Norberta The Green Dragon!

This is what has consumed me for the past day and a half. I got my new, signed copy of Joelle Hoverson's fabulous book "LAST-MINUTE PATCHWORK AND QUILTED GIFTS" which I highly recommend. Love it. I saw this lag cabin layout and just had to do one myself. I decided I could take 12 hours and splurge on myself. I have been working on some pretty sad "Hero Bags" lately and I needed to have a day of pace change before I return to them. Well I broke into my Amy Butler Vault and did this with it. The tones blend too well with one another, so I had to do something else to it. I am going to quilt it with Amy Karol's scales (she calls the scallops, but they look like scales when I do them, perfect for Norberta). Oh and this is a really big quilt. The biggest I have ever made, so I am off to fight it through my Bernina!

What a busy weekend!

What a weekend....Saturday we went to a very large ball. Lots of fun. Danced the night away with my man. I decided to try out the clutch pattern that had been bouncing around in my mind for some time. I love how it turned out. The stripe fabric is a vintage French ticking that I bought in Texas at the big Antique show in Marburger Farms. I have several pieces and finally got brave enough to cut it. I love the flower with the center being a bone and horn button. The quilting style I got from Amy Karol in her new book Crafter's Companion. Lots a inspiring projects. Then today I woke up before the crack of dawn to go for a Camel ride (Take a Camel to Breaky). My steed's name was Bazza. Oh and after the camel ride I came home and made the quickest quilt I have ever made. Once again quilted with Amy's scallops. It was for a baby shower that afternoon. Now the lady I gave it too, didn't open any of her presents, nor did she say thank you....Should I have hard feelings about that? I kind of feel like I wasted my time. I wish I would have spent that 40 minutes sewing for P. Harrison. I am so close to being finished with her bags....Just the straps.

One of those days...

Have you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? I am sure you have, most of us do from time to time...but boy is today a bell ringer. I am looking for a new school for my daughter and today I had 2 interviews scheduled for her. The first went very well, (despite the entire steaming hot cup of coffee I spilled down the front of my dress) but the second was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. I think I had an out-of-body-experience....I must have been watching it happen to another woman, not me. I have it together much better than that lady. My 3 kids were terrible, Emma was trying to play with the statue of the Virgin Mary and mixing up her special stones. I am not Catholic, (I am almost Catholic after reading the Outlander series as often as I have, but I am quite Presbyterian) but I am smart enough to know that playing with the Virgin is not a good thing. Ethan was melting in his chair, Sam was making his little toy bus fly around the office complete with bomb and machine gun sound effects....I should have gotten up and left, But I had to see it through...to see what would happen....it kept getting worse. Needless to say, I do not think we will be getting an invitation to attend the Catholic school.

I just want a school that can assist Emma a little more. Her hearing loss is causing difficulty for her and I want her to excel, just like any mother does. I prayed last night about this decision, and I guess it is not in the Cards for us to be Catholics! Oh well, it is time for my next appointment.

Party Bags

These are the bags I made for my daughter's birthday party. I went to the store (KMART....basically the only store in town, much to my mother's amusement) looking for loot bags and a birthday present since the one I ordered from Amazon still is not here. I paid $52 for a Barbie doll....gulp, I did. I don't even want to really know what it is worth in the real world but in this odd fantasy I am living it cost more than any other Barbie doll I have ever purchased. So I was kinda pissed as I was wondering around the isles of KMART, I got to the Party section and they had 2 themes available for birthday parties. BRATZ dolls and SHRIEK. I don't like being funneled...and I stood there staring at the two selections and then at the cost for little bags (8 for $15) and I got more angry. I decided to just make them myself. I have a ton of BDU arms in my studio, so I cut up 10, made little linings and put my zillion dollar sewing machine to work and embroidered all the little girls names on the bags, and bam, 10 party bags. And they are better than the stupid Bratz and Shreik ones. I have had it with how expensive everything in town is. They are not humping things in on the backs of camels dammit. The party was great and I hope the one I am having tonight will be as nice. I better go vaccuum again...and make sure the boys bathroom is tidy. Best advice I never took was to have the boys bathroom be as far away from the guests as possible. In our next house I will.

Here is my Molly Yates. Pretty pastels and nice swirls. It will be very pretty when it is mounted. This one is named Pukurpatulatju Palyara Pirrtja which means "we are happy to make painting". I wish I could get a picture of the lady who painted it. She is quite a character. The painting came with a little bit of the bio of the artist and a little picture of her. What do you think the lady with big glasses would have resold it for? My neighbor goes out into the camps and buys paintings from the ladies there. He says he has his retirement in art in his house. I guess you can have all the art in the world in your home, you just know who to sell them too! Ha.

Art Mum

HI Y'all,

This is going to be a quickie since I have to get ready for my day, but I just wanted to share what Emma and I did this weekend. We went to the Desert Mum. It is a once a year thing here in Alice Springs where you can purchase Aboriginal art at really nice prices. Normally when you buy Aboriginal art you have to go through an Art Pimp and he jacks the price up so high and the poor artist gets very little of the money. Well, Emma and I cut out the middle man and went to the Mum. Dear heaven it was crowded. The teeming masses were all elbows trying to get the best deal. Well I can hold my own dammit! I was trained by the best. Emma and I had selected out 3 little paintings made by school girls in a tiny camp about 8 hours from Alice. And I just wanted to look one more place because I really wanted a big one for over the bed. I went into the back room and they must have been having a lag because I was actually able to flip through the art without being knocked out of the way. I found some nice big paintings and a really nice one with lovely colors and pattern, so I took it off the rack and was holding it while I looked through some more.

A lady in big glasses tried to take it away from me.

"Hello, I am holding this one. Thanks." She asked me if I knew what I had.

"No, but I like the colors and movement. Thanks." That is a Molly Yates!

"Oh, so it is. Do you think she is here too?"

OK, the look the big glasses lady gave me was like I just asked if DaVinci was wondering around. But there were several of the Aboriginal Artists there giving demonstrations. Well she turned away clearly disgusted with my ignorance...but she didn't just turn away. She went to tattle tell! She went to the vendor and told her to get it away from me so she could buy it! Aha the nerve. I said I was planning on purchasing this piece and I was still looking for other art. I flipped through some more while the big glasses lady rung her hands behind me. She was acting like I was my 2 year old holding the Mona Lisa in one hand and a big melting chocolate ice cream in the other. Two other ladies tried to grab it out of my hand, then asked me if I was planning on purchasing it. That was when I decided to go ahead and pay for my Molly Yates and leave. I handed over my $100 rolled up my painting and marched out with my little girl. I was very pleased with my find. Now we just need to get it mounted so we can hang it up. I just love it. But I think I love it more because of the trouble I went through. If your heart is aching for some aboriginal art let me know, the Desert Mum is going on for another week or two so I can go select something for you....I won't mark it as much as the art pimps:O) Oh and you can now leave comments....I think I fixed the settings. Cheers!

Memory of CPT Moshier Quilt

This is the most meaningful quilt I have ever made. It turned out much more contemporary than I intended, but sometimes that is how it happens...K. first contacted me about making her daughter a bag. No problem, I do that all the time. But her daughter is so small. My daughter has about 5 bags that I have made for her or with her depending on how bossy she is feeling, and she carries them from time to time, but every night she gets tucked in with about 4 quilts. She loves the quilts. I was a blankie kid when I was little. My mom mended my blankie about 20 times before his sudden and mysterious disappearance. I loved that blanket. It comforted me when I was lonely, I could hide under it when I was scared, I cleaned up spilled juice with it, It kept me warm when I was cold...A blanket is a great thing to love. In no way shape or form does this quilt even come close to the memory of this man, but maybe the fabric from his uniform can give her comfort. Maybe it can be his arms when she needs her daddy to hold her.

My New Clothes...

OK...I am just going to talk for me...since I am me, that is fine. I hate feeling fat. That is that. I don't like the peek of muffin top over my favorite jeans...I don't like that bloated feeling when I have had too much coffee or salt...I don't like it. Well I have come up with a solution. I have changed my wardrobe. I still have the skinny jeans for that wonderful day when I am a size 4 again, but as of now it is just going to be Sarongs. Yep you heard me right...Sarongs. They are made in Sri Lanka and those ladies have the right idea! I am going to follow in their footsteps. I found the most glorious sarongs in Cairns while we were visiting. I bought one and a dress, and the cotton is beautiful, the colors are gem like and the dyes are so vivid. I wore it for 5 of the 9 days we were at the beach. When it got wet or dirty it cleaned and dried in a snap. So when I got home to Alice Springs...the colors of my world changed once again into burnt reds and singed sage greens....I decided color was what I needed! I called the Sarong shop in Kuranda and ordered 2 more sarongs, both the tube style. I feel like Jean Paget in the book "A Town Like Alice" But instead of wondering around Malaya not quite a prisoner or war...I go to the store, and pick up my kids from school and sew the day away! ...The great thing is that I am COOL! These sarongs really breathe. It is already about 88 outside and it is barely spring here. The summers will get to be around 120....it will be hot outside but I will be nice and cool in my sarong and sunblock! Oh and they look crazy easy to make! For anyone interested, give me a shout and I will make you one! We can start a trend!