Coolest little girl dresses...ever.

OK, I don't normally do this, but I don't know when the last time I was knocked off my feet with just the pure awesomeness of something. For part of the day I wanted to just quit making bags all together and just make dresses like these dresses. Matilda Jane Clothing They are just like I would make if I made little girl clothing. I know I look at people like they have suddenly sprouted another head when they thrust things at me to "just stitch up a bit" or "Just take it in a couple inches". I don't sew clothing, nor do I mend....I just don't. Please don't ask me to. But if what I made could be this awesome? I would in a heart beat! Hell yeah! Well...this lady is kinda like Tupperware where you have to "host" a party to buy her things. I am all for that! Yep. I signed up to have a party! Wahoo. Now I just have to see if the whole APO thing throws them off. Shouldn't. But you never know. I am so excited! You know how little girl clothing between the ages of 7 and 12 looks like little hooker clothing? I hate that. I don't want my little darling to look like a street walker...now she can look like a little bohemian gypsy instead. That rocks. I think. I did order some patterns from Pink Fig and Portabello Pixie through Sew mama Sew, just in case any of you other mommas of little sweet cheeks want to sew for them as well...wouldn't that be awesome? Let's just sew for our girls. My mom made clothing for my sisters and I when we were little. She still sews for Emma. Lucky little kid. OK, I just wanted to share that with you. I have one more big photo session scheduled for this weekend, so after that is finished I will send it all of and forget about the whole magazine thing until it happens. Very stressful, huh? Oh well.

I thank you all so much for your sweet condolences. SO many of you know what it is like to be far away from loved ones during hard times. Thank you for understanding. OK, I am working on a ton of awesome bags, ladies. You are some special gals, that is for sure and you will be toting around the most awesome bags. Ahh....some a don't want to part with. But I will.

I gotta run to the store to get stuff to make dinner and pick up my little Emma. She has decided that she doesn't like wearing her hearing aides anymore....it is amazing the amount of trouble she gets into without her hearing devices in. That is a whole different ball of wax...

OK, talk to you soon!

Tia

book reviews.....and some practicle quilting

OK, I really hate it when blogger decides to upload pictures in whatever order if feels like. How annoying and I am too stupid to fix it. As some of the Aussies would say I just can't be "fagged" with it. Speaking of Aussies, I just bought Material Obsession Contemporary Quilt Design (that link will take you to the US version on Amazon that you can pre-order if you so desire). I bought it as soon as I saw it sitting on the shelf in the local book shop. I hear they are hard to get back in the US, so I was pretty excited, especially since I had read so many glowing reviews about the book and how awesome it was. Well, I think it is just full of a bunch of quilts that clash and are copies from other designers. I was very disappointed. I know nothing is "New" anymore, just reinventions of the wheel, but this was really sad. Oh and for most of the "patterns" you need to have other tools to use as templates. That is annoying too. For me. I did try to love it. I even took it to my Pap smear appointment today. Which I was not real crazy about either. But who gets excited about a speculum? No one I know. I am sure you will be happy to know everything is as it should be.

I do kinda like this quilt, but you need to have a "Nifty Notion 22.5 degree wedge ruler" to make it easily. Maybe I am the only quilter on Earth who does not own one of these devices? Maybe I am just cranky....I do have hypertension. So that kinda stinks. I need to lay off the pot of coffee a day and all the wonderful salt.

This was supposed to be the first picture, so you could see all the books artfully arranged and then I would get into the reviews.

I didn't like Material Obsession, but I think I am the only one on Earth who feels that way, so sorry all you big fans of Doughty and Fielke. I will try to look at the book again tomorrow when I am not so irritable.

Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones, was pretty dull too. Maybe I am beyond sewing for my own babies, since my youngest is 3. Even when my tribe was younger I don't think I could have been "fagged" to deal with such complicated patterns. Dear Heaven! Maybe I am a craft retard? Is that it?

No no I don't think so, I do my fair share of sewing....every day I sew. But I like simple. Anna Maria Horner satisfied my Simple sewing criteria. There are several projects I will be making in her book, Seams to Me. Now this book is mostly "sewing" projects....not "quilting". There is one quilt in the book, a log cabin sort of deal. I like the 2 skirt patterns. I will give those a go this weekend. One for me and one for Emma. She liked the book too.

I don't only go for simple, I have been working on my Dear Jane quilt for almost 3 years and no one can call that simple.

In my opinion the best quilting books are Denyse Schmidt Quilts and Last minute quilted and patchwork gifts. Great books. If you are looking for something to start out with try those.

This is another quilt from Material Obsession. It is made with lots of Amy Butler's Charm fabric which I LOVE. I love anything Amy Butler (except Little Stitches for Little ones...but that is just not my area of interest, no offense Amy. I still Love you...if you are reading this for some reason). Oh another thing I don't like about Material Obsession is how expensive their fabric is on their website. Since I live in the middle of the outback I have to order all the time via Internet but I don't order from them, that is for sure. They charge like $22 a yard. Yes, it is Australian dollars, but until last week the Australian dollar and the US dollar were almost the same.

I finished this Hero quilt. Not my normal color family, but I like how it turned out. The Bamboo batting was awesome to work with!

I also made miss Emma a head band to match her school uniform. She is trying to grow her fringe out and gets in trouble if her hair accessories don't match. Don't you fuss at my baby! Hell, I can sew I will make her a matching head band, she will have the best darn hair band around. It is reversible too, so she can flip it as soon as she is off the grounds. It is first grade for heaven's sake not the infantry.

Wow...this post really had some emotion. Sorry about that ladies. After 92 full years my Grand Father died this morning and I am a bit cranky I can't be there for my mom. I don't want to even think about how I will feel when my parents pass. I have the best parents in the world. Sometimes it really stinks to be an Army family....I did not get to know my grandparents as I was growing up since we never lived close. I want my children to know how wonderful their grandparents are, I want our next assignment to be closer to them. At least in the same hemisphere. I love you mom. I wish I could be there with you.

I am going to go have a glass of red and talk to my mate.

xo,

Tia

when dreams are a reality....

How do you dream? I have very strange and clear dreams. I dream in full color and nearly always remember my dreams when I wake up. Now, my dreams are strange things...not like winning the lottery or climbing mountains....just strange realities. OK, well yesterday I had an experience that could have easily been one of my dreams. And not in a good way....like one of those very uncomfortable dreams where you find yourself back in High School trying to figure out how to solve a calculus problem in front of the class wearing only flippers. That kind of dream.

It all began with pizza. I wanted pizza for dinner, the kids did too. We rarely do pizza so it is a real thrill when we do. I took a late shower since I was too busy sewing and driving back and forth from the kids schools all day to take a shower earlier in the day. After my shower using my new freaking AWESOME shampoo and hair treatment I just put on my beach wrap. I wasn't going anywhere else today so who cared if I didn't really get dressed? Right?

I had decided that my husband would just go out and get the pizza and we would all just have a little pizza party here at the house. No big deal right? Well, when my husband got home he had had a drink at work (they have a bar there and then everyone gets on a bus and rides home....kinda like school but not) and while we were waiting for the pizza place to open he had another. Right before he left to pick up the pies I kissed him and decided that I would drive and he could just run in and pay since if was a Friday night and the police probably had ETOH checkpoints set up. It just wouldn't do for the Army commander to get a DUI, now would it?

Simple enough plan, right? Well we had some car trouble, as a matter fact I had car trouble yesterday too...humm I wonder what it could be? My husband just decided it was my driving and I was trying to start the truck out in 3rd gear. Nope. We were out of Diesel. In the middle of town. The gas station was on the other side of town, so my husband got to push the truck all the way through town. This is no light truck. It is an '84 Toyota land cruiser, solid steel construction. Very heavy. I steered and it became a parade where Aussies helped us out pushing it through traffic circles and intersections. We had Aborigines shouting encouragement and a couple really large females joined in on the pushing. At one point I had Emma steering and I was pushing from the front drivers side....but I got back in when I kept having trouble with my colorful beach wrap. I decided there were enough people pushing....I would just steer instead of flashing the town.

Well we got to the gas station, but the damage had already been done by driving it around for 2 days with no fuel. Way to go Tia! I was able to kill the un-killable Toyota Diesel.

My husband is out there now with a new battery trying to do Toyota CPR....he is going to hit up our neighbor the Toyota mechanic later today and I just sit here sewing and feeling like a murderer.

OK....why was that like a strange dream? Well I was out of gas with all my kids in the car in the middle of Australia being pushed through town by Aborigines and very nice Australians wearing nothing but a beach wrap...and my husband wasn't really even mad at me for neglecting to refuel. That is the really strange part.

We didn't get our pizza by the way.


*****Update: Our wonderful neighbor used the air comperssor to bleed air from the lines so now it works again! My Truck is back!!! I will never run you dry again my darling.

We are not a house of quarantine anymore....

Hi Everyone,

We are free from quarantine. Thank goodness. I am sad to say that I didn't loose any weight, so I got back into my fitness routine again this morning, by getting up at 0515 to do a little round of yoga and my push ups and sit ups. I also got a bag quilted before my early riser got up to hang out with me.

While we were ill and all I had was polyester batting, I got caught up on putting bags together and I decided to give Bertha some love. Bertha is my Bernina Artista 640E. She was acting sickly too, so I took her apart and gave her a good cleaning. I would take her into the shop to have it done, but there is no one in town certified to service Berninas. If you have a service person in town do take yours in....I would if I could. But below are some Before and After pictures....I don't know if you can see all the lint and dust, but it was so thick and disgusting.

After (clean and tidy)

Before (gross and dusty)

Bertha is so much happier right now. She just humms. So, yesterday some ladies in a local quilt club cam by and bought my entire roll of Quilter's Green batting. YAY!!!! They seemed thrilled with it, so that made my day. They also went shopping in my fabric. Nothing like having some fellow fabricaholics here in my studio. Sometimes I buy fabric over the net and when it arrives it is not what I thought it would be....or I try to think outside the box and end up NEVER using the fabric. I was getting overwhelmed with fabric, so I sold some off. All that money is going towards my Hero Quilt and Bag cause. I must be on some sort of message board or something because I am hearing from so many widows. I do not charge the widows for the quilts and bags (unless they want a ton of bags then I just charge a nominal fee) so I have to raise the funds some way to select the materials that go in their items. Rowan has been spectacular in donating fabric, maybe I should email them again....OK, I am thinking and typing....

I have given up on my email with Yahoo. I have no idea how many emails I have missed, but when I missed 2 sales on my Etsy shop (I didn't even get the paypal notifications) I switched to gmail. This means nothing really to you because you still contact me at tia@campfollowerbags.com it is just forwarded through my site server. Sooooo if you have been emailing me and all the sudden I have dropped off the earth, please email me again! It is too hard to track who I have lost. I love emailing with you ladies, I am stationed in the middle of the Australian desert I love to hear what the heck is going on in the real world, and I want your bag to truely be a special thing to you.

My 30 Yard roll of Quilters Dream Pure Cotton batting came yesterday and I am so happy I waited to use it on the bags instead of the polyester. I love my cotton. Everyone should sew on cotton, or bamboo that is some fine batting too. I put the bamboo quilt aside so I can get back to my (your) bags.

Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and well, as is my little family. I better get a move on so we can be to school on time. Crazy how I get up so early, but an still late for the school drop off.

xo,

Tia

"CPT Curtis to the desk with the narcotic keys, please"

That is what part of my mind keeps expecting to hear. This week has been quite a humdinger. Emma, Ethan and Sam had the vomits, then my mate got them. I thought I was good to go....being the pillar of cleanliness that I am. My mate still has the hot belly, but he is boldly charging forth (to infect more I am fairly sure) I now have a bit of the hot belly, I am toting my puke pail along with me. Emma sprained her foot at a birthday party this weekend, so she is hobbling around on crutches, we have a full fledged war going with the laundry, but there was a pivotal battle yesterday where I do believe we have the enemy on the run and the socks matched up and put away. Thank heaven I have all this military training and experience with nursing. I can still change a bed in no time and not spill a drop of stomach content anywhere. Yay me.

Now, despite all the illness and injury I have been quite productive. I am going to stock my Etsy store with a couple things. I have 3 "Jenny Sets" to put in the shop. They will be cheap, as I am still tweeking them a bit. I am very excited about them, I hope you think they are pretty neato too.



I sewed up a tester Molly the other day. It is a tester as it is the first time I used the recycled bottle batting (Quilter's Green). I am quite please with how it turned out. The only thing I don't like about the green batting is that it kinda fuses with my cutting mat and the fibers are really difficult to remove. That issue is actually really irritating. Maybe it is because I am not as patient as normal with everyone (myself included) being a bit sick. I will continue to deal with it until my big roll of cotton batting (Quilter's Dream Cotton Batting) comes. I am happy to say that I did find some stuff I squirreled away months ago when I rearranged my sewing studio and among the treasure was 2 packs of batting. One was cotton the other was Bamboo....

This is the quilt I am quilting with the bamboo batting. Oh wow. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bamboo. it is quilting up so nice, like butter. And the entire quilt is so manageable. I can't wait to finish this and toss it in the wash. Now....I am not really sure what I am going to do with this quilt. It was going to be the tester quilt for the Green batting, but I just couldn't bring myself to use that batting on a quilt. The colors are outside my box, so I will see what happens to it after the wash.

Now, this baby quilt is on it's way to my etsy shop too. I just need to stock my store.

Cheers, ladies! If I am feeling better I will be going strong on the bags again tomorrow. Oh and on a different note, my email is as usual dorked up. If you have been trying to get hold of me, try emailing me at e2momma@yahoo.com or leave a comment here on the blog and I will try to get hold of you that way.

sniff...

I decided to keep the batting.

I don't know why it was such a hard decision for me, but it really was. In the end it was shipping that did it. I just didn't want to haul it back to the APO and watch them try to figure out how to weigh the roll on their little scales. I like the APO people, I didn't want to hassle them. Also, I must admit to curiosity. I wanted to see how it quilted up....it felt nice through the little snip I cut in the wrapping, but I wanted more. Those damn recycled bottles sang to me begging me to put them in something...Anything! So I made another little rounded pouch thingy....and I batted it with recycled bottles! I don't know if you can tell or not...I can. But I am the creator so of course I know. It is a surprise for some one special, so when you get it let me know what you think.

On a different note, my mate and I have been discussing future assignments. We would really like to be closer to family next time, so FT Campbell and FT Bragg have been the big two. So ladies....which has a Super Target and where can I set up my sewing shop. I plan to have classes and all that jazz. We have some good friends at Ft Bragg and I have been there before to visit, it was my husband's second duty station...ultimately it is needs of the Army, so no real point in thinking it to death, but it is on my mind. Too bad it is not as easy as deciding to slice into recycled bottle batting.

I have some of the batting for sale in my Esty shop, so if you are curious too, let me know and I can cut some off for you. I took a guess on the price of the batting, so if I am stupid high, I will bring the cost down, I just couldn't find it anywhere by the bolt. And Batting here sells for at the minimum of $20 a meter and that is for the crappy stuff.

OK, gotta get the kids ready for school. I plan on making a tester bag today with the Green batting to see how it goes. I will sell it as a tester in my shop, so it will be pretty cheap. I also did up a quick quilt top yesterday so I can see how it quilts on something bigger than a wallet. It is very pretty (the quilt top) and not colors I normally use I guess that will be in the shop for cheap too. Give me till Monday on that. Today I have to work on some hand dyed burp clothes and the coolest Australian baby wraps....maybe I should start selling them too. Gosh I love them so much. Makes me want to have another little tiny baby to swaddle up.

xo,

Tia

**They are sending me the cotton roll of batting I originally ordered, so no worries about that, but I figured since I paid for both I should keep them;o) I kinda wish I had more space. I don't know much about Ft Riley....I am so sad the Bernina dealership shut down. That stinks. Everyone should sew on a Bernina!

I am out of batting again.

Well, actually I have 30 yards of 93" wide batting. It just came today and I was thrilled, but it was the TOTAL wrong stuff! Arrrrrr. Grrrrrr. I ordered the pure cotton batting but the "Quilter's Green" came. It is made from recycled plastic bottles, which is cool in and of itself. But I have a thing against polyester. I quite hate the stuff. I Adore the quilters Dream cotton batting. It is my favorite stuff ever. I love it so much I order it by the roll wholesale. As some of you know I do live in the middle of NOWHERE and I rely on ordering most of my craft stuff. I get to wake up at 0300 tomorrow so I can call the ladies at Quilters Dream and get this all sorted out. I have a thing against polyester....who wants to snuggle up with plastic? Yuck. I like the natural goodness of cotton.

I was stomping around the house and noticed the kids doing the same thing making fun of me. Little savages. I guess I need to get mad more often so they can learn to fear my wrath! Mu hahahahaha (that is insane laughter). The roll above is at a slant as it is quite large. I am kinda worried about having to send it back since it was addressed to my business. I am walking a thin rope with my sewing gig. I am pretty scared I will get my APO privileges taken away if they think I am using it for a business. I never sell to Australians, so it is not like I am making a massive profit from the local economy. And I sew for so many widows, and they don't pay anything at all (unless they want a bunch of bags, then I do charge a little) if it comes down to the nitty gritty, I guess I can put this sewing gig on hold until next year when/if we move....but I just don't know what I would do with myself and my massive roll of plastic batting if I couldn't sew for others! I love it...it is what I am....ahhhh. OK, that is off my chest. I really am not too crazy and I am fairly sure everything will be fine, and I really want you ALL to try Quilter's Dream Cotton for your next quilting project. You will love it as much as I do, I am pretty sure.

See...can you tell it really is kinda green and a lovely shade at that? And it is very soft, so maybe it would be ok to use, but I just hate polyester.

Here is a top I finished this morning. I will quilt it up (with the last of my cotton batting) and list it in my Esty shop along with these little wallets.

This quilt is also stacked with the last bit of my cotton batting. It is going to be for a friend who is a massive Green Bay Packer Fan. See the green and gold? Her husband is a NY Giant fan, notice the blue? The back is white. It has little bits of ACU in it as well. I picked up the "String Quilts" by Gwen Marston last night from the APO and had this top finished before going to be at 2030. It was really very fun to make. Part of me wants to tie it instead of quilt it, but I love the quilting part of making quilts.

OK, thanks for listening to me vent, I am off to figure out what we are going to have for dinner.

xo,

Tia

Ho ho ho....merry Christmas!

Yes, yes, I know I do still have some time before Christmas, but it is going to be here before you know it! So.....why not make you and your family some awesome Army Christmas Stockings? You don't have to be in the Army, nor do you have to use Army Uniforms to do this (air force, navy, Marine, Highway Patrol....what ever you want to use) just select a long sleeve and check out my little tutorial for a "Quilted Army Christmas Stocking". I think it is pretty darn simple....I hope you do to! I can't wait to see how your turn out.

Quilted Army Christmas Stocking

That is the link to where you will find the tutorial. I have found that when I do tutorials here on Blogger eventually they disappear, but this way you will be able to find it whenever you want.



In case you haven't seen me in a while....here I am. My husband took lots of staged pictures of me Saturday for my magazine shoot. I am just not the most photographic gal in town, but Stu did his best. Before he started taking pictures he cleaned my sewing studio! It is so nice and tidy, I just want to sew and sew and sew!

OK, take care gang and let me know what you think of the tutorial. Please let me know if I need to clear anything up or if you have questions. I will do my best to answer them all!

Cheers!
Tia

Christmas stocking...

Here it is ladies...the finished project anyway. I am going to make another one after I take the kiddos to school and do it as the tutorial. I just wanted to give you a heads up and show you the direction I plan to be going with the Christmas stockings. I pretty much love this. There are so many directions to go with these things. My husband decided that it should be his and that there was plenty of room for keys to a new Harley.

I will be taking it up a notch with the next stocking, as it will be for Emma, and she said she needed lots more pink...

For those of you waiting on bags....I will be mailing them next week, probably Tuesday. I really want to (translatition "NEED TO") use them in my photo shoot for the magazine. I don't keep a "stock" on hand, so I have had to keep several to have something to hold up. Kinda crazy huh? I have made how many hundreds of bags and not much to show for it here around the house.

OK, off to jump in the shower then feed the young.

xo,
Tia

BDU Christmas Stocking Tutorial

Hi ladies,

OK, I have been thinking and thinking and I have decided to make up a tutorial on making a BDU Christmas stocking. So, while I work out the pattern so I can keep it simple for you, go find one of your husband's old uniform tops. Try to find an old worn one, not one of his fancy new ones...oh and as a note if it is really starched do wash it a couple times first. The starch is a pain to sew through. You will need an arm per Christmas stocking. If you are planning on sending me a top you can cut the arm off and send me the rest when you are ready. Be sure to cut along the seams. I like to save as much of the uniform as possible.

Oh, and I have a new favorite garment. My husband and I went to dinner the other night at an Australian Army officer's house and I was asking him questions about Afghanistan. I have read quite a bit about that country and wanted to know if it was a amazing as what I had read. I am talking about the landscape more than anything. He was very informative. Anyway the conversation progressed a bit to shopping. When my dad was in Vietnam during the 60's he did a good bit of shopping, so my mom wanted to know why my husband never sent me things home from Iraq. That always makes him laugh his head off and go into this drama of him wearing a dishdasha (I know that is not spelled correctly and I doubt spell check knows what I am trying to say) and skipping around market stalls while militants and taking shots at him. Anyway...back to the story. James (the Aussie officer) gave me a Pashmina that he got in Afghanistan, because I guess he did get the chance to go shopping from time to time. I love it. A lovely sky blue and made from Pashmina wool and silk. Perfect to keep you a bit warm yet cool enough to wear in this ungodly heat to keep the sun off. I think I will use some of the tartan wool I got in Scotland to make another. OK, back to the Hero quilt....thanks James!

next time I post it will be with a tutorial.

xo,
Tia

#28 - Amy is the winner!!!

Hi Everyone! I sure hope you are having a great weekend. I am announcing the winner of the busy tree messenger....#28 was selected from my bowl of numbers so according to my calculations that makes "Amy" the winner. So, I can't find your email, and I am NOT sure if you are an Amy I am already in contact with, so "Amy #28", please email me with your address and I will pop your flash new bag in the mail tomorrow. I hope you love it and it brings your much happiness.


I made this baby quilt Friday night. I just couldn't stand not having immediate gratification with one of these "Liberated Stars" in quilt form, so I went for it. Makes me want to have another baby so I could wrap her up in all this pink splendor. I am not sure if I should list this in my Esty shop or just send it on to my friend along with the cathedral window quilt?? Ahhhhh decisions decisions!

I did the binding a bit different on this one, making nice visible hand stitches on the back of the binding. I am quite mad for the result. I may do the same thing on the hero quilt I am working on today. Depends on how big it gets.

This is the inside of the latest Camp Follower Bag I have completed. I have a ton in various stages of completion on my dining room table, so that means lots will be finished this coming week. Yay bags!!!

Now last, but far from least is this picture. Talk about a great day at the post office. I got some red fabric for my stash...I am pretty into red at the moment and don't have as much as I think I need, and I received my new letter press business cards from www.invitedink.com they are beautifully simple. I quite love them. Jen Love sent me some really wonderful little chocolate cakes from Italy. I have had to hide them from my husband. I am the one sewing for you, NOT him. So they are MINE not HIS. The cookies were wonderful too. I do so love bribes....I will send you some tim tams when I am finished with your latest order of Molly Purses. The Book (Collaborative Quilting) is my new favorite...I have been reading this one at night before going to bed. I love it. I am much more a Gwen Marston assembler than a Freddy. She is far to wild with color than I am. But that is just my opinion.

Now, since I brought up books....I finished Fae Fever by Karen Marie Moning the other day. I am quite ticked about it. Nothing like a 3 way with pestilence, famine and disease to end a book with. I hope her next one comes along nice and quick. Maybe I need to join a support group. If you haven't read her book yet Karen Marie Moning has some great romances out with some highland druids. OK....on that note I am going to repot some plants and get back to my Hero Quilt.

xo,

Tia

I was in a car crash

Yesterday afternoon while coming home from the grocery store I was rear ended. I haven't been in an accident since high school when my little Suzuki Samurai and I were driven off the road (and over a 20 foot cliff like thing). Below is a picture of the type truck I drive, mine is no where near that cherry, it has been living out in the desert sun so long wax just does not do the trick. But I LOVE my truck. And now I love it even more. Emma and I were stopped at an intersection waiting our turn to go when I heard more than felt (but Man do I feel it this morning!) someone try to drive through us. Thank goodness I drive a tank! My daughter was pretty excited about the whole thing, and I was very impressed with Agnes (my truck). She looks just the same, but the little ford escort has no front anymore. I wonder if I can bring this truck back to the States with us? It is a classic, since it is almost 25 years old. For doing so well yesterday I am pretty sore this morning. Emma and I are going to take some Motrin and get back to sewing. I SWEAR Hillary I will have pictures of your bag up today!!!! Please forgive me for teasing you.

Now onto the FREE BAG GIVE AWAY!!! Thanks so much for your comments. Y'all are great. I just want to make sure you are aware that the give away is for the BUSY TREE MESSENGER BAG I love this bag and it is made with Japanese imports and is lined with tea dyed muslin.

Also, while I love hearing about how you love MY bags, you totally don't have to name MY bags as your favorite. Although, I am really enjoying the dear things you are saying about yours truely! I am looking for characteristics that other ladies really love in a bag. I have about 4 new designs bubbling away in my mind. I have so much stuff going on I want YOUR help on which ones I should focus on. Does that make sense? I hope so. SO LEAVE AS MANY COMMENTS as you wish on the "HELLO TIA TOTE" post and I will use a random selector to choose the lucky winner. Oh and the bag is already made so it gets to be popped in the mail Monday morning....none of this waiting nonsense!

XO,

Tia

Hello Tia Tote!

Hi y'all! So, what do you think of my new "Tia Tote"? I have had this puppy percolating away in my mind since our trip and finally put 2 together. They are great BIG tote bags secured with 2 magnetic snaps. I love them so much I named them after me. I love the interior pockets, I love the sorta short straps, I love how they conform to the body, I love how they can hold tons of things...just an all around great bag. They are not so IN YOUR FACE ARMY!!!! But they are a little bit army. I used the cargo pockets of the pants to make them. They are of course quilted and man do these guys sew up quick! Well, they would be more quick if I didn't quilt them like crazy. Any way the red one will be in the shop when I get around to stocking it.



Once again the pictures are out of order...to celebrate my new design I am going to give away this guy. Do you remember him? Oh I loved him so much...so much I decided to keep him since no one could love him the way I could. Well....in actuality he is sitting in my studio feeling sorry for himself since the strap is too long to be comfortable for me. I do also have a really cool Tia tote to carry around too...oh and I am not much of a messenger gal. Here is the link to the busy tree messenger on my Flickr Gallery, so go there and click around to see how awesome this bag is. So leave a comment...or as many as you like and I will pick the lucky winner on Saturday (4 OCTOBER). Let's make the comments bag related, so What is your favorite STYLE bag? This will make a great Christmas present too for those of you who are giving. The winner will just have to pay shipping (about $5). Too easy!

Here is an inside shot of the Tia Tote. Gosh I love it!

Have a great day and good luck on the Busy Tree Messenger!