable as clothing or home decor and were destined to end up in a landfill. Reimagining recycled clothing and other materials into art quilts satisfies my desire to honor the environment and make art that is eco-conscious. Ending up in an art quilt is a better outcome than ending up in a landfill.
Okay, so now that I have written my draft Artist Statement for The Recycled Road, I am going to let it simmer overnight and see how I feel about it in the morning.
In my recent post Little Bits of Oregon Warmth I shared a baby quilt I made for a friend expecting her first child (shortly now!). Today I received an e-mail from a friend for whom I made a baby quilt for his first child nearly 7 years ago that started me thinking about the baby quilts I have made.
Recently he and his wife had friends visit and they brought their baby. The quilt I made his baby all those years ago was enjoyed by the new baby and he sent me a photo (I do not know the parents so I cropped out the sweet baby’s face to respect their privacy):
A huge smile took over my face when I saw this photo!
I have made so many baby quilts over the years and my heart feels very full when I think of all those sweet “new people” that got wrapped in my creations. I have also donated a couple baby quilts to Project Linus and I want to do more baby quilt donations in the future.
When I had my tierneycreates Etsy shop (it is now inactive), I sold an inspirational baby quilt (not sure if it was a Moda fabric line) with words like “Grow”, “Sunshine”, “Renew”, “Life”, “Plant” and “Hope”.
I received the most beautiful communication from the woman who bought the quilt – she was going to wrapped her newly adopted child in the quilt. It was one of those communications (via Etsy conversation and then the Seller Feedback she left) that made my eyes fill with tears of joy that something I made could be that meaningful to someone else (I am glad the quilt was so reasonably priced, otherwise I would have been tempted to just give her a refund and say “take it as a gift!”)
But my sweetest memory related to giving someone a baby quilt is related to a baby quilt I made for someone I never met. Terry the Quilting Husband (before he was a quilting husband but he knew handmade quilts made people very happy) had a coworker that was expecting her first child. He asked me if I could make her a baby quilt.
I did not know the woman and I was pressed for time but I found a baby themed pre-printed panel and whipped out a very quick and easy baby quilt. It was definitely not my greatest work but it was your basic utility baby quilt.
When Terry arrived home from work that day he told me about her at work Baby Shower and how she had started sobbing when she opened up the gift and saw the quilt. She said no one had ever made a quilt for her or anyone in her family. She was overwhelmed and felt very special.
Some fabric sewed together can be pretty magical, eh?
I am inspired by several year end summaries on other blogs I follow, to share a list of the of the posts I most enjoyed writing in 2016 on my tierneycreates blog.
It turns out the top three, are really three series of posts on different topics:
(Thank goodness I have one favorite series that is quilting related, especially when this is allegedly a quilter’s blog…)
I remember a sense of joy and whimsy as I wrote the posts related to the “Fruits of My Neighborhood” and “Quilt Retreat Weekend 2016”. I remember much reflection on where I used to be and where I am now in my life journey, when I wrote the series of posts on “My Minimalism Journey”.
When writing a blog post occasionally I wonder just how much to reveal about myself, to put out there in a public forum. Perhaps the readers of the “Shameless Thrifting” post are still reeling from the discovery of my childhood obsession with Barry Manilow!
Onward to 2017!
To those who followed me in 2016 (or 2015, 2014, 2013), thanks for reading my musings! Hoping to keep it interesting in 2017 (or to continue to be something you can read before bed to make you pleasantly drowsy!)
As you can see above, with 16 votes of the 28 total votes, Option #1 was the winner of the poll.
The Decision
Option #1 won the poll, but alas, it was not the winner of my heart. As much as I loved the graphics on card #1 it kept feeling like that business card for a tailor or seamstress.
I so appreciated all the comments and votes, but I really connected with several comments in regards to Option #3 and decided to go with the vertical business card.
I am only ordering the smallest order (100 cards) as I love the idea from several comments to eventually go with a business card that features my art.
2017 I am going to focus on creating more of my textile art so I have a large selection of works to choose from someday – ha!
Postscript
I am currently listening to the audiobook Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck (2006).
Although some of the material seems dated (the book was published in 2006), I am really enjoying the audiobook. A lot of it reminds me of the audiobook, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016) that I discussed in several posts, most recently in the 7/22/2016 post A “Gritty Bad#ss”?
Photo credit: Amazon.com
The book focuses on a discussion of the “Fixed Mindset” vs. the “Growth Mindset”.
I am about a 1/3rd way through listening to the audiobook and I came across a great quote by the author on how some people need to feel praised, “worshipped”, and admired by others:
If you feel a need to be surrounded by worshippers, go to church. – Carol S. Dweck
I must admit at times in my life I sought praise from others, a lot. I cannot change how I behaved in the past but it is giving me a lot to think about for the future!
Let’s take a break from my series of posts on holiday decorations and my recent visit to Seattle. I would love your vote on three new business card options I am considering from Vistaprint (yup, the well marketed/advertised inexpensive business card option).
Since we have transitioned from The Wardrobe Meets the Wall to Inspirational Textiles (see post Improvisational Textiles) I need an updated business card. After playing with endless templates, I have narrowed it my options down to three finalists.
Take a look at the three options below and please cast your vote in the poll below. You don’t need to post a comment to vote but you are welcome of course to also comment.
Please note: 1) The final fonts I am going to use, and how the text is spaced, are not finalized; 2) Since there could always be spammers out there in “blogging-land” I have left off my phone number and e-mail address but they will be in place in the final version; and 3) Ignore the dashed lines at the edge of each card, these are from the Vistaprint template editing and will not appear on the final card.)
I will review the final numbers on Sunday and let you know the top vote and my final decision – thank you!
As sort of a follow up to yesterday’s post Terry the Quilting Husband – Update – as I mentioned – Terry the Quilting Husband is hogging the design wall in the hallway.
I like one of my blogging buddies, Claire of knitNkwilt, I had to use the “Design Bed”, and lay out my latest quilt on our bed.
Another quilter was cleaning out her UFOs (if you are not a quilter, please see the post Lexicon of Quilters’ Acronyms) and gave me 12 – 12.5 x 12.5 inch blocks she pieced with beautiful Kaffe Fassett fabrics. They were from a “Block-of-the-Month” club this quilt belonged to and was not interested in making them into a quilt.
example of one of the 12 blocks I was gifted, on the background fabric they were to be set in
At first I put these block in my “UFO” pile but yesterday I felt suddenly motivated to just make them into a quilt.
I used one of the sampler quilt layouts in the book The Quilt Block Cookbookby Amy Gibson (yep, this was one of the books from my posting The Library (Mega) Stack, I returned the book to the library but borrowed it again…when I can justify another book purchase, I am probably going to buy it…)
Photo credit: amazon.com
Here are the 12 blocks on the “Design Bed” waiting for me to sew the rows together.
all bad photography/bad lighting disclaimers apply
I used to sell 8 beautiful fabric selections from this line in my tierneycreates Etsy shop. However, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop selling fabric and pulled the yardage, fat quarter sets and jelly rolls from my Etsy shop.
My decision was based on that I did not enjoy cutting yardage for people (I will never own a quilt shop) and I do not want to compete with quilt shops. (You can read from the tierneycreates archives, my first attempt to cut “fat quarter sets” – Adventures in Retail).
So, no judgement on people who sell fabric online, it was just not something I wanted to do any longer.
My plan is to focus my Etsy shop on handmade items. It is called “tierneycreates” after all. Recently, however, Tierney has not been doing any creating for the Etsy shop but has some ideas for 2017 and beyond.
For now Tierney will keep working through her personal UFO backlog (and obviously accept donations from other quilters’ UFO backlogs, ha!).
Currently I am working on a traditionally-pieced quilt (a sampler) for a wedding gift, in a less traditional palette. I will share my “adventures in traditional quilt making” on my next post.
Today, I am doing some clean up on my Textile Adventures page of my blog and wanted to remove this series of updates from 2013 on starting my tierneycreates Etsy shop (GETTING READ TO ETSY PART I AND PART II) and move then instead into a blog post.
I am considering making my tierneycreates Etsy shop inactive as I have not put a lot of energy into it and not sure if I want to keep renewing my listings (I have stopped renewing any currently expiring listings). I will share more about this in a future post, I am finding my heart is not completely into retail (especially since I work a busy and intense full-time job in the healthcare industry).
Getting Ready to Etsy: Part I – October 2013
My journey on my “Textile Adventure” takes me closer to my dream – a tierneycreates store on Etsy, the online handmade marketplace. This part of my journey feels scary as I have never sold my creations before. I have done a couple commission quilts but I have never sold to strangers. Of course those I sell to will no longer be “strangers”, the will be people who have a little bit of Tierney in their life or their friends life through owning one of my creations. This is very exciting. I have made quilts and other textile gifts for close friends and family over the years, and the thought of the opportunity to share what I love with an extended group is exciting. Of course I have to charge them to support the cost of materials and continued creations!
As a road map to my journey’s destination, I am reading a wonderful book: How to Sell Your Crafts Online by Derrick Sutton, St.. Martin’s Press, 2011.
I am going to start with offering two category of items: 1) my handmade mini kimonos; and 2) my international Barbie collection (which I can sell under the Vintage category of Etsy). Below are some photos of the kimonos which measure approximately 6 inches x 7 inches, are made from my cotton Asian fabric collection, and will come with a chopsticks and string for hanging.
Getting Ready to Etsy: Part II – November 2013
Here an update on my tierneycreates Etsy shop adventure:
My sister encouraged me to have my Etsy store up by Thanksgiving weekend. I was very excited about the original logo I designed until I tried to make it work as my Etsy store – “tierneycreates” logo. It did not work, like not at all! I have redesigned my logo in a “late-night-logo-session” (see below) and I have uploaded it to Etsy for my store banner – yah!
Now if I could just get my items posted onto the shop. What has been holding me back is PHOTOGRAPHY. I am coming to grips with the fact I suspect I am the world’s worse photographer. Even with the assistance of a guide on digital photography, I am still struggling. I want potential buyers to have a clear, true to life image of my store items. I have already re-photographed the kimonos twice. If I were to try to make my living off photography, I would starve to death.
The tierneycreates logo has been created
I needed a logo for my upcoming Etsy Store and for my tierneycreates business cards. It looks a while but I finally came up with a logo that I like.
Recovering from a “business card disaster”
A couple of months ago I tried to design tierneycreates business cards. I thought they looked awesome online as I ordered them from Vistaprint. I anxiously awaited my shipment in the mail. When they arrived, my excitement was quickly deflated – I had made a bad decision in regards to text color and backgound and except for the “tierneycreates” part, they were unreadable. So I was stuck with a box of 250 useless cards. I did give some to friends as a joke, asking them “now what’s wrong with this business card?” (Answer: you cannot read my name or any of the contact information!)
I am an avid recycler and I recently found a way to reuse my disaster – turn them into tags for products I sell at my Etsy store! They have been cropped, holes added, and turned into tags!
And now for something completely different… – Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Let’s take a break from quilting and sewing and talk about KNITTING!
I have always wanted to learn to knit, I thought it was magical. My grandmother taught me how to crochet and crocheting is cool but there was something more austere and glamorous about knitting, not quite sure how to put it into words. Maybe it was because I did not know how to do it and it seemed so difficult that made it so ethereal…
15 years ago a I learned how to knit but I only learned how to make knitted scarves, I was scared to try anything beyond a scarf. After learning how to knit I became completely enamored with wool yarns. As a crocheter I had made numerous afghans with inexpensive acrylic blend yarns. I could not imagine buying expensive yarn for crocheting.
One of my first exposures to “high-end” yarns was at a yarn shop in British Columbia on a trip to Victoria. When we lived in Seattle, WA, Canada was not that far away and we would frequently go to Vancouver, BC. Every couple of years we would take the ferry from Northern Washington State to Victoria, BC for the weekend.
One trip to Victoria, we stopped at the Beehive Wool Shop. My first time to a yarn speciality shop, I was overwhelmed – so many colors and textures, and yarn options, and patterns, and, and, and (I nearly get short of breath and dizzy just thinking of that first experience).
They were so friendly and welcoming at the Beehive Wool Shop, especially when I told them I was a new knitter. It was as if I had joined a new family – The Knitting Family.
Displayed at the shop I saw the most beautiful scarf – a ribbed knit scarf made with this beautiful burnt orange yarn (I seem to have always had a thing for orange, see my posts Embracing Orange and Orange). I figured this scarf was way too advanced for me – I had only mastered straight knitting and straight purling, no combinations!
The kind and very encouraging shopkeeper at the Beehive Wool Shop told me that I could do it, found me the yarn, then gave me an impromptu lesson on how to create ribbing. She also wrote down the simple pattern for me.
Here is the completed scarf – it is my most favorite scarf of all time (and I made it – yay)!
Having conquered a semi difficult scarf, I set my dreams on someday knitting my own cap/hat.
Then 9 years later, while living in Central Oregon, my friend who is a very experienced knitter, knitted me my first handmade cap! Oh my goodness – I was so in love with this hat that his hat became my “security blanket” (remember when you were young and you had a “bankie” that you took everywhere with you?) and once the weather got slightly cold enough it was time to wear my hat!
Me in my “security blanket”My love for my hat grew to the point that I had to learn how to make such a hat, even if this sounded scary and beyond my reach. My friend Pam agreed to teach me how to knit a hat and she was very patient (very patient) as I made it through my first hat.
There are no photos to share of my first hat. It was wonderful to make a hat but it was rather small for my head, not sure what I was thinking.
I did not give up, the best thing after learning to do something is to try again, especially on your own, to cement your learning. I have made two more knitted hats since that time (same pattern) and I am currently working on a third. Eventually I would like one in every color of my wardrobe!
My knitted hat collection (from the top): I made the olive green hat, my friend Pam made the purple variegated one, I made the blue one, the maroon one is in progress.I may not work on it all the time but my knitting is very special to me. I like to take it on trips or to events where I will just be sitting around. I carry my knitting in a special bag – one that I picked up when I went on a trip with my father (who is no longer with us) to Williamsburg, VA. This bag reminds of the fun day I had, about 18 years ago, wandering around Colonial Williamsburg with my Dad.
Every time I go to knit it reconnects me with that special trip.
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s latest musings in her Schnauzer Snips page.
In my 09/23/16 post The Library Stack (and a little EPP)I mentioned that I was learning English Paper Piecing (EPP) using the book All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland.
So here is an update:
After purchasing a hexagon paper punch, I punched our a huge stack of hexagons using old cardstock from my handmade card making days.
This past Spring, Terry the Quilting Husband and I went to the Central Oregon Quilt Shop Hop. During the Shop Hop we each received a “fat 1/8th quarter” of coordinated fabric. I stuck this fabric away for a future project and it seems perfect for my EPP experimentation!
I put together a plastic tote for my EPP supplies:
And here is my beginning stack of EPP hexagons:
So why EPP?
Well I had become addicted to playing games on my iPad in the evening as we watch evening TV shows (like NCIS on Tuesdays).
Playing these games were actually making me kind of frustrated and anxious as I moved into higher and higher levels. I had lost the sense of initial enjoyment that I experience when I first played. It became as if I had to keep playing and get to higher and higher levels (but why, for what purpose?).
Although the games were a complete meaningless waste of time and no longer fun, I did not seem to be able to stop. I even tried deleting them from my iPad but in a moment of weakness the following evening, I would reinstall the app for evening TV watching.
I do not seem to be able to just sit and watch TV, I have to be doing something else. It was clear that I needed a productive alternative to playing these games and EPP seemed like the perfect solution.
So now I can do something productive with my hands in the evening while watching TV instead of playing iPad game apps! I am starting to find EPP kind of addicting – I like to keep cranking out EPP completed hexagons and it is becoming a game of how many hexagons I can rack up in an evening! (Oh no soon I will be strung out on hexagons!)
Next time I update you on my Adventures in EPP, hopefully I will have enough hexagons to start planning a small piece. Perhaps I will have even started assembling the hexagons into a piece!
POSTSCRIPT
If you are not familiar with English Paper Piecing (EPP), the online craft class site Craftsy has a nice little overview called Exploring English Paper Piecing.
Oh (random info) I recent reorganized my Gallerypage into Art Quilts, Quilts, and Small Projects. I have a lot of old photos on this page and there are many old quilts I do not have digital photos on. Going forward I hope to only have high quality images of my work (but then I am taking the photos, so I am not promising – ha!)
The “tierney” in tierneycreates, has not done a lot of creating lately. I wonder if I am stuck. I have been reading about creating and I have been preparing to create (does that count?) but more about that later in this post.
The (Sort of) Current Library Stack
I am continuing my series of posts on the latest stack of books borrowed from my local library. At the time of writing this post, my stack has dwindled and I only have a couple books left – primarily the Vegan cookbooks and the book Why Write by Mark Edmundson.
I have enjoyed all the book except for the interior decorating book, Dreaming Small: Intimate Interiors by Douglas Woods. The book has a five-star rating on Amazon.com but I thought it was a snoozer (and yes I literally fell into a sweet little nap in my chair while reading/browsing through it).
The problem may not be the book, the problem may be that I am just completely burned out on home decorating books. They used to be a wonderful source of daydream but now many of them irritate me (except for the home decorating book The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith, which I discussed in my previous Library Stack post).
Terry the Quilting Husband, does not usually comment on my Library Stack sitting on the table next to my reading chair in the front window. He just accepts that his wife goes kind of wild on borrowing books from the library (there are worse habits to have in life). He did however tease me endlessly about a book called Mason Jar Nation(by JoAnn Moser).
Terry picked up the book and said: “Wow! A WHOLE BOOK about Mason Jars – WOW! Can I read it after you are done – it sounds SO exciting!” Through my laughter I heard him say something like: “No, no don’t tell me how it ends, I don’t want you to ruin it for me. I can’t wait to find out what the Mason Jars have been up to!”
I guess he does not fully appreciate all the options for craft related books and that yes, there are many people who enjoy making crafts with Mason Jars. The book was moderately interesting and did provide a nice history of Mason Jars. It did not inspire me to run out and buy some Mason jars and start crafting with them but it was fun to read while sipping my tea.
You might ask – why all the Vegan cookbooks? Are you Vegan or are you going Vegan? No to both questions. I love the idea of being Vegan, but there is one thing that keeps me from being Vegan, a little thing called B-A-C-O-N. Why live if you can never have bacon again? (Apologies to any Vegetarian or Vegan readers).
I work from home as a telecommuter for my pay-the-bills-job and so I eat lunch at home most days. Although I might be having meat and dairy with my dinner, I want to explore eating Vegan for lunch. I like the idea of “eating clean” for my mid-day meal. Terry the Quilting Husband has no interest in Vegan but you never know what I can slip into his diet (I have been very successful with slipping things years ago he said he would never eat like broccoli, spinach and kale! Oh wait, he reads my blog, now he will know what I am up to…)
Getting Ready to Create
Speaking of “library stacks”, I really enjoyed a book from my previous library stack (my August 23rd Library Stackposting) titled All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland. I enjoyed this book so much that I bought it.
This book covers the fundamentals of English Paper Piecing (EPP) as well as options for creating cool pieces using EPP. I have been getting ready to EPP and will have a future post on my Adventures in EPP.
There is a reason why I wanted to pick up EPP and I will discuss that later when I do my post on EPP (it has to do with trying to break an evening addiction to playing iPad games).
In addition to the book from the library, I was also influenced/inspired by one of the blogs I follow – Alice Samuel Quilt Company and a post the blogger did on recycling her old wedding invitations into EPP templates – A Box Full of Junk. I love the idea of using unwanted paper for something creative!
So here is what I have put together so far – a whole lot of hexagon templates using my new punch:
But more in a future post, first i need to make sure I do not completely embarrass myself trying to do EPP (if you never hear me mention those three words/three letters again you’ll know it did not work out…or I could post about “Misadventures in English Paper Piecing”!)
POSTSCRIPT
Someday I will follow up on all the other projects I have discussed and shared my start on. Right now I seem to just be building up my stash of “UFOs” (if you are not a quilter, refer to my post Lexicon of Quilters’ Acronyms).
Bear with me. I am doing a little clean up on my blog and posting a couple old stories that I had in my Textiles Adventures page that I would prefer to have as blog posts. When I first began blogging in October 2013 I was not sure what to write about in my blog or how to organize it. Three years later I am not sure how much expertise I have gained, but I know that I appreciate my blog as a journal/record of my journey. So I want to make this story a blog post instead of sitting at the bottom of my Textiles Adventures page (keep in mind this story is from January 2014 and I had only been blogging a couple of months…)
FLANNEL YUM-YUM QUILTS! January 2014
Although I am making table runner size quilts for the tierneycreates Etsy shop I kept feeling that I should make some traditional quilts for the shop – something that someone could snuggle under. I noticed in my stash I have a lot of flannel. A lot of flannel. I sometimes suspect the flannel has been secretly breeding and making more flannel when I am not watching. I do not even know when I bought some of the flannel in my stash.
A couple years ago I donated a bunch of early-in-my-quilting-career-flannel that was not purchased at a quilt shop but was purchased at a chain store (side note: when I first started quilting, despite the excellent advice from my original quilting mentor Judy, I insisted on buying as inexpensive fabric as possible from chain stores; later I learned that if you are going to spend all that time to make a quilt, you want to use good quality fabric…).
However even after the donation, I still had plenty of 1, 2, and 3 yard pieces of flannel. In addition I had quite a stash of flannel fat quarters (from my “fat quarter addiction” period in the early-mid 2000’s). In a plastic tub next to the “tub-o-flannel-fat-quarters” I also had large stash of flannel scraps from various flannel quilts.
That’s a lot of flannel! An idea came to me – why not (okay here is a radical idea) – USE IT? Why not use it to make a series of cozy and cuddly quilts for my Etsy shop? So the Flannel Yum-Yum Quilt line was born!
What are Flannel Yum-Yum Quilts? Have you ever snuggled under a flannel quilt made with a flannel pieced top and flannel backing? Have you ever snuggled under such a quilt after it has been washed a couple times and has gotten softer and cozier? Only two words describe that feeling: YUM YUM!
The first Flannel Yum-Yum quilt I made for the etsy shop is made from a stack of flannel triangles I had in my stash and several fat quarters. I was able to use up some smaller flannel yardage for the back. I washed and dried the quilt after it was quilted and the binding sewn down to make it even softer. The second Flannel Yum-Yum quilt I will post on the shop will be one made from the flannel scraps a friend gave to me.
The next series of YUM-YUM quilts will be made from a stash of 2.5 inch strips I have cut up from ALL my flannel fat quarters and tub of flannel scraps and will be in the log cabin pattern style. I figure whenever I get time for crafting I can kick out a couple log cabin blocks here and there since the strips a already cut.
Box full of pre-cut 2 1/2 inch flannel strips ready for a log cabin quilt pattern!
In case you wondered, I already have my own Flannel Yum-Yum quilts around the house – here is one that is my favorite that I nap under all the time:
Yes, this blog is called “tierneycreates” and Tierney should probably discuss…well…doing some creating…instead of her random rambles about her Minimalism Journey (Part II of her ramble will continue in the next post).
I am participating in Sherri Lynn Wood’s (author of The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters) recycled quilt challenge: Make Do Quilt Challenge – #makedoquilt. You can read about this challenge on Sherri Lynn’s blog – dainty time.net; or you can read a wonderful post by Kris R. about this challenge and “the skinny on trashing textiles” on one of the wonderful blogs I follow, Coloring Outside the Lines:
The Made Do Quilt Challenge asks you make a quilt out of recycled textiles using one of the “Scores” that Sherri Lynn Wood discusses in her book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters (for more about this book, see my postCreative Inspiration: Books I Own).
In her book, she helps guide the quilter, new to improvisational piecing, by providing “scores” to suggest the creation of an improv quilt. Ms. Wood likens these score to “musical scores” and shares the following:
In creating a musical score, a composer is making a record of how the music is to be performed. Yet each performance of the score will be unique. – Sherri Lynn Wood
For my challenge quilt, I am using the “Score” called Floating Squares. The score suggests to limit yourself to three fabrics (two used in small amounts and one used to “float” the improv squares). I am using 5 fabrics but treating four of the fabrics as pairs as they are loosely (very loosely) in the sort of same color way.
My fabrics are:
A recycled table runner from a thrift shop that is in stripped orange, greens, reds and purples.
Recycled orange corduroy pants (I only have a tiny bit left and it is the companion fabric to the #1 fabric above)
A recycled tweed jumper
Gold-ish recycled home decor fabric scraps (this is the companion fabric paired with the tweed in #3 – yes of course brown tweed and deep gold lame-ish fabric are in the same color way – ha!)
I began with cutting up squares with scissors (Sherri Lynn Wood is all about ruler free design) and ended up with these squares on my design wall:
Here is my “pile-o-denim” scraps on the floor to float my squares in:
And here is where I am with the piece so far:
I am very interested to see how it comes out. I am just making sections and when I feel I am ready, I will figure out the layout (the initial layout you see above may have nothing to do with the final piece).
So that is my current Tierney-creating!
POSTSCRIPT
Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer has taken a short hiatus from her SchnauzerSnips blog page but she will return soon with her story of “The Herd” (recently we babysat two other schnauzers for 5 days).
In my post,Seattle Public Utilities’ Portable Works Collection, I shared my elation of the piece Abandoned Water Structure (designed and pieced by myself and quilted by Guadalupe Designs) being purchased by the City of Seattle for its Seattle Public Utilities Portable Art Collection. Yesterday I mailed it off the framer in Seattle and I wanted to share the custom label I made for the back of the piece – I included the photo of the structure that inspired my creation of the piece:
I of course have more random rambles, but I am trying not to make my posts too long (so you do not fall asleep while reading!). More next time!
Feature image photo credit: Charles Novaes, free images.com
The first Friday of each month, Downtown Bend, Oregon hosts a “First Friday Art Walk”. The downtown galleries and shops stay open late and host special art exhibits or show their ongoing exhibits. The local shops and galleries serve snacks and beverages including complimentary microbrews (Bend, OR is known for its numerous and excellent microbreweries) and wine.
Our Central Oregon SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) group showed our Doorsexhibit at Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty. This show first opened at the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show as a special exhibit (see the post 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Part IIfor more of the story on this exhibit and for better photos of the art quilts).
My piece, Recycled Doorwas in the show. I was very honored to be in a show with these talented art quilters, several of whom are locally, nationally or internationally renown for their fiber art. Our Oregon SAQA reps, Jan Tetzlaff and Marion Shimoda did an impressive job hanging the art quilts in the gallery!
Here are more photos from the show (it was very crowded at the show and I had to take photos quickly as there were breaks between people viewing the show):
The show runs through September and is located at: Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty, 821 NW Wall Street, Bend, OR (Downtown)
This post is a quick follow up to the post Creating… on 07/27/16 where I discussed pulling out from my project pile and completing a set of “art pillow experimentations”.
I spent part of this weekend finishing up the rest of the little art pillows (they range from around 6 x 6 inches to 8 x8 inches for the large one).
Here is the full set of the finished pillows (notice my new tierneycreates labels on each pillow):
Here are the backs of the smaller pillows (made with hand dyed fabric found at a thrift store (it was quite the score!)
I was going list these three pillows on my tierneycreates Etsy shop as a set but I decided to just list them separately (they do look cute together though):
Here are close ups of some of the pillows:
I am posting this on Sunday night but you will likely read this on Monday, so I wish you all a wonderful week, and talk to you later!
I am inspired by her paintings! I might do a little quilt piece inspired by her work.
In Central Oregon we actually have a famous quilter and a well-known painter collaborating on art projects – Jean Wells Keenan (quilter) and Judy Hoiness (painter).
I realized it’s time for “Tierney” to return to “creating”…
This blog is not called:
tierneywritesaudiobookreviews;
tierneyshowsterrythequiltinghusband’sprogress;
tierneysharesherrandomthoughts; or
tierneyobsessesaboutsunflowers
The blog is called tierneycreates, so Tierney better get to creating! (I like the imaginary sense of accountability blogging gives me – like you all will be very disappointed if my blog does not live up to its name!)
So last evening, I returned to “creating” and pulled out the “art pillow experimentations” tops I started last year and discussed in the 12/24/15 post What’s On the Design Wall: Playing with Solids.
I was excited to pull these items out of the “set aside to work on later” basket (set aside for 7+ months so far!) and turn them into pillows.
So far, I started with this one:
And turned it into this little pillow which I have named Textured Desert Canyon:
Textured Desert Canyon (2016) by Tierney Davis Hogan
I was excited to use my new “tierneycreates – smiles & textiles” tags (see post Embracing Orange) for the first time on this pillow (can you see the little tag in the photo?). I had to experiment to figure out exactly how to make the tag work but I think I like the outcome.
I experimented with quilting with a solid color thread and then a variegated thread to try and give a lot of depth to the quilting.
What surprised me was the dense quilting gave the hand dyed solid scraps pieced into this pillow a suede like texture and appearance. I am eager to experiment more with dense quilting.
Now onto to working on the next four (4) pillows!
Postscript
I follow many wonderful blogs and recently one of the blogs I follow, Catbird Quilt Studio has begun an interesting series on The Future of Quilting.
Here are links below to the two enjoyable posts in this series so far:
I have accepted the color Orange is part of my creative life, as I discussed in my July 3rd post, Orange. As a matter of fact, I have done more than accepted Orange, I am embracing Orange!
This weekend I worked on restocking my tierneycreates Etsy shop. It is still far from the days when I had 90 items in my shop. My miniature kimonos continue to be popular and I recently sold 4 to a lovely person in Canada as well as 4 to various friends (I continue to fleece my friends in person, making them purchase my handmade items, ha! See the end of the post Quilt Retreat Weekend: The Projects)
Many of the miniature kimonos in the new batch I made feature the color Orange:
I have been building a nice button collection and I enjoyed selecting a button for each kimono.
My friend Dana gave me some wonderful buttons in May at our annual Jelly Rollers Quilting Retreat (she was my Secret Quilting Sister). Additionally I used a couple of the buttons from my recent antique button acquisition during the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (see post 2016 Sisters Outdoor Show Part I).
Now it is time to get each miniature kimono with its hanging chopstick and coordinating embroidery floss for hanging (though some people have put them in shadowboxes instead of hanging). Then it is time for their individual “photo shoots” for their Etsy shop listings.
Figuring in the cost of materials, time to make them, and Etsy seller fees, I figure I make like $3 – $4 per kimono. But my Etsy shop is a fun hobby and I enjoy knowing that my handmade creations are in peoples’ homes around the country (and Canada!).
If I tried to live off my Etsy shop I really would be foraging for free neighborhood fruit (like in prior post) for sustenance – ha!
MORE ORANGE (Orange Labels!)
Recently I decided I wanted my Etsy shop items to look a little more polished by adding a professional label to some items. I will not add the label to the miniature kimonos but I will to future art pillow and table runner creations.
I purchased the labels from another Etsy shop (Wunderlabel) and guess what color they are in? ORANGE!
POSTSCRIPT
Speaking of color, I have been following a wonderful blog by a painter, Laura’s Create art every day. A couple years ago while taking a Jean Wells class on art quilting, she suggested that we also seek inspiration from the work of other artists outside of fiber/textile arts – like painters. I have started following the blogs of several painters and I am so inspired by their use of color and their creatively (oh no I see a future “Creative Inspiration” series blog post coming…)
Here is a post from createarteveryday.com with some seriously inspirational use of my new color best friend, Orange:
Check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s blog on her SchnauzerSnips page for her latest musings…
Showing Some “Grit”
After posting on Saturday about having “Grit” (powerful motivation to achieve an objective) I figured I better get “Gritty” and work on getting my tierneycreates Etsy shoprestocked.
So I had a “power crafting holiday weekend” and made 17 sets of vintage beer coasters.
I was “coasting” with making coasters!Tied up with a beer ribbon and ready to gift to the craft beer enthusiast
They are now listed on my tierneycreates Etsy shop and I am very pleased and relieved. Now onto the stack of other projects for the shop. Perhaps someday I can return to having 90+ items listed on my shop instead of my recent low of 25 items.
I have been working on better photography on my Etsy shop items. Below is an example from my “photo shoot” for the vintage beer coaster listing:
Coasters in action!
Once I get some additional smaller items onto the shop, I would like to focus on building my collection of modern quilt table runner offerings.
I have decided to no longer try to sell quilts on my Etsy shop and instead focus on offering reasonably priced smaller items. I removed all the listings for quilts made by me or by “Terry the Quilting Husband” on the tierneycreates Etsy shop. We plan to show and offer those quilts at the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Show.
It is challenging to sell quilts online. If you are a quilter you know how much work goes into making a quilt – time, effort and financial investment. It is difficult (at least for me with my questionable photography skills) to show online how lovely a quilt is in person. A great example is I sold a quilt at the 2015 Sisters Outdoor Show that I struggled for a year to sell on my Etsy shop – which was listed for quite a lower price on the Etsy shop. In person the quilt was spectacular (based on feedback I received) but you cannot always capture the specialness of a quilt with an online photo.
Interestingly potentially customers have contacted me on an Etsy quilt listings to ask me if I am willing to negotiate on the price of a quilt. It appeared they were looking for mass produced department store prices on my quilts.
Additionally, and this might be a topic for a future blog post, I am temporarily burned out on making lap and bed size quilts. I am interested in focusing on making table runners or small wall hanging size quilts instead.
Naturally I have more ideas in my mind that hours I have available to work on projects (don’t we all?) and I still have that pesky pay-the-bills full-time job in the healthcare industry (and they don’t let me quilt while working – ha!)
I continue to enjoy the audiobook Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016) and I am finding lots of inspiration to keep moving forward on my goals!
POSTSCRIPT: VARIOUS RAMBLINGS
When I ride my bike or go on a walk a million ideas seem to pop into my head of things I want to share on my blog. I thought I would do a mini “brain dump” in the “Postscript” section of this post:
In a previous post, Good Listens, I shared my favorite podcasts. Recently I have added several new favorites to my list:
While She Naps with Abby Glassensberg – a crafter and craft business focused podcast by blogger Abby Glassenberg who has a wonderful blog by the same name. I am currently listening to podcast episode #53 which features an excellent interview with Sherri Lynn Wood (author of my beloved The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously).
Let’s Know Things – an engaging podcast by Colin Wright exploring and discussing different topics. He has a very relaxing voice and his topics are well researched and presented.
Chris Hogan’s Retire Inspired– I occasionally listen to Dave Ramsey’s podcasts on managing your finances and Chris Hogan is a protege of Dave Ramsey. Chris Hogan’s style is more appealing – he is warm and hysterically funny financial coach.
All of these podcasts are available for free on iTunes. I might discuss them in more depth in a future post.
You may wonder what become of my “Pilot Butte Walks” that I posted about in several posts in April and May. Well they are still on hold for now (first due to my knees, then due to hot days) but I am going bike riding several days a week now in the am before work. I bike ride in the back of an adjoining neighborhood where I discovered an empty block (new house construction that was halted) in which I can safely ride around and around the block listening to podcasts. I try to ride for at least the length of a 30 or 40 minutes podcast before heading home.
The Here and Now Habit by Hugh Byrne – I discussed this audiobook in several previous posts (see Listening and Reading and The Guest House). Well I felt that I got all I could get out of it and did not finish it. That of course is the beauty of free public library audiobook downloads. It grew repetitive after a while and I felt like it was time to move on.
I think that is enough “brain dump” for now. Thanks for reading my ramblings. It is time to go to bed and hope I continue to be infused with “Grit” to attack all the awaiting fiber projects!
Just started listening to a fantastic audiobook (well fantastic so far) – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseveranceby Angela Duckworth (2016).
The audiobook is read by the author (I love when an author reads their own audiobook) and explores the role of GRIT in the journey to success (however youdefine success).
…a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual’s path to accomplishment, and serves as a driving force in achievement realization.
Whenever I think of the word “grit”, I think of the movie True Grit (original 1969 and remake 2010).
This movie was based on a novel by Charles Portis (1968). This movie was about a teenage girl hiring a man with “true grit” to capture the man who killed her father. It is a story of dogged retribution for a wrong, as well as a story of valor and courage.
In the audiobook Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, the author does not discuss hunting down people who do you wrong (could you imagine reading a self-improvement book that focused on that topic, ha!) but explores “natural talent” vs. “hard work and perseverance”.
I am early in the audiobook but I am fascinated by the author’s anecdotal examples of individuals who society or schools wrote off as low aptitude and low achievers who went on to achieve great things due to their efforts, hard work, and perseverance. The author also shares how one teacher believing in one child that no one else believed in can make a huge impact on that child’s life and future. Teachers are higher life forms in my opinion and the lives they positively impact have an impact on society as a whole.
More later on this audiobook as I continue my listen…
Postscript
Speaking of “grit” (or my imaginary grit), I have been hard at work making items for the tierneycreates Etsy shop. I am taking a break from working on art quilts and instead focusing on making fun items for people to enjoy in their homes or give as gifts. I am working on make a bunch of the Vintage Beer Coasters (see the post Quilt Retreat Weekend: The Projects for the story of how I made 9 sets at a quilt retreat and left with retreat with 0 sets as the other quilters bought them all as gifts!)
Postscript Postscript
Do you remember the days of writing letters (on paper!) and adding a “P.S. P.S” after your initial “P.S.”? Well here is one more thought before I close this post:
I continue to enjoy all the blogs I follow by other creative individuals. I wanted to mention one blog post I recently really enjoyed from the blog Dewey Hopin which the blogger discusses interesting finds in the Economics section of the library, discussion of those finds and some wonderful humor:
The blogger, Feisty Froggy, is blogging through the entire Dewey Decimal system of the local public library in order; and shares favorite finds in each section. If you have followed my blog for a little while, you know about my love of and obsession with the public library.
I look forward to Feisty Froggy’s next post on the next library section!
A friend of mine and I have an ongoing joke that we are going to write a book called “An Idiot’s Guide to Being an Idiot”. Over the years we have shared and collected humorous mistakes, miniature disasters and cosmic foibles.
Today I created a new chapter in our imaginary book. The chapter would be titled “How to screw up your iron when you really need it work”.
In addition to handmade items on my tierneycreates Etsy shopI also sell some carefully curated fabric (fabric I want to use but needed an excuse to buy the entire bolt…hey – I can share it with my customers!).
I created a fat quarter set from the collection of the solid color Peppered Cotton (“shot cotton”) yardage that I sell.
The fat quarter packs have been a great seller, and yesterday I sold another set and today I needed to prepare it to send to my customer. However, what I did not realize was that I was one set short and needed to cut new fat quarter sets.
Luckily, I recently replaced some of the yardage/bolts I ran out of (the blue, grey, green and tan were very popular). So I needed to open new bolts wrapped in plastic and cut some yardage into fat quarters (18″ x 22″ sections of fabric).
Trying to work efficiently, I warmed up the iron and put it on the floor in the corner so it would be ready for me to nicely iron each fat quarter before packaging them into sets.
The new bolts were wrapped in plastic and here is where my complete “Idiot Moment” began – I accidentally threw the plastic covers for the new bolts on top of the hot iron on the floor.
Are you ready for a huge life lesson (this will be life changing, hold onto your seats):
HOT IRONS AND PLASTIC ARE NOT FRIENDS. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE THEM FRIENDS. KEEP IRONS AND PLASTIC SEPARATE AND AS FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AS POSSIBLE.
So here I am needing to package up a fat quarter set to mail to an Etsy customer and my iron is now completely out of commission.
I yelled down the hall to “Terry the Quilting Husband”, and he immediately ran in (as he thought perhaps I had sewn through my hand or had rotary cut off several fingers by the way I screamed for help) and we began to troubleshoot the disaster.
I will not review the painfully ineffective steps we tried. Then I thought: it is likely that someone else has made such a silly mistake in the past and maybe there is something on the internet about how they fixed it.
Yes the internet came through for me. A brief search revealed many tips on how to remove plastic from irons (there must be whole communities of people accidentally melting plastic on their irons everyday!). We thought this one was the best resource on removing plastic from the doityourself.com website:
We are now at the step of placing the plate of iron in ice water (yes, of course we unplugged the iron first, we do not want to create an additional chapter to the “Idiot’s Guide”, ha!) after scraping off the plastic with a metal spatula. Wish me luck. I must now return to my disaster..
Postscript
It worked! (HAPPY DANCE). I am now ironing the fat quarters and making them into bundles.
While working on these fat quarter sets/bundles I remembered I had posted about my adventures in starting to sell fabric in 2015 in this post: Adventures in Retail. If you read that post you will wonder why I am still making up these fat quarter sets. The answer is I love this fabric and I am happy to share it at a reasonable price with my fellow crafters out there (so I can justify buying more bolts of it…).
06/17/16 – I updated my blog template to the format you see now, thanks everyone for your input!
The blog template I use is called Chalkboard and it is sort of a tribute to my family of teachers.
Beginning with my great grandfather, I come from a line of teachers. I even got my trainer certification and used to be a trainer/teach for many years in my profession.
However, recently I was reading a publication on blogging tips and it said to NEVER use white text on a dark background – this is difficult on your readers.
I would appreciate your honest feedback on my blog format and if you would prefer dark text on a white background as is standard with most blogs.
As you can see, I am playing with my blog template again. Why does WordPress give me so many interesting options for my blog template? How can I ever be happy just sticking with the same template, ha! I welcome your feedback on the latest look to the tierneycreates blog: “Chalkboard” template.
Happy Monday to you all! A couple photos and updates to share with you as follow ups to various previous posts:
The flowering crabapple tree is in full bloom in front of my house and unbelievably, deliciously, inspirationally fragrant. When I step out from front door I am immediately enveloped with this incredible scent of Spring and the sounds of busy bees buzzing around the crabapple tree blooms!
I recently learned that my piece, made from discards from another quilter’s project, We Will Not Be Discarded,has sold in the Twigs Gallery Collaboration show!
Very exciting – this is my first time selling my quilting art at a gallery show!
I walked Pilot Butte again today, this time it took me 46 minutes to go up to the summit and back down, 4 minutes off my time last Monday (when I returned hiking our “mini mountain” in town for the first time after an 8 month hiatus after my foot injury).
The 360 degree views of Bend, Oregon and Central, Oregon continue to be breathtaking on another impossibly blue sky day here (we have a lot of impossibly blue sky beautiful days).
In the post You Got to Start Somewhere I shared that I listened to the audiobook Become Who You Were Born to Beby Brian Souza while hiking Pilot Butte. Today I continued my listen of this inspirational audiobook while hiking the Butte.
I wanted to share a wonderful quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson from this book which brought a smile to my face and a small tear to my eye from its beauty and truth.
What is Success?
“To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Enjoy the rest of your week!
I am sure before the end of the week I will have more thoughts to share with you from all the thoughts that constantly swirl around in my head. Perhaps they will even have to do with quilting! (Smile).
tierneycreates 
