A Crafter's Life, tierneycreates

Home Gallery

I am taking a break from posting about the natural geologic beauty of Colorado like I did in my previous two posts. Instead I have a sort of follow up to my 04/16/2020 post Solo Show Seattle Municipal Tower (re-post).

My first solo show at the Seattle Municipal Tower (sponsored by the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture) ended in July 2019, and I’d already moved to Colorado. The City of Seattle ended up purchasing 3 of the quilts from the show for their permanent collection; and private collectors purchased 2 more, so that left 7 quilts (or 6 I forget) to be returned to me.

Thanks to my friends Colleen, Donna and Judy, the quilts were held for me until I attended a quilt retreat in Washington state in November 2019.

I noticed when I picked up the quilts that had not sold, the City of Seattle had also included all the placards from the show! Below is an example of one of those placards created by the City of Seattle’s gallery curator and his team:

2019-04-18_11-44-27_227I was not sure as to what to do with these placards, but after moving back into our current house (after due to the COVID related financial crisis we decided not to buy a new house), I decided to create a gallery in my house with the remaining art quilts and their placards.

The gallery is scattered about the house upstairs and downstairs; and is found in hallways as well as bedrooms.

2020-04-01_08-38-32_8102020-04-01_08-46-20_1372020-04-01_10-55-14_9192020-04-01_13-06-26_5092020-04-03_09-51-35_9982020-04-03_09-52-19_664I also mounted on the wall of my studio the placards for the quilts that sold as well as the main poster for the show.

2020-04-01_17-39-38_3722020-04-01_10-55-14_919I am not sure how long I will leave the placards up along side the remaining art quilts, but for now I find it entertaining. I guess when you are stuck at home during the COVID times you have to discover new ways to entertain yourself!


Postscript

Speaking of entertaining oneself, I’ve been thinking about the instruction/suggestion below that I discovered on a morning walk as sidewalk/walking path art (see post Paved Trail Inspirations):

2020-04-07_13-45-54_805Social isolation is the standard now in the “time of COVID” (how I refer to these times), and my partner John and I have been trying to be creative with finding simple ways to entertain ourselves (besides exhaustive online television network watching).

One of the things we do a couple times of week is having “walking cocktail hour” when we take Mike our miniature schnauzer for a walk in the evening. We load our portable tumblers with our cocktails – a microbrew for me, an Old Fashioned for him, and head out on our dog walk!

2020-04-07_19-42-56_956And no one knows what is our tumblers…(smile)

I always wonder what pets are thinking about the COVID times and the humans always being around. I already telecommuted full-time and now my partner is also telecommuting, so we are always home together. Here is Mike trying to make the best of us both working on our laptops and fitting in a snuggle with the humans…

2020-04-10_09-12-03_886

Quality of Life

Creativity Before Consumption

I see a red door and I want it painted black

– The Rolling Stones, Paint it Black

Bohemian Modern by Emily Henson, photo credit: amazon.com
Bohemian Modern by Emily Henson, photo credit: amazon.com

 One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning it to sit with a cup of tea and look through decorating books (and crafting books of course).

I usually have a large stack of decorating/interior design books from the public library right next to my chair where I sit by the window with my tea.

I recently finished an awesome interior design book called Bohemian Modern by Emily Henson.

Contained in its pages was a wonderful title to one of the book’s chapters: “Creativity Before Consumption”.

This quote has resonated with me and I want it incorporate it into my general philosophy of life.

I think I do already with how much I enjoy working with recycled materials and fabric scraps.

I did recently implement this concept in regards to my front door. I have disliked my plain white front door for a long, long time. I priced at the home improvement stores what it would cost to replace it and the cost has discouraged me from changing it out.

The white door was just not aesthetically pleasing and I have been looking at it everyday for the 10 years we have been in the house and it does not make me happy.

A radical (but simple idea) fell upon me – what about painting it another color?!?! (and why did I not think of this years ago?!!?). So I bought a can of black paint and painted it today! Below are the before and after photos. I hope you agree the black looks better. I am very pleased with my “new” front door!

A $8.95 can of paint was a much lower expense than a new front door (whose costs would have included the door plus professional installation!).

Yes, I think this is my new motto: Creativity Before Consumption!

(Be sure to check out Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s Schnauzer Snips page for her latest adventures and musing)

tierneycreates

In Use!

DSCN3049In my February post, 2015 Goals, I shared a photo of the Little Love Note pillows I made for the tierneycreates Etsy shop. I packaged these pillows in sets of 3 with an organza ribbon and a little handmade heart card attached for gifting.

Unfortunately I posted the pillows to my shop too close to Valentine’s Day (3 days before!) for customers to purchase them as Valentine’s Day gifts.

I did however offer them for sale to some friends and neighbors if they were in need of a last minute Valentine’s Day gifts.  I sold a 4 – 5 sets of pillows this way, and figured they went as gifts to other people.

However, I recently discovered, a neighbor friend of mine happened to keep a set for herself. While I was over her house the other day I got to see, 6 months later, great examples of how they could be used as home decor.

Instead of displaying all 3 pillows together, she broke them up and put them in different areas of her home: guest room, guest bathroom, and hallway nook.

It is so fun to see something you made being enjoyed in someone’s home!

In the hallway/living room nook on a miniature rocker
In the hallway/living room nook on a miniature rocker
In the guest bathroom
In the guest bathroom
On the bedside table in the guest room
On the bedside table in the guest room