Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all having a wonderful time getting ready for your Thanksgiving Feast. I am...this is probably my favorite holiday. Normally it is kinda chilly and the wonderful aroma of turkey and pies fill the house. I love that. It is muggy today here in the Outback, but maybe it will rain and break up the humidity. We will see.

I got up early to make Cherry turnovers. And was chatting with my husband and cutting out circles of crust when I broke the glass I was cutting out the shapes with. I sliced up my poor right hand (my favorite hand if you must know....it had lots of important things to do today to get ready for the feast). It didn't hurt that much, but it did bleed alot. I am curious if I may have nicked the nerve in my middle finger since it is a bit numb...but what really pissed me off was that I ruined the pie crust! It had tons of bits of tiny glass shards in it. You may wonder why my glass was so cheap it broke...well it is not a cheap glass actually, it is a fancy one from Crate and Barrel. But is is a blown glass and is really really thin. Slowly I am breaking them all and I sure as heck don't recommend them. Anyway back to my story...My husband took over the bandaging of my hand then cleaned up the mess of glass and pie crust. He even rolled out the second batch of dough. Then he kinda fizzled, but I was proud of him. Oh the hand pies (turnovers) were for his work anyway. As he was working away and keeping my coffee cup nice and full, I thought to myself how wonderful it is to be taken care of. A couple years ago and next year probably...he won't be around for the day to day things like he is now. What a precious time this is. He was even the tooth fairy for one of Emma's teeth last night. These little things he misses so much of. Man, am I thankful for my husband and these 2 years we have gotten to spend together in this strange desert sanctuary. I have described it before as being a bubble...a little desert bubble. Things are good here, I will miss them.

I am also thankful for you, by dear fellow Camp Followers.

I decided to to a blog about my bags and how they have changed over the years. As you might guess, I have a bunch of bags around the house. When I finish carrying them for whatever reason they get turned over to the kiddos and get to hold their toys and teddies.


Damn pictures are in the wrong order again. Oh well....this is my Second Generation Stu Tote. I put the unit patches on the back of the bag and the totes did not have very much "form". The straps were the last things I put on the bag, they were very simple straps. I did not put any sort of closure on this second generation of Stu Tote bag.

This is my Third Generation Stu tote bag. It does have a cuff closure, and there is more "form" to the bag. My quilting is getting a bit better by this time and I have the unit patches on the sides of the bag, where I think they belong. The straps are still on the outside of the bag and I kinda have a little splash of color on the underside of the straps. With this third generation of Stu tote I did decorative stitching up the sides of the straps, I also put the quote on the straps of this model. I have to admit this is the last Stu I made for myself. It looks pretty sad, huh? I am carrying a "Tia Tote" right now and I really love the shape of the new bag. I will make myself another Stu when I get a chance...but I just don't have the time right now.

This is the bag that started it all. This is one of the ones I took to my first OWC Christmas Bizarre back in 2005. I can't believe people bought them. As you can see it has lots of flaws and my quilting was so ugly. This bag has next to NO form. It is just batted with cotton batting and quilted. And I put some fancy ribbon on the straps. Yuck. But everyone has to start somewhere. So this is where I started. I can't believe all the bags I have made since this one. Thank you all for giving me a chance to find my voice as a "Bag Artist." I quite love doing it. I hope these crazy bags bring you some of the pleasure they gave me to make them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tia

Biffy Boys

I did some sewing for my little men the other day. Ethan wanted an apron...he is not a real "wanty" guy so what the heck I made him one. It only took about 20 minutes. When Ethan had his the little guy needed one too. So now both have aprons for their experiments, or cooking or painting or whatever they need to use an apron for.

I really like the Scottish band Biffy Clyro and I dig the song "Mountains" and I listen to it on You Tube quite a bit....well the boys sing it all the time too. "I am a Mountain....I am the Sea! You can't take that away from me!" It is quite funny.

Oh and since I discovered You Tube (I know it has been around a while, but I just found it) Listen to "Bridal Train" by the Australian Band the Waifes. It is amazing too. It is about a war bride after WWII going to be with her Yankee Sailor. Gosh, I love that song.

My table is heaped with bags! I am off to sew some more!

XO,
Tia

Happy Birthday to me!

Soooo Yesterday morning at 0315 my husband woke me up and told me we had to go. He had warned me the night before that it would be an early morning for us. As I was getting dressed my wonderful friend, Erica, drove up to hang out at the house while the kiddos slept.

We drove off to meet a bus that took us off into the bush. There we met up with our hot air balloon. Stu and I were one of two "Young and agile" couples out there so it was our job to jump in the balloon basket as it was being inflated. Did you know that Hot air balloons start out on their sides? And as the balloon fills with hot air it rises? Well, it does so now you know. The Basket tiped right side up and the Balloon driver (the guy up there between Stu and I) started shouting in heavy dutch accented English "Climb Aboard! Climb Aboard!" and all the French tourists began scrambeling up and over the sides.

We took of in pretty heavy winds and had a very nice ride. The flight took place over a more ugly part of the desert....but I guess in a balloon you can't be that choosy.

Here I am after the flight getting ready to help pack up the balloon. I must say that balloon fabric is pretty cool and I should have asked where they keep their scraps. Maybe i should try to get an old parachuit from Ebay. That would make an awesome bag, huh? I will try that when we go to Bragg. Yes...I do think it is Bragg for us. Kinda sad because we could have set up one heck of a sweat shop at Campbell! All we would have needed is a great fabric store and sewing would take over the post like a virus! But maybe I can ignight an outbreak in North Carolina. I know lots of ladies make bags in FT Bragg...but I have a plan. I am not going to get too into it now, but I think it is going to be pretty awesome. Sufice it to say that I am going to be doing things a bit differently when I get back to the States, since I will be home schooling Emma, I won't have quite as much time to sew like a woman possessed.

This is a pretty good sunrise shot. The desert has gotten a ton of rain lately so it is very green and there are even water holes scattered around.

OK, I gotta go back to my sewing machine. I have had to break out the old girl (165) since I messed up my needle position mechanism on the 640. Thank goodness the Bernina man comes next week! I have worked them very hard of the last 18 months and they need a nice trip to the sewing machine spa.

XO,

Tia

here are some bags I finished recently

Hi everyone! I was pretty busy Saturday and got a great sewing day in. Most of these were completed then. I will be mailing them out today!

Another great Mail day

DO you ever have days that just really start out bad, but then get much better...and then even way better? Well I had a bad dream about my husband and woke up so mad at him at about 0300 that I wanted to shove him out of bed. I was mad at him pretty much all day. I dreamed he had another wife and liked her much better than me! Oh I was just so mad. I know it was just a dream...but from the other ladies I have spoken with this has happened to them too. So I don't feel like quite such a freak of nature. Then on the way to take kids to school I noticed that a blessed even took place inside my truck and a Praying Mantis gave birth to tons of little praying mantises...well I guess they hatched since I don't think the praying mantis has live birth, feel free to look into that if you wish. All I know is I had a 3 year old Screaming his head off anytime we had to get near the truck (which was often yesterday). The tiny bugs were kinda creepy in a really small bug way and there were so many they really weren't cute like I was trying to make them out to be so Sam would quite screaming. And we couldn't leave the doors open so they could escape since it was raining buckets of water yesterday.

When I went to the post office to mail a bunch of stuff I had this wonderful box of donations from Westminster! They give me fabric for my Hero Bags and Hero quilts that I make for widows and children of servicemen Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a wonderful bunch of fabric they sent this time! Denyse Schmidt, Heather Ross, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Tina Givens, Tanya Whelen, Anna Maria Horner...they are all here! I was so excited when I opened this box my heart stopped for a moment. Thank you so much Westminster Fabrics! I am working on quite a few Hero quilts and want to get them out before Christmas, so this is perfect timing.

Michelle Engle Bencsko (of Cicada Studio) sent me these 3" charms of her new collection named "Dogwood". I am a big fan of her independent designed stuff and have been looking foreword to this collection. The colors are wonderful and the scale of the prints is very quilt friendly. I am going to make a little doll quilt with this, so you can all see how wonderful it is.

Finally this is the latest Stu I have finished. I need to complete the Diaper pad and a little wallet and it is off!

I have a ton cut on the table right now so I will be cranking out bags like a woman possessed in no time! Wish me luck.

xo,

Tia

Wow...what a week.

All I can say is thank goodness it is over. It went well, we had some great parties. You know you are going to have a bunch of people you didn't know were coming when you are in the grocery store and strangers are coming up to you to inquire about what they should bring to dinner. Heck I even had cashiers shouting down the line to ask what they should bring....it was another one of those dream things...have a dinner party that only 6 people RSVP to and have 80 show up. I was praying that no one would shout out my address. In reality some great food was shared, I had a wonderful time and I found a bottle of wine that was abandoned on the dining room table, it was one of the best reds I have ever tasted, so I scooped it up and hid it (is that the sign of an alcoholic? hording and hiding spirits?) I did ration it for the next couple days while my husband was out of town so I could have a nice glass after the kiddos went to bed.

This is a scrap swap with my Flickr Friend Krom mama. I have bins and bins of scrap fabric. I do hoard my scrap fabric. I have ever since quilting class with the ladies at First Baptist Church in Killeen, TX. If any of you sew and would like to increase you "scrap Stash" let me know before I mail out your order and I will add a bag-o-scraps, if you like.

Speaking of orders...my Internet has been down a bit this week and since all my emails are now working wonderfully I am getting your emails in about 4 different boxes. Needless to say I have no idea who I have replied to and who is left hanging. I don't want you to be hanging, so remind me with another email...or maybe 2? I hate leaving loose ends. I will read your email and go off to research a question or look at some fabric you liked and forget who I was looking at it for and which email I found it in....bla bla bla. When we move back to the states (which might be much sooner than we thought) I will need an assistant in this little business of mine. It has gotten so much bigger than me. I don't even like to think about it. Makes me dizzy.

Here is another pillow I made in a down moment when I couldn't drag out my bags to work on, but scraps were fine. It is inspired by this outstanding quilt from the Tokyo quilt show. I quite love this pillow. Kinda makes me want to quit making bags and just make pillows. But I won't do that yet, I have too many bags to finish before I quit!

So, This is my Emma. She went to a Disco at her School Friday and had a blast. Most of you know Emma has a hearing impairment (she has a sensory-neural hearing loss, wears bilateral hearing aides and uses a microphone/receiver system while in class). I have finally made the decision I have been wanting to make since I first found out about her challenge. I am going to home school Miss Emma next year. The nail in the public school coffin was pounded in on Monday afternoon when I get a call from her school telling me Emma has her bags packed and is waiting for me in the office to come and get her. "she has finished with school and wants to be taught at home" She is a very mature little 7 year old and always has a plan for something. Well, she had a plan for her education. I made an appointment to talk with her teacher and find out that she is terribly behind in reading, spelling and math. OK...there are 2 weeks left in the school year. Why in all that is Holy am I only hearing about this NOW! I am at school every day, twice a day, I have scheduled meetings with her teacher and hearing team every term...I am pretty ticked off at this point. I have a freaking Bachelors of Science (in nursing....but I can teach her to recognise signs of shock) so I can just teach my daughter my self. I have been getting wonderful information from my Friends here in town who home school and we are going to Kumon so she can get even more help. Emma is over the moon thrilled with learning now. She just needed me to sit down and listen to her. Poor kid.

During this week of madness I found time to finish this bag that has been waiting very patiently since like April. I really think Elves finished it because I really don't remember doing it. I do remember giving it to my friend at coffee and watching 3 Aborigine women try to beat the crap out of one another.

I wanted this to be up at the top as the first thing you see and first thing I talk about...but as usual I upload the pictures in the wrong order. J. Lytle bought this beautiful fabric and donated it to my Hero Quilt cause. I think I have 7 Hero quilts in the works right now, and I am so grateful to you for making this generous donation. Thank you so much!

Last thing before I go return to my sewing studio (well I am in the studio right now...but my back is to the machines) I am getting down to crunch time again.....I hate deadlines, but I think I will be able to make them. If you have a Christmas Deadline PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP. I want to do triage on my bags I am pretty sure I have everyone on my whiteboard here in the sewing room, but I just want to double check. Also if you are not over on my list for some reason (and I have you order form, uniform and $$) please let me know. I will take care of that ASAP as well. See, I totally need an assistant. Who wants to work with me if we move to either FT Campbell or FT Bragg?

Talk to you later!

Tia

Scrappy sewing....

So, despite the 2 surprise dinner parties that were held at my house this weekend I got a good deal of sewing done. I finished this awesome bag for C. Garey and I did a bunch of Scrappy sewing.

This is the inside of this bag...I just love how striking it is. Love it. I am going to finish the diaper pad today and then the set will be complete.

I finished this little purse. I named it the "Erica" but my daughter further named it the sassy sailor bag, since my friend Erica wants to dress as a "Sassy Sailor" next year. She wants me to dress as a General...but I will require a boob job before I can do it any justice. here is a link to the costumes Erica has in mind.

This bag is going to be a silent auction item for my husband's unit....aren't I so supportive? I am also going to put together a fabric and batting package since there are little to no places to shop for fabric....it should do well in the auction since there are lots of creative ladies who work out there.

I love Flickr...I feel like my contacts are my little crafty friends. Well I joined a group called scrapbusters. I have 3 large bins of scrap fabric. I love my scraps and have plans to do lots of things with them...I just lack the time. Well, Saturday I worked with my scraps. The flower on the bag above is from the scrap bin (fabric from the bin, not the actual flower) this little bridy thing is made all from scraps. I think it might be part of a larger quilt when is all said and done, but I won't work on it again until next weekend. Can you tell that the birds are some of our crazy pink cockatoos? And the tree is the Jacaranda?

I made this scrappy pillow. I have been dieing to make myself a pillow and finally did it! I made the time! I love the pillow. The back is and envelope closure so you can stuff it with a pillow form, or take it off and wash it when the kids spill something mysterious on it...and no one knows what it could be.

Here is another shot of the Garey bag. I really like trimming the big fellows down a bit. I am all for a big bag, but some of you ladies are married to giants! It would be like lugging around a duffel bag!

OK gotta go by the hearing aide place before dropping Emma off at school. Her speaker system is not working again. Poor kid. I may be laying low for the first part of this week while my husbands boss is in town. The house is going to be party central, so I need to clean it up a bit. It is pretty messy. My kids have a super power that the next X-men may be interested in....they are able to make a nice clean room or kitchen look like it has never seen a mop. They can mess a place up faster than you can leave the room. It is a mystery how it happens, but I know I just cleaned and bamm.....looks like buglers broke in looking for a treasure map...oh and what the boys can do to the toilet, an act of terror for sure. I am on the verge of removing their bathroom rights.

gotta dash!

xo,

Tia

All kinds of Stuff....

The figs on my trees are really getting big. When I drive up and get out of the truck I can smell their earthy fragrance. It has been raining lately so the smells here are really intensified. The eucalyptus leaves and the dirt and all the thirsty desert plants really make Alice Springs a great place to have a sense of smell. For the most part I love it. Sometimes the indigenous people have a stink about them that defies description...so I won't bother right now. This guy above, the Channel Billed Cuckoo comes to my house to eat the figs. He really seems to like the small yellow ones better than the giant purple ones. This is a loud bird, by the way.

OK, I have been really really busy the last couple weeks getting enough bags finished for my final magazine shoot. It is so strange to have so many of my bags around the studio. This particular Stu Tote is a Hero Bag for SPC Gebur's mom. She had her bag stolen a while back and I have now made her another. As far a detail goes I like the gold star I put on the bag closure. As most of you know a gold star signifies that a son (or husband or relative) has been killed in battle.

I am trying the drag and drop thing, but I still can't get the pictures to move. What a pain. Anyway this is some of the detail of the quilt I made for my mom for her birthday. I quilted it a bit different and for the most part it worked out fine. I love it so much more now that it is washed and dried and a bit crinkly. I use this type of muslin for the the back of some quilts...it is just so nice.

Here is a picture of all the bags I need to pack up and send off today. So....I better stop by the post office this morning and pick up the boxes and custom forms I need.

Here is mom's quilt all big and hanging on the line.

Here are some of my more regular visitors. The pink cockatoos are hilarious to watch. We like to have breakfast out on the front porch so we can watch their antics. The green parrots are my favorites, we also have some really wonderful bee eaters....they look like hummingbirds but a little bigger and have the most wonderful gem like colors.

I had so much to talk about this posting...but I can't remember now. I better go get a move on. Have a great day everyone, I hope you all voted, I doubt they count my measly absentee ballot.

xo,

Tia