A week or so ago my partner John and I came up with a crazy idea: We have a large master bedroom and only use about 1/2 of it (the other 1/2 I used for occasional yoga and daily stretches) – why don’t we switch my sewing/quilting studio to the master bedroom and we move our bedroom to a smaller guest bedroom down the hall?

Yes, we’d have to access the master bathroom through my studio but we could keep the closets the same as our clothes are inside the master bathroom in a walk in closet at one end. So all we’d have to do (well it is a BIG “ALL”) is move a couple rooms of furniture around…

THE OLD STUDIO (IN A SMALL BEDROOM)

First, here is what my OLD studio looked like in one of the smaller bedrooms upstairs in my house:

Here is a little video tour of my old studio I posted to Instagram last year. I uploaded it to YouTube:

As you can see I had it jammed packed with stuff, but I made it work!

So over the past 3 – 4 days, doing a little here and there and then doing some big moves, we got rooms switched around. It took another day to get art, etc. hung and finishing touches.

THE NEW STUDIO (IN THE FORMER MASTER BEDROOM)

Here is the reveal of my NEW master bedroom tierneycreates studio:

I really like the table placed in the alcove (where I used to do yoga) with the windows on three sides. During the day it gets a lot of natural light to craft by and I have a nice view of a wooded area.

As far as our “new” small master bedroom, everything is going well so far. All our furniture fit and it feels rather cozy.

I cannot wait to get back to working on projects in my new big studio space!

Beastie Adventures, From the Woodshop, Studio

Guest Blogger: Updated Tour of Beastie’s Home

April 13, 2021June 6, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Tierney is on vacation and she’ll tell you about her trip when she gets back. So I am going to step in and be the guest blogger so she does not go too long without having a new post on her blog (I know, I know, I am so awesome for helping her!).

Oh in case you are new to this blog: my name is tierneycreates Beastie and I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster. I was made by Helen of CrawCrafts Beasties in Dublin, Ireland. You can read my story at I’m A Monster!!!. You can also check out the other posts I’ve had to guest blog on (i.e. when the human Tierney falls off the blogging-wagon and I have to help) in the series of posts: Beastie Adventures.

A photo from last year of me writing a guest blog post

When I am not guest blogger posting, then Mike the Miniature Schnauzer has to guest blog post:

Someone else Tierney uses to do her work: Mike reviewing the draft of his guest post before posting…

Oh and now the subject of this post (which is not to just show how Tierney falls of the blogging wagon and we have to rescue her…) – I wanted to show you the recent updates to my home, which is also Tierney’s crafting studio.

Tierney’s partner John (human John, not to be confused with my Beastie fiancé “John Beastie”, see post Guest Blog Post: Mail Order Groom) has been busy in his Woodshop making things for her studio.

MY NEW “HIGH RISE“

Human John built Tierney a storage unit for her fat quarter collection and fabric scraps which she keeps in wine crates:

My dog Mikelet and I live on the “second floor”:

IRONING (AND CUTTING) TABLE

Human John also built Tierney a table with shelves for her new large iron board he made her (see post “From the Cutting Table”: Update to tierneycreates Studio (Guest Blogger)) a couple months ago. She stores her rulers in there as well as miscellaneous sewing supplies:

She’s also been known to store a Miniature Schnauzer in there:

THE TABLE

Last year from her local community board for free stuff, Tierney picked up a large black table to use for crafting. It was scuffed up but it worked:

Tierney was “making-do” with the table and covered up the scuffs with an old table cloth but John wanted her to have a decent looking table in her studio so he created a new tabletop for it! John created a pattern with wood like a “nine-patch” quilting block.

A month ago Tierney bought herself a used Juki sewing machine which is in the image above.

Alas, she did not buy ME another sewing machine, I have to just be happy with my Beastnina:

So those are the changes to my home, the tierneycreates studio!

Tierney will be back on the next post telling you about her trip and she might even catch up with reading her blogging buddies posts and responding to comments.

Until then, here is a sign she saw a couple months ago to give you some inspiration:

From the Woodshop, Studio

Peg, Peg, Pegboard

February 25, 2021October 26, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Yup. So much for my plans to do daily postings to my blog. I even asked Mike the Miniature Schnauzer, who guest blog posted on Sunday 2/21/21, to fill in like he did in the post Guest Blogger: Obsession with Making Crocheted Dishcloths, but he was busy napping and still seems irritated over some dishcloth-crocheting-while-riding-in-the-car incident… (I have a hashtag I use on Instagram sometimes for posted pictures of Mike: #miniatureschnauzerfirstworldproblems).

Rulers Gone Awry

This is probably not unusual but as a quilter I have a lot of different rulers and templates. I have the standard cutting rulers and then I have special rulers and templates I’ve collected over the years for various projects (or being lured by a demo at a quilt shop into buying a ruler/template I thought I might need someday!).

My organization of these rulers and templates was sort of haphazard and irritating to me. I thought that adding pegboard to my crafting studio would help resolve this – so I consulted with my partner John, aka “Mr. Woodworker” and he figured out a solution.

First he installed a floating shelf he built above where the pegboard was to be placed:

Then he cut the pegboard to fit the area of wall; and painted the pegboard to match the wall:

And then he installed the pegboard. Here is my original set up with the pegboard hooks and pegboard baskets were bought:

At first I tried giving tierneycreates Beastie and her dog Mikelet (see series of post Beastie Adventures) their own little balcony on the pegboard wall but they did not like it.

So I moved her to another area on my studio (she will probably do a guest post in the future to show you her new home and other changes to my studio) and repurposed that “balcony”:

The pegboard has been wonderful to organize my commonly used and miscellaneous rulers. For now I still keep my very large rulers (like my 15″ x 15″ ruler) on my cutting table:

“Mr. Woodworker” is building me a new cutting table in the future which will have slots for my large rulers underneath the cutting surface!

Postscript

My friend Dana was inspired by my new pegboard and recently she had her husband install one in her studio!

At first she was going to have the pegboard painted a neutral color like the color of her studio walls, but then she decided she wanted a pop of color:

I think she did an amazing job organizing her pegboard! Thanks to Dana for sharing images of her new pegboard.

Beastie Adventures, Studio

Tweaks to the Tierneycreates Studio

June 11, 2020May 2, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I love Crafter’s/Artist’s Studio tours! I love to see where people create. If I happen upon a studio tour blog post then it’s time to get a cup of tea and settle back and enjoy!

I have a couple books in my collection of studio tours/ideas and I occasionally pick up the latest issue of the magazine – Where Women Create.

So I thought I’d share an update to the post Guest Blogger: tierneycreates’ “New” Studio Tour, and share some photos of the latest version of my tierneycreates studio (aka back bedroom) in case you like studio tours as much as I do!

The Studio Needed An Official Name

I decided to name it “Tierney’s Woman Cave”!

New Layout

I changed the layout of the table I have on risers that serves as my cutting table. This is the table I got for free from my community’s for sale/for free online boards.

Before:

After (gave the Eurolounger next to the window to the pre-teen next door for her room remodel):

I had a feeling when I first re-did my studio after moving back into it after we decided in the early COVID days not to sell the house and to stay put (see post Perspective), that I would make tweaks to the layout as I used the studio and got a sense of what worked and what could be better.

I shifted the iron board and re-did the area on top of the bookcases in the room. I also added in additional storage drawers in the cubby bookcases.

New Closet

One of the biggest changes is that my partner John removed the original wire shelf and built me nice shelves in the closet. Previously I had the original wire shelf where clothes would have hung with hanging wire shelves added.

Before:
After:

I love my new closet and had so much fun organizing it!

Tierneycreates Beastie’s New Home

I relocated the Tierneycreates Beastie from a basket to the top of a bookcase next to a delicious basket of fabric string scraps (well delicious to me):

Project That is Sort of In Progress

I am will share more on this project in a future post in my series What’s on the Design Wall, but one of my quilting friends gave me a project she decided to give up on after taking a class. Right now I am sorting out the pieces she has sewn together, the pieces she has cut out, the leftover fabric, the pattern and the templates.

I am also still working on machine quilting my piece All the Trimmings which I last discussed in the post Update on “All the Trimmings”. I had to take it off my sewing machine to roll the section I completed quilting to make room in the machine:

I am really enjoying my Tierney’s Woman Cave, it is my “happy place”!

Postscript

A quick follow up to the post Proud of My Maker (Guest Blogger Post) in which the guest blogger, Tierneycreates Beastie mentions that I lost her t-shirt during packing for my move that did not happen.

Well her t-shirt has been found!

Turns out I had shoved it into this antique box when I was packing up:

I originally put the box in my cubby bookcase without even checking the contents, but took a closer look the other day.

So now she has her t-shirt for the warmer weather instead of having to wear her sweater all the time!

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Studio

Guest Blogger: tierneycreates’ “New” Studio Tour

April 4, 2020May 2, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As Tierney promised in her previous post Perspective, I am going to be your guest blogger for this post and give you a tour of my “new” home, which is also Tierney’s “new” studio.

2020-04-01_10-56-08_365 — Mikelet and I in our cozy basket where we hang out in the “new” studio

But first, in case you are new to this blog, my name is tierneycreates Beastie and I am a Monster, but the good kind of Monster. You can read my story at I’m A Monster!!!. You can also check out the other posts I’ve had to guest blog on (i.e. when Tierney fell off the blogging-wagon) in the series of posts: Beastie Adventures.

Here is what my dog Mikelet and I look like outside our basket (before we were homebound…):

We were created by the very, very, very talented Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties in Dublin, Ireland.

Here I am working from my makeshift desk to bring you this guest blog post:

Well enough about me (even though I am very interesting) and let’s get to the tour of Tierney’s “new” studio.

Oh – first I should address why I keep putting the word “new” in quotes. It’s because, as she shared in her previous post, she did not move into the new house she and John were going to buy. Instead they decided to stay at their current house which was pretty much completely packed up except for basic items to stage the house for sale and to live day to day. Her studio had been painted and converted into a bedroom:

So when they decided not to buy the new house/not to move, Tierney had to unpack her studio and in unpacking her studio, she decided to reimagine the layout.

So she has sort of created a “new” studio!

tierneycreates Studio Tour

Tierney decided to first bring in the IKEA bookcases she had previously in her home office (she has been a full-time telecommuter for the past 14 years, before I was even a ball of yarn…). From there she figured out with her partner John on the best way to layout the room.

Over the next several days she unpacked her boxes (which seemed like they would never end), hung up some art and quilts on the studio wall and found a place for the large design wall her partner John built her.

Here are photos of the completed studio from various angles:

So Tierney is ready to create (she can be tierneycreates again) in her new studio! She is so happy to have her sewing machine unpacked!

She did start making some masks with a filter pocket opening out of recycled oxford shirts yesterday (easy pattern is at www.madeeveryday.com/fabric-face-mask-free-pattern/) .

But she is hoping to start sewing a bit more fun things in the near future than masks…

Oh and I forgot to mention, Tierney did make sure that Mikelet and I have a very prominent and cozy spot in her “new” studio:

Which of course should have been her first priority from the beginning of setting up her studio!

Studio

Updated tierneycreates Studio Tour

June 25, 2018October 29, 2018 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve updated the studio tour on my page tierneycreates Studio Tour.

2018-06-22_09-56-45_898 — When you first walk into my studio

My tiny studio is nothing to “write home about” but I share photos to encourage other crafters who have not yet created their own little crafting space in their abode to do so.

I’ve proven you can cram a lot into a tiny bedroom (and someday I will install decent lighting into it)!

My studio makes me smile even if is it missing the sense of crisp, coordinated, moderns, elegant, organized, etc. style that I’ve seen in other quilters/crafters/artists’ studio (you’ll never see it featured in magazines such as Where Women Create).

It is a little sanctuary where I have hung on the wall quilts by my Quilting Sisters Kathy R. and Judy D. reminding me of the beauty of life-long true friendships. It is where I enjoy my collection of little toy schnauzers and rabbits, my collection of fabric treats and delights, and a closet full of projects to be made!

From the book Your Creative Work Space: The Sweet Spot Style Guide to Home Office + Studio Decor by Desha Peacock:

A mother bird doesn’t complain that she doesn’t have time or space to create her nest, she just makes do with the resources available to her at the time…Her job is not finished when the nest is built. She still needs to protect it until her babies are strong enough to go out on their own…think of what would happen if the momma bird neglected to actually build the nest because she couldn’t find the perfect materials. Don’t let your creativity suffer or, worse, die because you can’t find the perfect lamp…don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Use the resources you have around you and allow them to blossom with age and use.

Once you create your space, do not abandon it. Protect it fiercely with that momma bird love… – Desha Peacock, Your Creative Work Space (2017)

I hope you all make a nest for the precious baby birds of your creations!