Beanie Festival

There are big doings here in town tomorrow. The Beanie Festival!!!!! I went last year with my daughter, not really knowing what to expect. To tell you the truth I didn't expect much of anything. This is a little town out in the middle of the Australian outback....well holy cow was I ever surprised! The Beanie festival was wonderful. Made me want to learn to knit. What the heck is the Beanie Festival? you may be asking yourself....well it is where knitting women all over Australia send their hand knit beanie hats to Alice Springs where they are sold at this little show. At first I thought it was only Aboriginal women who did the knitting. I heard that for some communities, the funds raised during Beanie Festival is the only income for the entire camp/village.

See, here is one of the Indigenous ladies making a basket.

Here are Emma and I (last year) notice all the hats in her arms....she just needed them all. We did spend a small fortune trying to support indigenous knitting artists, but come to find out a bunch of the hats are made by regular white Australian ladies, not that that is bad. Their work was stunning. Wool, cashmere, alpaca, hand dyed, felted. It was overwhelming all the hats.

They are hanging from the ceiling for Pete's sake! I think we tried on 2/3rds of the hats at the show last year, and I will be wearing my hair in a pony tail so it won't get in the way of style!

Anyway....I wish you all could be here too. We would have such a great time trying on silly hats. I hope to see Wendy and Tambur...I talked to Melanie and she said she was going to be there. Best even of the year!

Oh and my Chili has been simmering away for most of the day. Last year my husband and I took two of the prizes home at the 4th of July party, that is held on the 28th of June. His won for best tasting and mine won for most hot. Last year I used lamb in the chili, this year I have goat. It smells pretty good....

Ok, take care and let me know if you want some crazy knit hats. I plan on purchasing several!

xo,

Tia

I put some Civilian Bags over on my Etsy.com shop

OK....this is a horrible picture layout, but I am too stupid to go back and figure out how to edit them into a different pattern. Oh well. Bare with me, gang. I just wanted to pop over and let you know that I have done a bit of a bag stocking over on Etsy.com

These are bags ones that I have made a while ago and have been patiently waiting for the right moment to go their new mamas. Well, they were really just waiting for me to get around to stocking and taking pictures of them. The pictures don't really do any justice to any of the bags....they are all so much more awesome in real life, and so extensively quilted.

If you feel so lead, go check out what I put over there. They are all made out of some kick ass fabric and have attitude galore. Anyway, if you buy one let me know by making a comment here before and it will be free shipping for you!

Oh happy day!

OK, back to the sewing machine.

Hero Order

I have finished the fairly large Hero bag and quilt order I have been slaving away on. So if you wondering why I am behind, that is the reason. I am so honored to make my Hero Bags and Quilts, but it is mentally difficult work. Emotionally challenging to hold, press and alter uniforms once worn by healthy and strong men. Men who are not coming home to their wives or families. I mourn for these men and their families. That may sound strange, but I do. They are my brothers in arms...



OK, I didn't mean for this to be a sad post. E. Spence wanted a messenger bag that would grow with her daughter, so I created a new bag. It is adjustable, so I had my brood model it.

My fine 3 year old model. This is his version of standing at attention.
My 5 year old Model. His version of a salute....we are working on it.

The pictures are out of order....I don't know why it does this. Oh well, this is the rest of the Spence order. I love how the quilt turned out.

My 7 year old model. She has the most military baring of the lot. Must get that from her father.



I am still working hard on..... ( I am working on a ton, but these should be up soon)



Love, Hastings, Herzog, Walsh, Stull, Nager, and Anderson. You ladies should have some looks up soon. Please forgive the long wait. I know I have had your stuff so long. I am working as fast as I can.

xo,
Tia

Sewing thearpy

Some ladies go have massage, some go shopping, others read.....I stayed in my PJ's and sewed until 1420 (2:30 pm) yesterday. It felt so great. Made me wonder why I get dressed at all. I got so much done. Look at all I did!

I finished this Hero Bag for a fallen Marines' mother. It is an Amber purse made with Joel Dewberry fabric.

This bag is one of my newest designs. It is a knitting bag and will be auctioned on http://www.hyenacart.com/selah with several skeins of yarn. Lisa will have some more info on her Blog. I have never done a joint auction like this before....we will see how it goes. I dig this bag though. So much detail. I used Amy Butler's new Midwest Modern fabric collection. Several of you have selected the pinks from this line for your bags and they are great together.

Oh these pictures are out of order...oh well. I don't know how to fix that. This is a Hero Quilt I am working on for a little girl. Her father was a Marine. I am going to add a narrow white boarder then stack and quilt it.

This is the inside of the quilting bag. 2 big, quilted interior pockets, 2 knitting needle slots, I wrote one of my grandmother's favorite idioms on the biggest interior pocket "Idle hands are the Devil's tools". There are better pictures on my Flickr Bag Gallery. More to come on when this auction will take place.

Anyway, I was pretty excited about my productivity yesterday, so I wanted to share. I did all the above yesterday! See, I am back in the game! Wahoo!

Thank Heaven my head is attached.

It sure has been a busy couple days...or weeks. We are getting ready to go on our R&R back to the States and I have been sewing like an even more possessed woman that I normally am. Well, I have been trying to sew like an inspired woman....I hate to say "burn out", but I sure as heck am getting darn close. Can someone remind me why I said "I am only going to take 5 custom orders this time around" and ended taking a zillion? What the heck was I thinking? Oh well, the truth is I am a big fat softy. Give me a good story and I will bend over backwards to make you happy. I adore sewing for you all and I am so geeked that you are all willing to pay me your hard earned money to carry my bags. Well, at the moment I am playing twister with myself. It is truly pathetic. I have about 40 bags cut and in various stages of readiness. How many times have you wonderful ladies heard "I will have your bags out to you by the end of the week". I swear I mean it at the time, but each time I say that the craziest things happen. Like Ethan bashes his head on the monkey bars, Emma gets devoured by toxic ants, Sam spews vomit all over the living room, I sew through my thumb, or try to cut off my index finger with the rotary cutter....the list is long a gorey. As I am watching this bloody movie via out of body experience the quote "You can have anything if you are willing to sacrifice everything" keeps going through my head. IS this all a sign? Should I toss in the towel? Do I need to try to hire a seamstress or two to sew with me? Dear Lord, where am I going with my sewing gig?


I have 3 Hero quilts going and a family who is not taking "no" or "give me one more minute" for an answer. Wow. I am so ready to sit on a beach and not even think of fabric.....well that is impossible. I LOVE fabric and I LOVE sewing. As a matter of fact I will be teaching my sister, Malia, to sew while I am in NC on vacation. She really does know how to sew, I am just going to show her my methods. As of this moment I am on a fabric diet. I went a little crazy last week with some of the new collections....

Peace on Earth by 3 sisters. I am wild for the map prints in this collection. Please feel free to visit my Flickr Fabric to see more pictures of my new fabric.

Chloe's Imagination by Tina Givens

I have some combos on my Flickr Fabric Gallery for you to look at if you are stumped with your fabric selections. Gosh these are going to make some killer bags. I just need to find the time to sew.

The good news is that our vacation has "been pushed to the right a week or 2" so I have more time to get cracking on my bags before I dash off on a round the world whirl wind tour. Is it wrong to feel kinda happy to put off a vacation? I just have so much I need to get finished....I need closure!!!!!!

The kids have another vacation for the next 2 weeks (about 2 weeks) so my day does not have to involve school runs. So that is good. More time to sew in my PJs.

Here is some of one of the Hero Quilts I am working on at the moment. It is actually ready to be stacked but I don't have a good picture of it. This one is made for a little girl whose daddy was a Marine. It is going to be lovely! I hope it will bring the family a bit of comfort.

This is probably the least eloquent of my posts....please forgive my rant. I just want you to know I am alive and still sewing away. Soon, my pretties you will all have your bags and they are all going to be so lovely. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!!!

XO,

Tia

Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law- If things can go wrong, they will. I know that is not the exact version, but there it is in a nutshell. It really should be named "Tia's Law" or "Tia's Kids Law" Murphy must have dreamed of me...Anyway, I had such big plans today. Great BIG Sewing Plans! I made myself a nice cup of tea as soon as I got up and stood in my studio looking at my "working board" to see where I was on the bags I am working on and which bags may be finished enough to go out today....Ahhh I was going to be such a nice relaxing day at the sewing machine and table. How happy. Well that was as close as I got to the sewing machine. (I may try again after my daughter's restaurant day at school, who knows?).


Emma came sprinting down the hall announcing that she had to dress like a waitress today at school. Oh yeah...I remember her teacher mentioning something about that, but she didn't send home a note, so I think you still have to wear your uniform. Nope gotta wear a bow tie. What the heck? Who has bow ties? Well Daddy does. Yes for his mess dress...you are right. OK, lets get dressed. OH she looked so cute when I was done with her. My little tribe eats their breakfast and we all pile into the truck and are off. Well when we get to school Emma is the ONLY one dressed as a waitress. (kinda brought the "I am naked in high school nightmares" back to me) But I figured this would happen so her uniform was packed in her bag. Wow was she ticked off. No big thing, right?

Well as soon as I got home, made myself another cup of tea and started getting my gear out to really hop on the sewing wagon, I get a call from Ethan's teacher (preschool) and he took a tumble off the monkey bars, did an entire flip, hit face first then landed on his back. He isn't moving and they aren't going to do anything to him until I get there. Holy cow! Is he conscience? are his pupils equal and reactive to light??? Have you done a neuro check? DO you have ambulances in this town? Never mind I am on my way! I grab my pin light and medical case and dash out with Sam in tow.

He seems to be OK...pretty dinged up and really quite. I am observing him on the sofa since the doctor is leaving town this morning. We will go hang out with the Aborigines at the hospital if we need to, but so far so good.

Then after I got home, my friends called and need a ride to the Airport. Before we return to school to go to Emma's restaurant, with my Beat up 5 year old and opinionated Sam.

Ahhh....I am having my 4th cup of tea right now. I am trying to cut back on my caffeine. Oh well. What a day what a day. For having such big plans to sew and ship today I don't think it is going to happen. Oh and yesterday Emma got attacked by ants while in our fig tree. She was covered with welts, so I doped her up on benedryl yesterday. She is just itchy today. Sam had amazing vomit last week....so I think it is either my or my husbands turn to have something bizarre happen to one of us. Nope, not my turn I sewed through my finger Sunday and had a spider bite on my eyelid. So I am good to go for a while. Watch out Stu! Does it come in cycles at your house too?

OK, onto some more projects. This is going to be a Hero Quilt for a little girl whose father was a Marine. It is going to be lovely and her daddy can still be held close by her little arms. I have 2 other Hero Quilts to work on after I finish this one. I swear I sob through all the quilting and creating of these projects. Did you know that there is an organization called Quilts of Valor? They make quilts and give them to injured service members. That is a good thing. I sew for the children and wives....they sew for the actual service members.

I will need a cheerful one after the Hero quilts, so I am going to use this fabric for the Doll Quilt Swap 4 I am participating in. The map on top is a map of Paris....I just LOVE it. The Bottom 3 are LEcien prints, I love the strawberries in the middle too. I am quite into red at the moment. I am thinking stripes and appliqued circles.

OK, gotta load the boys up and get back in the truck, my husband should be home soon!

xo,

Tia

All finished with the quilting.

Good Morning everyone and Happy Birthday to the Queen!



No really....it is the Queen of England's birthday. I would never have known if it wasn't a big holiday down here in Australia, well really not "big", but it is a day off from school. In honor of the Queen we will be making Fairy Cakes (Cup Cakes, but I like the English name better and hence forth in our household they will be referred to as Fairy cakes)





I did something for the first time yesterday that I have never done before. I sewed right through my thumb. Yep....there I was just quilting away on the "Tree quilt" and all the sudden I felt this peculiar tugging and looked up to see the sewing machine needle come right out of my thumb. Oiy. It didn't really hurt at the time....more stunning than anything. I wondered out of my studio to show my husband my hurtie and he immediately halted dinner production to play doctor....don't tell him but I think all the mashing he did on it has caused more harm that good. He does love getting to be the doctor though, so like an idiot I let him press away on my poor thumb. I decided it was fine, happily took my glass of medicinal Cabernet Sauvignon and returned to complete my quilt! I am so thrilled to announce that the quilting is finished!



Today I bind it and tomorrow it should be in the mail!!! I do love this stage of a big project. Of course I also love getting back to my stack of bags. They are getting rowdy over there on the table.

Oh with all the rain (1 whole day of it) the power was in and out most of the morning. When the power was out I decided to tidy up the studio a bit. My friend Tambur came by for a bit and whenever friends come by I drag them on what I call my "quilt tour". I really don't do this to everyone, because I know some people will think I am a total freak to have all the fabric I have and all the projects I have going....but some ladies I do play show and tell with. Tambur is one. She just has such great taste and humors me by nodding along and petting my fabric. Above is one of my stacks of Lecien fabric. I have been collecting this for sometime....I really am almost at the point where I want to cut into it....but not quite there yet. I have ordered some more to add to the collection, but it is not here yet.

I am quite into "Indie" fabric designers at the moment. I am going to put a little list together over there-} so you can get to know these really clever ladies yourselves. I have ordered a bunch of different prints and I have really big plans for them. I won't be able to start on them until after we get back from R&R....but just so you know cool things are brewing in the middle of Australia!

This is one of the new prints I have purchased from daisyjanie. She has 2 blogs ( http://www.scoutiegirl.com/ and http://daisyjanie.typepad.com/daisyjanie/) and some really cute bags. I have 3 favorite Australian fabric designers too....they will be over there. After I get the rest of my fabric I will do a blog post on the brilliant qualities of each designer.

Here is a pretty vista of Heavitree gap here in lovely Alice Springs. See it is so cloudy and you can almost smell the eucalyptus and other-worldly scent that is the damp outback! Now, today it is bright and blue and not a cloud in the sky! The birds are having a concert outside the kitchen and it is just heaven. I wish you were here too! We could go pet fabric and make big exciting plans!

Well, I am off to bind a quilt and nurse my finger until the clinic opens tomorrow. It is pretty swollen this morning, so I think I am going to need some antibiotics. wop wop.

Talk to you soon!

Tia

Elaine Wallet Winners and some much needed rain

Do you ever wake up suddenly knowing something is off? Something is just wrong? But not immediately sure what it is? I did that this morning. I began with my deep listening.....is it one of the kiddos? Does someone need me? Is it Stu? Has an Aborigine broken in the house looking for spare change and beer? It must have been the smell that alerted me....I inhaled deeply....yep something definitely not right. Instead of the pungent odor of filthy body and alcohol fumes (that is what I would expect to smell if it was one of the local Aborigines) I was overwhelmed with the wonderful aroma of damp eucalyptus...and as I listened closer I could hear the pitter patter of rain drops. Ahhh it was raining. No big deal for lots of you, but I don't remember when the last time I head rain was....I do know it was for about 6 minutes about 9 months ago as I was hustling the kiddos outside to stand in the shower from heaven. Despite it being 0430, I hopped up from my nest of quilts and down pillows, opened all the windows as I went through the house and made myself a little pot of tea. Typically I would have just tried to snuggle in closer to my husband, but he was already at work for some insanely early morning meeting. I curled up on the couch with my latest shameful pleasure (it really is embarrassing that I like these books so much, but my hero is my Ranger....and I haven't found any smut novels about Rangers, so I happily settle for some SEAL smut. And all Suzanne Brockmann's books have some good plots and some WW2 bylines. For those of you who are Camp Followers....try to ignore some of the horribly inaccurate military things and the characters really stupid nicknames. "Wildcard" yeah.....really?).


After my 4Th tea refill I decided to go ahead and select my Elaine Wallet Winners.

So here you ladies are.....I will try to send you an email to let you know and so you can give me your address if I don't already have it.

1) Dyna
2)Heavenly Blossom
3) Heatherg
4) Anderson Zoo Keeper
5) Shely W

Thanks for your comments ladies! I will have another give away someday soon.

Here is my little Emma. She went to her second sleepover last night. It was a dress up Movie Star theme, so we decided on this dress. My mom made it for me about 25 years ago (that is a quarter of a centurary...wow.) for a wedding in which my sisters and I were flower girls. My mom made 3 of these dresses. Holy cow! What a ton of work. I stick to bags and quilts...my clothing doesn't turn out so great. I curled Emma's hair and watched her swish around, remembering how I used to do that as well. Thanks so much for sending the dresses, mom! We love them!

This is the quilt top all finished. I am quilting it right now....It is looking so wonderful. This is the second quilt I have drawn out and planned...normally my planning just gets as far as a vision in my mind, but since this was a commission piece, I decided E and her sisters needed a bit more planning. So far it is turning out just like me sketch. It is just like art class back in High school. But more fun.

Oh and this is my Ethan's monster. He has been asking me to make one since I first got the CRAFT magazine with the monsters on the front. Finally I broke down and made him one. It is pitiful, you know? I sew constantly. My sewing machine is almost always on, and there is always something wonderful on the table in some stage of glorious production, but almost never are the things for my family. I need to change that. My kiddos are the most gracious and easy to please of my fans. Ethan has carried this monster around since I finished it. He just loves it. I know, because he said so and he caught it it's own lizard. That is the ultimate compliment. Everyone needs a lizard to love.

Alright, back to the sewing machine for me! Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Birthday to the Queen! I hope it rains all day! If only I could capture the scent of the rain here in the middle of Australia. I wish I could send you all a bottle!

xo

Tia

What I am working on now...

I have a bunch of stuff I am working on right now. I have a ton of bags all cut and my friend Wendy is coming over tomorrow to cut some more with me. It should be a very good time, but I tell you I love that lady. She is such an easy person to be around. She has a light....kinda an aura and she is a tonic to my soul.

Here is a list of the bags I am working on now and where they are in the process.....

-J. Love (I am trying to work on a new backpack design....kinda a sling bag, but that design has not stepped up to the forefront of my mind yet, it is close....but hasn't introduced itself yet) Her other bags are cut.

-W. Hastings (your bag is cut and I am fiddling with patch layout)

-E. Herzog (your Stu is going to be freaking AWESOME! I have finally found the perfect turquoise to go with the koi fish. Thank goodness) your bags are both cut.

-T. Walsh (your bags are cut and ready to assemble)

-M. Stull (your Stu is cut and it is going to look great with the messenger strap) the clutch and zippy will be ready soon

-S. Anderson (Your MIL's Molly was shipped Friday I hope it makes it by the 7Th.) Your Stu and school backpack are both cut and ready to assemble

-N. Halladay (Your Stu and Clutch are cut and ready to assemble)


I also have several others in various stages of readiness. We are going on R&R back to the States in late July to late August, and I want all those bags over there to be in your hot little hands before I get on the plane to go to Scotland. That is my plan.

I do have 3 Hero quilts to make as well in the interim and a couple Hero bags. Gosh I have alot of work to do. But it is pleasant work to do and I love it.



Now, here is a preview of the Commission quilt I am working on for E. Hoover and her sisters. She sent me some pictures that were printed out on fabric and wanted them to be up in a tree...kinda like a family tree for their parents anniversary.


This is the sketch I drew out....I guess it goes to show how much time I spend using my sewing machine as a sketching tool, since my hand drawing has really deteriorated. But there you have it a rough draft.

These are going to be the fabrics I am going to use in the quilt. The top blue is one that I hand dyed myself, so it has a great handmade property to it. The second in the pile is one of my favorites...delicate flowers from Yuwa. It will give the grass a pop of color. the rest are solids and batiks. I want the focus of the quilt to be more on the photos than on an overwhelming pallet of wild fabric.

Here is it all laid out in the back yard with me standing on 2 lawn chairs above it. I wanted E. to have a feel for how it will look when it is all put together. I think it is going to be great....I have been working on it quite a bit this beautiful weekend.

Speaking of beautiful...I am not. I got bit on the side of my right eye by some sort of spider yesterday. My eye is all swollen almost closed and hurts to blink, but that is no big deal....what creeps my out is that I got bit while totally awake. What a bold arachnid, to just mosey across my face and bite my eye. I hope I mashed him. But I really don't know if I did or not. More of the joys of living in the middle of a quite hostile desert.

I also folded and put away MT. St Laundry since the carpet cleaning man will be coming over in the morning to shampoo all Sam's raunchy vomit that he decided to hurl all over the hallway and living room (Friday). Oh and one more thing then I will go...Yesterday we went to a yard sale and got a really fine coffee maker for $5 and about 20 VHS tapes for $4. I think we got the good deal on the tapes because we are one of 3 families in Australia with an NTSC player.

OK, that is it for now, I was going to announce the winners for the wallets on Wednesday, but I got busy and forgot. Sorry gals. I will announce the winners in my next posting.

xo,