Hello, I am not Dead...don't worry.

I have been busy this last week. So very busy. When you guys get sick, does your whole family get ill? We do but rarely do we all get the same thing. That is what happened last week. All 3 kids have been ill (Emma= Ear Infection, Ethan = Contagious Blisters, and Sam = second degree burns on his right hand. That one brought us to the ER))- DR calls the house and says keep your kids at home so they don't make everyone else sick sick. That is finally over and I thought I was going to make it scott free, but not so much. Yesterday I got brought low with an optic Migraine (or at least that is what the Doc says it is)- I took Imitrex because my doc said to, and dear heaven I spent the rest of the day loopy! I hate a day where I am laid up. I REALLY hate those days. I got in a hot shower to see if that if that would wake me up ( I can't be passed out on the couch with 2 little kiddos at home, I just can't) and it felt like my skin was on fire. I am not going to take Imitrex again. To hell with that. I will just deal with not being able to see correctly for about 45 minutes.

I am sure it is stress related- you don't even have to tell me! I know it is. We move on the first of July, the movers come the beginning of June. I am not worried about packing- the movers do all that, I am just worried about not getting everything done I want to before we leave.

Oh and my Bernina sewed right through my middle finger today. I seem to do that alot. Maybe I need a chain mail gauntlet. Anyway, when you do this (if you do this) just be patient and let the needle lift back up - don't yank your finger off the needle shank like I did. Tends to bleed a bit and it broke a pretty nice needle. Wop wop.

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has given money to buy batting. Thank you so much. I ordered some more and it should be here for the quiltathon on the 16th. Woo pee!!!!

The quilt I am working on above is a lovely one by Solidia in IN. It is lovely! I am really enjoying quilting all these quilts. And I have some more bags on the table almost ready to go out to their mamas.

I am turning in! More later!

xo

Tia

I got my Doll Quilt from Swap #6

I received 2 packets today at the post office and I just figured they were both blocks for the Bush Fire Quilt project. Wow was I confused when I opened this packet! I am so used to looking at liberated stars when I open a packet....for a moment I didn't know what I was looking at! It was my quilt from "Doll Quilt Swap #6" See me down below grinning like a fool? It is because I am so stinking thrilled! Anita (Rhubarb Patch) made it for me. I still need to finish the label on my quilt so I can send it off to my partner...but maybe tomorrow. For today I am just so happy to sit and look and my happy little quilt. Anita named it "Red Cross"...I love that name too! Great great work, Anita!

Me and my new quilt!

Look at the lovely loot she sent along with!

Can you see the hand quilting as well as the machine quilting? I love that....well really I love everything about it! The vintage Amy Butler prints...the happy dots and gingham, some text! Ahhhhhhh I LOVE it!!!!!!!

It is already hanging up in my sewing room beside Sarah's Little chicks.

thank you so much!

xo,

Tia

Even the back of the quilt is so pretty! I have some of this fabric....I have been saving it for something special.

Thank you Anita!!!!!

Garey Becky Messneger Bag

I have just finished up the last of C. Garey's Becky Messneger bag. I love how it turned out...so bright and happy. I made a Stu tote for her Back in November. I hope it brings Spring along with it's journey to New York. I also made a wee Erica Zippy Wallet and used part of the pant seam for the little loop.


Happy Buttons and French knots

Her set....I use a strip from her Father's uniform to put the quote on, I felt it was appripriate since it was he who said it to her as she was growing up.

Inside the messinger bag

I am really really happy with how this bag looks and feels. I made a sample for myself years ago, but have either given it away or lost it since then. This bag makes me want to make myself another one just for me! I wonder if I have any of my Nurse pants put away somewhere?

I hope you love it, Cheryl and carry it in Health and Happiness!

Loopy Quilting

SO something dawned on me while I was using Apples Quilting frame (at the mini quiltathon)....Why do I quilt so densely and why do I do it the way I do it? The only "quilting technique" guidance I have ever received was during my 2 hour getting to know your New Bernina class in Texas. It was a quickie and only covered because I wanted to know how "to do that wonderful puzzle like quilting" on my machine. Basically I learned to put on my darning foot, drop my feed dogs and "dance with a blind man" So far it has worked wonderfully for me. I love the way I can detach from reality and let my mind wonder while I quilt up something, but I learned a new way on Saturday! Well...really it was Sunday I did the quilting below but the seed was fertilized on Saturday while I was doing the linear quilting with Apples.




A "new" to me quilter GlitterGoods has a wonderful loopy technique for quilting her modern quilts. I figured that would be awesome for some of the Bushfire Quilts that I have stacked in my sewing room and I was just going to do it my way, but loopy. Which is basically really dense and takes about a day to quilt.


After Apples showed my the light, I had this guy quilted up (using my home machine, NOT a frame or long arm) in about 2 hours. I took far longer to stack and pin the quilt up than it did to quilt it. I am quite happy with the results and I plan on doing a couple more of the quilts with this technique. I am so excited about it that I really have put my desire for a long arm on the back burner, which is a good thing because I REALLY doubt I will have room to have one in our housing at FT Leavenworth.

I did go ahead and wash and dry this guy to see how the wash dealt with it. It came out even better than it was when it went in.

This is the THIRD quilt I have completed for the Bush Fire Quilt Project. Now I am only doing the piecing of the top and quilting, but those are steps that I really like.

xo,

Tia

First Quiltathon - lets call it the mini quiltathon

Yesterday we had our first quiltathon for the Bush Fire Quilt Project. What a wonderful time we had. Margaret and Apples took home 13 quilts and quilted them all up over the Easter Weekend (wow...so much work) They both have frames. I thought they were long arms, but they are not since the machines used to quilt the quilts are more or less regular machines and not the massive long throated long arm quilt machine. Nevertheless I think they are AWESOME! Wow. Apples was so patient and showed me how to use hers and I got to quilt one of the quilts on the frame. I have thousands of quilting hours on my sewing machines (with my little bag gig and all) but I was really impressed with the long arm technique. So much so that it got me thinking....and I tried out a new technique on my home machine today and quilted an entire quilt in about 2 hours (more on that tomorrow, so I can have some pictures to show you).



Anyhow this is a BIG AWESOME THANK YOU TO Apples and Margaret for your stunning skill with your quilting frames. Your both went above and beyond the Bush Fire Quilt Project call. Not only did they quilt all the quilts, Margaret let us use her Studio for the Quiltathon and Apples made labels for the quilt backs (which is a feat all in itself). The rest of us spent the day binding the quilts, stitching on labels, clipping spare threads. I tried to help Apples set up her quilt frame because I was so curious about it, but I think I caused a great more trouble than I was worth. Sorry about that...but I have always wanted to see one in action.



OK, here are some pictures....

Here we are having a tea break in the shade.

Here we are in Margaret's studio around her massive sewing table

And here are the quilts that are all finished with labels and bindings and are all ready to go down to Victoria....

Don't these look great too? Are you loving how these are turning out as much as I am? Or am I just some crazy bias woman and am looking on these are my babies? More and more and more to come folks! This is just the beginning....the third weekend in May we will be having another (bigger) quiltathon a 24 hour one we just need to find a venue. Oh and I know why we had to stop yesterday... we have used up all our batting (or wadding). If you are wondering what you can do to help out...we need a bit of $$ so we can get another roll or 3 of batting. Email me and I will let you know how to send paypal money if you are interested.

OK, tomorrow both boys are back in school and Emma and I are back at Home school. I better hit the hay and get some rest. We had a great time, I wish you all could have been there!

XO,

Tia

Camping last night and mini Quiltathon this morning

I love camping. When the weather cools off a bit and I can smell the wood smoke on the early morning breezes I want to go camping. We went out last night and discovered that it was still a bit early in the season for camping. Why would it be too early you may ask? Well...the flies. Swarms and swarms of flies. Think national geographic filming the little starving kids in Somalia horrible. The day was lovely but the flies were really obnoxious.

We ended up coming in at about 2200 due to this guy. These are blisters all over his torso. But he is a trooper that is for sure.

Great night....I am off to the first quiltathon. We will be having another in May. I will post pictures.

Cheers!

Tia

Vermillion "Stu tote" and "Nancy Zip clutch"

Here is the set I finished yesterday. This is an amazing bag...I love the work I did on it, but more than that I LOVE what this bag represents. Many of you may recognize this uniform...some of you may not. This is a Vietnam era top. I do believe this is my all time favorite Military uniform. Simple, great green color...gusseted pockets set on a slant...and the history in this top. I bet it has stories to tell. My dad was in Vietnam in 1969, he has some great stories to tell, when you can get him going. He tells some really amazing ones about helicopter pilots. I wonder if this man was one of those pilots?


Nancy, the lady I made this set for, is the mother of another one of my lovely clients. She saw Cheryl's bag I made a couple months ago and wanted one for herself. I hope you like it, Nancy and I hope it is worth the long wait!


I am trying to read Waiting Wives by Donna Moreau but every time I pick it up I get a lump in my throat and feel too panicky. I guess it is my own form of PTSD after my husbands deployments. I lived through them...my Friends lived through theirs but I am not strong enough yet to read about the ladies of Shilling Manor. I will be...but just not yet.



Anyway, let's take a look at this bag.

This is the back. I decided to quilt this bag with a thin black cotton thread. I love the movement and dignity it gives the project. Down in the lower corner you can see "3FU" that stands for three fingers up, which in sign language is "I love you" and is how this couple would say goodbye over the years. I thought that was so beautiful.

I got a little carried away on the pocket panel inside the bag. Liberated log cabin pockets, French knots, the buttons from one of the arm cuffs. There is also a wee pen pocket there. I love the pen pocket I put in one of my bags, so I will be trying to put them in most of the bigger bags from now on.

Here is an overhead shot of the inside of the bag. Heaps of pockets and this bag will look fantastic inside out.

I also decided to make a little Zippy Clutch. It is basically my "Erica Pouch" just bigger. I used the other lower blouse pocket for this bag. And the weather was so lovely yesterday I took my sewing outside and did a bit of embellishment while the kids had bike races.

Here is the front of the "Stu tote" all quilted up and with some well pressed in creases.

This is the front of what will the the "Nancy Zip Clutch" the little side bit is from the other arm cuff.

Here they are Nancy! I hope you love them and carry them in Health and Happiness! Thank you for entrusting your uniform to me.

XO,

Tia

My Second Quilt for the BushFire Quilt Project

Here is the Second quilt I have finished for the Bushfire Quilt Project. I love it. As soon as I opened the box from Victoria Shockey and saw her lovely blocks....my hands started to ache to put her blocks together and quilt her quilt. Well...she sent 24 blocks. 24 perfectly pieced and pressed and trimmed blocks. I needed 25 for a quilt top. Happy day! She sent additional fabric with her blocks, so I made up one more block (I was kinda embarrassed to add my block to hers...but they are all getting on nicely). I had all this extra wonderful fabric, so I made some striped sashing to go between the rows. Ohhhh I think it looks so pretty. Wellsir, with such a pretty top I couldn't just do a quick quilting job! NO WAY! And all my bag sewing stuff was put up so the house wouldn't look like a sweatshop for our guests (it normally does) so all I had out was this quilt. I got to work on it off and on over about 4 days. The next one is going to be more simply quilted. If I can bare it. See...all the tops are so pretty! I feel I HAVE to go the extra mile with the quilting. But the next couple ones I do will be simple...well at least I will try to make them simple.

I added some of my tea dyed cotton to the strips....I love a good tea dye.

I decided on this wonderful sunny back fabric instead of piecing the blue and tea extra fabric that was sent along I also pieced the binding. Who sent this lovely yellow backing? I did such a great job recording the blocks and tops...but kinda fell short on WHICH binding or backing fabric was given by who. I recorded WHO gave backing, but not WHAT they looked like.

Here it is on my table getting all quilted up.

All finished and washed and crinkly! Ummmmmm I LOVE it! I hope this becomes something special to someone.

xo,

Tia

I am back!

Our visitors should be back home now...what a nice time we had. Thank you for coming to visit and let us show you a bit about this great area we get to live in.



So despite our guests I still had plenty to do with the Bushfire Quilt Project. I have about another 400 quilt blocks to sort into quilts...but Margret has been coming straight to the house and "mainlining" from the stack so in the next couple days that stack should be down to nothing. Our mail has also been very slow...it always is over Spring Break, so if I don't have your stuff yet, don't fret It is just waiting at the warehouse in Sydney for a flight out here to the Bush.


Monday Week Apples, Amy and Margret (different Margret from the one mentioned above) and I stacked 13 quilts with backing and the batting that Kim got us. All that batting is used, so we are waiting for the roll I ordered from Quilter's Dream Batting. Their Cotton is my favorite. Have any of you tried the wool? I love a good wool batting. Anyway the money I used to buy the batting roll was donated. Now we may still need to raise some more funds for even MORE wadding because this quilt project has gotten so very much larger than anything I ever imagined.

Those are some of the wonderful quilts we stacked Monday. I kept saying over and over...."How beautiful they all are!" And they are. I love all the colors and prints you all used! What a great project!

OK, I need to go paint some eggs with the kiddos! I will be back with 2 more posts in a bit.

XO,

Tia

I am about to go to ground for a bit...

On Thursday our quilt club met and I collected several quilt tops that had been pieced by the ladies there. I need to take individual pictures of the tops so you can see your stars, but these are the pictures I took for what "might" go in Quiltmania magazine. Our faces are all in shadow and it was blazing hot. Gwen and Apples came home with me to buy some of the fabric I weeded out of the sewing room last weekend and I had them go out in to the backyard for a quick photo shoot.

I know I say this over and over but I just can't believe the response of this Bushfire Quilt Project. I have another big stack of quilt blocks I need to post as arrived safe and sound and some lovely quilt tops and fully complete quilts. But I am so pressed for time (or I was, but now it is spring break and we are just hanging out at the house).

I wanted to give you all a big thank you for all your wonderful encouragement in the way of the little cards and letters you have included with your quilts and blocks. I have several I want to share with you all that are so beautifully written and they all have such wonderful message. What a great community of people you all are.

At this point I have well over 1500 quilt blocks with more arriving everyday. I have about 30 quilt tops and 12 beautifully finished quilts to give to the people of Victoria. I am pretty sure we will have over 100 quilts that we have all worked on together. What a Quilting Bee!

I hope this lovely weekend finds you well and happy. I am about to lay low as far as the Online world goes due to some visitors in town.

I am loving this fabric together and really want to make a strip quilt with it....but where to find the time? I only have several bags left, so I can't tell you the weight that is about to be lifted from my shoulders. I really won't know what to do with myself without a bunch of uniforms in my closet and dining room table! I guess I will be doing a heap of quilting with the star quilts.

Speaking of which, I am working on the most beautiful blue and white quilt (Bushfire quilt). Victoria Shockey sent 24 amazing quilt blocks and a heap of the fabric she used in the blocks. I went ahead and made one extra to make them all into one quilt top. I am now in the process of stripping some of the fabric she sent and it is going to be so wonderful and the fabric you sent is great too! Victoria...Do you have a website? You are one spectacular piecer I would LOVE to see more of your work. I have googled you, but I can't find you.... I hope that doesn't sound too bizarre. I love looking at all your blocks and the various techniques you have used to achieve the same goal.

OK...I need to go battle the laundry on my bed, and I also need to go get more clothes pins since our dryer decided to quit this morning. Good thing it is a zillion degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Happy sewing!

Tia

What is the Darning foot really for?

With the exception of my first two years of college I always lived within quick driving distance to a Korean dry cleaners. If any of you have ever lived anywhere near a Military base you will know what I am talking about. You drive up with your uniform (or something you want altered, or cleaned or some patches sewn on) and the super efficient lady snatches it out of your hand, she doesn't need to ask who you are (because she remembers you from you other visit 2 years ago) and she already knows what you want done to whatever you have in your hand. She asks when you need it by and if you need it soon, she tosses it on one of her 3 giant Toyota or Juki sewing machines and stitches it up so fast you don't even have time to peruse the old army patches in the glass case.



Well...I guess I am that lady here in Alice Springs. I have never wanted that position, but sewing skills are sadly lacking here in town (among ladies who know where patches belong and where ribbon should go on sleeves). Men here know I have a sewing machine, so to them that means I can repair whatever they have laying in the laundry heap. Well...as most of you know I am NOT a quick turn around gal. It is not that I don't want to have your stuff finished quickly, I just am too busy with all the other things I am doing. Right?



Well sir, one of my husband's friends (who is a bachelor and in the Australian Army, fine looking man, but quite single) wanted to bring by a sheet that he needed some lace repaired. Lace? Are you kidding me? What soldier do you know who sleeps under lacy sheets? Well, it was so funny to me I agreed to repair his lacy sheet. (he promised me a nice bottle of wine, and while not a wino, I do like a nice bottle of New Zealand Sav Blanc). So like most other of my local clients he not only brought his lacy sheet, but the fitted sheet that was wearing thin in places and a shirt he tore a hole in while taking pictures. Ok...get in the door with one, might as well make a stack on the table.



I am great at repairing tears along seams, but tears in the body of the fabric is a bit of a different matter...and this brings me to the point of my blog post. Do you know what your Darning foot is really for on your sewing machine? I use mine all the time, but for freehand quilting....lots and lots of freehand quilting. It is one of my favorite sewing machine feet. Well this little tutorial is what the darning foot is really for. How to repair tears in the body of fabric. Now the repairs are not perfect. The garment will not be good as new, but it will be worth a bottle of New Zealand white.


This picture really does not show much...but I didn't decide to make the "tutorial" until I was already to this step. Basically all you missed was me cutting a piece of white scrap fabric that I cut a bit bigger than the hole and I pinned it inside the shirt behind the tear.

That is a better close up of one of my darning feet. I like darning feet so I think I have 5 or 6 of them, but you certainly do not need that many. If you look closely you will see that I have gone over and over the hole with a zig zag like pattern. NOT the zig zag stitch that most machines have, but I lowered the feed dogs and went over and over back and forth to close up the hole. I don't think "close up the hole" is the proper term, but his shirt is mended. He said it was not one of his best shirts, so it is fine for a driving across the country shirt (he probably is not going to run into a great deal of fashion critics between here and wherever he is driving.)

So, this is the inside of the shirt. See that the patch was a good bit bigger than the hole?

Go ahead and trim down the patch...oh and see the back and forth stitching?

I did the trimming with scissors...duh.

See here it is all finished. Not bad for something that will be resting against a seat for about 2 days.

Oh and I mended the lace on his sheet too...simple zig zag stitch (on the sewing machine) secured that back to the body of the sheet.

Mending sheets and shirts really brought home the differences of Australian culture and my American culture. I love it when my husband messes up a shirt or a pair of pants...heck the kids too! I have a big bin in my sewing room where all the messed up or outgrown clothing (that I love) go. I cut them up and make quilts with them. It makes me quite happy. Now I buy nice stuff for my family...and by nice I mean fabric that I would like to use again later in a quilt or pillow. Isn't that crazy? But the Australians repair theirs and carry on. I love the Australians...have I said that before? I do. Such a forthright lot. I will miss them.

OK, I need to stick my little tribe in bed, take care everyone!

XO,

Tia