Oh look at me – now that I’ve caught up on all my blogging buddies’ posts (well I think I have), I’m trying to pretend that I am back to posting regularily 😉

Here’s a follow up to my mid November 2024 post – ScrapHappy November 2024: Update on Denim Quilt. The denim quilt you all are probably tired of reading about, is now hung on the wall leading up the stairway from the first to second floor of my house.

Here are photos:

John built the wooden hanger for the piece which I place through the hanging sleeve I added to the back of the quilt.

I am very pleased! We really needed something on that blank wall and the quilt seems to be what it needed!

Postscript

RECYCLED HOPE VS UPCYCLED HOPE

This quilt will become part of my “Recycled Hope” series of quilts which I describe as follows:

The Recycled Hope an ongoing series of improvisational art quilts using recycled materials to include denim as the primary fabric on many of the pieces, combined with other recycled materials. “Hope” and the interpretation of the word “hope” is the primary theme of infused into these pieces. Most of the fabrics were not reusable as clothing or home decor and were destined to end up in a landfill. Reimagining recycled clothing and other materials into art quilts satisfies my hopeful desire to honor the environment and make art that is eco-conscious. Ending up in an art quilt is a better outcome than ending up in a landfill.

One of the comments on the post ScrapHappy October 2024: Recycled Hope I wrote in October 2024 about this series, went something like this (paraphrased): “shouldn’t your series Recycled Hope be called instead Upcycled Hope?”

I thought about this and researched on line various definitions of “recycled” vs “upcycled”.

Recycled: “having been used before and then put through a process so that it can form a new product” (Cambridge Dictionary)

Upcycled: “to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item : to create an object of greater value from (a discarded object of lesser value)” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

After reviewing those two definitions and thinking a bit, I’ve decided to eventually rename my series – UPCYCLED HOPE!

I’ve added to my list of things to do to update my tierneycreates website…

What's on the Design Wall

Blocks Completed for “What Direction Do I Go?”

November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A quick follow up to these posts:

ScrapHappy October 2023 – Recycled Jeans and Home Decor Fabric Scraps

What’s on the Design Wall, Design Carpet, and the wall…

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).

What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the Design Wall: An “Upcycled” Work

October 9, 2023October 9, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

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.
UpcycleThat.com/Habitat for Humanity

tierneycreates

Another Recycled Fabric Art Quilt Sold

November 6, 2021November 6, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Some great news: I was able update the art quilt RECYCLED HOPE III: WINDOWS OF CONVERSATION on my Portfolio page as: “OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR”!

A month ago I was contacted through my tierneycreates Inquires page by an art consultant in Seattle, Washington who was interested in purchasing this piece for her client.

We worked out the details, I created an invoice and they purchased the piece!

So with this sale, I’ve now sold 11 of my art quilts over the past 5 years (and yes I would be very hungry if I’d tried to live off the sale of art quilts as that averages to 2.2 quilts sold per year – ha!).

The City of Seattle owns four (4) of my art quilts which you can check out on my Portfolio page:

COLOR STORY I: FLYING TRIANGLES
COLOR STORY II: SILK LANDSCAPE
COLOR STORY IV: COLOR CHANGE
COLOR STORY V: ABANDONED WATER STRUCTURE

And the rest of the seven (7) that have sold were purchased by private collectors:

WE WILL NOT BE DISCARDED (not in my Portfolio but you can see a post on it – We Will Not Be Discarded’s Debut; it sold at a show at Twig’s Gallery in Sisters Oregon in 2016)
RECYCLED HOPE I: RECYCLED ROAD
RECYCLED HOPE II: RECYCLED DOOR
RECYCLED HOPE III: WINDOWS OF CONVERSATION
COLOR STORY III: RANDOM NOT SO RANDOM (see post The Great Art Quilt Oops!)
COLOR STORY VI: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG – THE VESSEL
COLOR STORY VIII: THE LOUD COLOR SHIFT

There is one more on my Portfolio page that states “owned by private collector” – COLOR STORY VII: IT’S GETTING WARM IN HERE – was actually a gift to my sister, I did not sell it.

Writing this post is serving two purposes for me:

Providing me with an easy reference to see just how many I’ve sold; and
Encouraging me to get back to making art quilts as my portfolio or available art quilts is dwindling!

Hope it did not put you to sleep (smile)!