I got John’s T-Shirt Quilt assembled and I am shipping it off to the long-arm quilter. Not sure if I’ll have it back for Christmas as she is of course backlogged this time of year!
Just a reminder from my previous post on this quilt – I will have red binding to it to frame it and pull in the scrap red flannel I used in the center to make the center T-Shirt fit with the others.
Oh and here is a photo of the basketball themed flannel (John loves basketball and was even playing in an intramural league where he was the oldest guy and the referee nicknamed him “Old School” – ha!) that will be on the back:
It feels like I floated far away from a regular quiltmaking practice and I’d like to return to it.
I’d like to always have some quilt, whether traditional or art, in progress on my design wall.
So I am easing back in by making a simple T-shirt quilt for John for Christmas (it’s not a surprise as I wanted him of course to have a say in what T-shirts he gave up for the project!);
I took 17 of his old T-shirts and backed them with interfacing and trimmed them to 12.5 inches by 12.5 inches.
The one in the middle, “Beards Turn Laziness Into Awesomeness” is not actually one of his old T-shirts but a joke T-shirt my friend S found for John while she and I were thrifting.
I am setting the interfaced T-shirt squares with a tartan looking flannel I found a couple years ago at a thrift shop.
I will bind the quilt once it is quilted with red flannel binding to “frame” it/coordinated with the scrappy red flannel I put around the center T-shirt to make it large enough to fit into the design.
Happy to have a quilt in progress up on the design wall!
It should come together quickly so I hope to soon have an update on this quilt!
After seeing the Toward 2050 exhibit and walking the labyrinth at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona in February, I knew I wanted to contribute to the project in someway and ended up volunteering to sew one of the “blankets” (what they were calling the quilts, ouch) to be made from 30 of the flags that people around the world created inspired by their feelings on Climate Change.
So I turned this pile of 30 – 9 1/2″ by 9 1/2″ flags:
Into this quilt top per the detailed instructions provided:
It was challenging as the flags were really more individual art pieces and likely not originally created to be incorporated together into one piece*.
I ran into issues of trying to sew through very thick materials; and dealing with flag original construction and design issues such as sections within a flag not fully stitched together.
*I am not sure if the original participants knew their flags would become “quilt blocks”:
But I got it done(and so appreciated sharing my challenges with my friend W who was also working on piecing a different set of 30 flags) and will mail to the Toward 2050 project team tomorrow for them to send it on to their volunteer longarm machine quilters to finish.
During my Summer of Travel I’ve been working on my Sunflower Granny Square blanket as crocheting the individual granny squares is a perfect portable project:
Passenger in the car with my crochet project bag on my lap, crocheting through the road miles…
In that January post I reported 39 granny square blocks done. I now have 91 blocks done as of this photo which I took before heading out on another recent road trip (to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico):
PLUS 10 more I finished on the recent New Mexico roadtrip (more in a future post on that roadtrip):
So in total I have 101 blocks done.
Here are a couple close up images of the different yarn combinations I used for the blocks (because I only wanted to use yarn from my stash); the ones with the green yarns represent sunflowers that are not fully open:
And I still need to make some more to make the blanket a little bigger. I might make 20 more, we’ll see. I am going to finish up all the remaining sections I’ve started which I think total 20.
Here’s my basket in the living room where I store my completed blocks (oh my will there be a lot of block ends to weave in someday!):
I’m going to do a different granny square block join than I did on the other three granny square blankets I’ve made. This time I am going to do a Single Crochet Join this time instead of the Join As You Go Method I’ve used in the past.
Single Crochet Join Example:
Image credit: Repeat Crafter Me
Join As You Go Example:
Image credit: Crochet 365 Knit Too
Oh something really cool I discovered – for the outside border of each sunflower granny square I used Lion Brand Wool Ease (an acrylic and wool blend) yarn in Wheat.
Image credit: Michael’s
Well when I was taking photos of the laid out granny squares on the “Design Carpet”, I was barefoot and ended up having to step on the laid out squares. I discovered THEY WERE SO SOFT under my feet and I think it is due to the border yarn I used for each square.
I think it will be a really cozy and snuggly blanket and now I really want to get it completed for the winter season!
Here is a follow up to the post The Expansion of “Go Boldly” , and an update on my progress on this quilt which I expanded from it’s original size of 56 inches by 56 inches(142 x 142 cm) to 82.5 by 82.5 inches (2.1 x 2.1 meters) by adding additional blocks:
I figured since this was the quilt in the background of my photoshoot for the October 2023 Issue 28: Colorado of Quiltfolk Magazine I should go ahead and finish it.
image credit: Quiltfolk Magazine
(A little background on this quilt: my friend D started this quilt four years ago and didn’t want to finish it so she offered me the initial pieced blocks, the templates, and the fabric she bought for the project. I’ve pieced about 50% of the blocks for the quilt and the rest were pieced by D.)
So I got all the blocks sewn together and discovered it was nearly Queen bed size when I laid it out on the guest bed:
I had a bit of remaining fabric and some blocks leftover, but I didn’t want to expand the quilt further.
I decided I didn’t need it to be a real Queen sized quilt as I didn’t plan to use it as a bed quilt as the colors do not go with my decor.
I did however want it to be a colorful large lap quilt to have at say the foot of a bed. So I pieced the remaining blocks into circles as the center part of the back of the quilt:
From there I used remaining fabric to build out the quilt back to be a little bit larger than the quilt top:
Yes it is a messy wrinkly mess as I didn’t iron it before I took the photo. This is the back in progress, I added one more row of fabric to each side to make it bigger than the quilt top.
It will basically be a reversible quilt with the pieced back.
I’ve decided to tie the quilt instead of sending it out for professional long arm quilting. I have some cool heavy weight colorful threads I plan to use to tie it. They are close to thickness of embroidery floss.
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!) 🙂
Well after Monday’s guest post by Mike the Miniature Schnauzer’s on the update of one of the WIPs (Guest Blog Post: Progress on “My Blanket”), the gray granny square blanket, that I shared in this post2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, I guess I should actually do a post providing an update on another WIP I mentioned in the “2023 Recap” post: the table runner for our new table made from orphan blocks from my friend Wendy’s quilt SuperSymmetry (the quilt and the pattern she wrote appeared in the October 2010 edition of The Quilt Life):
I have all the blocks that Wendy gave me sewn together; and now it seems I have quite a few to make to bring the piece the full length of the table.
I am floating the table runner in progress on the taupe-brownish fabric that I will use as the borders. It is the same fabric I used as the setting fabric in this quilt which is in the dining room/library:
Yes that is Mike napping at my feet while I read a book in the library (before it was the dining room/library).
Here’s a couple more photos of the table runner in progress laid out on the dining table, this time with the bowl and candles that will sit on top of it when it is done:
You can see my breakfast in the background, it is a nice place to sit, read and eat breakfast.
I really like how the table runner is looking in the room and it coordinates well with my color scheme. I have one of those Ruggable washable rugs on order for under the table the in a muted brown color. Hopefully the rug will tie the room even more together (as well as protect the carpet from food spills when the dining table it being used).
A Library Book Borrowing Bonanza
You might have noticed in the first image in this post a stack of library books on the chair in the corner. A while back I decided to end my series of posts on the stack of library books I borrow from the library (last post in the series was Revenge of The Library Stack). But I thought I would share a special library book borrowing bonanza event.
The Saturday before New Year Eve (12/30), John and I decided to have a unique adventure – we decided on one day to visit all the libraries in our local library system that were within a reasonable drive. We drove to four different library branches, three of which I’ve never visited. Since my library card worked at all the libraries, I had an “incident” and came home with a LOT of books.
It was fun raiding the NEW NONFICTION sections of each library as well as browsing their 700s sections where all the yumminess for me awaits! It was such a delight to visit all those libraries in one day and what a wonderful sense of anticipation I had as our car parked in front of a library I’d never been to before!
Remember the post I did on the literary and popular culture inspired Christmas Trees my local library had on display (see post O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Trees…) as part of the Forest of Trees? Well the other libraries we visited in the library system also had trees on display as part of this library system wide program.
I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the different trees at each library branch we visited. Here are some of my favorites (sorry the lighting wasn’t the best for photography) listed in order of the photos:
Princess Bride
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Cat in the Hat
Star Wars
Star Trek
The Hobbit
Such amazing creativity on the part of the library staff who came up with the concepts and decorated the trees!
There were 7 of us for Christmas Eve and we were going to make do with our 6 person seating kitchen table, with one person (#7) either crammed in or sitting at the kitchen counter.
We don’t have a formal dining room, just an open room when you first enter the front door which we turned into the library (previously it was a “sitting room”).
Well I came up with the semi “hare-brained” idea on December 23 that we should go buy an actual dining room table and put it into the library. It would serve as both a library table (it’s always been my dream to have one) and a dining table when needed.
So off we went to IKEA on 12/23, which was surprisingly empty so close to the Christmas holiday, and bought a table which seats 8 (but you could fit 10 at the table).
image credit – ikea.com
Yes John could have built a table in his woodshop but we figured it would cost the same or more to build from scratch a 92 1/2″ x 39 3/8 ” table (234 cm x 100 cm approximately) and he wouldn’t have it ready for December 24th!
We got the table home and before you know it we had it set up and made up for Christmas Eve (including Christmas Crackers):
And the table worked perfectly for our Christmas Eve dinner of 7 people (we used the loveseat in the library as seating for 2 of the 7 people; and the chairs are the existing kitchen table chairs):
In addition to candles on the table, I set up tea lights on the bookshelves in the library for a nice atmosphere during our festive dining.
And the two dogs that attended (Mike and Ajax) enjoyed foraging under the table and begging for food:
Christmas morning I was having some quiet time sitting at the new table in the library having tea and looking at library books with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer…
…and I thought: this table needs a table runner! (And a new larger rug under it…I am looking into one of those Ruggable rugs that remove from their pad and are machine washable).
Luckily I had in my stash a group of blocks my friend Wendy gave me (see post Quilter Distractions: Good Mail filled with “Taupe”) from a quilt she made for a magazine article/pattern she wrote for October 2010 edition of The Quilt Life called SuperSymmetry.
It is not enough blocks to make a quilt but it was enough to start a table runner!
I used up all the blocks Wendy sent and I am only at about a 6 foot table runner. The table is over 7 1/2 feet long so I am going to have to piece more blocks. Luckily Wendy sent me a bunch of coordinating fabric scraps!
I plan to add some type of thin border to the pieced blocks to float them. I don’t plan to make the table runner very wide as I just want to run the center of the table.
I’ll update you on the progress.
Oh and I’ll close this post with something sweet I saw this morning on my walk.
We have a lot of deer in the area so there are a lot of “deer crossing” warning signs as crossing deer (who like to randomly cross the street when you least expect it) are a dangerous traffic hazard.
Well someone decorated one of the “deer crossing” signs with a red nose (like Rudolph the Red Noses Reindeer!) to make it festive!
This bit of whimsy gave me a huge smile on my walk!
I finished the quilt top for the quilt “What Direction Do I Go?“ which I most recently posted about in this post – Update on Various Projects.
The quilt top measures 55 inches by 55 inches (140 cm by 140 cm). I am still thinking through my plan on how to quilt it but I did decide what fabric to put on the back of it:
I have this awesome vintage Kas Richloom light weight upholstery fabric in my stash that I found at a charity thrift store shop a couple years ago. I think it will add a bright and happy touch to the back of the quilt.
The quilt is meant to be a wallhanging/art quilt so it is okay if the quilt ends up being a little stiff with the recycled denim and home decor fabric on the front and the upholstery fabric on the back.
I have some handmade items I am making as Christmas gifts so I need to set the quilt top aside for now and get to crafting gifts, but I’ll pick it up again after the new year (can you believe it is nearly 2024?!?!?)
A Fun Brewery Discovered
Thanks to one of the quilters I met at theRocky Mountain Quilt Museum Reception for quilters in the October 2023 issue of Quiltfolk Magazine, we discovered an awesome brewery near our house that seems to be custom made for me!
Fiction Beer Company! Two of some of my favorite things combined: craft beer and reading! This brewery was already in Denver and it opened a second location in Parker, Colorado in May.
The brewery is DOG FRIENDLY (we were able to sit inside on a sofa with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer), has a free lending library (take a book or donate a book), delicious craft beer, free bookmarks, and a friendly bartender who came and visited with us and Mike for a while when the bar service slowed up!
This brewery is Miniature Schnauzer approved (no worries we did not give Mike beer, but the bartender did bring Mike over a bowl of water and some dog biscuits!)
Finally I’m sewing together the blocks on my recycled denim and home decor fabric quilt “What Direction Do I Go?“
I am trying something new to sew the 81 blocks together by working on 9 blocks at a time, numbering them and then semi-chain-piecing them into a square:
So far I have three squares, which is 27 blocks total, sewn together:
I really like the look of the individual blocks sewn together:
In the postBlocks Completed for “What Direction Do I Go?”, I mentioned I was trying to figure out the layout for the blocks on this quilt. Well I decided to make it look as if light was coming from the center and radiating out…sort of…well as best I could with the blocks I made. I put the blocks with the lighter or more faded denim in the center and the darker ones on the outer areas:
It is a fun project to work on while watching TV and hopefully soon it will cover more of my lap (photo above) than it does right now (because it’s cold now in Colorado – 28 degrees!)
PANTRY UPDATE
A couple years ago John redid the pantry and built in shelves. Recently he repainted the pantry to a white with gray undertones and added a new butcher block shelf. He also added a motion sensor light that will turn out when you enter the pantry and turn off after a while when there is no motion; and 4 outlets so we could keep a couple appliances in the pantry and use them in there.
As I mentioned in the first post on this quilt (ScrapHappy October 2023), I’ve tentatively named this piece What Direction Do I Go? and it is made from recycled denim jeans and recycled home decorating fabric scraps.
Saturday night I finished up the 81 blocks for this 9 by 9 block piece and I just thought I’d share with you what my design wall looks like with all the blocks completed:
Now it’s time to figure out the final layout and then get the blocks sewn together.
But first I seriously need to clean my sewing machine it was a LOT of lint from piecing denim and home decorating fabric scraps (many of which are synthetic type of fabrics).
I’ve been taking a break from blogging after my push to do a daily blog post for the 31 days of October, my 10th anniversary month of blogging. Additionally recently I had a wonderful visit with out of town family that of course kept me from sitting down and blogging.
Here are some updates on my current adventures in creativity.
I now have 66 blocks completed and 15 more to go to make 81 blocks for a 9 by 9 layout:
This is not even close to the final layout, just blocks put up on the design wall to track my progress. I have a lot of cleaning to do on my sewing machine after all that lint from sewing denim and home decor fabrics!
I’ve completed the 80 crocheted granny square blocks for the next granny square blanket I am making. I am doing a 8 by 10 layout of the blocks and will set them in dark gray yarn as the lattice.
Mike the Miniature Schnauzer couldn’t wait to lay on the laid out blocks as soon as I moved away from them!
This also is not the final layout, just a general layout to show all the blocks (and a Miniature Schnauzer, ha!).
I used the pages she sent me to make a display in my studio of the article I am in using these cool 11 inch by 17 inch frames I found. John did a great job helping me hang them.
I’ll close this post with a cute meme my sister sent me the other day as we all struggle with Daylight Savings Time (setting the clocks back 1 hour in the Fall and 1 hour forward in the Spring); that is US states that agree to play along with it (Hawaii and Arizona do not participate).
I am continuing on my challenge to post to my blog every day in celebration of October 2023 being my 10th anniversary of blogging month. And if you all can’t keep up no worries, this is WAY too much posting – ha! I think once October is over I will go to a once a week posting schedule (or perhaps a little more frequent than that…we’ll see…).
I continue to crochet granny squares for a distraction while traveling as a passenger in a car or while traveling in general. I am currently working on an 80 square blanket (8 by 10) and I’ve progressed from thisin July 2023:
To this (only 7 more granny squares to complete to make 80):
I don’t have them in their final order before they are joined together, I just semi randomly put them together for this update photo.
I store them in this bucket bag I made a couple years ago, as I complete them:
I have mixed feelings of getting near the end as it will be 1) time to work on joining them (a sort of pain in the booty) and 2) I’ll have to start work on a new one (and I am sort of attached to this one, ha) when I am a passenger in a car/traveling.
Luckily I have a couple blocks of this one already started (see post Plastic Yarn?) so this will be my next “road trip blanket” to work on!
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
I’ve completed 51 blocks piecing recycled denim/jeans and home decor fabric scraps; and I put 49 of them in a 7 by 7 square so you could see a sample of a layout:
Yes I couldn’t decide which photo to use so I included all three!
I want the piece to be sort of large, and definitely square and I’ve decided to make a total of 81 blocks for a 9 by 9 square piece. I might hand quilt it, I haven’t decided but I am going to try some sample designs with scrap denim to see how the stitching would look.
There is going to be lot texture in this quilt, primarily from the recycled home decorating fabric samples I used:
Here is a collection of close up blocks to show you the textures:
There are more fabrics I haven’t cut yet that I will be adding/using for the additional 30 blocks I need to make.
The layout you see on my design wall is not the final layout, just a sample layout. When I finish all the blocks and go to layout the quilt, I realized I need to pay attention to secondary patterns that I might want in the piece.
For example I noticed this secondary pattern, from how the blocks lay together, in one of the sections on the design wall and I like it:
I want to make sure the final layout has a lot of “movement” in it.
My tentative name for this piece is What Direction Do I Go?
It is a deeply personal piece, inspired by my first recycled fabric random triangle piece Flying Triangles (2012); but about my struggles for the past 5 years since becoming a widow, selling my beloved house, moving to Colorado (leaving all I knew there), starting the 2nd relationship in my life, quitting my job, trying to focus on textile art, etc. (Yes I like to lump a lot of life changes and drama into one time period, ha!).
It should prove to be an interesting Artist Statement on the piece when I am ready to write it (not until the piece is done of course).
And you thought it was just some recycled denim and home decor fabric sewn together (wink).
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
I’ve been itching to work with recycled textiles again and the other day I put together a collection of pieces to work with from my recycled textiles stash (recycled clothing, jeans, home decor fabrics):
I wanted to make a piece that is primarily recycled denim but also includes home decor fabrics in warm colors with lots of textures. I decided to revisit a piece I made in my early days of improvisational/art quilting (circa 2012/2013) where I was working with recycled silk and linen couture fabric samples – Flying Triangles:
Here is my design wall with the piecing I’ve been playing with this evening. Note it is late at night and I did not bring out the “ring light” I use for photographing pieces so the image is dark:
I am going to keep playing, I started out setting recycled fabrics in oranges in denim; and next I will use some browns and golds, and I’ll see what else feels right.
I’ll share more images in the future as the piece progresses and I’ll even take the photos with better lighting!
Upcycling: The act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. In doing so, the finished product often becomes more practical, valuable and beautiful than what it previously was.
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
For September’s ScrapHappy post I am going to reveal my completed quilt top for the wall hanging Strings Attached, which I previously posted about in late August – Made Some Progress on “Strings Attached” .
Last week on Instagram (@tierneycreates) I shared the nearly completed quilt top (one more border to go):
And here is the fully completed quilt top!
It will have a thin red binding after I quilt it – here is the binding next to the quilt top:
It took a while to string piece on muslin the 4 last border strips – a lot of fabric scraps were used!
Here are the completed strips – front and back images (so you can see how they were sewn onto muslin):
I noticed when I was moving the quilt top around to position it for piecing on the borders, it looked cool when in was backlit with sunlight. The sunlight was fading when I took the photos below but it sort of gives you the feeling of what I was seeing:
I am going to quilt it on my machine in similar way to how the sample quilt from the pattern is quilted (eventually…for now need to set it aside and move onto other things…):
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
I’ve been busy preparing to restock by Textiles & Smiles Etsy shop and getting ready for another scrappy fabric quilting retreat at my house, I am having with a different set of friends. Below is the basket of scraps they can work from:
In between that, some road trip adventure with John, and the completion of a home renovation project (well John did most the work), I’ve managed to make a little progress on the scrappy solid color medallion wallhanging I’ve been working on – Strings Attached.
Since my previous post What’s on the Design Wall: Strings Attached, I’ve sewn all the section of the center medallion string pieced star together and done the first border:
There were so many Y-seams! It seamed like every seam (smile) was Y-seam – yikes! I got a little more proficient on Y-seams after doing so many in a row but I don’t have any great insight, tips or wisdom to impart, sorry.
Here is a reminder of what the completed quilt will sort of look like:
A quick update to the post What’s on the Design Wall & “Agriculture Report” on the string pieced wallhanging I am making called “Strings Attached” from August 2021 issue of AmericanQuilter Magazine, pattern by Lori DeJarnatt.
I finished string piecing the 8 sections of the center star:
And then tried my hand a the first “Y-seam” (when 3 or more seams come together and they DON’T make a right angle per the geekybobbin.com) to join the first two star sections:
You can see in the photo above I got so excited joining one section that I started laying out the first border (instead of just piecing the whole center star first).
In the comments in the first post on this quilt, one of my blogging buddies asked me to share any tips I had on doing “Y-seams”. My first tip would be: “No, avoid them” but since I really wanted to make this piece I could not get around it.
Luckily the pattern designer had dots on her template for the center star sections that were a 1/4 inch away from the edge of the points; and she instructed the reader to make the same dots 1/4 inch from the points of the four squares and four inset triangles (the blue fabric) and match them with the dots on the star sections.
Sounds scary (and it looked scary) but it worked. I just got to do this 3 more times and then I can assemble the center star. I wonder if I can then get some sort of Certificate of Completion (I would frame it!) for those Y-seams – ha!
I was going to blog more about my recent Oregon Coast trip but there are so many photos to sort through so I thought I’d just post about a new wall hanging I am working on and my “Agriculture Report”. (What is an “Agriculture Report”? Well One of my blogging buddies @quiteayarnblog has an ongoing series of posts called “Agriculture Report” whose title always cracks me up because it is an update of what is going on in her garden.So I had to adopt that term for my garden report)
WHAT’S ON THE DESIGN WALL
I have so many projects in queue – unfinished projects and new project with imaginary and actual deadlines – but I was having a “squirrel” moment and cleaning out old quilting magazines and came across this pattern, String Attached, in an old issue of AmericanQuilter Magazine – and had to make it!
I am not sure why I fell in love with it but I did. I’ve done very little “string piecing” in the past but I thought it would be a great way to work down my collection of solid color fabric scraps:
I dumped them out and selected fabric scraps for the little quilt. I decided to stay away from dark or medium purple but to have red-violet and pink instead. I also tried to select fabrics similar to the sample one in the pattern.
The pattern calls string piecing on foundation paper but I decided to use muslin instead.
And here is the beginning of the center star on my design wall:
I am hopeful so far but I have some Y-seam type piecing to do when I get all 8 points to the center star done – yikes!
AGRICULTURE REPORT
My little upstairs patio garden is doing well this year, probably due to the ridiculous amount of rain we’ve been getting in the Denver Metro area. John and I joke we are now living in “Den-attle” or “Sea-enver” (Denver + Seattle).
I have tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs growing along with some Marigolds for pest control.
I was excited the other day to harvest my first tomatoes of the season!
Yes there were three cherry (small) tomatoes, but it was still exciting (smile).
For the Quiltfolk Magazine photoshoot (see posts Quiltfolk Magazine Photoshoot, Part I andQuiltfolk Magazine Photoshoot, Part II ), I wanted to have a quilt in progress up on the wall. The magazine editor had suggested it a day prior to the photoshoot and the quilt I had in my “UFO Stash” that came to mind were blocks of brightly colored “Crazy Curve Circles” that my friend D had given me a couple years ago (see June 2020 post Tweaks to the Tierneycreates Studio).
D already pieced a lot of the blocks; and I ended up piecing the rest of the sections together that she cut from the templates but had not pieced. She also gave me fabric and I made some additional blocks using the templates she also gave me.
Here is what the quilt currently looks like on my design wall – I’ve made a small version of the quilt pattern designed by Elisa’s Back Porch Designs:
There was a lot of piecing to get the whole quilt together – first the individual sections into a four patch, resulting in 16 blocks; and then sewing the 16 blocks together. I thought about making a larger quilt (I am so many blocks left over) but I just wanted to get this one done and move on to my other projects.
I’ve decided to hand quilt it as a late Autumn/early Winter project, and use this dusty collection of hand quilting threads I bought at a sewing expo show in Seattle, WA early in my quilting days (2000?):
So I am taking this quilt off the design wall and putting it away until the cooler weather when I’d want to have a quilt sitting on my lap while I hand quilt it.
So what to do with all the leftover blocks?
I’ve decided to make the large version of the quilt Circle Dance which includes both the larger “Crazy Curves” blocks (the one I made) and the smaller ones:
The pattern says “63 inches by 70 inches” but I think I can make it even larger with all the blocks I have left over. I will need to make the small “Crazy Curves” from the small template from the extra fabric D gave me.
I might start that in 2024 or 2025, who knows. I have so many projects in queue!
Next up on my project list is sewing on and then sewing down the binding for my black, white and gray scrappy freeform log cabin quilt – Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White (see post ScrapHappy June 2023: “Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White!” if you’d like background on this quilt), which is back from the longarm machine quilter:
And to close out this post, here is my Human Manager, Mike (see previous post) who is irritated I was taking a photo of the quilt on my design wall and not playing with him and his bear.
I had a couple brief updates and I thought I would spread them out into a bunch of brief blog posts but I am lumping them all together.
GO BOLDLY
An update on the quilt (which might end up more wallhanging size) that I mentioned in the post What I’ve Been Up To and What’s on the Design Wall, which I named “Go Boldly“: I am now sewing the blocks together. There are 64 blocks and each need to be sewing into blocks of 4 to make them into 16 blocks to then sew together.
I am currently debating whether to make the quilt larger (I have enough leftover blocks to make 1 – 2 additional quilts or wallhangings) or leave as it is. I think I am going to just sew the 16 blocks (4 mini sections to make a block) together and then decide.
The longarm machine quilter (Sew Colorado Quilting) has finished quilting it and sent me some photos, here is one of them.
I actually picked up the quilt today from her and will do a post on it with more photos once I get the extra backing and binding trimmed (I like to do my own trimming) and decide on a binding. I am thinking about doing a “facing” on it (like you would do with an art quilt) as I plan to hang it on the wall.
COLOUR WHEEL
A quick follow up on this post The Colour Wheel Quilt is Done, about the color wheel quilt I made to use as a teaching aid when I give a workshop next year (September 2024).
By the way I will share more information about that workshop including the venue once that venue gets ready to publish its online catalogue listing the workshop. If that doesn’t happen before October 2023, then I’ll go ahead and share as I’ve shared it with the Quiltfolk article writer for Issue 28 that comes out in October so it will be publicly revealed then anyway!
I had put the quilt away until next year for the workshop but then I decided to find a place for it in my studio so I could enjoy it before then – here it is now on a wall in my studio that I rearranged to make room for it:
VARIOUS RANDOM INFORMATION
John who loves to cook, tried making Ramen for the first time the other night and it came out pretty good!
My yellow rose bush in my front garden is finally taking off and here is one of its lovely roses:
And finally, here is Mike and his “cousin” Goose both trying to via for John’s laps (Goose won) when John was visiting his Dad the other day.
Hmm, I just realized that technically Goose is Mike’s “uncle” not his cousin – ha!
I’ve been behind in writing blog posts and reading blog post. I’ve been prepping for my first magazine photoshoot! For now I’ll need to keep you guessing but soon I will reveal what publication and what issue.
I had a Zoom interview last Friday with the article writer and yesterday (Thursday) I had a photo shoot with the photographer and stylist. I made them some homemade shortbread cookies, fruit, coffee and tea for their morning photo session with me:
The photographer and the stylist were so awesome and it was a fun (and a little tiring) morning posing for photos and helping them style what they wanted to at my home. Photos were taken inside and outside my house and lots of quilt photos. I have some “behind the scenes” of the photoshoot to share once I can reveal the publication. If you follow me on Instagram (@tierneycreates) you’ll probably find out first as I am just waiting for the stylist to post their behind the scenes photos to Instagram.
The “What’s On The Design Wall” part of this post is related to the photoshoot.
But the set of circle blocks that my friend D sent me a couple years ago (see post What’s on the Design Wall: Pride) for a colorful quilt she began in a class but decided not to finish, came to the rescue!
I started making the existing blocks into a quilt in summer 2020; and making additional blocks from the pattern and templates she gave me. I was going to name the quilt “Pride“, but I got distracted by other projects, took the quilt off the design wall and put it away.
Now it is back up on the design wall, just in time for Thursday’s photoshoot:
Yes it’s a little wrinkly but I was short on time before the photoshoot to re-iron the blocks before putting them up.
As part of the photoshoot I even sewed two blocks together, so I guess I better now work on sewing the whole thing together!
I changed the name of the quilt to “Go Boldly“. It is going to be wallhanging size and I do have enough leftover blocks to make a second wall hanging or even a quilt if I use up the extra fabric D also gave me to make more blocks (I have very generous quilting friends!)
Oh a quick update on Scrappy Autumnal Splendor – the binding is on and it is sitting in its new home in my home library. I was happy to get it back from the long arm machine quilter and get it bound (or “binded”? SpellCheck tells me that is not a word, ha!) before the photoshoot.
And I will close out this post with a couple photos of John (napping) and Mike enjoying the new hammock (actually intended for camping, it is a portable and fits in a small bag) we picked up on clearance at a sporting store. We got a break from all the rain we’ve been having in the Denver Metro area and they got to enjoy some hammock time!
It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.
Look what is now on my design wall: a sewn together freeform log cabin quilt using my black and white (and some gray) fabric scraps that I introduced in this post – What’s on the Design Wall: Scrappy Log Cabin. As far as the name of the quilt: Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White! I’ll explain that later in this post.
So I went from this (a crazy box of black, white and gray scraps):
It was so much fun to piece this quilt and to select interesting (all over the place) scraps for the blocks. As you can see in the images above, it is just a mishmash of scraps! I had a bunch of black and white fabrics scraps with writing as part of the fabric design so I thought it would be fun to work them in.
As far as the name of the quilt (I love naming quilts): Originally the quilt was going to be created only using black and white scraps. Then I decided to work in some gray. Then on a whim I decided to use some scraps that had a khaki brown color in addition to black. I liked the effect of a little bit of light brown in the piece. A pure B&W log cabin style quilt was not aesthetically pleasing to me. The name “Oh Scrap – It’s Not Just Black and White” is a play on the saying (which there are many versions):
Life isn’t always black and white (there is some gray…)
And found these three fabrics to use as the pieced backing:
I will reveal the pieced backing when the quilt is quilted. I’ve decided to have a longarm quilter machine quilt this quilt also.
So after making two freeform log cabin quilts in a row I think I will try a different pattern when I am ready to make my next scrap quilt.
By the way here is an update on ScrappyAutumnal Splendor, the other freeform scrappy log cabin quilt: The longarm quilter is done with it and I get to pick up the quilt later this week! The longarm quilt sent me some photos and I am so excited!
As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:
Ok one more post about this quilt before it heads today to the long-arm quilter (I decided to “quilt by check” instead of do it myself!). I decided to name the free-form scrappy log cabin quilt I started during the Scrap Happy Retreat I had in June – “Scrappy Autumnal Splendor” as it reeks of Autumn in it’s color palette!
Here is what it looks like all pieced together:
The border (and lattice) is taupe Peppered Cotton which is a version of a “shot cotton” and there was potential for fraying so I stitched around the entire quilt top 1/8th inch.
After finishing the quilt top it was time to head to my yardage stash and see what kind of backing I could piece together (I was tempted to buy yardage of a single fabric for the back but darn it I am going to use up my stash, ha!):
And here are a couple of the fabrics I found:
Here’s a little peek of the crazy pieced backing I made with bold Autumnal colored fabrics with metallic highlights!
You’ll have to wait until I get it back from the long-arm quilter to see how the back came out (anticipation…smile).
tierneycreates 