I would like to Introduce you to "Herman"

So...Sunday we (Stu and I) made a big decision. After waking up about 5 times the night before due to scampering feet and gnawing teeth, we decided we needed to take the next step in our Mouse War. We have mice. Most of our little circle has them and all the rain has really motivated more to move into our house. They are really cute little native mouse (they hop and I think they are marsupials with pouches) but I don't want to share my dwelling with them.

We got a cat. Well a kitten really. We saw a sign for free kittens and went by to collect Herman from the Junk Yard. He is not feral, his mommy is an inside cat at the Junk Yard, and quite lovely.

The kids are over the moon for Herman (Emma keeps calling him Hymen...we may need to find a different name for our pussy) and so far He seems like quite a great little fellow. He uses his litter box with no problem, sleeps in his bed or Emma's lap. And best of all...He is showed me some of his assassin skills last night on a beetle. Very impressive little killer.


He knows when to run for the high ground...but his little claws are really sharp, so this location is really NOT encouraged.

I have never had a cat before in all my 33 years. Never once. We have always been dog people. But if the rest of Herman's assimilation into our family is as easy as the past couple days I see us with a cat for the rest of our life!

Have a happy New Year everyone, and reflect a bit on the blessing of this past year.

I guess I am a Mad Hatter (minus the mercury poisoning)

This is what I have been up to over the past couple days. I made an agreement with my husband not to work on Bags over the holidays, so I have stuck to my little vow...I made hats instead! It is so bright here a hat is essential if you are going to spend any time out in the sun. The only problem is that I think most of the hats available in town are ugly. Yes yes, I know I am a snob and I always think I can do things better than others, but that is just me. I can't seem to help it. Well, a couple months ago I was flipping through a Japanese craft magazine Pochee (I can't find a direct link to where you can get the magazine, but I got it at www.superbuzzy.com) and I saw the most wonderful hats! The I thought to myself "Self, whenever you see the Japanese tourist ladies wondering around town they always have on the most fabulous hats...They MUST make them all by themselves!" Pochee magazine had a little tutorial on how to use these funny green plastic templates, and as they say a picture is worth a thousand words...it looked pretty straight foreword.


The only problem was that I COULD NOT find the templates anywhere! I scoured the Internet and came up with a big fat zilch! Nadda! Nothing! Damnit! I had to have a hat, an awesome hat!


So I did the only thing I could do...I emailed my friend, and fellow military wife, Shannon (she has an Etsy shop Toyko Mommy where you can get awesome Japanese fabric). Shannon, the dream come true that she is, went hunting for me! And she found exactly what I was yearning for. She sent me that little hat template kit (and some wonderful fabric..how could I resist since she would be sending me a bit of a box anyway and she has also gotten me hooked on Quilts Japan magazine...but I won't get side tracked on that now, let's get back to hats). Shannon said that there should be more wonderful templates when the season changes...so I will bug her again then.


See...there is the template in it's wrapping. I made my first hat right after I opened the box. It was too easy! I did make some mistakes since I don't read Japanese, so this one is a little big.

This one is big too....the first line is the sew line! I finally figured that out. Duh. I love the fabric in this hat. It is from Denyse Schmidt's Country Fair line. I will make another later today with a smaller brim.

Here is a tulip hat....the brim can be up (Stu thinks I look like the Gorton's Fisherman) or down blocking the sun. I used some lovely Nani Iro fabric for the outside of the hat and a blue Linen/cotton for the lining. You can't see it in this picture but the pink on the flowers is a metallic pink...such awesome fabric. It is a cotton double gauze that after it is washed it gets wonderfully soft and glorious. I have this guy in the wash right now to test it out after being cleaned.

This is my current favorite. It is a big fat flower from Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party collection. This hat is in a Cape line style...with a shorter brim. As you can see the brim is made out of wonderful Winter weight BDU! Woopee! Now I am in the zone.....What else can I do? I Know I will make the hats reversible! Awesome!

This is the inside out version of the blue and red Country fair hat below. Can you see the ribbon around the crown of the hat? It is some glorious ribbon with bees on it. I got this a couple years ago from Repo Depot Fabric, but they don't seem to be carrying her ribbon anymore. Each one it like a tiny tapestry...veggies, bees, trees...dancing girls, you name it and she has made a ribbon for it. I hate it that I can't remember what the lady's name is who makes these awesome ribbons. And I also hate it that I won't be able to get some more. Bummer.

This is the inside out of the Big Blue flower hat 2 above. Gosh I love it!

Here is the Blue and red Country fair cape line hat. It looks naked to me. I am going to make a band of some sort to go around the crown...I would put a big green parrot feather, but then it wouldn't be reversible.

Here is one of my favorite little models, crazy Emma.

You may be wondering what the hell I am going to do with all these hats??? Well, I am not really sure. They are so fun to make. I guess I will probably stock my little Etsy Shop....but maybe there is no market for awesome sunhats? I am the poster girl for skin cancer, so a hat is pretty essential out here. Oh well, I will put some in the shop and see what happens.

See...maybe it was not the mercury poisoning that drove the hat makers crazy...maybe it was all the endless options of making awesome hats!

xo,

Tia

Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day and Have a Blessed New Year!

OK, I will warn you ahead of time that this is going to be a big mis mash of information...but I have been so busy that I have not had time to post on this blog. I swore to myself that I WOULD NOT get overwhelmed with holiday sewing...I just was not going to do it. I was going to enjoy my holiday of peace and celebrate the birth of Christ...well, I got totally overwhelmed with sewing and my wonderful family and fantastic friends...and now we are in recovery mode. My husband is rearranging the living room and dining room and I keep having to give him my opinion. Re-arranging seems to be a pretty common past time around here. My daughter even takes it upon herself to shove the furniture around. The kids are playing with the slot car set that my dad sent them. It is a Mini Cooper slot car set! Do you know that I had one of the first Mini Coopers in the US? It is true...I bought it right before PCSing (moving) from Germany back in 2002.


This is my latest Hero Quilt for CPT Lyerly's son. CPT Lyerly's Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Baghdad on the 20th of January 2007. I wanted to get this quilt finished and out before Christmas, but I just couldn't do it. I came really close, but that only counts in horse shoes, right? I love how his Hero Quilt turned out.

Sean's favorite color was purple, so I used bits of lilac shot cotton and I had to get creative on finding enough fabric from his uniform for the quilt after cutting it up for 4 Hero Bags. I used some of the BDU and bits of the linings of his pockets. I also took most of the buttons from his uniform and tied them onto the quilt. I love how it turned out. There really is no "Pattern" to this quilt, it would make a great scrap quilt if you are so inclined to make one for yourself check out this tutorial by Lady Harvatine (confetti quilt tutorial). I kinda went by that tutorial, but I also used some of Gwen Marston's method from "Liberated Quiltmaking".


I was a little stuck on how to finish the quilt, so I made a pieced binding. The back of the quilt is a nice purple (donated by Westminster Fabrics) and a lovely wide strip of fabric I cut from the sweet stack that Jessica Lytle was so kind to donate for my Hero quilt cause.

After the Hero Quilt was finished, I had to take a break and get ready for Christmas around here. We got up early and made sugar cookies and chocolate gingerbread mates. While they tasted too good, I know why I don't make shaped cookies very often. They are sooooo much work. Holy cow. We made them in Australian shapes like the country and camels. Emma took the decorating very seriously.

This is a shot of the sky down here. It is too hot to be outside. I think in the sun it must be about 120F, but in the shade it is about 105. Oh and it is humid too, so that really makes it warm. Normally when it is hot, it is just dry heat, I don't like the humidity much at all.

Here the kiddos with one of the favorite Christmas presents...the mini cooper slot car set. The cars zip right off the track when I get my turn to play. Thanks so much dad! The kids LOVE it!

Here is Ethan with one of his favorite gifts...a skate board. The tree in the background is 2 different fig trees and they are getting really ripe and tasty...but I can't eat that many figs in this lifetime, so if you want one or a bunch let me know and they are yours!

Here is Sam and his pedal car...

I need to go assist with some of the furniture placement, I don't want Stu to block any of my windows. Have a wonderful rest of your holiday season! I will be back to the bags soon and mail the ones that are ready to go out Monday. I also have several hats cut. It is so hot and bright out that I have to wear a hat....wait till you see them. This last one I made is awesome, but too big for my head. If you are a lady with a big head in need of a pretty cool sun hat let me know and you can have it. I need to dedicate a post to these hats and I also found some AWESOME buttons at a gift shop in town, they have bits of dried flowers in them. I love pressing flowers and most of my big books have flowers pressed between the pages, so these were too hard to resist...

One last thing before I really go...Thank you so much for the sweet emails you have been sending about me ceasing production of my bags while I home school Emma. I don't see this being a permanent thing. I am pretty sure I will be making bags for you all again, but I just have got to take a break from it. I am working on putting together a pattern book...or a method book, so you can make your own bags! Woopee.

Anyway, I am off to tidy up the house again!

xo,

Tia

Can you believe it is almost Christmas?

SO Christmas is pretty much right around the corner, everything I am going to buy is bought...we will see if it gets here in time. "Santa" is getting the kids one nice gift each and I am making them several things, but that is pretty much it. I really want to focus more on "Christ" in Christmas instead of buying and buying and buying. Next year I think we will be back home with family so that will be awesome. I sure miss everyone.

Here are a bunch of Molly Purses I finished last week. There is a pretty good variety there hanging from my fig tree. Below is probably one of the most wonderful Cathy Bags I have ever made. I can't wait for it to arrive at it's destination.

These have been a pretty busy 2 weeks...lots and lots of parties. Have you ever noticed that the smaller the military community the more social functions there are? We went to a family day Christmas party yesterday and we are all sunburned (well my husband, Mr Melanin, is just fine) being some of the whitest people in Australia. I have a big spot on my back where I missed my sunblock and each of the kiddos have funny red splotches of pain. I can't even count all the sunburns I have had in my life, but these that I have gotten here in Australia hurt worse than any before them. My poor little children... They did all wear hats yesterday so at least that damage was thwarted.

Emma's Home school stuff arrived Friday and she is so excited about it all. The boys are going to go to regular school and I am going to home School Emma to see if I can catch her up to where I believe she should be. Her teacher let me down....she didn't let me know Emma was failing first grade until there were 3 weeks left in the school year (I had 2 meetings a term with her hearing team and her teacher...Emma's doing poorly never came up). Don't you think that is crap? I sure do. I decided to just take matters into my own hands.

So with the home Schooling of miss Emma I will not be taking bag orders anymore. Yeah yeah I know that stinks...now I will have to hang tight with the fabric I have an not buy lots and lots of glorious fabric each season. Whoop whoop...but My daughter really does take a more important roll in my life that the bags. I will miss them...maybe after we move back to the real world I will be able to hire an assistant and I can open back up again. Or I can go back to work on another project that has been put on the back burner. We will see.

I am going to finish up all those bags over there as soon as possible, so don't worry if your name is over there.

I do still plan to make Hero Bags and Hero Quilts...but those are going to have to be more controlled too. I recently had a lady who was not what she claimed to be...nor was her husband. That has left a sour taste in my mouth. I was pretty much shocked that someone would claim to be a widow and not really be one. I do check up on the widows I sew for and I have never had anyone flat out lie to me (well I don't think they have). So I discussed the issue with my attorney and she said I should request a copy of the death certificate. Man, I don't want to do that. Maybe just a memory website address or something.

OK, my husband wants the computer...Gotta go sew! And to think these are going to be some of the last Camp Follower Bags ever made in Alice Springs.... it is the end of an age.

And the winners are......

# 11 Tif

and

#6 Kristin L.


Woopee you two! I need your addresses and you will soon get some loot. Tif, Ironically (or not really) is my wonderful friend from the Nurse Corps...we were in the Army together and she taught me tons and tons about labor and delivery nursing. She is also a very skilled seamstress and knitter. Kristin L is also an awesome quilter...as a matter of fact I want to be her when I am a grown up quilter. I love her blog and I am endlessly inspired by her glorious art. Go give her website a look see and I am SURE you will fall in love with her quilts as well. She has some patterns as well....


I have so much to blog about but I just don't have the time at the moment. Both my Berninas are back and running pretty well, so I am as happy as a clam. It was kinda cool to have them out of the house though. I got to see what a "normal" house wife gets to do during the day without the call of the fabric and sewing machines to deal with. I cleaned like a crazy lady and a nice tidy house was wonderful.


OK...on a different note I listened to a podcast thingy (it is not really a podcast, but I can't think of the real name for the life of me) yesterday by Alice Walker regarding a letter she wrote Barack Obama. All I can say is WTF? I like Alice Walker...but maybe she should stick to fiction writing and cease giving political advise. "one man's enemy is not anothers." "You have won the race...all the other Presidents before you were just relay runners and you are the winner so take it easy and don't stress" Surely the US public must realize that the office of POTUS is one of the most stressful jobs on Earth and if the man holding said office is NOT stressed he not doing it right.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/11/pulitzer_winning_author_alice_walker_on

You really should give it a listen. She also has a really dreamy vision about war. Very enlightened...not realistic in this day and age. Last week we were pretty damn close to some crazy hostility between India and Pakistan....maybe we should send Alice Walker over to sort that out. Everyone should just be friends and then cut off their clitoris and external labia (Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker).


So there that is. I am off to sew some more and mail some boxes. I want to know what you think of Alice's letter to Obama...oh and they interview some man from Uruguay and a man on Death Row. What is my country coming to? I guess I am going to have to come home a straighten things out.

Just a bit stressed....

These pictures really don't have much relation except in one I am wearing a BDU and in the other I have made a diaper bag set out of a BDU. That was me about 10 years ago. Young, naive...I look like a pixie nurse. That is my older sister with me. She is pretty awesome.

OK...this is kinda a follow-up with my post about the development of my bags. I was reading over it and I think it sorta came across like that was how I was STILL making the bags. NO no no no....I have come quite a distance since those bags. This is where I am now. I am pretty happy with them.

Now for the stressful bad news. Both of my sewing machines are on the blink. Yep...it has been about 2 years since I had them serviced and they are pissed off. I had a bad needle break on the 640 and now the needle position is jammed over the the far right and there are other problems that I have just been gritting my teeth (and using ugly words) with. The other machine the 165 has been having problems for about a year now (the Bernina man only comes once a year) where it will sew about 5 stitches then freeze up and inform me that I need to check the upper thread. There is not a darn thing wrong with the upper thread! Just stitch dammit! I have a ton of bags that I need to get out by the 7th....and it just isn't happening right now. Not to mention the Christmas presents I am trying to make for my own family....grrrr.

As luck would have it the Bernina man comes to town on the 4th of December (tomorrow!!!) so my girls are going to the spa and hopefully will be spinning like a top when I get them home. I average about 8 hours of sewing a day...so that is a pretty long time to go without having them serviced. The above bag took about twice as long to make due to the stop/start of the 165. I couldn't use the 640 at all due to the jam....man will I be happy to return to civilization and a good Bernina shop! I am pretty sure there is on in the FT Bragg area. For the most part my Berninas take a ton of abuse...but I have them out here in the middle of the desert with only myself for support. I am NO Bernina mechanic.

Most of the Christmas bags I want to get out by the 7th are Mollies and when the sewing machines are working correctly I can whip them out pretty quickly, so if all goes well I should have most if not all of the Christmas orders out. I will let you know if it is not going to happen... Also I can just wrap and send the bags to the person on your Christmas list (if you were planning on sending them off once you got them). Email me if you would like me to do that for you.

What a pain for my machines to give up at such a critical time! Grrrrrr

My 200th Post! = Giveaway

Hey there everyone.

Can you believe it? This is my 200th post. How crazy is that? I have found 200 moments to share and blab on about whatever it was I had on my mind. Well, thanks for reading my strange little bloggy here.

To celebrate this special event I am having a giveaway. Not the bunnies...they are for my kids Christmas (I just wanted to show you a bit of my sewing this weekend). But 2 different lots of Kaffe Fassett fabric. Oh la la.

A boy bunny and a girl bunny...how sweet. I used on of Hillary Lang's (wee wonderfuls) big footed Bunny patterns for these guys. Other than the monster I made Ethan out of an old washcloth this is my first go at sewing toys. It sure opened up a whole new world for Emma, that is for sure. She caught me sewing on the butt of the cream colored bunny and squealed "MOM!!! You can make dolls...just like the elves!" Yeah....I guess I can. Now, mind you, I got up at about 0530 to work on these guys Sunday morning because I figured the tribe would like to sleep in a bit...all the more fool me.

OK here is the loot. I have 2 different lots of Kaffe Fassett fabric up for grabs. This is a bunch of fabric. Each piece is a 2 yard cut, so you will get about 10 yards of the blue/lavenders or 10 yards of the red/oranges.....but that is not all. You will also get some quilter's dream cotton batting. This is the cream de la cream of cotton batting. See I just want you to be as addicted to fabric as I am. I love it. Westminster donated this to me last year and They just gave me some more, so I am sharing the Westminster love. If for some crazy reason you have not tried their fabric, I am sure you will after you get your hands on this (duh).

So to sum it up there will be 2 winners, Woopee. All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me (and whoever else reads the comments) what your favorite "comfort food" is. I made chicken and dumplings for dinner this evening and I used THIS recipe. I don't know what the heck Emeril is talking about by it only taking 1 hour and 45 minutes "cook time" it took me all day...but it was worth it! yummy. I woke up at about 0300 thinking about chicken and dumplings. How strange is that? Anyway...leave a comment (as many as you like) and I will draw the winner with a random selection method of some sort...probably making my husband choose a number between x & y. And we will do this in a week. On Monday the 8th of December. Oh and since this is pretty heavy...lets stick with US addresses or Australian.