Tag: quilts

Adventures in Paper Piecing

Getting Down to Business

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Honestly – I am tired of the English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt I’ve been working on since 2016 and posting about during the monthly ScrapHappy 15th of the month posting group.

In my June ScrapHappy post (ScrapHappy June 2026), I mentioned I’ve only gotten 6 more EPP Rosettes (a flower like combination of 7 paper pieced hexagons) since May’s ScrapHappy post.

Well last week I decided I needed to GET DOWN TO BUSINESS and just get the quilt FINISHED as I am tired of working on it, thinking about it, and writing about it!

So I went from 6 completed rosettes to now 20 by just making myself sit in my studio and finishing sewing sides together of rosettes for MANY hours!

Do you see the mess of papers to the left – well that all the EPP hexagon papers I had to pull out of each rosette so I can applique them to their background squares.

This is the really tedious part of EPP – removing the papers:

I think the problem is that I had my late husband help me with wrapping the fabric around the paper hexagons and he was very heavy on the glue. He did most of his work helping me create the EPP hexagons back in 2016 and 2017 so the glue on the fabric has been sitting since that time.

After removing the papers, ripping them away from the glue at times, they hexagons/”hexies” can get deformed and I have to iron them back into shape before adhering them with a little bit of fusible to their background block to be appliqued.

(20 done and waiting to be pressed back into shape with an iron)

The true problem could be that I am the “World’s Worse EPPer” – ha!

Originally I used the traditional technique of stitching/basting them in place on the paper hexies. Then another quilter showed me the faster glueing method (which has special glue pens you can buy to use) and I thought “this isn’t too bad”.

I was guilty of not demonstrating to Terry the “light application of the glue pen” and he got focused on helping me to get a lot done (production mode).

But if I keep up what I am doing – focusing on finishing – eventually it will be done. I’ve already arranged for someone to longarm machine quilt it. As soon as I have the top done I want the thing out of my house to be finished, ha! I am not domestic machine quilting it!

Okay that was my whine ;-). I will torture you to future updates on my progress…

By the way I have 2 other EPP projects I started in 2016 when I became obsessed with EPP but they are aging in the closet for now (perhaps forever?!?!?)

Postscript

You’ll probably see more blog posts from me the rest of the summer (fingers crossed) as we’ve sort of slowed down on traveling (one trip per month and sometimes just a road trip instead of the craziness we had in 2025).

I really enjoy blogging, connecting with my blogging buddies around the world, and of course reading your posts.

I am starting to run out of photo storage space on my blog though at 13 years of blogging even though I pay like $96 a year for a WordPress plan with expanded storage space. I know in the beginning I didn’t think about resizing my photos; and even though I’ve been resizing my photos for years I think I’ve just posted too many photos. I also pay like $18 a year to have my blog web address be “tierneycreates.com” instead of the free “tierneycreates.wordpress.com”.

I’ve been mulling over an overhaul and audit of my blog for a long time. It might be time to archive offline or delete my early posts. I doubt any one is going back in my blog history and reading my posts from 2014, etc.

Honestly I am challenged with revisiting the older posts myself as many of the contain stories about my fun life with my late husband who was also a quilter. I’ve been mulling over doing a summary of all the “Terry the Quilting Husband” posts in some type of memorial essay and just having that as a page on my blog and removing all the posts.

Same sort of challenge (though not comparing the passing of my spouse to my dogs) with old blog posts that feature my late dogs Sassy, Snickers and Mike. Sassy had her own blog “Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer” which I archived.

I am thinking about doing a page for the dogs also with some fun memories and stories and deleted all the old dog related posts.

I tell you memories, even if fun and wonderful, can be rough. However for my own benefit I’d like to figure out some way to keep their memory alive on my blog. Just stuff I am mulling over, no decisions made.

(This is sort of a long Postscript, it could have been it’s own blog post!)

Quilt Retreats, Special Events

Project Linus Mini Quilt Retreat, Part I

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

One of the things I like about the new community that John and I now live in is that they have a lot of community activities and clubs.

For example John joined the Poker Club and the Sports Fanatics Club, and so far I’ve joined the Quilting Club.

Saturday the Quilting Club met at the home of one of the members who has turned her entire basement into an AMAZING quilt studio (which I will show photos of in part 2 of this series of posts), to work on Project Linus quilts.

If you aren’t familiar with Project Linus, it is a volunteer organization that “provides handmade blankets to children 0-18 in the United States who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need” (projectlinus.org). The “blankets” donated are usually handmade quilts or crocheted/knitted blankets.

My community quilting group has many years of experience making quilts for kids as part of Project Linus and the group thought a day of intense group quilt production would be a great way to whip up some donation quilts.

We were assigned either cutting, ironing, or sewing; and the long-arm quilters in the group would do the machine quilting on the quilts. They chose a simple pattern and precut packets of coordinate fabrics for those of us assigned to sewing (I was in that group):

I brought my little travel Bernina and had fun hanging out with the other “sewing assigned” quilters, sewing our pieces together while the “ironing assigned” quilters came and took out chained pieces from our machines to press!

Here I am with my completed quilt top at the end of the mini retreat day:

Here are some of the other quilts (same pattern) in progress or completed:

And here is one of the completed quilt tops on the long arm machine getting quilted:

It was a very fun day, though we joked we were in a “quilting sweat shop” – ha! We did take breaks and visited/chatted a lot. We had a wonderful potluck lunch.

We got at least 5 quilt tops completed and a couple more started.

Next post I will show you a tour of the amazing full basement quilt studio of the lovely woman who hosted our mini retreat.

ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy March 2026: Scrappiness About the New Home

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello, it’s the 15th of the month and I’ve rejoined the monthly ScrapHappy posting group hosted by Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia.

Here are links to the blogs of the ScrapHappy participants:

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

I’ve completely fallen off the blog-o-sphere with the move to our new home. After days of endless packing now there are now days of endless unpacking.

We closed on the house on March 2 and the began moving in over a couple of days via many carloads and then on March 5th we had professional movers move our large furniture items.

My new studio in the loft of our new home currently looks like this:

So there are no scrappy creations to report for March’s ScrapHappy post.

However I wanted to participate in this monthly celebration of working with scraps/recycled materials so I will provide a tour of some of the scrappy quilts now on display in my new home.

I don’t do well living in chaos so John and I have diligently worked over the past week to get the main floor of our new home livable and even kind of cozy.

1) Scrappy quilt in my new living room on the sofa:

This quilt was made in the 2000s with batik fabric scraps.

2) Scrappy denim quilt hanging on the wall of the new living room:

Made from recycled denim and home decor fabric samples.

3) Scrappy mini quilt wall hanging in the new living room:

A piece I made in a hand embroidery class at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon when I lived in Central Oregon.

4) Scrappy quilt hanging on the wall in the new kitchen:

This quilt was made with Northcott Fabric’s Stonehenge line scraps. Year ago I was completely in love with this fabric line and a friend their large collection of Stonehenge scraps. Along with a set of fat quarters from the fabric line I made this quilt.

5) Scrappy quilt used as tablecloth in new kitchen:

This quilt is composed of scrappy pieced blocks set in Peppered Cotton.

6) Another scrappy quilt made with Northcott’s Stonehenge fabric line scraps, hanging on the wall across from the new kitchen:

I had so many Stonehenge scraps I made another quilt with the stash.

7) My scrappy quilt The Lesson and the Equation I made for the show Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium: Quilting the World’s Conscience, hanging in my new dining room/library:

I call this my “Dad Quilt” as the lessons my father taught my sibling and I inspired it.

8) My scrappy quilt Trees Outside My Window hanging in the stairway up to the loft:

Improvisational pieced fabric scraps along with trees I stamped on fabric were used to create this very scrappy quilt.

9) Scrappy (and not ironed yet) table runner in my new dining room/library:

My friend Wendy H. that some of you have met through my blog gave me a collection of leftover pieced blocks and fabric scraps which I turned into the table runner.

10) Another scrappy quilt made primarily with batik fabric scraps, in the stairwell down to the basement:

11) A couple scrappy denim, clothing and home decor fabric scraps wall hanging in our new primary bedroom:

12) Scrappy quilt in the new dining room/library for snuggling under while reading:

There are more scrappy quilts hung about the house but I figured a sampling of 12 was enough for this post.

Apologies that I currently can’t keep up on my blogging buddies posts or read/reply to comments on my posts right now, but I plan to catch up someday.

We have our first out of town visitors to our new home arriving this upcoming week so we are trying to get the basement guest room together. I feel like I have one operational brain cell right now…

Looking forward to settling back into regular life again someday 🙂

ScrapHappy, What's on the Design Wall

ScrapHappy February 2026

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello, it’s the 15th of the month and I’ve rejoined the monthly ScrapHappy posting group hosted by Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia.

Here are links to the blogs of the ScrapHappy participants:

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

Life is currently crazy and filled with lots of boxes (see post How Did We Get Here? ) but I do have an update on the scrappy English Paper Piecing (EPP) hexie rosette project I’ve been working on since 2016 that I previously posted about in this post – ScrapHappy January 2026: Moving Forward on the Hexie Project .

In the January 15th 2026 ScrapyHappy post I shared this progress – 9 scrappy EPP flowers machine appliquéd to 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch scrap denim backgrounds:

I made some great progress since then and I now have 37 EPP flowers machine appliquéd to scrap denim:

I’ve developed a rhythm to my machine appliqué of the flowers onto the denim and it’s now so cumbersome now to do it.

I stitch them on a slightly larger than 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch square and then trim to size after I stitch them onto the scrap denim.

Only 62 more blocks to make of the 99 EPP flowers I’ve created.

Postscript

Just a little follow up to my previous post – How Did We Get Here? 

The house is currently in such chaos I needed a calm place in which I could blog and sew if I wanted until we get closer to our move date in early March. John came up with the idea of moving a table into our bedroom in front of the window and setting up my laptop and my sewing machine.

We also set up an area in our bedroom where I could sit and stitch on the quilt I am hand quilting (Hand Quilting “Go Boldly”) or read a book…or just enjoy an escape from boxes…

So now I have a place to escape the madness in the rest of house and write or create (even if most of my stuff is packed up now).

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Quilt Shop Tour: Kathy’s Fabric Trunk, Del Norte, Colorado

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in the post 2025: Year in Travel, Part 2 during our 2025 year of travel we spent time in the South Fork, Colorado. One day we went into a neighboring town, Del Norte, Colorado and visited a quilt shop – Kathy’s Fabric Trunk in downtown Del Norte.

First we stopped at the Up Top Cafe for some breakfast, coffee (John) and tea (me):

It felt like we spent a couple hours on their cozy couches (there is another sofa across from the one in the photo) eating breakfast and drink our hot beverages. I think we only spent an hour there actually but it was a delightful hour!

Then we walked over to Kathy’s Fabric Trunk to wander around:

Immediately upon walking in we were greeted by the staff and a very cozy and cluttered (but the fun kind of cluttered) quilt shop:

And there was a dog napping that I had to just walk around, he didn’t want to be disturbed by shop visitors!

There was a second section of the shop where they had a huge fabric sale going on of older fabrics and a “Husband Seating Area” for John.

(John sat on the other side of this fabric on a table with sewing machines for sale.)

It was more cluttered than I captured in photos but I had a blast wandering around and even found some fabric that I could not leave the store without:

It’s the Northcott Fabrics Barn Quilt line and here are the fabrics I bough a couple yards of each (images from Northcott Fabrics website):

Not sure what I am making with these fabrics but I totally fell in love with them!

They also had a collection of antique sewing machines scattered around the shop like this one:

Lots and lots of buttons:

And another shop dog that couldn’t be bothered with shop customers – ha!

Hope you enjoyed this little tour 🙂

A Crafter's Life, Studio

Update on My Studio: The Evolving Layout

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in mid-December 2025 I shared in the post Chaos in the Craft Room! that we had moved my quilting/crafting studio from the large Primary Bedroom to a small bedroom in preparation for putting our house on the market and moving to a smaller home.

Since then I’ve been playing/sewing/crafting in my new studio and doing some re-arranging to make it work best for me.

I added back in my tea station and little refrigerator (we tried to make it work in our Primary Bedroom but I didn’t like the low volume noise the refrigerator made when I was trying to sleep at night; and I missed easy access to tea as I need a couple cups a day to keep me happy, ha!):

Thanks to my friend K who attended the 50th anniversary 2025 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and got me a poster! (I used to attend it every year when I lived in Oregon for 14 years and had exhibited quilts in it along with my quilter late husband several times…and sold quilts)

I had to rearrange where I kept my projects in queue because this is what the area looked like previously:

Now the projects in queue are stored under my cutting table (I forgot to take a photo).

I added a floor lamp (left side of image below) to my half design wall area (we had to break up my former design wall to make it fit in the room). As we plan to sell the house and move next year to a smaller house, John didn’t want to install track lighting in this room like he did in my previous mega-studio that was in our converted Primary Bedroom (which has now returned to being a Primary Bedroom):

I am pleased with the floor lamp and it illuminates the design wall nicely.

I’ve done additional rearranging and here is what the rest of the room currently looks like:

You might think it would feel very cluttered moving from a large studio (see the post Thrifting for the Studio if you’ve recently joined us and haven’t seen my previous studio) but it feels COZY and like a HUG of CREATIVE INSPIRATION whenever I go into the room.

In addition to being visually “warm and cozy” it’s also physically/temperature-wise warm and cozy because there is less space to heat compared to my big studio. In my post Magnetic Poetry to Ease My Soul I discussed, in the Postscript section, “Creative Restraints”/”Creative Limitations”/”Creative Limits”; and it appears that a smaller space to create in is really fueling/stimulating my creativity!

During the studio move and reorganization I’ve had an “archeological dig” of unearthing old projects in progress (or “UFOs”/Unfinished Objects as quilters like to call them). For example I discovered this partially finished table runner that would be wonderful on the table in our entryway:

I actually sold a couple of these when I had my Etsy shop going (see my post from 2017 – What’s on the Design…Ironing Board?) and I guess this one another one from 2017 that I was going to finish and list in my Etsy shop.

I continue to work on the English Paper Piecing hexie flowers quilt that I shared in my post ScrapHappy January 2026: Moving Forward on the Hexie Project ; and I love sitting my little studio and working on removing the hexie papers from the back of the flowers (so so so many to go…):

(I’ll share an update on the hexie quilt progress during February’s monthly ScrapHappy post.)

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

The Spinning Scrap Bin

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I don’t seem to be able to control my attraction to fabric scraps – various little bits of tasty fabrics. I’ve culled/curated my collection over the years and have donated the scraps I’ll never use to the charity thrift shops to sale in bundles.

I tell myself that I must use up what I have before I pick up more scraps, but new fabric scraps keep finding their way into my life.

I was doing pretty well controlling my obsession until we went on a day trip to Fort Collins, CO last week and stopped at the relatively new retail location of Pink Door Fabrics in Frederick, Colorado on the way to Fort Collins.

And they had toward the back of the store a SPINNING BIN OF FABRIC SCRAPS!!!

They had organized the fabric scraps (which were fat quarter to nearly half yard sized scraps!) by color and/or fabric line. The spinning bin was some type of industrial organization bin that was repurposed into a fabric scrap bin.

They had a “fill a bag” for a flat rate set up and I filled…two bags.

I started out filling only one bag but the staff was so friendly and got a kick out of how excited I was about their spinning fabric scrap bin and one staff member decided to go out to the Pink Door Fabrics Warehouse behind the shop and see if there were scraps for me to choose from.

She brought back this plastic tub of scraps:

So I ended up filling two bags. Very full. They even let me have fabric overflowing the bag. (I am pretty sure they were happy to get rid of the scraps).

I know I should show you my haul but I forgot to photograph it before I put it away in my already ridiculous collection of fat quarters and fabrics scraps.

If you’d like a little tour of the quilt shop here are some additional photos:

Pink Door Fabrics has an amazing collection of well curated fabrics with a focus on modern quilting style fabric lines such as Ruby Star, Tula Pink, AGF Studio, Riley Blake, Alison Glass, Tilda Fabrics, Anna Maria, Tara Faughnan, Moda, etc.

They also have a nice little seating area in case you have someone with you that doesn’t want to wander the fabric stacks – ha! (hint John)

I really loved this quilt they had displayed:

Postscript

After the “spinning scrap bin” incident, we headed on to spend the day in Fort Collins (which is about 1.5 hours from our home) and found a delicious Ramen place we never tried before (we love Ramen); as well as stopped at one of our favorite Fort Collins breweries – New Belgium Brewery and had a tasty sampler!

A Crafter's Life, tierneycreates

Reacquainted with an Old Quilt

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Recently my friend K reacquainted me with an old quilt with emotional ties I had forgotten about.

I’ve been quilting since the late 1990s and I’ve made a lot of quilts, most of which I’ve given as gifts or in some cases sold, so you kind of forget some of the quilts after a while; and sometimes the emotional connection you had with a particular quilt.

One of the quilts I had forgotten about was a blue and white quilt that I made from a pattern many years ago (10 years ago?) and ended up sellling (for basically the cost of the fabric and the professional longarm quilting) to a quilting friend L who fell in love with it.

Last week my friend K was staying at L’s home in New Hampshire and ended up sleeping under that blue and white quilt I made (and had forgotten about) and sent me photos:

It was nice to see the quilt but I forgot the emotional connection I had with the quilt until K mentioned that the quilt had a spectacular backing.

I gasped as I suddenly remembered the backing I put on the quilt and asked K to send me a picture of the back of the quilt so I could see it again:

On the back of what one might consider a “quiet quilt” (blues and white in a traditional setting) I put what one might consider a “very bold” fabric!

At the time I made the quilt I thought the front of it was “boring” and decided to spice it up with a colorful backing fabric I found in my stash.

That fabric was from my friend Tracy who suddenly died a couple years after giving me the fabric which she found at a thrift shop.

I met Tracy at work back in the 1990s when I lived in Houston, Texas and we stayed friends for many years, occasionally losing touch but finding each other again. I started quilting while livingi in Seattle, Washington and she, unknown to me at the time, had also started quilting! When we reconnected a couple years after each of us becoming quilters we were very elated that we now shared the same hobby.

I however have some intense regret related to Tracy. Over a year before she died we were supposed to go to the International Quilt Festival in Houston in October, and I cancelled and said it would work better for us to go next year.

There was no next year quilt festival for Tracy as she passed away the following year before the festival. I had missed a glorious opportunity and memory with my friend because I delayed going to the event with her a year. I also missed an opportunity to spend time with her before she left this existence.

Perhaps this is why many years ago I decided to sell the quilt to L. L loved the quilt and the quilt was just making me sad, reminding me of Tracy’s passing and my regret on not going to the quilt festival with her.

Now of course I wish I’d kept the quilt and honored Tracy’s memory by still having a quilt a made with a backing she gave me.

However, all I can do now is be grateful that is being used and not in a closet somewhere tucked away; to remember not to wait to do special things with special people; and tomorrow is not promised.

Quilt in Progress

Two Blocks for “Tealing (Telling) All Our Stories (TAOS)”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

For the second year in a row I am participating in the annual group Ovarian Cancer Charity Fundraising Quilt headed up by the lovely Australian based quilter Kate C. @talltales from chiconia.

I made two 12.5 inch by 12.5 inch blocks and shipped them off to Australia on Monday. (By the way I have a really good friend and penpal in Austria that I regularly mail letters and I made sure to clearly enunciate the country to the my regular postal clerk and make sure envelope was going to “Australia” this time and not “Austria” – ha! My Austrian based friend years ago sent me a funny magnet with a kangaroo with a slash mark over it that read: “there are no kangaroos in Austria”!)

This year’s theme is “Tealing All Our Stories” and we are to make bookcase shelf themed blocks. Check out Kate’s blog I linked in the first paragraph if you’d like to see some of the blocks she’s received from other quilters around the world.

So if you haven’t guessed, we needed to make teal, the color used to represent Ovarian Cancer Awareness, the feature color in our blocks.

I had a fat quarter of tiny stripe pattern Figo fabric I won at QuiltCon in February (see my post QuiltCon February 2025, Phoenix Arizona if you’d like to read about my first trip to QuiltCon), that reminded me of pages in a book seen from the side of a book and that was my inspiration.

I created two blocks of stacked books view from the pages side:

I happened to have in my fabric stash some unusual ombre teal fabric that sort of looked like mountains and I used that as the. background for my book stacks to represent Colorado where I live.

In order to unify all the bookcase blocks, Kate asked us all to put a 1 inch finished border around our blocks and that is why you see a cream border. She also asked us to use a dark teal as the background for whatever image we create for our blocks.

Fingers crossed the blocks arrive safe to Kate’s house in Australia (and don’t wander over to Austria, ha!)

If you are interested in the progress of this quilt please follow Kate’s blog @talltales from chiconia; and I will try to post an update on the quilt when she has the layout complete (she does a tremendous amoung of work on these annual charity quilts, the rest of us just have to make a couple blocks and ship them off!)

Postscript

I’ve fallen a bit behind in blogging as we’ve been enjoying the late Spring/nearly Summer warm weather and going on some fun holidays and roadtrips – from day long trips where we come home at night to trips over several days. I’ll blog about some of them in the future.

This past weekend we went to the community garage/yard sale and picked up some fun items, each for $2:

A leather top hat for John (for fun or costume wear):

And a lovely cast iron Japanese tea pot set for me:

Colorado Quilt, Quilt in Progress

Quilt in Progress: “Pieces of Colorado”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in August 2021, John and I drove around the southern Front Range area of Colorado to visit the quilt shops in the 2021 Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop.

Each quilt shop on the shop hop had a small panel, displaying something about Colorado, that you could purchase for $5 and make part of a Colorado themed quilt or use individually in project:

And then there were several Colorado themed larger panels to select from that you could buy to make a Colorado themed quilt including this one shown in a sample quilt in one of the shop hop quilt shops:

Here is another sample quilt using the same panel combined with the small panels each quilt shop participating in the shop hop had available:

While attending the 2021 Rocky Mountain Shop Hop, I bought this panel (“Welcome to Colorful Colorado”), collected the small panels from each quilt shop we visited along the shop hop, and bought this pattern – Pieces of Colorado.

And then they all sat in a box together for 4 years…

Recently I decided to finally make the quilt (which is wall hanging/small lap quilt sized) for our basement guest room which I was in the process of redecorating. Originally due to some waterfront/boating art John had from his previous life, the room was ocean/beach/sea themed. But we are “landlocked” in Colorado and the closest ocean is roughly 1000 miles away; and I thought we needed a theme that better represents where we live.

Colorado has the 3rd most National Parks of any states in the U.S. (Black Canyon Of The Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, and Rocky Mountain National Park) and it’s a beautiful mountainous state.

Image credit: U.S. National Park Service website

So I thought for our visitors, the guest room should celebrate Colorado as well as the amazing National Parks we have in my country.

At a later time I will reveal the remodeled guest room (and all the National Park themed art I havw added) but for now here is MY version of the Colorado themed quilt (“Pieces of Colorado”) in progress (I finished the quilt top) that is going above the bed in the guest room:

In addition to the large and small panels, I used several yards from my collection of Peppered Cottons in green and saffron. I will be using a brown Peppered Cotton for the quilt binding to “frame” the quilt.

Here’s the backing fabric that I found thrifting. It is a heavy cotton duvet that I disassembled to salvage the fabric:

So right now the quilt top and back are with my long arm machine quilter getting professionally quilted. I can’t wait to put the binding on and hang it on the wall (I will make a hanging sleeve for the back) when it returns!

Postscript

Here is the inspiration for the “Welcome to Colorful Colado” panel:

This sign is located at various borders between Colorado and neighboring states.

It was also the 2021 commemorative Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop pin that I got when I completed my “passport” by visiting all the shops on the shop hop!

Finished Quilts

Completed: Farm Girl Vintage Quilt (and trying a new quilt binding technique)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Sending thanks out to those of you who’ve followed the journey of this quilt completion. A special thanks to Kate of Tall Tales From Chiconia who inspired me to work on this quilt as part of the monthly ScrapHappy online group she helps run (the blocks for my quilt are entirely of fabric scraps, many of them from other quilters).

If Kate hadn’t inspired me, the quilt might have continued to be an old UFO (unfinished object for the non-quilters) for endless years!

Quick story behind this quilt: I began working on blocks for this quilt at a quilt retreat back in 2017 (yes 8 years ago) when several of my quilting buddies were working on blocks from Lori Holt’s book  Farm Girl Vintage. I am not into the “farm girl” aesthetic but the blocks looked so fun; and I was drawn into the fun and excitement my friends were having making the blocks.

But the blocks got put away to gather dust (because I didn’t know what I would do with such a quilt that didn’t fit into my more Bohemian decor aesthetic) until I did an audit a couple years ago of my UFOs and decided I should finish the quilt.

And now finally the quilt is done!

I hate binding quilts and decided to try out of new technique for binding the quilt per this YouTube video:

It worked and I ended up with nice crisp corners, which I’ve always struggled with:

The finished quilt measures approximately 96 by 97 inches (2.44 meters by 2.46 meters) and it was a bit unwieldy to try and photograph for this post. First I tried photographing it on my front porch draping it over the railing and photographing the front and back on the rail:

Then John got a long board of wood from his woodworking project pile along with a couple of woodworking clamps and clamped the quilt on. He held it above his head while I took photos.


Yes there is a shadow up top but I didn’t want to ask him to redo it in another location. This photo is good enough!

And here is a little section of the quilted back of the quilt with the Cortez Mill Flour sacks and disassembled recycled duvet cover:

So my future plan is to send a photo to the Cortez Flour Mill so they can see what I did with their flour sacks!

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in my previous post Variegated Yarn Surprise, early-ish in November John and I traveled to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to visit our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

Originally we were going to visit them in Asheville (we made plans before September’s flooding disaster) and instead of canceling our trip (they are discouraging visitors to Asheville as they try to clean up from the massive damage), we decided to meet up with them in Charlotte, NC and roadtrip to Greenville, SC where my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was showing at the Upcountry History Museum as part of the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. We also decided to attend the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

I’ll post more about those two events, but for this post I wanted to share a fun stop we made during our roadtrip – a visit to a quilt shop, Carolina Quilt Studio, where the John and E became enthralled with a computerized longarm quilting machine at the shop.

I knew S, who is an elementary school teacher and a very crafting-orientated person, would keep herself entertained wandering around the quilt shop while I looked around, but I wasn’t sure if I would be torturing the husbands if I spent too long in the shop.

Well halfway through my wander around the shop I discovered the husbands had “set up camp” around the shop’s computerized longarm quilting machine that was quilting a quilt.

They were absolutely fascinated with it and didn’t want to walk away from it. They joked that if someone gave them some chairs and a nice glass of bourbon they’d be good for a while! (After we left the shop, John and E keep talking about the “cool machine” that did the quilting and asking how much something like that costs…new career for their retirements perhaps?!?! Ha!)

In addition to the husband-hypnotizing computerized longarm quilting machine, the shop had Shop Dog that wandered about looking for pets:

I am sure if they could have provided comfy chairs and bourbons, John would have placed the dog on his lap and settled in for hours of computerized longarm quilting machine viewing!

I found a couple items at the shop – some Art Gallery Fabrics for 1/2 off in their clearance rack and then this – a bin of FREE fabric scraps where customers could take whatever they wanted:

I was well behaved and carefully curated what I was going to take – only if it was a scrap I could really see myself using in a piece in the future and only larger scrap pieces. I ended up finding some nice Art Gallery Fabrics scraps in the bin. S, who is a teacher, found some free panels to make ornaments in the bin and plans to use them for a student craft project.

The quilt shop staff were very nice and I recommend the shop if you happen to be in the Greenville, SC area!

Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy, Studio

ScrapHappy November 2024: Update on Denim Quilt

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong run by Kate and Gun. 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.

Update on the Denim Quilt

For this month’s ScrapHappy post, I am updating you on my post Now Quilting the Denim Quilt! on beginning the quilting the denim quilt I pieced from denim scraps (recycled old jeans) and home decorating/upholstery fabric samples scraps.

I finished quilting the quilt using an “organic matchstick” pattern and two different threads.

I decided to put a “facing” on/”face” the quilt instead of adding a binding on the edges. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of “facing” a quilt, here is the handy YouTube video I used to remind myself on how to do a facing as it seems like years since I added one!

Here is the newly faced quilt on the ironing table in my studio getting a good press:

Here is the back of the quilt showing the thrifted cotton tablecloth I used as the backing:

And finally, here is the quilt (still needing the facing edges sewn down) nearly completed:

Thanks to my friend Rick G. on photographing this quilt using his equipment.

So what name did I finally decide on for the quilt and what is my Artist Statement? The answer is below:

What Direction Do I Go?

54 inches by 53 inches

In my early 50s the direction of my life radically changed with the sudden passing of my husband who’d been part of my life since I was 20 years old. Part of my identity and all the direction of my life evaporated and I was left with the following life question: What Direction Do I Go? Made entirely with recycled fabrics including the batting, this quilt reflects my struggle to find a new direction.

I decided to stick with my original concept for the quilt that I discussed in an earlier post when I was piecing this quilt.

Here are the other bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

Adventures in Paper Piecing, Special Events

Paper Piecing Paradise

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve been working on an English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt forever and my most recent post on this quilt was in May – All 99 are finally done!.

Someday the quilt I finish will look sort of like this quilt from Issue 1 (October 2016) of Quiltfolk Magazine:

Well a week or so ago (not sure exactly as most of October seems like a blur) my quilting friend and her partner; and attended the opening of two quilt shows, one of which I will share in this post and the other in the next post, at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

The first show of the opening was all ENGLISH PAPER PIECED QUILTS – English Paper Piecing. There were so many amazing quilts and I am inspired to complete my quilt someday (smile).

Thought I share photos of my favorite quilts in the show, including the details on some quilts to show the immense EPP work that was done to make these quilts.

My photos don’t do the quilts justice and some of them I had to take at off angles as the exhibit was super crowded and it was difficult to get a photo of a quilt without a group of people in front of it.

The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum has a gift shop/quilt shop inside of it and it was open for the evening show. I wandered around the shop and then John wandered around it and found some fabric he liked – a mathematical themed print. I am going to make a laptop case for him out of it and will show share an image of the fabric when I post about the laptop case.

Here is John buying the fabric for his laptop case – his first personal fabric purchase in quilt shop:

Special Events, Studio

Now Quilting the Denim Quilt!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is a sort of follow up to my post: ScrapHappy October 2024: Recycled Hope .

Finally I am machine quilting the denim quilt I made last year which is currently called “What Direction Do I Go?”.

Here is up on the design wall before quilting:

Here it is in progress while I am quilting with the first color of thread (I used two colors):

Here it is partially finished (I am over halfway done with adding a second color of thread):

I am quilting it in a style I call “Organic Matchstick” quilting. Yes I totally made that phrase it. Matchstick quilting looks like this:

Image credit – Epida Studio – epidastudio.com/how-to-quilt-it-matchstick-quilting/

My quilting is a bit more “organic” with an occasional line touching or a little wiggle (why yes I of course planned that – ha!)

Here is the back of the quilt, I love the feel/texture of the quilting:

I cannot wait to finish it. I plan to do a “facing” instead of binding the quilt. Okay well back to work for me!

Postscript: Halloween Cuteness

Oh and here is some Halloween cuteness (yesterday was Halloween). We stopped over a friend’s house last night and they had two of their dogs in Hawaiian shirts dressed up as “Magnum. P.I.“ (if you remember that that 1980s show starring Tom Selleck):

Here are Pepi and Lewis doing their best Magnum, P.I. impersonations. Dolly the Aussie Shepherd was having no part in it!

Bet you can’t tell the dogs apart from Tom Selleck, right? Ha!

We had quite the giggle over the dogs’ costumes 🙂

Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy September 2024: The Curation of Scraps

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong run by Kate and Gun. 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.

This month’s ScrapHappy post will be sort of lame because I’ve been doing everything but working on textile projects it seems! By the time you read this post (yes I am writing this ahead of time while on vacation with my sister in Virginia) I will just be returning home from another trip. We’ve also been working on some house projects and life has just been busy.

Okay so onto my lame post – ha!

The Curation of Fabric Scraps

Over the past several years I’ve been working on curating my crazy fabric scrap collection. In my earlier days of quilting I would indiscriminately accept any decent fabric scrap from fellow quilters as evidenced by the quilt (see post “All the Trimmings” is all done) that was made entirely with scraps from fellow quilters, most aquired at quilt retreats:

I used to have all my scraps in a HUGE bin, then I organized them by color into various bins:

Then I organized them by collection/type of fabric.

Then I gave a lot of them away and significant reduced my collection.

Now I have them in a series of baskets, organized by collection or type of fabric in a couple areas of my studio.

A couple months ago I bought some little wooden tags to label some of the baskets.

In addition to those type of scraps labeled above, I also have a collection of “art quilting fabric scraps”, shot cotton scraps, flannel scraps, ethnic fabric scraps, and “general” fabric scraps (doesn’t fit into any category):

And denim scraps:

So that’s my current collection of fabric scraps and I am looking forward to making projects with them. I probably have 1/3 the amount of fabric scraps I used to – yay!

Next month my ScrapHappy post will be about me actually making something again with fabric scraps!

Here are the other bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,Lynn, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

What's on the Design Wall

Update on “Go Boldly”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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.

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

The Expansion of “Go Boldly”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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:

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

What’s Going on in the Studio

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is sort of a follow up to this post – Update on Some W.I.P.s.

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!) 🙂

Studio, tierneycreates

Update on Some W.I.P.s

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s an update on some works in progress (aka WIPs) that I’ve discussed in previous posts…

Gray Granny Square Blanket

Previous post on this project: Guest Blog Post: Progress on “My Blanket” 

I am plugging along with this great-to-work-on-while-watching-TV in the evening project. I’m working on attaching the 7th row of blocks. It will be an 8 by 10 blanket when done as I made 80 granny squares. I will add an extra border or two of the same yarn I am using as the lattice (to attach the granny squares).

SuperSymmetry Table Runner

Previous post on this project: ScrapHappy January 2024 – Update on Table Runner and More 

As I mentioned in that previous post, I decided to use a collection of traditionally pieced “orphan blocks” that my friend Wendy gave me as the backing for this table runner.

I figured that if I got a stain on the front of the runner while entertaining, I could flip it over and use the other side!

I’ve completed the machine quilting of the table runner and just need to sew the binding strips together, sew on the binding, and sew down the binding.

For the quilting I just went with a simple double crosshatch pattern (no that is not a real pattern name, I just made it up on the spot), following the lines of the pieced blocks.

I plan to press it, ha! It just came off the machine and I just finished trimming off the excess batting and backing so it is pretty wrinkly!

What Direction Do I Go? (Denim Quilt)

Previous post on this project: Denim Quilt Top Done and a Visit to a Fun Brewery 

I am so looking forward to hand quilting this quilt (yes I decided to hand quilt it)!

I got the batting and backing put together with the quilt top to make the “quilt sandwich”. I’ve also auditioned some threads (I plan to use multiple and to use pearl cotton weight) for the hand quilting.

Other WIPs Growing Inpatient As They Sit in Queue…

I have two more quilt tops awaiting quilting by me:

Strings Attached

Previous post on this project: Scrap Happy September 2023 – Strings Attached

I am going to machine quilt this small wallhanging.

Go Boldly

Previous post on this project: What’s on the Design Wall: Go Boldly

I haven’t decided on machine vs. hand quilting but if I do hand quilt it I have some cool threads I collected many years ago I want to use.

I will get to these two quilt tops eventually – ha!

I’ve been trying not to start any additional MAJOR projects before finishing my existing WIPs…but then some small projects might sneak in…you know how us crafters are!

Oh Mike wants me to tell you that he’s happy he doesn’t have to fill in for me with blogging since I seem to be back at it again (see his recent post Guest Blog Post: Humans Traveling and Dog Camp).

This leaves him more time for napping in the sun, on fleece blankets, in the upstairs bedroom (with the occasional waking up to intensely bark at people walking by and delivery trucks coming into the neighborhood).

A Crafter Needs to Eat, Fabric Scraps Obsession, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy January 2024 – Update on Table Runner and More

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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.

UPDATE ON SUPERSYMMETRY TABLE RUNNER

For this month’s ScrapHappy blog post, I am sharing an update on the table runner I’ve been working on that is made from my friend Wendy’s fabric scraps and orphan blocks from a quilt she made SuperSymmetry (see blog posts Update on SuperSymmetry Table Runner and the Library Book Borrowing Bonanza, A Table Runner for the New Table, and Quilter Distractions: Good Mail filled with “Taupe” ).

I completed piecing the table runner per the piecing instructions from her pattern SuperSymmetry, and discovered I needed to make more blocks in order to make it long enough for the table as well as finish each end (more on that later). Unfortunately Y seams were involved in the piecing (shudder) but I made it through.

I ended up making 14 additional blocks.

I floated the pieced SuperSymmetry blocks in taupe-brown Peppered Cotton (a heavy duty linen like shot cotton). Here is a little photoshoot I did of the completed table runner top on the new dining room/library table:

In the last two photos you can see the new rug that arrived that I mentioned in a previous post. It is one of those Ruggable rugs that can be laundered in the washing machine (in case there is “The Great Spaghetti Sauce Spill” during a meal someday).

And in case you are curious here is how I finished the ends of the table runner with all those triangle blocks in the piece:

Thank goodness for a good steamy iron as there was a lot of pressing involved to get it looking like I hadn’t been on mind altering substances while piecing…

In addition to the SuperSymmetry orphan blocks and fabric scraps, Wendy also sent me 7 traditional quilt blocks orphan blocks for a taupe quilt she was working on. I’ve decided to use these blocks as part of the back for the table runner.

I am going to float each of them in the taupe Peppered Cotton and then add in enough length in side borders as well as a bottom and top to meet the length. I am getting ready to start working on floating each block by doing some “log cabin” style piece around each block:

AND MORE

We’ve had a run of sub-zero Fahrenheit (colder than -17 Celsius) temperatures in the Denver metropolitan area and we’ve been spending a lot of time inside. John got addicted to watching cooking/culinary themed videos on YouTube and this weekend decided to try and make a copy of the famous Chick-fil-A (very popular fast food eatery in the US) chicken sandwich and the accompanying sauce after watching a video on how to do it.

He made enough for his father, sister, son and son’s family (who all live nearby) and then delivered them to their homes! You might have heard of the popular food delivery service DoorDash – well we named John – “DadDash”!

The sandwiches were a hit and included the famous pickle like the original. Here is a little photo spread from yesterday to close out this post.

Oh and if you’d like to try and make them yourself, here is the video John used:

As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate @Tall Tales from Chiconia , Gun @Rutigt – G Adrian, Eva @bambisyr-evaj, Sue @From the Magpie’s Nest, Lynda @Life on the Farmlet, Birthe @Birthes rom, Turid @Den syende himmel, Susan @DesertSky Quilting, Cathy @nanacathydotcom, Tracy @It’s a T-Sweets Day!, Jan @The Snail of Happiness, Moira @The Quilted Snail, Sandra @Wild Daffodil, Chris @chrisknitsews, Alys @Gardening Nirvana, Claire @Claire93’s Blog, Jean @onesmallstitch, Dawn @DawnGillDesigns, Gwen @Deep in the Heart of Textiles/Textile Ranger, Sunny @The Adventures of Team Wil-Sun, Kjerstin @Quimper Hittys, Sue @Going Batty in Wales, Vera @lifebyacompassnotaclock, Ann @Ann F Stonehouse Quiltmaker, Dawn @myquiltprojects, Carol @Quilt Schmilt, Preeti @Sew Preeti Quilts, Nóilin @Paper, Pen and Mug, Viv @Where the Journey Takes Me 2, Karrin @Karrin’s Crazy World, Amo @View From Our Hill, Alissa @ Snakes & Cranes, Lynn @Tialys, Tierney @tierneycreates, Hannah @quietwatercraft

A Year of Finishes - 2023

2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

2023 RECAP OF WHAT I MADE

I was inspired by other bloggers’ year end recap posts and I thought jump in. I have a paltry amount of “makes” for 2023. Below are photos of projects that I either finished or at least finished the quilt top on:

Oh and I didn’t make all the handmade Christmas gifts I had planned, but I did make a Dallas Cowboys (American Football team) tote bag for one person who is a huge fan:

I did have to include a little bit of humor and added this tag on the side which states “Dream Impossible Things” – ha! She got a kick out of it.

My excuses for an underwhelming amount of makes in 2023: I broke my ankle in January 2023 and have my first under anesthesia surgery when I had a surgical repair of my complex ankle fracture; as well as immobility for several months…so yes I am using that as one of my excuses – ha!

Another excuse for a lack of “makes” in 2023 was that once I was able to be mobile again I did a bit of traveling. I’ll share a recap of my 2023 travel in a separate post.

WORKS IN PROGRESS (WIPS) HEADING INTO 2024

Here’s what I have on my plate to start out 2023:

1) 3 finished quilt tops to quilt (the first two below I will machine quilt and the 3rd one I plan to hand quilt

2) 2 granny square blankets to finish

3) A new table runner in progress

And then I have like a million (ok perhaps a little less than that) projects in queue.

What's on the Design Wall

A Table Runner for the New Table

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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!

ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy December 2023: A Legendary Scrap Quilt and Honoring its Maker

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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 this month’s ScrapHappy post I thought I would honor a legendary scrap quilt and it’s maker.

Harriet Powers is recognized in the African American quilting community as one of the “Mothers of African American Quilting” and is known for her famous Bible Quilt (which is a scrap quilt) first exhibited in 1886.

Image from the Smithsonian Museum website

According to the Smithsonian Museum, “Harriet Powers, an African American farm woman of Clarke County, Georgia, made this quilt in about 1886. She exhibited it at the Athens Cotton Fair of 1886”.

Two of her bible themed quilts which are considered icons of American quilt making are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Here is her Bible Quilt from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston:

Image from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website

Last year Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, founder of the Women of Color Quilting Network (WCQN) to which I belong, sent out a request to WCQN members to contribute to purchasing a headstone for the gravesite of Harriet Powers.

Harriet Powers passed away in 1910 and the small cut stone marker, inscribed by one of her sons (she had 9 children with her husband Armstead Powers) originally marked the grave for her and her husband who passed in 1909. In 2008 this fragile marker was broken and removed.

Members of the WCQN, including myself, contributed to purchasing a beautiful headstone for Harriet and Armstead Powers gravesite and on December 2, 2023 there was a “Recommittal and Dedication Ceremony” at Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.

I was invited but could not attend. Dr. Mazloomi kindly sent me the pamphlet from the ceremony.

When I lived in Central Oregon in 2016 I took an appliqué quilting workshop at the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon with the amazing teacher Janet Storton (who runs the Sisters of the Heart Foundation helping women in Uganda empower themselves through craft making).

In this appliqué workshop you could work on making a Bible Quilt inspired by the one made by Harriet Powers or another project. Janet brought in a bag of her scraps, which included African themed fabrics, to share with the class.

I ended making my wallhanging sized quilt Tree of No Hurry based on the Lao Tzu quote: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” with the new appliqué techniques I learned in the class.

Here are my blog posts from 2016 – 2017 related to the process of making this piece:

Adventures in Appliqué

The Backstitch and the End of Tangled Floss

Everything is Accomplished (What’s On the Design Wall)

“Tree of No Hurry” at QuiltWorks Gallery

Here is one of the Bible Quilts made by Ugandan women that Janet works with as part of her foundation that was exhibited at the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (Janet shared the quilt top before it was quilted during our workshop):

As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate @Tall Tales from Chiconia , Gun @Rutigt – G Adrian, Eva @bambisyr-evaj, Sue @From the Magpie’s Nest, Lynda @Life on the Farmlet, Birthe @Birthes rom, Turid @Den syende himmel, Susan @DesertSky Quilting, Cathy @nanacathydotcom, Tracy @It’s a T-Sweets Day!, Jan @The Snail of Happiness, Moira @The Quilted Snail, Sandra @Wild Daffodil, Chris @chrisknitsews, Alys @Gardening Nirvana, Claire @Claire93’s Blog, Jean @onesmallstitch, Dawn @DawnGillDesigns, Gwen @Deep in the Heart of Textiles/Textile Ranger, Sunny @The Adventures of Team Wil-Sun, Kjerstin @Quimper Hittys, Sue @Going Batty in Wales, Vera @lifebyacompassnotaclock, Ann @Ann F Stonehouse Quiltmaker, Dawn @myquiltprojects, Carol @Quilt Schmilt, Preeti @Sew Preeti Quilts, Nóilin @Paper, Pen and Mug, Viv @Where the Journey Takes Me 2, Karrin @Karrin’s Crazy World, Amo @View From Our Hill, Alissa @ Snakes & Cranes, Lynn @Tialys, Tierney @tierneycreates, Hannah @quietwatercraft

tierneycreates

A Reminder on Why I Make Quilts

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

The end of last week I received a wonderful reminder of why I became a quilter and why I make quilts.

Many years ago I made my a baby quilt for my Danish Brother’s (longtime friend that I spent part of the summer in Denmark with him and his family in the late 90s, he now lives in Austria) first born son (14? years ago).

It was a fairly simple quilt as 14 years ago I still in my early days of quilting.

Little did I know this quilt would become sort of a family heirloom for them and is passed around family members as they have babies.

Last year I received an e-mail and photo from my Danish Brother with his sweet nearly 3 year old niece (his brother’s darling daughter) wrapped in the quilt when she was feeling under the weather to comfort her:

A very sweet face but must protect this little one’s privacy

And at the end of last week I received an e-mail with a photo of his new nephew (his brother-in-law’s son) using the quilt!

A very sweet looking baby but face obscured for his privacy, you’ll just have to trust me on his sweetness 🙂

It was one of those “my heart is going to explode” feelings, my eyes filled with tears, and I got to so overwhelmed and grateful (and surprised) that a simple baby quilt I made was bringing comfort to 14+ years of babies/children so far in one family!

Here is a quote from my Danish Brother from his e-mail with the photo of his niece wrapped in the quilt in 2022:

... you know what…is precious to me? The blankie that is comforting her! I am sure you recognised it immediately of course. I just wanted to put that smile on your face! Thank you for the fine gifts you have lovingly crafted for me. It warms my heart every time I look at them. Every one of them is my favorite!

Hey Universe, thanks for the reminder, I will keep making quilts.

You quilters out there reading this you understand!