Wonderful Mail Day!

What a wonderful mail day it was today. One was a Christmas box from my Parents, the other was from my sisters and the last one was from myself for myself. Mom and Dads box got held up at customs...and the Marshmallow creams were confiscated. The Aussie government did kindly give me the option to purchase them back (after they are observed for the allotted time to deem them safe) for a mere $42. Yeah, the customs guys can keep the marshmallow creams, I am thrilled for the peanut M&Ms and Hazelnut Cream Coffee (we have already made 2 pots and if I close my eyes, I can pretend we are at the table with you, Mom and Dad, and the fire is snapping away and the kids are singing their crazy new Aussie Christmas carols for you. Maybe in my fantasy it will be raining...)

The second box is from my two sisters. Both live in Charlotte, NC. Malia is an interior designer and has the most lush taste in textiles. Laura works for UBS. Anyway, both went to the Schmacher mill and selected some lovely new prints for me! You can see it here. It is all just so sophisticated and fun, even the monkeys and fish print (I think that one is my favorite). Oh what am I going to make with it?? I love you both so much! THANK YOU!!!

The last box was from Purl Patchwork, it was filled with fine cotton batting and Echino by Kokka. Most of those prints I LOVE, but one I really wish I would not have selected, and Why oh why did I order so much of it?? Oh well maybe it will be a nice liner for a bag...or maybe someone else will like it. Different strokes for different folks. OK, tomorrow my little bag vacation will be over and I am back to sewing for other dear ladies. Maybe I will have Emma's quilt finished by then. I just needs to be quilted, and she wants it quilted with "love hearts" as the Aussie's call them. We will see. My Dear husband wants to watch "Return of the King" so that may be what I do instead, who can tell? Emma's quilt has grown on me and I like it again. ESPECIALLY the back. Just wait till you see it. If you are a Heather Ross fan you will flip.

XXOO

Tia

Boxing Day Quilt

I am a huge Heather Ross fan. I love her work. I am one of those odd balls who scour EBay looking for the odd old Munki Munki print so I can fold it up and keep it on my Heather Ross Shelf in the studio. Well, two collections ago I just moved to our strange new reality (Alice Springs, but I really think it is a government program to colonize Mars. Don't tell anyone I am on to the operation;0). This was the first project I began in our new home. Even Before S. Barton's lovely bags. It was actually the only fabric I had at the moment because our household goods (all whopping 1/2 crate of them) had yet to arrive. I ordered this before I left Texas and it was waiting at the APO for me when I got here. Anyway, I loved the VW vans. My favorite car as a matter of fact. (I want another Eurovan when we return to civilization). OK onto the purpose of my post....It is the day after Christmas, right? Boxing Day? Well, I intended this to be a quick quilt. One that would really celebrate the large detailed prints Heather Ross does so well. I choose "Lady of the Lake" for the block style. I figured this would be quick and easy. Yeah, not so much. Almost a year has passed since I began this quilt for my little girl. It has 1024 stupid little triangles sewn together...I decided it was not so important to trim or square as I went. I really should have. Oh, and I selected a stripe for one of the tiny triangle prints. Don't ever do that, ladies (and gentlemen). So yesterday and today I have toiled and sweated and cried over this waste of beautiful Heather Ross fabric. But My little angel walked into my studio and was so thrilled about her new quilt, I decided to involve her a bit more. I asked her to choose some of my special fabric for her quilt. Her eyes got big and she announced that we should use the all! Well, what the heck! Let's do it! No sense letting this treasure sit here and gather dust. So the big pink "cabin on the lake" is coming along so nicely!I do love sewing just for the joy of it. And the joy in Emma's eyes and Claudia's emails and your other wonderful words of praise really is a great Christmas present to me. THANK YOU! I hope your Christmas was as wonderful!

Apron Pattern

Hey Y'all,

I put an Apron pattern over there in the tutorial section. Pretty simple...yes it is in Japanese, but I don't read a lick of it and did just fine. Remember that the measurements are in Centimeters and you will be good to go. I submitted this apron to Amy Karol's Tie one On thingy. There are teeny tiny polka dots on the pockets and straps so it qualifies. I had a great day sewing today, made progress on your bags and did more entertaining than I normally do. And I did it all in my swimming pool sarong....very strange, but I live in a strange place so I guess that makes everything normal. I am off to bed!

xo

Tia

Good Morning

Hi Gals,

I am finishing up C. Vu today and making good progress on Kurilla and her "friend" (;o), Monte, Cox, Witkop, Profitt, and Shoults. Not necessarily in that order. Soon, my friends, you will have your lovely bags. I really appreciate your patience. I will be doing things differently next year so the wait will not be so long (taking less orders mainly). I also need to make holiday goodies for my husbands people and our friends here. Once again...I wish I had a couple clones of myself. Oh and if you have hair, check these little goodies out. Mine were sent out today, so next week sometime I can review them.

My Christmas goody bags will contain;

Molasses Cookies (gotta go to the feed store for the molasses, since that is something only horses consume here)

Snicker doodles (I have everything I need on hand for these)

and

Pecan Pralines (gotta wait till 1400 to start these since I do not have any bourbon in the house. I guess the Australian government thinks they can keep alcoholics at bay by not selling "spirits" until that time)

Oh and if I am feeling really enthusiastic a little fabric bird...we will see. Oh and for all those Owl lovers out there, I have put a new tutorial over there-} it is not mine, but I can't wait to make them! I thank Moonstitches for that one. Very clever. Oh and my daughter is going stir crazy, so I think we will go to the pool for an hour or 2.

Happy Sunday Morning.

Good morning everyone. I got up early this morning and made some quilt blocks...I saw this pattern on Flicker and LOVED it so much I began purchasing Kaffe Fassett Books...the pattern is in Quilt Road, named My Fair Lady. I picked up a small truckload of fabric from the APO last week and just couldn't get Blythe by Anna Griffin off my mind. I had Shot cottons so they got together and this is what happened at about 0500 this morning. I think it will all work out just fine...but I have to put it up until I have completed more of my bags. Today I will be finishing Jamie Hunt's Stu, and C. Vu's set and hopefully getting K. Reiter's Hero bag completed as well. Those are my goals...we will see how Murphy can intervene.

Bad News. Cute Bag

I have had this little bag pattern swelling in my mind for the past couple months...ever since I saw these handles on SuperBuzzy.com. Well when I am doing a ton of sewing like I have been lately my mind multitasks, and for some reason it has been hung up on this. Well I got my last order of fabric from above website and got so excited about the strawberries that is all came together. A similar pattern to the above bag is over there -} in the Tutorial section (easy pleated bag). Give it a go, it is crazy easy. Now my mind is clear so I can continue my custom bag sewing bonanza. Next year I will be doing this all differently. I think I will only be taking 5 bags a month and then the wait will not be as crazy as it is now. I have had ladies uniforms for months and months....and I still sew constantly.

Oh well, on to other things. Emma had her hearing checked again today to see how it was now that the pink rhinestone (been there for 2.5 years) has been surgically removed and a new tube placed. I was confident her hearing would be so much better, maybe even so good she would no longer require her aides... nope, it has gone from a conductive loss (OK this is mainly for my family far away....but you are more than welcome to continue reading if the spirit moves you) to a sensory neural loss. So from my understanding that is worse, and will probably deteriorate over time. Poor little monkey. Thank the Lord for the hearing she does have. I guess of all the senses to be weak, hearing is probably the best one. At time like these I just count our blessings, and the Lord has been so good to us. Well, now that that is off my chest I will return to my sewing stack!

Lunch Sack Tutorial

I told you I would get this posted eventually. Here is a tutorial for really easy lunch sacks. You do not need any experience at all to make this little versatile bag. Feel free to jazz it up with a lining or exterior applique. I kept it simple here. Have a good time and maybe make a couple for Christmas presents. Hand made is always more meaningful!

#1 Select your pants!

Choose which pair of pants you want to cut up. the pants do not have to be uniform pants, any pair with a drawstring will do. I use old uniforms since worn uniforms of wonderful service men and women are my medium.

#2 Cut your Bag

Position the pant leg so the seams are running down the sides. Decide how tall or deep you want your lunch sack to be. You can cut the pant leg with a rotary cutter or some nice sharp scissors. Try to make the cut straight, so it will be easier to use for a guide when you are sewing the bottom of the bag closed.

#3 Flip it inside-out

Flip the leg bottom inside-out. The bottom of the leg will now be the drawstring top of your soon to be bag. Did that make sense? I hope so.

#4 Sew the bottom of the bag

Sew the bottom of the bag shut. Make your seam about 1/2 inch up from the cut edge of the bag. Be sure to back stitch the first couple stitches and the last couple stitches. You would hate for your lunch to dump out onto the ground.

#5 Make an angle for your gusset

OK...I really have no clue what this term is...but I have been calling it a "gusset" for the last 3 years and no one has corrected me, so I am going to continue calling it a gusset here. This little gusset thing is how you are going to give the bag a squarish, flat bottom so you can plop it down and it will look OK.

#6 Draw Gusset line

I like to draw the sewing line for me to follow. If I skip this step, the gusset lines are regularly angled funny. Just sew along this line make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end of this little seam. I would say it would be about 2.5 to 3 inches long.

#7 See if the gussets are even

I flip the butt of the bag up and see if the gusset lines are even enough. For the most part this really is not the biggest deal in the world, but you do want them to be generally the same size.

#8 Snip off corners

I like to snip off the corners...I suppose this is optional.

#9 You are all finished!

Flip it right side out and pack it full of something nutritious. See, too easy! Feel free to comment or email me. Oh and embellish at will. This one was painfully simple, a lining would be fun or some button flowers....if only I had the time!

Greenwood and Japanese fabric Where can you BE?? Oh there you are.

My wonderful husband got up early Sunday morning and announced that he was going to do something for me.

me: "Why thank you Darling. What will that be?"

him: "Your little studio needs a little something"

me: "ok, what do you think it needs?"

him: "I am going to make you some shelves"

me: "Oh good. I really would love to have shelves for my fabric"

Well, he took off for the local DIY hardware shop (imagine Home Depot, but a 1000 times smaller) and he came back with these wonderful shelves. I just love them. and had a wonderful time folding my "vault" fabric up in tidy little stacks. This is the fabric that I have been seriously collecting ever since I learned how to sew a bit. I love it. It used to be very quiet, in a closet in our bedroom, but now I can multi-task while I work on bags. I can let the fabric talk to me and tell me what it wants to become. I am hearing alot of nonsense about "little girl clothing" but I don't do clothes, only bags and quilts...well at least for now. the fabric is pretty rowdy, so I am guessing that Emma will be getting some dresses sooner rather than later.

OK....I had another funny experience today at the APO of all places. For those of you unfamiliar with an APO, it is basically where we government employees go collect our mail when we are away from the mother land. A small post office. It is the highlight of my day to go to the APO. I get to see how materialistically needy I was 2 weeks before hand. No instant gratification for me. Some weeks are very lonely times, others are down right embarrassing. "There she goes again...fabric pig!" I just know that is what everyone is saying.

Well, back in October I ordered some lovely Japanese prints from Superbuzzy.com (I love them for their selection and they are so nice with their customers...me) I was so excited to try out their new Leather bag straps. they clip onto bags so you can have a bunch of bags that just change out with one set of straps. I have this wonderful idea bouncing around in my brain. Anyway...the fabric never came. I was so sad. I had been emailing with a bunch of you ladies who were placing orders and some of your boxes had not come either. I sent out a Mayday and M. Greenwood replied. She sent her husband's flight suit the same time as Super buzzy sent my fabric. Got me to thinking....I bet they have been caught by customs. Well sir, weeks went by. I have never had that problem. I pestered Superbuzzy (and they were endlessly patient)

I had just about given up and M. G. was trying to collect the patches and uniform to resend when out of the blue there they were! I was picking up Santa's goodies when I noticed 2 beat up little boxes over in the corner. It was the 2 boxes! They had been off somewhere wild together, and they were slumping a bit, but were still in fairly good shape. "Mis-sent" was stamped bigger than Pete on the top of the boxes and some funny zip code. Well, Heather didn't know off hand what that zip meant so I went home and googled it. My fabric and M.G.'s flight suite took a little round the world to ANTARCTICA! I guess they had to wait there for a bit until the next mail plane came...but never fear they are safe in my new studio and will soon be featured on my Flicker gallery. I am going to make M. G. a special bag since the fabric and flight suit decided to elope. Now they can spend eternity stitched together. I am just so happy they both made it to me.

So, basically if your box misses the mail stop in Alice Springs, it gets to go spend a month or two in Antarctica! I don't like being cold, so this is as close as I want to be to Antarctica. Those poor people stationed in there. I thought we were in the middle of nowhere! Cheers, cold people! My thoughts and prayers are with you. Thank you for rerouting my boxes!

Some favorites...

These are my kiddos holding Cicada exo-skeletons. The bugs have been feeling very romantic over the last couple days and are happily singing their mating song in time with my stitching. I don't fully understand their life cycle, but at some point they come up through the hard desert floor and pop out of their bodies revealing a new more colorful body. I sent the kids out into the heat yesterday because all I needed to do was finish the binding of "Norbert" and they were going crazy in the living room. Those 20 minutes of silence was so nice and productive, until the little guy ran back inside clutching something glorious in his chubby little hand. Proudly, he revealed "Harald". Scared me. Well, startled me really to see a big beetle bug like body being thrust onto my lap. Yikes! I marched the shell outside to see, much to my amusement about 50 cicada bodies being lined up and named (Herald, Twinkle, Sally, Princess Rainbow....) Ethan was in charge of the formation and Emma was scribbling down all the names onto her little pad of paper. Sam was snatching up the bugs that were less than worthy (those missing legs or just too ugly). Ahh the Australian Bush in the heat. And BOY is it HOT! I think it is going to be about 110 today at least. I made myself a quick hat yesterday, 2 really, but they are pretty ugly, so I wont show them off until I have perfected my pattern.

OK.... Many of you have been asking for advice on books and sewing machines. Amazon.com is my resource right now since we are living in the middle of the Desert. When I need Inspiration I go to these books. I have quite a few other books, but these are the ones that I really like and would wholeheartedly recommend. I have linked them all to Amazon for your convenience. After our Christmas party I will try to get my little lunch bag tutorial. I have been trying to figure out how to do it, but I will just give it a stab and you can ask questions as much as you like.

Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects
This is where I found my hat pattern.

Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew by Amy Karol
Great advice and projects from a very talented lady

Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
Great book for little projects, and some not so little ones. (Norbert and Norberta are from this book)

Denyse Schmidt Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects
Wonderful inspiration and very simple things to make. I have made quite a bit of things from this book. And they all turn out very nice.

Amy Butler's In Stitches: More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects
I LOVE Amy butler (not in a creepy way, but in a very admiring way) this book is lovely and has some great projects. Some I have made, some are a bit out of my league.

Oh and for Clothes....which I am slowly trying my hand since KMART is the only shop in town...
Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe

Well that is all I have time for, gotta go get the kids covered in sun block!
Cheers!