Camp Follower Bags and Quilts

I made the best find today!

2012-01-29T12:30:00.000+11:00

Today was a great day. How was yours? I hope it was as good as mine was. I do want to hear about your day...but call me or write me and tell me about it...or think about it real hard and maybe I will dream about it tonight.

So, I have a favorite antique shop here in town. I love it. When you come visit we will go, don't worry. It is right across the street from M. Leddy. M. Leddy makes handmade boots. They cost a small fortune, and we don't get paid enough to afford a pair. Actually it is kinda perspective putting to go in and look around. The folks who own the business and work there are the best you will ever meet. They are wonderfully friendly, and love nothing more than to take you on a tour of the work floor. Generations of boot makers have worked at Leddy Boots since 1922. Truly a Texas institution. They can do with a boot what I can do with a quilt. They use theses ancient Singer sewing machines and quilt away on leather...all sorts of leather (everything except anteater). No, really. Their leather room makes my fingers ache to fondle and pet. Which they let me do...no worries. Anyway, after the tour (which is not really a tour ((more of a one on one)), since no one comes to visit San Angelo, TX) you look at the boots with a new appreciation. But be warned...the boots cost a fortune. Like $2,600.00 easy. If I designed my own I am pretty sure they would run well above $5,000. Needless to say I have not commissioned Leddy to make me some boots. BUT I have been on the lookout for a cheap pair! And today I found them! Hot dog. They are a bit long, so I will wear thick socks.

And a bit 1970s with that white piping, but I could care less. I will go to Leddy boots sometime next week and find out who the boots were made for, and have the tops stretched some. My calves are more developed than the lady who wore them before me.

I also decided to take out some of my old quilt blocks. I got these from the same antique shop I bought my boots from. Not the same day....I do pace myself, I do love to rummage through the quilt block basket, and yes I do organize it. Heck they know who I am and call me after a particularly quilty estate sale. Oh hell, I have taken in quilts from these ladies to mend.

I am quilting a top for LauraJ. That is it on the frame. The 4 hanging up are tops I bought from the awesome antique shop, well one I took as payment for quilt mending. Stupid I know...but I just couldn't leave it behind.

Have a great rest of your weekend! I have so many wonderful things to sew on this weekend. I wish you happy crafting, folks.

xo,
Tia

I made the most awesome box bag!

2012-01-28T02:00:00.001+11:00

A couple days ago I saw a blog tutorial on how to make a Box bag. I thought it was so fabulous! But I also thought I would be able to remember which blog I saw it on. Well....needless to say as soon as I got up from my computer I forgot where I saw it. I had work to do anyway, so I got back to stitching away on my Duncan order ( Which is mostly finished and totally awesome! I will show you pictures next blog). Well, as soon as I put the last stitch in the baby quilt, I dug around in my UFO drawer and found this sad little improv block. I quilted it up speedy fast. Then I went looking to the blog tutorial...well, I couldn't find, but I remembered how to do it, so I just winged it.

The kids came home from school right as I was getting ready to put in the zipper. I took a tiny break to help with homework. I find that homework goes much more smoothly if I sit down with the kids and kinda act as referee.

Everyone was working away on spelling words and their math, and I jumped up to finish this bag. It is awesome, if I do say so myself. I plan to make a couple more, but with a pulley - handle thing at one end.

I love the squareness of it, I love the unexpected quilting, I love the big zipper....

It is now a DS box bag for Sam. I am sure that he will loose it or interest in it and then I will get it back. But for now it is getting some good love.

It also makes a pretty fine box bag hat!

This morning while I was surfing away on the Internet I found the tutorial!!!!! So now you can make one too. Get your zippers ready!

Oh and that is a great blog too! I love her little sheep and her frozen ice skating pond.

the week so far

2012-01-26T07:57:00.000+11:00

How are you doing? I sure hope you are all doing well. We are finally having fall-like weather...I guess really it may be more spring like since it is the end of January. I guess this year was the winter that never really happened. If you like a mild winter West Texas may be the place for you. Last night we had the most wonderful thunder storm. It was nice to lay awake long after everyone else went to bed and listen to nature's fury. I think these swoon blocks look a bit stormy. I am using one of my very favorite fabric collections (Echo by Lotta Jansdotter). I go back and forth on if I like the scale or not. By itself the scale is wonderful, but I wasn't sure if I liked it cut up and put in half square triangle blocks. Now I think I am back to liking it. What I really want to do is make the quilt magically piece itself together so I can just get on to the quilting. I LOVE to quilt. I am loading up a quilt for LauraJ this afternoon and I know just what I want to do with it!.

I do need some more quilt tops to quilt. I have quilted all mine, all my moms and all the ones that were ready from the local antique shop....so if you have one lying around give me a thought. I am a pretty good quilter if I do say so myself.

I am also back to the bags now that the holidays are well and truly over and my life has returned to a fine little routine. I will show some better pictures of this bag after I finish the diaper pad/ baby quilt.

It is going to be a great set.

I have been tallying up my money from 2011 so I can get ready for taxes. In order to preform this math...I made a couple cappuccinos, and then I decided that some muffins would be really good too. Do you remember "Glorious Morning Muffins" from Starbucks? They made them years ago. I used to love them. Maybe they still do, all I know is that the Starbucks in town does not make them. Well, I found a recipe for them on the back of the flour bag! They are even more awesome than the Starbucks ones because I used dried cherries instead of gross raisins. And because I dig you, I have included the recipe below!

Glorious Morning Muffins (adapted from the Gold Medal Flour bag)

2 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
1 cup peeled and shredded apple (one apple)
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup dried cherries
3/4 cup chopped almonds

heat oven to 350F. line muffin tin with paper liners (you can also grease the muffin tin, but I like the paper cups. It makes me feel special to unwrap the muffins.) Use 18 muffin cups.
beat up the eggs, oil, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.
blend flour, soda, sugar, salt and spices together. Add them to the wet ingredients in the big bowl.
Stir in shredded carrots, apples, coconuts, cherries, and 1/2 cup of the almonds. Divide the batter evenly between 18 muffin cups
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Take some over to a friends house...or have your husband take some to work. It is hard for me not to have yet another. The kids will be home from school shortly, so I am sure they will make short work of what is left!

Slow Saturday sewing

2012-01-22T11:56:00.000+11:00

Hey there! How are you doing? We are good. There has been so much going on lately that it is all I can do to sit down and blog...Life comes at you like that doesn't it? Sometimes it is really slow and other times it zips along and a break neck pace. I have had several meetings with the kids school trying to get them ready for our move. If we move where I think we are moving the schools are FAR superior to the ones here, so I want them bringing home more work so we can try to catch up. While I was in my meeting with Ethan's teachers they think he may have trouble paying attention. I am not surprised. I have heard that Caffeine helps the ADD kiddos, so Ethan and I have been having some espresso shots. It is too soon to tell if there is much of a difference. Stu has been making me some pretty fine cappuccinos.

Emma's little friend came over this afternoon while I was working on Claudia's bag and she wanted to sew. Emma and P made monsters. Note to self...Keep an eye on Emma when she is in the sewing room picking out fabric. She sliced off a Sushi PJ leg so fast it was done and folded up back on the shelf before I finished sewing on a bag pocket. Not that I had any big plans for the Heather Ross Sushi and Emma very sensibly informed me that it has been on my shelf for well over a year...she is right. It is just fabric. I should cut into it more. P's monster was made out of some quilt scraps from the Eagle quilt top I made a couple weeks ago.

They were working so well together and it was so funny to listen to them chatter away about how they are going to make monster babies and monster pets and monster quilts. Apparently this is going to happen tomorrow. It does make me happy to see little girls enjoying sewing.

This is an orphan quit top I picked up yesterday at an antique shop. It looks a bit like the swoon quilt, doesn't it?

Here are my swoon blocks so far. I am not making much progress on these blocks. I want to, but all this precise piecing takes quite a bit of time. Liberated and Improv quilting is so very much faster for me.

Have a great weekend folks!

xo,
Tia

Some quilting from this weekend

2012-01-16T03:10:00.001+11:00

I made the back of this quilt dirty after having the great idea to do the photo shoot in the middle of the road...turned out to not be such a great idea. I bet it will wash out so I am not worrying. I made this quilt for a class I will be teaching here in town.

Anyway if you want to read more about these quilts I worked on this weekend, please check my other blog

I am working only on bags next week.

Inconvenience Always.

2012-01-13T10:06:00.000+11:00

It seems I spoke too soon with the last blog post. I was having a bit of drama with the machine, it seemed a bit more loud than I remember it being...but you know how it is when you use a machine after using a different one for a long time? So I just thought that was all it was. Nope. It seems Fedex banged it around (it was dropped off on it's side, so that was a big indicator) and messed up the sensors behind the stitch lengthen knob. It also breaks thread with every 20 stitches. That is a pain in the ass. I have this hope that this time it will work! This time I am actually going to get to sew! Nope.

It is on it's way BACK to Kansas to be fixed yet again. I have not sewed on my 820 for a good solid day since the 6th of October. That is one of the reasons I have not taken new orders for bags in what seems like years. I do have a very good Bernina to sew with and my other old girls (2 featherweights and a Necchi). So I have been working a bit on the bags...between trying to figure out why my 820 was not working right.

Here is my advice to you...if you want to go buy a fancy Bernina 820 sewing computer. Make sure you are close to a REAL Bernina repair center. Make sure they know what they are doing and have worked on 820s before. There is nothing like sewing with an 820...it is such a joy and effortless, but when something is wrong with one of the sensors or one of the computer boards you will NOT be able to mend it yourself. You just won't. It will have to back to the shop. There is nothing around that. I want to go to Bernina school so I can fix my own sewing machine. Really I do. If we live anywhere where there is a Bernina shop next time we move I am want to go be a repair person. I hate not knowing how to fix my sewing machine.

Needless to say I am very frustrated...and somewhat confrontational. I had it out with the commissary manager about his lack of hearing aide batteries the other day. I marched him over to where they ought to be and demanded to know why he thought it was OK for the store not to have any. I am a bit embarrassed by my behavior, but not really enough to apologize. I needed to get batteries for Emma's hearing aides. I am absolutely NOT a confrontational person. Confrontations give me a belly ache....but if a confrontation is needed I can put up. I must seem bigger than I am. Anyway, I told him he should post a new motto on the front of the store "Inconvience Always"

"Inconvenience Always" is a powerful motto you know? Not Sometimes....ALWAYS. My husband told me that should be my motto since I can't ever seem to do things the normal easy way. He has a point. I wish I could do things the easy way. But I am not an easy road kind of gal. Sharon pained me a family crest with my new motto. It is hanging in my house.

Ok, I need to get my other sewing machine back out. Keep your fingers crossed for my 820.

My sewing machine is back! Gosh I missed it.

2012-01-10T11:34:00.000+11:00

So, I have been pretty scarce around here right? Well, it has been because my Beautiful Bernina 820 has not worked correctly since the beginning of October. To me that was like having a broken leg and being an Olympic runner. I rely on my sewing machine to work all the time anytime I need it. I do have a back up, but I want my big gun to work with! It is really such a joy to sew with. I have made 4 trips to Killeen, TX to have it worked on only to have new and different problems with the machine each time I got it home. To put it lightly I was very disappointed and enormously frustrated. Well, I called Jamie (at the Kansas City Bernina Shop where I bought the machine) on Christmas Eve and told her about what was happening. She told me to send it back to them and see what they could do. I did, and I finally have it back with me. All seems to be working well enough, it is still making it's funny subtle alarm, but maybe that is the new normal now? It is sewing well and quilting beautifully, which is it's job so that makes me happy.

I immediately opened the box and set it up because I had a quilt ready to go! I am making an Amish Bar Quilt for a class I am offering here in town. It is only 60 inches square so it is just right for quilting on this machine (or any home machine for that matter).

This is the back of the quilt....I just did a pieced back with left over pieces of muslin and a red scrap. I pretty much love the back. I like the back even better than the front. The front kinda looks like Captain America. Funny how the wrong tones can do that to a project?

I am quilting this quilt in a Welsh style as a nod to my ancestors who I am sure were quilters. Not that I have any of the quilts, but I figure if I love something like quilting as much as I do, it must be in my blood. I know for sure that none of my peeps were Amish, I think we are a bit too rowdy for that.

I am playing along in the Swoon - along. This was my try it out block. I did my best to cut correctly and have an exact seam allowance, but some of the points still didn't match up. That is annoying, but in the greater scheme of things it does not matter one bit now does it?

This is the front of the Amish Bar quilt as I was getting ready to mark and stack it. See, it does look a bit like Captain America doesn't it? I hope with all the quilting I plan to do on it, it will look less like a super hero and more like an awesome quilt.

Oh and one more thing, Emma (my 10 year old) is now taller than I am. I am only 5'2" on a tall day, but still she is just a little girl, I shouldn't have to look up to her yet. When you look at your children who seem to be growing before your eyes do you dream of their future? I do. This is one special young lady.

Have a great day folks!

some of the Camp Follower Bags I made in 2011

2012-01-03T04:09:00.001+11:00

some of the Camp Follower Bags I made in 2011, a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

So, these are some of the bags I made this year. I go in spurts with the bags. Sometimes I feel I am over my head with them, but other times I feel like I haven't made any for eons. I have 3 cut on the table right now, so I may be back on for a while. I hope your new year was fabulous!

Quilts I made in 2011

2012-01-03T03:48:00.001+11:00

Quilts I made in 2011, a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

These are some of the quilts I made this year. It was a good year for quilting.

Happy Christmas Eve!

2011-12-25T04:33:00.000+11:00

Happy Christmas folks! I hope you are all having a great holiday. I am getting ready to begin baking and cooking for tomorrow. My parents have come to San Angelo for Christmas this year and my little sister is flying in later today. We are so excited to have some of our family visiting. Well, with family come lots of Christmas traditions, right? Many of ours revolve around the kitchen. My mom had 2 cook books with all theses little 3 x5 inch hand written recipe cards. All our most wonderful meals were written down. It was also stuffed full of magazine clippings, and scraps of paper, and even paper napkins with tasty little things scribbled down. Back in 2000 ( I was still a new wife and young Army LT) my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. All I wanted was a cook book. Not just any cookbook, but one written in her own hand with all my favorite recipes from when I was growing up at home. She thought I was a bit crazy for asking for that rather than a new sweater, but she sat down at home and wrote out all my favorite recipes and her favorites. I love this cook book. If my house was on fire I would make sure to grab this cookbook.

I am well on my way to having my cook book as stuffed full with papers are mom's was!

Here is hoping you all have a great Christmas filled with great food and heaps of love.

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-23T13:21:00.000+11:00

I finished a quilt for someone special...I quilted it ages ago, but I finally bound it.

Ethan sprained/broke his foot. A million x-rays were taken yesterday at the ER, but there was no radiologist on duty, so we will not know if it is broken or sprained until the hospital can scratch one up. I have no clue why there would not be a radiologist on duty at a city hospital in the middle of the week...but maybe this is how civilian medicine is practiced.

He is enjoying limping around on his crutches and I get to play nurse again. His job was to find a spot for the mistletoe that my dad acquired yesterday while out driving around town.

Emma is having a blast with my mom's little dog. She carries this creature around all day long. The little doggy has really damaged my Stanly's sense of dominance.

My mom has just seen how quickly you can finish a quilt when you have a long arm. After I finished quilting this quilt I took it off the frame and folded it up to add to the small pile of quilts to be bound and my mom announced that she loves to bind quilts. So, I have put her to work. I have quite a few for her to bind. I will quilt her quilts for her, but she has to bind mine. I think that deal will work out pretty well.

The men were in charge of dinner tonight. My dad made fried rice and my husband played Angry Birds on my kindle.

Mom and I went back to one of my favorite antique stores this afternoon and I bought this bag of scraps and blocks. At first I thought the quilter just had a big mess in this bag, but after I opened it and sorted trough the bits and pieces I found a method to her organizing.

She had 3 of these strings of triangles in the bag and they are each strung on in order of stitching. What a great way to keep track of tiny pieces.

I also bought yet another old quilt top at the antique shop. I can't wait to quilt these 3 tops. I think each one is older than the one before it. Each is hand pieced...the green and yellow one has some staining, but maybe I can wash it out. My mom bought a spiderweb like quilt as well...I will get a picture of it when we quilt it.

OK, that is what we are doing around here. I hope your holidays are going well!

xo,
Tia

Christmas break starts today

2011-12-17T01:44:00.000+11:00

Hey there. I hope you are all doing well. I have a cold. But I did make a really big Texas quilt top. It is for a client stationed in Italy (I think) A bit of home for her.

Here is a big Alaska flag quilt I made for a friend here in town. It is my take on the Alaska flag...I didn't feel like appliqueing 5 point stars, so I made them 8 point stars. I can't wait to quilt these tops, but they have to wait for me to finish the big quilt that is on the frame right now. Hopefully I will have that finished today (if I get a move on).

Michelle and Martha came over yesterday for a bit of sewing while their little ones were in mommy's day out. Michelle wanted to make a zip wallet for her budgeting (she uses some sort of budgeting system where she puts cash in envelopes for the month- the name escapes me). Martha is working on a quilt for her dad out of his Hawaiian shirts. Since Michelle wanted to work on the zip wallet, she used one of my featherweight machines and Martha used my little Bernina to practice free motion quilting.

Martha also helped me make bird bodies for Emma's class Christmas party. What a help Martha was.

I brought my little featherweight to the class and sewed the tails closed after the kids stuffed them. We had a really good time (I know this picture looks like I was all alone in a classroom, but I didn't want to put kids pictures on my blog without their parents permission) For many of the children it was the first time they had ever seen a sewing machine. It was very fun.

OK, my long arm is calling! Have a great day folks.

xo,
Tia

Full Weekend

2011-12-12T10:37:00.000+11:00

Do you ever feel like you are playing make believe? I do sometimes. Sometimes my life doesn't seem real to me. I was whimpering a bit to my husband the other day about how cold it got out in the garage. I was not unhappy in any way since I got to wear my big wooly sweater and my fancy wool hat...as well as my daughters seal fur slippers. But the next evening I found a cute little heater in my quilting studio. How sweet is my husband to go out an find me a heater to keep warm. It is such a fantasy for me to be able to do what I completely LOVE. I get to spend my days sewing (and cooking and cleaning and laundry - but I like that too).

This is the quilt I am working on right now. I am not totally sure what I am going to do in the blue sashing...but it will come to me eventually. Every other Dresden has a feathery Vine like this one in the center. The other Dresden plates will have something special in them as well. I am pretty wild for feathers and vines right now.

It is getting cold here, so I moved my front porch plants inside my garage. Along with the bikes and Emma's Art supplies. I may move the bikes back outside and set up an extra bed, so my little sister has a place to stay when she comes out for Christmas. It is nice and warm now that there is a heater out there.

I picked up my 820 yesterday from Killeen Quilt and Sew. I bought my very first Bernina (and my second one too) from them way back when we were stationed at FT Hood. Jerry is giving my sewing machine all he has, but he still can't figure out what is wrong with it. It makes a quiet alarm sound after I have had it on for about 30 minutes. He wants to replace the "L Plate" one more time. I just want my sewing machine to work. The folks at Killeen Quilt and Are are awesome! If you live nearby, you should go buy your sewing machine from them.

Can I say again how MASSIVE Fort Hood has become? Holy Cow! I feel like the tiny country mouse going to visit the big city. Now getting there is no thrill. We played frogger with herds of deer, Seriously, there are so many deer along 190. In a way I wanted Stu to hit one so we could jump out and field clean it and make venison stew. And maybe some sausage. I guess the deer knew I wanted them to put in my soup pot, so they all survived. But next time I am going to kill them. Really I will. I have a couple knives in my van (and some plastic bags) just in case. That sounds kinda "Dexter" doesn't it? Oh well, it is true.

And finally....I am making 4 loaves of this bread. It looks pretty good so far. I used Sharons awesome red hard winter wheat...and her wheat grinder. Don't judge me! I know my oven is not super clean, but with as much cooking as I do it just remains kinda gross. I will clean it before my parents get here! Don't worry!

Have a great rest of your weekend! Wait I need to pick a winner of my fabric scraps! I will in a bit.

xo,

Tia

On my way BACK to Killeen to pick up my Bernina

2011-12-11T00:24:00.003+11:00

I have been without my Bernina 820 for almost 2 months now. I will be sewing on it in the store to make sure it is working like it is supposed to.

Wish me luck!

xo,
Tia

*** I am back and while my machine is still making an alarm like sound I am just going to go with it for now. It needs yet another "L Board" so I will get a call when it comes in.

Some Shop News

2011-12-07T01:55:00.000+11:00

Hey there! I hope you are all doing well. I just wanted to take a sewing break to tell you that you may see some changes on my website. Mostly the ones that are important to you are the price changes. I have not increased my bag prices since 2007. It is high time I did that. All the materials I but in my bags have increased in price, so I have to raise my bottom line as well. My quilt prices were hilariously low, so those have been increased to cover my cost and actually pay me a bit to make them. So, my prices now reflect real life instead of my sweet fantasy world.

I know it is always tricky for an artist to price their work. I find that one of the hardest things I do. I have friends and acquaintances come up to me all the time announcing that they want me to make them a quilt. No problem. I would love to do that. But after hearing what they want (a king size quilt, preferable with hand quilting) and I rattle off a ball park price they look at me like I have sprouted a second head. Their faces crumble and they mutter something about hoping to pay about $250. I know how much the materials cost that I put into a quilt or a bag, but sometimes I don't think anyone else does. How do you price your items that you make and sell?

I found a quilt forum and says you should charge $15 to $20 a square foot for a quilt you make from start to finish. If the customer provides the fabric it is a bit less. I think that sounds pretty good. So that is what I am doing. I would LOVE to make you a quilt. Really I would.

What do you charge to make a quilt for someone? What do you charge to make a bag? Do you only cover your supplies or do you actually pay yourself a bit? I do not actually pay myself. All my money goes back into my little business. Every bit of it goes back into buying batting, thread and the occasional stack of fabric. Lately a good bit has gone into machine maintenance. I put my machines through their paces, and frankly I think Bernina should pay me to field test their machines (wouldn't that be a dream come true?).

So, to make this interesting...I have a little treat to give away. The fabric from my scrap drawer! Hot dog. There is about a 2 gallon zipper bag worth of fabulous scraps in this drawer. I have tons of scraps upstairs as well if you had prefer a certain color.

Anyway, let me know what you charge for your hand made items and WHY you charge that. And I will pick a winner on Sunday (the 11th).

Good Luck

Pearl of the day

2011-12-03T11:52:00.001+11:00

sometimes when you are in a quilting zone and beautiful designs are flowing from your needle...it is a good idea to pause from time to time and check the back of the quilt. What takes mere moments to quilt will take days to remove. Just so you know.

Have a great Friday night!

Quilting From Little Things - a Book Review

2011-12-01T04:01:00.000+11:00

Hi there! Thank you for joining me on the blog book tour of Quilting from Little things by Sarah Fielke. There is so much I want to say about this book...but I know pictures say so much more than words can sometimes. The bottom line for me is that this is the best book I bought this year. The VERY BEST BOOK. I bought my first copy (yes I have 2, and yes I am keeping them both. I do lend one out to friends, but they normally go buy their own after flipping through mine.) straight from Sarah when it was released in Australia. I was impatient and did not want to wait for it to be released in the US. Quilting From Little things is like the Ranger Handbook - but for quilters. It covers all the great piecing and applique techniques with brilliant methods. You are sure to pick up new skills in this book.
Sarah has covered 10 different techniques in this book and they have 2 projects apiece. First a little dolly quilt, and then a much larger one. I love that. Learn something new, but let your first try be small, so you can really concentrate on the technique, and then branch out into the big project with the knowledge under your belt. Hopefully that will be the longest run-on sentence in this review.

Sarah's 10 different techniques are

row by row construction
strip piecing
deconstruced piecing
applique with bias strips
flying geese and foundation piecing
inset piecing
needle turn applique
using wedges
step-down piecing
feathered blocks

OK, let's look at some pictures. "Spring" is the small project you can learn your applique with bias strips to get comfortable with the technique. After you have figured out you can move onto "Whirligig".

As you can see "whirligig" is a bit of a step up. It is a lovely quilt.

When I saw "Stars in your eyes" I thought I had it figured out. I was wrong. Sarah has a fabulous way of putting these strip pieced stars together.

I was so amazed at the simplicity and had to shove all my projects aside to work on one like this for myself. Seriously I doubted it could be so easy. It was.
A folded strip of fabric and a 60 degree ruler later and I had a small quilt top.

It made me so happy to look at this quilt and think about all that I learned while making it.

These needle turned applique eagles are another reason I wanted this book so badly. I started with the smaller silhouette and have made a baby quilt top with it.

I will graduate up to these awesome eagles someday when I have a bit more time. This quilt is on my bucket list for sure.

This is my version of the "Little Silhouette". As you can see I used the smaller eagle template, but I changed up the layout a bit. I was dying to use Sarah Fielkes short cut for making star point squares. She does it by strip piecing, and it is brilliant.

There is a FULL sized pattern sheet included. You will not have to futz around with your printer trying to figure out how to enlarge pattern pieces. Nope, just trace them and you are set. Some of the projects you can just use your special rulers if you already have them. I love finding a new way to use something I already own!

She also has little diagrams to clarify her instructions. Not that they really need clarifying, but pay attention to them and you are sure to learn a simple trick to make quilt making that much more simple.

If wedges have ever been intimidating for you, after trying out either of these projects you will be a master of the wedge.

I don't know if I need to mention this or not, but Sarah Fielke has an amazing sense of color and fabric combinations.

This quilt "the night garden" may be my favorite quilt in the book. I love the abstract feel of it. She is demonstrating Step down piecing here.

So, I asked Sarah a couple questions and she was sweet enough to answer them.

Me: What was your favorite part about writing Quilting From Little Things?

Sarah : My favourite thing about writing this book was the process of working out
the dolly quilt from each of the large quilts. I made the big quilts first
as their own large concepts, and then distilled each one down into the
little "classes" that are the dollies. I really loved doing that and
thinking of a new design for each technique.

Me: do you have any plans for another book?

Sarah: I do have another book in the works, due for release in 2013 - I'm working
on the quilts right now!!

That is awesome! I sure will be looking foreward to it.

So, if you don't already own this book you need to add it to your Christmas list. Santa can get a great deal on it (or you can if you plan to treat yourself)

Get an extra $5 off Quilting from Little Things! Visit
http://store.marthapullen.com/ and use promo code QUILTLITTLE to get your
exclusive
savings.
Details: Promotion expires 7/31/12. Sale and bonus offers are for "in
stock" items only, while supplies last. Martha Pullen Company reserves
the
right to correct pricing errors.

Here is the link straight to the book
http://store.marthapullen.com/p-8631-quilting-from-little-things.aspx

Quilting From Little things is one of my very favorite quilt books. I hope you will like it and learn as much as I have from it. Thank you for joining me!

Here are all the dates for the rest of the tour and the blogs
Monday 28th November: Fat Quarterly and Amy Ellis
Tuesday 29th November: Thomas Knauer
Wednesday 30th November: Camp Follower Bags and Ryan Walsh
Thursday 1st December: The Happy Zombie and Moda Lissa
Friday 2nd December: Mrs Schmenkman Quilts and True Up
Saturday 3rd December: Pink Chalk Fabrics and Pam Kitty Morning
Sunday 4th December: Sew Mama Sew and Pat Sloan

Some of the last bags finished before Christmas sewing begins.

2011-12-01T01:31:00.000+11:00

Let me show you a couple bags I have finished before my Christmas sewing begins. The first one is a Hero Bag I made for the Widow of Marine Sgt. Frank World. She wanted a gold star on the bag and the fabrics to be some of the tattoo fabric as well as something quite Marine. I went with red solid interior and some marine blue. I thread painted the gold star onto the bag closure. I have saved the arms of this top and some of Amy Butler's Love fabric (that Amy sent me last year for my Hero Quilts) to make her little kids a Hero quilt. They will still be able to cuddle up in their fathers arms, even if he will no longer be here to hold them.

The next order is 2 Camp Follower Bags for Air Force Lt Poe. I made a bag for both his mom and his wife. He is stationed here in town and saw and apron I was wearing at a fund raiser and initially wanted 2 aprons, but when he came to the house to place his order and drop off his uniforms he saw some of the other bags I made and changed his mind.

Can you tell which set is for his mom and which is for his wife? I had a great time making these bags as he just suggested a color for his wife and one for his mom and the rest was up to me. That is my kind of sewing! The yellow Stu Tote is for his bride and the red one is for his mother.

I think this little zipper pouch is one of my very favorite bags I make. I have them scattered all over my house full of different projects and "things". I have so many my husband and daughter have begun pinching them and filling them up with their treasures or just their "things".

OK, I am getting ready to do my book review of Sarah Fielke's Quilting From Little Things. It is one of the very best quilt books I own, so please check back in a bit for it.

Have a great rest of your day!

xo,
Tia Curtis

Thanks Giving

2011-11-27T02:23:00.000+11:00

Thanksgiving was very nice and quiet this year...well a bit quiet, the kids were as rowdy as usual. My parents and my little sister are coming out for Christmas and we are really excited about that. I miss them.

Stanley was almost driven mad (and we had to keep refilling his water bowl to prevent dehydration due to drool incontinence) by the smells coming from our kitchen.

Our turkey was fabulous this year. I think the trick was flipping it about 2/3 of the way through the roasting.

Emma made Ambrosia. She read about it in one of her Geronimo Stilton books and insisted on making it. It was quite good.

Emma is now officially taller than me.

I made nautical flag napkins and Sam was in charge of the "canberry"

Ethan helped with everything.

Post turkey coma. Stu lasted longer than I did. He even managed to tidy up the feast before collapsing.

My Kindle has been a big hit. The kids know more about it than I do.

Thanksgiving was also a bit crafty. I made these two little wool mice. The green one is made from a wool Army blanket. The pattern is really simple I found it on Bustleandsew blog. I used Mung Beans to weigh them down a bit.

And I finished a quilt. We had a great Thanksgiving! I hope you did too. I am so thankful for my family and blessed to spend time with them.

xo,

Tia

Zig Zag Quilt

2011-11-27T02:06:00.000+11:00

I finished this quilt. I love it. It is already fully in family quilt circulation. You can read more about it HERE on my quilt blog.

Winner of LIttle Bits Quilting Bee!!!

2011-11-26T14:58:00.000+11:00

Hey there! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was filled with great people and wonderful food. Mine was. I finished my quilt from "Little Bits Quilting Bee" today. Quilted, Bound and currently in the wash.

It was even able to get the fluffy cat inspection of approval before being tossed in the wash. I will rest better knowing Ike approves of this quilt. It was a blast to quilt that is for sure.

I did have some drama with the binding....my lovely Bernina 820 is worse than before I took it to the shop to be repaired. I am so furious....but I am trying to let it go and be upbeat about driving 8 hours to have it re-repaired. Anyway, instead of tossing the Bernina out the window, I brought out one of my sweet old faithfuls. No drama whatsoever with sweet Snookie (this featherweight was made in New Jersey and has been passed around quite a bit before winding up in my house). She did the deed to perfection. They don't make them like they used to, huh? My other Featherweight (Lady Caroline) is getting her beauty rest for a class I am teaching on Sunday.

OK, so if you have read this far, let me tell you who the winner is for the Book "Little Bits Quilting Bee"

#10 - Brenis!!!! You luck duck. I have sent you and email, just send me your address and the book will be on it's way.

xo,
Tia

ode to bacon

2011-11-23T01:43:00.000+11:00

Do you like bacon? I like it as much and the next person...or at least I did until I discovered the local butcher. Mikulik Sausage over on South Oakes and AVE N. Even their name is fabulous. How do you say that? Normally we just refer to them as the scary bacon butcher. I am pretty sure I have mentioned them before. I normally take my visitors to the shop. A, because they make the best bacon in the world and B, because I have never been to a shop like theirs before. From the outside the building looks abandoned. Like a run down bar (which it was). But they have done zero improvements to the building. You have to pay with cash and if you want fresh eggs you have to be on a list.

I tried to take food pictures, but frankly bacon and sausage is not an attractive thing to photograph. I probably could have set the pictures up better...but that would have been too much drama. I made lentil soup last night and I wanted to add this bacon. I was late getting to the shop, so it was a total gamble if I would get any bacon at all. Well, happily enough I did! I was able to buy the last pack. 2 people came in while I was paying and wanted bacon, but since I bought the last there was none to be had. They gave me the stink eye. I felt the need to defend myself. "I am only buying one pack! The man before me bought 6." Anyway I will be stock piling bacon until my family gets here for Christmas. My dad LOVES the stuff. He tried to stop by on his way out of town last time there were here and pick some up for the trip back home to NC (they have a tiny airstream trailer) but the shop was closed.

Anyway if you are ever in San Angelo, you really must try their bacon and sausage. Try the regular sausage...the jalapeno is really too hot to eat. I had heartburn for days. Put it in soup and you will be in soup heaven.

xo,
Tia

A Texas Weekend

2011-11-22T14:16:00.000+11:00

Hey there! So, this post is really kinda for my family back in NC (and Laura in CA) you are welcome to read if you like, so you can see a bit about what we did last weekend.

Sharon had her sheep unveiled at the Main Gate of Goodfellow AFB. I really wish I had better pictures, but my batteries ran out right as they were taking off the wool blanket. It was insanely windy so everyone looks like they are standing inside a hairdryer...but they weren't. It was just another typical day in the West Texas Wind.

I got to watch this sheep develop from busted up fiberglass to the best sheep in San Angelo. Sharon did an AMAZING job. You really need to stop by the base and take a look if you are ever in town.

We drove down to the Concho river...."they " drained this part of the river, so it looked funny and Emma insisted on taking some pictures.

Saturday was Community appreciation day at Goodfellow AFB. Did you know that this AFB trains firefighters? This is where the magic happens.

It is fun to watch fires being put out. From our house we can see the smoke most mornings while the firefighters train, but it was much better to see everything up so close!

Another shot of the firemen. Do you know what I think when I see firemen? Well, I think about what kind of bag I would make with their pants. I have requested some (from the wives of the firemen...I don't want to sound like a pervert) so I can make something special. It is not as easy to get firemen pants as it is to get regular military clothing.

One last look at the fire.

Here Ethan and I are (and a bit of Emma). We are watching the Army folks do their thing. I missed this demonstration last year because I had a booth at the Christmas market. It was great to see.

These folks are pretending to be bad guys and one of the good guys will call for help and the US troops come and save the good guys.

I know that this is just practice, but they did a great job. I wish more people could have seen it.

After it was all over my kids helped collect the brass (bullet casings).

The boys went for a little hike while Emma and I went to see Breaking Dawn 1. Emma loved it, I thought they totally could have just done both parts as one movie instead of breaking it up. The closeups were quite tiresome and some parts were just too cartoony. Overall I would recommend you just wait until it comes out on Netflix. But Emma Loved it! So if they were marketing for the tween audience, they nailed it!

Emma wanted to try out my long arm, so I let her quilt on the batting beside my zig zag quilt. She had a blast! Maybe I have my first employee.... just kidding. The thread broke and it freaked her out some.

Anyway, that is a snapshot of our weekend. I hope yours was good and if you are getting ready for thanksgiving I hope you have a very blessed one!

xo,
Tia

The winner of the charm Squares is.....

2011-11-22T13:48:00.000+11:00

#23 - Melissa!!!!!

I have already sent you an email, so I just need your address.

Cheers,
Tia

Little Bits Quilting Bee Book Review

2011-11-19T05:23:00.002+11:00

Good Morning! How are you doing today? I hope you are good. I have another treat for you today! Would you like to have the chance to win a free copy of Little Bits Quilting Bee by Kathreen Ricketson? I bet you would! The only thing better than quilt book is a free quilt book, right? Well, read through my little review and then answer a question in my comment section and you may be the lucky person.

So, Kathreen's book is about how to make 20 Quilts using Charm Squares, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and Fat Quarters. She has a bunch of other books available as well. Actually she is quite the media superstar with her blog Whipup. Each visit to that blog fills my mind with inspiration so I had very high hopes for this book.

These items are also called "precuts". Well, I have quite a collection of precuts. I used to buy them when we were stationed in the Australian Outback and there was not a good quilting shop anywhere near by. So, when I would order these charm packs from online fabric stores it was like getting an entire quilt shop delivered right to my APO. It was a lot of pleasure for $8. I don't make quilts with them very often regrettably. They normally just lurk about my studio feeling sorry for themselves. Well, when Kathreen told me about her book I was quite excited. You may not know this about me, but I am a quilt book junkie. If you ever loose me in a book store, odds are I have wondered over to the quilt book section and am sitting on the floor surrounded with books.

Chronicle Books pretty much always produces a superior book. They feel nice and the pictures are normally wonderful. Kathreen has a folder at the front with patterns and templates inside. A folder is great for keeping things organized. There are several templates that will need to be enlarged with a printer.

The first part of Little Bits quilting bee is full of great community quilt projects that you can get involved with or be inspired to start your own. Everyone needs a quilt, you won't have to look far to find someone special to give one too. You can read about me on page 15. Me and my Bush Fire Quilt Project back from 2009. That was awesome. Many of you contributed to make that such a smashing success, and I thank you again! I signed my page for myself. I can sign your page too if you like. Just kidding, but I will if you want me to.

The next part of the book is what tools you will need and the basics to quilting. It is quite informative and I like the little sketches.

So, my favorite section of the book was the section on quilts to make with Layer Cakes. Layer Cakes are my favorite Precut and the quilts I have made in the past with precuts tend to involve Layer Cakes. I am just going to go ahead and tell you about the one thing I found irritating about this book. It was only one thing, but pretty big in my opinion. Several of the most interesting quilts do not have full pictures of the finished quilt (or any picture at all - the 65 roses Charity quilt on page 16 only has a black and white sketch). That drives me crazy. I love a causal shot of a quilt in use, but if I am actually going to use the pattern and make the quilt I want to see the whole thing first. Most of humanity are visual. I am a lazy reader, and sometimes I just want to look at pictures and figure out how to make the project on my own (dumb, I know).

This is a quilt I would love to make. I could see it being used by everyone in my household. I love the simplicity of the design and it would be a fabulous beginner or just really quick quilt.

I made a quilt top like this one yesterday. My friend came over to sew and and while she worked on her project I stitched this up in about 3 hours (the pictures are below).

While I did follow the instructions on how to make the blocks, I did lay out my quilt differently. So there is really good inspiration in Little Bits Quilting Bee. Kathreen is a good writer, so she does not have to include many step by step pictures. And for me that is fine. You can refer back to her "how to" chapter for individual techniques.

I liked that Kathreen had several applique patterns in the book. I really like applique, and I am so happy to see it becoming more popular with the Modern quilt movement.

This was another quilt I wanted to see more of, but it was just a tease. Maybe she has done that intentionally so we will not rest until we have made our own so we can see the whole shot. What do you think? Brilliant trick maybe.

Her how to quilt section was great too. I do similar exercises before I quilt or teach a quilting class. We scribble out designs to get the feel for free motion quilting. It works great before sitting down in front of the sewing machine.

So, here is my version of Prismatic (page 103). I made all the Half Square triangles, but I just arranged them differently. There is so much you can do with HST. And with such large blocks this quilt basically made itself. I did not use the pinks in the collection because I didn't want to. I used a grey KonaModa (United Notions) last weekend and he said so.

Oh, the Layer cake I used to make this quilt is City Weekend by Oliver+S. I have been saving it for something special and as soon as I finish this blog post I will be loading it up onto my Long arm to quilt. I know just what I am going to do with it!

Overall this is a super book and it is sure to inspire you to slice into your charm packs, jelly rolls, layer cakes and Fat quarters rather than just having them sit around. If you don't win the book on this blog or another you should certainly go seek a copy for yourself.

OK...So you want this book and you live in the US, right? It will be a great addition to your quilting library. Tell me below what was you very favorite charm pack or jelly roll and what you did with it. It is fine if you did nothing with it and just have in in your sewing room. That totally counts! I will choose the winner on my Birthday Nov 23!

Tomorrow fabulous John of Quilt Dad will be reviewing it so you have lots of chances to win.

A treat for you!

2011-11-18T01:16:00.000+11:00

Ok, I am late to get this going, but late is better than never. I have a little treat for you. I have 2 tiny fabric packs for you. Good Fortune and Salt Air. I would have had A stitch in Color, but I have already added it to a quilt in progress.

Good Fortune is full of wonderful Blues and Greens and Purples and a delightful peach color.

I REALLY like Salt air too. I got to meet Julie at quilt market and she is a really amazing lady. I want to quilt for her. Salt air is full of blues, greens and the perfect sunset shade. Both of these little packs can be yours. I will pick a winner on Sunday afternoon and mail them out on Monday.

All you have to do is let me know what you would do with these tiny squares.

Good Luck!

Oh and check back tomorrow for a book review of Little Bits Quilting Bee by Kathreen Ricketson You can win that too if you want a copy!

Texas and its wide open spaces

2011-11-17T02:02:00.000+11:00

I know in my mind that Texas is a really big place. I bet you know that too. Well, yesterday I drove out into the great wide open to collect my Big Brunhilda the Bernina 820 from a quilt shop in Brady, Tx. The shop owner (Joann) was so sweet to go down to Killeen, TX to pick up my machine (and several other of her customers machines) so I only had to drive half the distance. Well, I was excited about having my machine back, so I set out early...too early in fact so I got my oil changed and my van washed (in hindsight I should have held off on the car wash until after I got back to San Angelo) and then hit the road. Some of the drama began in Eden. Yep Eden Texas. You get to drive hell bent for leather on the wide open flat roads, but when you get to the tiny towns you have to slow down to about 5 miles an hour. So you have to be alert to sudden speed changes, right? There were a lot of big tanker trucks on the road yesterday....I do wonder what was in their tanks. Maybe milk? Water for the parched land? Oil? Toxic waste? Who knows? Well one of the tankers and I got into a scuffle. It is true. I was just happily driving along looking at the prison that was RIGHT ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD...and wondering what crimes someone does to be incarcerated in Eden? Eat too many apples? Talk to snakes? Mislead mankind? Who knows right? (I was having some great mental conversations with myself wasn't I?)

Well, the tanker behind me decided to initiate his turbo booster and blasted past me. I looked up and noticed that the speed limit was indeed going to increase back up to 70, so I began accelerating as well. At this point it is only the two of us on the road. He is going a normal speed, I am too...driving along hoping he will hit all the deer in the way instead of me, going back to my curious imagination...then tanker in front of me slows down and mud and stones begin flying up into my windshield. Damnit! I just had my van washed. Well, if you are going to be a wimp I am going to pass you. So I pull out to pass him. Not a soul in sight, the road was as flat as it could be, so off I go. Well the tanker starts to speed up and tries not to let me pass. Oh no....he is playing with me. Well, I don't have time for games. My sewing machine is waiting for me! So I gun it and we are drag racing along side one another for a bit (I bet he thinks I am just a regular mom in a regular mom mobile, right? Poor fella, he has no idea what he is dealing with!). You see my husband selected our van because it has something special about it's fuel injection or motor or something or other that I was not paying attention to, but I know in my mind that it goes fast. Now I know in real life it goes fast! Not only did I pass him, I also wanted to get well out of his way. I looked down at my speed thing and saw 110 mph. Not bad for a mom van? Oh and the engine was not miserable at all! I am pretty sure it could have given me more, but the trucker was well in the distance by this time, and I would have died if a deer (or a cow, or a sheep or a goat or a cowboy) wondered out in front of me so I slowed down. I am not ready to die yet. Too many things still to do and see. Too many quilts to make and bags to sew and kids to raise.

No drama with the machine pick up. On the way back through Eden, I decide to take a little brak and explore the Wool and Mohair Gift shop. Did you know that west Texas is the Wool and Mohair capital of the world? I bet you didn't. I sure didn't. But there are signs all over the place that announce this fact. So I decide to stop. My imagination is full of the fantasies that await in the form of hand spun and hand dyed yarn, right? Yeah! nope. Plenty of castration tools and shearing scissors, bags of feed, but no yarn to be found. Surely they have something like that? I must not be looking in the right place. A little old lady comes out of the back and asks if I need some help. I ask where all the hand spun wool yarn is (OK, there is no sign or outside indication of the existence of my mythical yarn, but if I was in charge of a Wool and Mohair GIFT shop, I would have some!) She looks at me like I am daft, and says "oh honey, no. We don't have anything like that here." "We do have some blankets." I look over my shoulder at these horrible fake polyester fleecy things and I guess my horror was evident. Needless to say I left without spending any money. That is what Sharon and I call a "Texas Moment" when you go somewhere and expect something wonderful and things fall so short of your expectations that it is funny.

My sweet sewing machine is back and waiting for me to go to work on it. It is making a new noise...and that kinda freaks me out a bit. I don't want to have to go back and have it fixed again. It is just too much drama.

My Camp Follower Bag website is down for some reason

2011-11-15T06:12:00.002+11:00

Don't fret! I know you weren't, but just in case you were looking for me I am still here, but something is going on with my website. I can't check my email either right now, so if you need me...and you might need me... you can reach me at tiacurtisquilts@gmail.com

I like that email alot. So shoot me a message if you want me.

xo
Tia

Some sewing

2011-11-14T06:31:00.000+11:00

How are you doing? I hope you are good. I have been all over the lace with my crafting lately. I have heaps of starts, but no real finishes. Isn't that the way it goes sometimes? maybe I need to pack all this up and start something else?

Above is an English Paper pieced star. I love making these, but my finger is too sore to make any more at the moment. I have lots of thimbles, but normally I think I don't need to wear them until it is almost too late.

I started these right when I got back from Quilt market. These are made with Malka's new line of Moda fabric "A stitch in Color". I had big plans for this quilt, but after I put the black on the blocks I just kinda fizzled. I don't have enough to make a quilt that is worth while in size. Sometimes little quilts annoy me and this is one of those times.

I want this to be a BIG quilt. One that I can quilt with my Gammill and it will take more than a couple hours.

I have also picked up knitting. It has been a long time coming. I am really no good at it, but I am just beginning. I had to resort to a child's book to learn how to do it. I guess I am not as smart as I normally think I am. I need cartoon pictures and really simple writing. I also watched lots of you tube. But they go too fast and I need slow and simple.

I started this one last night. I have had to walk away from it because it is not at all what I want it to be. To me it looks kinda native American, and that is so far from what I wanted. I wanted it to look really folk art. Humm...I will come back to it later.

I have also been working on bags. I can't wait to get my Big Bernina back. I have been away from her for too long. That is one of the real drawbacks to living in the middle of Texas. No one around to fix my fancy sewing machines. My machine is fixed, but I just have not had the time to drive down to FT Hood to collect it.

I have this quilt all packed up to send off. I will miss it until it's return.

Have a good day! I hope your sewing and crafting is more focused than mine is. Maybe I need to clean the sewing room up again and see if that helps my focus.

xo,

Tia

wow! I have been busy!

2011-11-10T09:54:00.000+11:00

I have been so busy I have not had a chance to do any sort of Halloween post. Well, here are some pictures of us on Halloween. We went to a little block party down the street and while we were taking these pictures, the kids scattered so I didn't get a picture of the kids all together.
I am supposed to be a Zombie Doctor and Stu is the Zombie that infected me. Sharon is a punk. I used her hairspray and my hairdo lasted for 3 days. I finally had to wash it just on principal.

Here are Sharon and I. I loved her tights. They look like tattoos all over her legs.

Here is my youngest Zombie having some punch.

Here is Ethan and Sam eating their spaghetti. Ethan is a method actor. He was in character from the time I finished his makeup until he got into the tub. What a sweetie!

Emma was a vampire fairy. I had fun doing her makeup too, but she added more after I turned my back.

I have been busy on another quilt for Katy. It is a surprise, so just a peek, ok?

Ok, one more little peek.

Last but not least are some books. I am on page 15 of Little Bits Quilting Bee. You can read the excerpt on Amazon. I was pretty thrilled to read it. Anyway I will be doing a review of this book on the 18th. Make sure to come back so you can have your chance to win a copy!

The other book is Contemporary Folk by Sue Spargo. I have been looking everywhere for it and I finally found it at my local quilt shop of all places. It is fantastic!

OK, that is it. I am going to make some zucchini bread. I have a funny story and a great recipe for it too if you want.

xo,

Tia

Moda friends at Market and Cloud 9 fabric (my quilts!!!!!)

2011-11-10T09:32:00.000+11:00

Hey there! How is your weekend going? Mine is going great! I am making super progress on a quilt (it is a surprise for later, so I won't be showing you pictures...I know your heart is breaking - sorry.)

So on our first stop this evening we will pause at the Moda booth. I dig Moda fabric. They have designers whose work spans all aspects of art. I am hoping my friend (Sharon Smith) and partner in craft will get picked up by them. The booth pictures above is Sweetwater. I love their fabric collections - they pretty much always have some sort of text in their collections. I love text fabric! I also love that cross quilt. Why didn't I think of that? I could have knocked that out in an afternoon. Oh well someone else made it and it is lovely.

This is the Moda booth that I spent the most time in because my blog world friends have Moda collections and they were standing about chatting with people. You know....it is funny meeting people you have been reading about for years via their blogs. It is a tiny bit strange, but normal too. Each one was totally how I pictured them to be! I have been reading blogs since I lived in the middle of the Australian outback. These ladies were my crafting friends...my inspiration. Now it was strang walking around market looking at people and their booths, and seeing faces you just know you should know. See...I never forget a face, but I normally can't remember where I met or saw the face. Bummer, huh? I have a super power, but it sure does have a big flaw.

This is Aneela Hoey. She makes great fabric. I have a jelly roll and 2 charm packs of Sherbet Pips that is sitting on my shelf waiting to be made into something...and every time I look at it I think of Aneela. She is such a quiet calm soul. Aneela was great to meet.

This is Katy. She is one of my long time Flickr friends. I feel like I have known her forever. She is terrific. If I was skinnier I would want all her clothes. I quilted a quilt for her and delivered it to her at Market. Sharon and I had lots of fun talking to Katy.

This was Lucie Summers section of the Moda booth. I really like the simplicity of her first line of fabric, Summerville. I am sure I will buy my fair share. I hope you all do too because it is wonderful.

Can you see the lady with really short blond hair? Sharon and I were sitting with her at the tall table just talking away. I looked down at her name tag and I didn't recognize the name...but she was so wonderful. So I asked her "so...what brings you here?" She said that she designed the fabric for Cosmo Cricket. Holy cow! How cool. I love Cosmo Cricket fabric! I have been backing my way through an entire bolt of Girl Friday lined paper. (it is the only time I have ever bought an entire bolt of fabric to use only be backs because I love it so much). She is brilliant and I want to sew for her.

So her are Lucie Summers and I. I think I am talking to someone.

And her are Aneela, Lu and I. This was Sunday, so I was not quite as camera trigger happy as I had been the day before.

So, now lets look at the Cloud 9 booth. You see, cloud 9 had the best quilts ever!!!! Yes they did. Why, you ask? Well, because I made 2 of them!!!!!! I really wanted to visit my quilts, but as I was walking around the first day I almost forgot all about them! Sharon and I went back into the market to hunt them out. I had the booth number and I was sneaking up on them when I looked up and just froze! I am pretty sure people were slamming into me from behind, but I was in too much shock to notice because there in front of me was MY MISCELLANY QUILT!!!!!!! It was hanging up big and beautiful as their back drop. When my heart began beating again I walked up to it and had my hand out to touch it. Gina intercepted me. I said...."I love that quilt!" She said "I know! It has been so popular with everyone!" I said "Really??" I then introduced myself and told her that I was the one who had made it for them! Gina was so sweet. She is a tiny little thing! I hung around and waited for Michelle Engel-Bencsko to get back from a coffee run so I could meet her too.

You can see some of my Geese Flying over the Pond quilt here in this shot. It is in such good company there on the rack.

Some more of my Miscellany quilt. I have more of this fabric and I intend to make myself a quilt quite similar to the one I made for Michelle. I think it will have a different boarder. I make it for myself for Christmas. Merry Christmas me!

More of my geese.

Lynn made this wonderful computer pouch. I love the Nethercote print from Miscellany and Lynn really made it even better!

Such pretty stitching!

Below is another picture of me and Michelle. I am so happy she likes her quilts. I always have some anxiety that I will make something for someone and they will not appreciate all the work I have put into it. I think Michelle appreciates my work.

OK, Do you want some freebies? I think I have something in my bag for you.

to market to market - part 2

2011-11-03T13:31:00.001+11:00

SO here we are at part 2 of my quilt market experience. I love Free Spirit and Westminster / Rowan fabric. I never know how to refer to them as they have so many names. What do you call them? Anyway they are in charge of the Big Guns of the quilting fabric world - namely, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett and Anna Marie Horner. Yep, I saw them all, even a brief gawking at Denyse Schmidt - no wonder these people did not make eye contact. I bet that quilt market will not let me go again next year. Just kidding...I always improve anything I attend or touch (when I feel like it). Again I am just kidding. So let's begin with Kaffe Fassett... I bought his new book at market. It is named Quilts in Sweden. Basically I want to make that stripy quilt. I just do. It is made with stripe fabric. Too easy, right? I will let you know.

Here we see an action shot. Yes, I took pictures of Kaffe Fassett doing an everyday thing like climbing a step stool. You won't see this type of cutting edge photography anywhere else. It was funny to see all the quilting mortals tossing themselves before Kaffe. At least I was thinking that until I did the same thing to Amy.

So this collection was down the way a bit from KF. It is Parson Grey by David Butler (Amy Butler's husband). I quite like it. I REALLY like it. I wish he would not have been standing nearby looking at me because I wanted to do a full on touching of all the prints and I wanted to see if that was really a shirt on the dress form. I love the grays in this line and there is a great orange as well. I will probably buy each print in this collection. I have not done that is years, but with this one I will. The scale is fantastic for doing both small piecing and big stuff too. (you know that scale is a big pet peeve of mine).

I really liked this feather print a ton...I want to quilt like that. I bet I can...I will try it on the next quilt I do for myself.

So here I am with David. He had his Black Owl demo CDs out for the taking so I took one and a bumper sticker for my van. The CD only had 2 songs on it, but Sharon and I listened to them over and over and over for the 6 hour drive back to San Angelo. We were so punchy by the time we drove up to our houses that we had made up all sorts of new lyrics for the tunes. It sure was good of David to make us some music to drive to, and dodge skunks, raccoons and herds of deer.

Here I am with my Amy Butler. I totally lost my cool when I saw here there arranging her display pillows. I am pretty sure I went on about how much I love her fabric and I use her fabric the most of any other designer and how I love the grace and dignity it has and bla bla bla...I even thrust my Stu tote at her and said "here! see I use your fabric all the time!" Well...actually I had a stack of her fabric laying out to make a bag for myself with, but I put it away because I plan to make a bag for Steve Poe with it...my clients come before me (isn't that nice) so the bag I was holding up to her was actually made with mostly Denyse Schmidt and Anna Marie Horner. Thank goodness I did have a tiny bit of her charm line in the side of the bag. She peered down at my bag and said "would you like to see Gypsy Caravan (or maybe she said Charm) come back?" I said "Oh, Yes!" She granted my little wish right there and then. Either Charm or Gypsy Caravan is being reprinted. I was too star struck to recall which one. See, that is cool.

Anna Marie Horners booth was next down the line. It was as lovely as I had always seen it be on blogs in the past. She had some really great stitching patterns (like embroidery cross stitch stuff - I know there is a real word, but I can't think of it now.)

That is Anna Marie Horner in the long dress. I didn't bug her, because I was still embarrassed about throwing myself at Amy Butler.

So, here is Ty Pennington. He made 2 special guest appearances at market so fools like me could get his picture. I really don't have anything nice to say about his new collection so I probably shouldn't say anything at all.

Tina Givens had a great booth. Very warm and great fabric as usual. She is making dress patterns for women now and they are really good. Rowan is making linen and the patterns look great with it. Her patterns remind me of Cynthia Ashby. So if flowing linen is your thing You should make some dresses. I love linen dresses. Heck I didn't even know who I was talking to, I was just going on about how much I loved this ladies dress. She thanked me very kindly and then I noticed her name tag and it was Tina Givens. Here are some of her women's patterns.

OK, I think I am going to turn in and hope my poor back is better in the morning. Have a good night! I really will have some giveaways and a book review in the near future.

xo,
Tia

GLORIOUS IN BLACK by BLACK OWLS

2011-11-03T10:27:00.001+11:00

Mom, I don't think you will like this video. So just know that I know that and don't watch it. I will explain more in the blog post I am working on. The rest of you lot reading this may watch it at will. It was on a CD that Amy Butler's husband gave us at quilt market.

to market to market !

2011-11-02T01:00:00.001+11:00

Good Morning! How are you doing? We are good. I am still trying to get back into my swing after being away from my family for a couple days. So, Sharon Smith and I went to the Houston Quilt Market. We had a great time. Sharon and I left at 0600 on Friday and we made good time. The miles fly by when you have a great travel companion. We made plans to stop at the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, TX. Well, when we got to town the GPS directed us to the wrong museum. So we asked if they knew where the real one was. They did, but it was not going to be open until November 13th. Wellsir....that really put the first kink in our plan. Oh well, we will just stop by anyway and take a look. Maybe peek in the windows?

So we get out of the van and pose in front of the museum, the lights are on inside...and I see a person. I try the door and it was unlocked, so Sharon and I went in. We went in and we got a private tour (by the men who renovated the old building). Others were turned away, but not Sharon and I (it is also a really good idea to travel with a knock out like Sharon). It is a great museum! We will certainly make plans to return when it is open for real.

So here I am on Saturday morning outside the convention center. The evening before I went to sample spree and I got some really good things. I will post them later. I have a little collection of fabric beside me that I want to go make into a quilt RIGHT NOW! But I have other priorities first.

Sharon had a morning class before market opened, so I had a hour to burn. I called my sweet husband to check on the kiddos. All was well. I did a bit of berry making. Then I noticed a stir in the air and someone strolled by me...

I sat there with a silly grin on my face watching Amy Butler glide by. Then I snapped out of it and dug in my bag for my camera. By then she and her long legs were way far away and this is the crap shot I got.

I did meet her later and make a total cake of myself. But I will save that story for later.

So, quilt market is really crowded and there is quite a bit of visual stimulation. Sharon and I started our search of the market at the distant end. The first isles were so crowded that it gave my the creeps to have to shove my body in with the masses of quilt shop owners, so to the very very very end of the building we went. And I am so happy we did! One of the first places we stopped was Marcia Derse's booth. It was so pure and simple it was an obvious place to stop and admire the fabric. And JUST the fabric. There was nothing else in her booth except her fabric hanging up on the walls. She hand dyes her fabric and uses wax resist. She then sends the pieces she is happy with to Troy Fabric and they mass produce the fabric and fabric shops buy it by the bolt from them. I wanted to sign up for a wholesale account immediately. But I had to shake myself and remind myself that that was not why I was at Houston.

*** Gwen Marston sent me some of Marcia's fabric last year because she thought I would love it. (she knows me so well..."sigh"...) I loved it so much I have it just sitting in a tiny stack by my sewing machine. Just to pet. This is really great fabric and I wish more fabric shops would carry it!

Marcia was so friendly and such a wonderful character. She joined me in this picture...but don't you like how she tucked herself behind me? I am going to do that from now on in pictures. I will by buying and quilting with her fabric! It will look AWESOME with Camo.

The next booth I LOVED was Carolyn Frielander. Her speciality is paper pieced patterns and these wonderful custom quilt stamps. I really want to make some of her quilts.

I have seen those trees before, but for the life of my I can't remember where or in what setting.

Penguin and Fish was a great booth that I wanted to get more pictures of, but the lady with the booth across the isle kept dragging on me so I would come into her booth and admire her bags and buy all the patterns. I finally told her I don't know how to sew and I don't like bags. She then left me alone.

Penguin and Fish has a line of fabric coming out. It looks super cute!

The last booth I am going to cover in this segment was Skip Stone Creative. Kirstyn Cogan is really quite brilliant. I love her little appliques and soft critters. You order the kits and stitch them out. She makes them all very simple. I don't know if you can see in this picture or not, but the swallow on the table is my total favorite. It comes in a Valentine kit.

I really loved this beet applique.

So here is Sharon and Kirstyn. Aren't they cute? Ok, I have alot more to cover and even some giveaways! So get ready to come back and read some more!

xo,

Tia

2 Bags for Me!!!

2011-10-28T10:43:00.000+11:00

Do you ever get really excited before going on a trip? I do. I sure was today! I had all this nervous energy, so I got up early and cleaned the house....then the kids got up and had breakfast and dashed off to school, so I cleaned the house again...but then what? I could go shopping...but I want to save my money for market! I know...I will make myself a bag for market! So I did....in fact I made 2. I have been meaning to make myself a new Stu and Molly for years (my other Stu is 5 years old and my Molly is 6).

This is my Molly. I wanted a shallow one, for quick trips or date night. I used mostly Denyse Schmidt fabric from her newest line for Jo Anns. I love it. I have had this fabric folded up and laid aside since I bought it. I think it looks great with the ACU.

This is the back of my Stu tote. Yes, I know I got a bit carried away with the quilting, but I like it.

The sides are scrappy pieced and I love them!

There are 5 pockets inside, so lots of little spots to loose things, right?

So here is the last thing before I go pack. I finished this quilt last night. It is for Katy. I am delivering it to her at Market in Houston. She made the top, I just quilted it for her.

Have a happy weekend! I will have Market pictures!

xo,

Tia

I am getting ready to go to quilt market!

2011-10-27T01:13:00.001+11:00

I need to finish this quilt...it is way more done now than when I took this picture. I am quilting it for Katy (imagingermonkey) and bringing it to her in Houston, so she can take it back to England with her baggage. But I also need to pack for my trip and go get batteries for my camera and I need to pack some clothes I guess. I am going to pack some applique to work on...not that I will really, but you never know!

So here are some pictures for my family....it is spirit week at school this week. Monday was cammo day so Emma wore my old uniform top. I used to be skinny!

All we had to fit Sam was a hat.

Ethan was having drama waking up. So, he was moving slow.

Here is Ellie...Meowwwww

and a close up of Ike.

I can't wait for Market! Sharon and I are driving down together. Woohoo! Was are going to have so much fun.

Pearsall Order

2011-10-27T01:06:00.000+11:00

Good Morning! How are you all doing? I am ready to send out this order. This was a fun one to work on. Oh, heck, they are all fun to work on...well mostly. The Hero bags and quilts are pretty sad.

This is a Zippy wallet. She wanted my first generation of zippy wallets, so I had to recall how I did them. I should make one for Emma so she can keep better track of her glasses.

This is a Cathy bag. It is a bit different than other Cathy bags because I used the Top of the uniform instead of the pants. The lady I made this bag for was not wild about the slanty pockets (which pretty much all of the ACU pockets are slanty) so I took some liberties and cut the bag so the top pockets were straight.

I love the fabric that Amy selected for this bag. It is some of my Lecien that I normally just leave sitting on it's shelf because it is really too special to cut. I look at it and think of what wonderful quilts I can make with it...but I never do anything with it. Isn't that crazy? Sometimes I think it is. To have something wonderful...and not ever use it? Anyway, I did cut into it for this bag.

This bag is a Nancy Messenger. She wanted the straps to be more wide and the only uniform was what I used inside the bag as pockets. I am going to have to find more of the red stripe. I am mostly out of it now.

I do really like the inside fabric, it is stamps.

This is a very sweet Cathy bag lined with lots and lots of owls.

She wanted the bag to be very simple, so I quilted it with a gray cotton.

There are pockets inside and both of the outside pockets are fully functional!

OK, I have quilting to do and I am working an a Hero quilt too...so I am hopping back and forth between the long arm and the sewing room.

Have a great day!

xo,

Tia

Quilts finished!

2011-10-24T09:11:00.000+11:00

This one is on my other quilt blog. I love that I have finally finished this one! I should probably sell it so I can have some spending money in Houston. But I sure do love it!

I also finished the binding on this quilt. Don't you love it? I do. So, this is going to be my beginning quilting class. You can read more about it over on my other blog.

We also went to the Grape Creek pumpkin patch. We had a great time! Stanley went with us and he was such a good fellow.

Sharon and her boys went too. Nothing like taking over the pumpkin patch with just 2 families worth of kiddos.

See...this was us!

Have a great evening!

Tia

Not bad after about 20 hours of Air travel

2011-10-21T03:20:00.001+11:00

Not bad after about 20 hours of Air travel, a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

this was when we first arrived in Sydney. Do you ever like looking at old pictures?

My sweet kiddos

2011-10-21T03:18:00.001+11:00

My sweet kiddos, a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

gosh they have grown so much!

Robinson Order

2011-10-19T00:14:00.000+11:00

Happy Tuesday! I hope you are all doing swell. So, here is another order I finished yesterday. It is a Stu as a diaper bag and a diaper changing pad or wall hanging. OK, this mom decorated her son's nursery in patriotic red white and blue. She loves the American flag. So I went with that.

I pieced little stars for the sides of the bag with red and white stripes.

I quilted the bag with a fabulous blue cotton thread. My fancy Bernina 820 HATES this Prescencia thread, but my older more worldly Bernina didn't mind it at all.

I made an extra pocket panel inside this bag so she has tons of little spaces for all the hoo haa that goes along with babies in their diaper bags. I used to have my diaper packed to the gills, but everything was organized in it's special pocket so I knew where everything was at any time.

So, I wanted to make a flag for this mom...but I didn't want all the work of making 50 tiny stars, so I went with this design. You can make one too! I will have the tutorial over on my other blog Tia Curtis Quilts

I quilted a bunch of stars in the background.

See, I have been working pretty hard lately on bags. I have all the uniforms that have been sent to me cup and ready to make into bags. It is my fantasy to have them all finished before I leave for quilt market.

Have a great day!

xo,

Tia

Sers Order

2011-10-18T10:52:00.000+11:00

Hey there! How are you all doing? I hope you are well. I have been rocking and rolling with my bags. This is a great set I made for S. Sers. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I am especially wild about the little quilt.

I incooporated the pen pocket onto the side of the bag. I love knowing where my pens are when I need them. She can also stick knitting needles in them if she is a knitter...or maybe she wants to look like a knitter? Never know. I just learned to knit and I have needles everywhere! I need to make myself a knitting bag, huh?

My dear husband took pictures for me. I am not wild about inside pictures of ACU bags because the details I have worked so hard to include just fade away.

I used some really great fabric with this bag. I bet some of you recognize Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley. Well, you are right! This collection ranks right up with my top 10 favorite fabric collections!
And it goes so well with with the ACU. Anything goes with camouflage, but this does look super nice.

I really am thrilled with how this little quilt turned out. I made some wonky churn dashes, which I really love...I had a vision of making about 25 of these little blocks but I had to give myself a mental slap and remind myself that this was going to be a diaper changing pad. Poop will get all over it! It totally is washable and the poop will come right out, but seriously, this only costs $20. Why am I putting hours and hours of work into something that only costs $20.

I both machine and hand quilted it. I hope it is loved and pooped all over and washed a zillion times. Then I hope it becomes art and Sommer hangs it up somewhere. I have these little quilts hanging all over my house.

The quilting is pretty, if I do say so myself. I used a very thin cotton batting and grey cotton thread to do the quilting. The back is a natural muslin.

The last item of the order was an Emma backpack. I love making these bags. I had my Sam be my model right before dinner.

So, the Emma is made with a lower leg of a pair of pants. I also used one of the arm pockets so he could stick his daddy's patches on the bag.

So you fancy yourself a crafty person? I bet you are! You can make yourself one of these bags. I made a pattern for you to follow. It is totally easy and you can do it! You can fine the pattern in my SHOP.

There is a strip of pile tape (Velcro) for a name tape on the back of the bag.

I lined the bag with stars, the pocket is lined with stripes. It is a wonderfully patriotic backpack. This was a great order. I loved sewing for Sommer!

Have a great evening!

xo,
Tia

such a great weekend

2011-10-17T10:19:00.000+11:00

Hey there! I hope you are all doing well. We are. Dinner is cooking, my husband is singing, I am sewing the kids are laughing, one of the cats is purring and my dog is snoring. Life is good.

Nothing like sewing and being sung to. I will take that anyday!

I am making stars for a Stu tote and diaper changing pad.

My cat is helping me out by purring and soaking up the sun. She may actually be shielding some of the heat that is pouring in the windows.

Have a great rest of your weekend. I have a busy week of sewing ahead of me. Robinson bag is all but finished, Great progress on Pearsall, Poe and World orders. My husband helped me out and cut the uniforms.

Tia

Unwanted road trip

2011-10-14T01:23:00.000+11:00

So, what do you when your sewing machine starts beeping and flashing and sewing really slow and the tension is a total mess? If you have a normal sewing machine, I bet you just take it into the shop to be repaired. Well, my Bernina got to get packed in my van at the crack of dawn and go for a road trip to FT Hood, Texas to go visit the Bernina shop there. ***Next time we move I am going to make sure there is a Bernina dealer nearby. FT Hood is 3 hours away. All the other places seemed to be much further. Anyway, I bought my first 2 Berninas from Jerry, so it was kinda nostalgic to go back and visit again.

After him working on it all day long....and not being able to figure out what was wrong with it. He was on the phone with Bernina most of that time too...they decided my machine needs a new main computer because the shafts are out of sinc. See, the same little plastic piece keeps breaking inside my machine. This is the 4th time it has happened. Jerry says it is because the shafts keep pounding into it...whatever, the computers are still under warranty so they are being replaced. I love my 820. I do. But if you pay over $5,000 for a sewing machine, I bet you expect it to last for a long time. I do. Heck I have 2 little featherweights that are both over 60 years old and they sew perfectly with no drama at all. My New to me Gammill is basically just a motor on wheels, no computer frills at all and I love it much more than the babyloc I tired at the Bernina shop yesterday.

I think after my 820 kicks the can (which if they are already ((after only a year of ownership)) having to replace the computer inside, won't be too long down the road) I will just dumb down my machines. I have a dumb phone and I LOVE it. I ask my machines to do so much, and 9 times out of 10 my 820 can do anything and she does it beautifully, but when she is down, I don't have the skills to make her better. Oh well...that is just what I am thinking at the moment. I do have a wonderful little back up Bernina, so I am still working on my bags, never fear about that!

I took Sam with me because he was as sick as a dog, so he slept in the back of the van while I drove and drove and drove.

We lived in FT Hood for 5 years. While we were there I used to think it was so ugly and dried up and desolate. Well, It isn't now. After living in San Angelo I felt like the country mouse coming for a visit to the big city.

I drove around my old neighborhood, and saw all my friends houses (Kerri, Vicki, Nicole, Jennifer, Molly, Sharon, Becky) and I saw all the fabulous new houses that were built while we were gone. This city is so much bigger than when we were there. We drove around base and watched the Apaches fly around and land. Sam Loved that. I really miss living on an Army base. Everyone was so nice. I mean the Air Force is nice enough, but there is such a wonderful humanity that goes hand in hand with the Army. There was also such intense emotion on that base. I could feel it, it is still lingering with me.

Anyway, one thing was the same. These guys are still in business. Good for them.

I bought an old wool Army blanket a couple weeks ago with the intention of making a bunch of bat finger puppets for Emma's Deaf fall festival. Well...I couldn't find the time to make them...and the wool from the blanket was quite thick to work with. I need to alter the pattern some so I can turn them inside out without tearing off my fingernails. This was the only bat that was made.
It is really cute...so is my Emma.

Speaking of Emma, she has really gotten quite tall. Not only is she quite tall, she is so very athletic. Some college basketball players came to her school earlier this week and she played with them and won this basketball, which she then had them all sign. She is so sweet.

OK, I am just waiting for a call from the kids school to go pick up one of my children...we have been stricken with the fall sickness, but maybe I can get some sewing in before they call.

Have a great day!

Crossman Molly Purse

2011-10-11T04:39:00.000+11:00

Hey there! So I finished this Molly purse Friday and I am just now getting around to uploading pictures. It has been a very busy week! My husband took the pictures while I was elbow deep in the Sers order.

I tend to make 2 different versions of the Molly Purse. One is shallow and the other is a bit deeper. With the deeper version I can utilize the lower leg pocket of the ACU pants as well. This is a deeper version of the Molly Purse.

I used a pretty pink thread for the quilting on this bag. Sometimes I can't sew all the patches onto a bag, due to the glue the patch manufacturers use between the velcro part and the patch part. I can't sew through the glue. It gums up the inside of my sewing machine, so I just add a Velcro patch and now the patches can be changed out at will.

Molly wanted a bunch of interior pockets so I made 4 interior pockets and one pen slip, so she can keep track of her pen or pencil. In total this bag has 7 pockets. She will be the most organized lady in town! OK, I need to get back to my sewing machine. Have a great Columbus day!

Winner of deploy that Fabric!

2011-10-09T02:32:00.000+11:00

Thanks for commenting everyone! You all sure have some great ideas for using uniforms.

And the winner is!!!!!

# 13 Solidia - she is going to make her hubby a quilt!

Good luck with your Quilt, I sent you an email. I need your address so Stash books can send you your loot.

Deploy that Fabric Book Tour

2011-10-06T02:16:00.001+11:00

Good Morning! How are you all doing? I am great! If you are here for the Deploy that Fabric Blog book tour, welcome!

Most of you know that I love to sew with uniforms. I have a little bag business. I have been around the military all my life. My father retired after over 30 years of military service, I was an Army Nurse and I am married to an Army Officer. I bet that at some point a couple of my children will be in the military too. Needless to say I have always had a uniform in my closet. Uniforms are great. Strong fabric, neutral colors and almost endless pockets to incorporate into bags and potholders and quilts and aprons...heck you can make an easy mini skirt out of the pants.

What say we chat a bit about the book?

Jennifer Eskridge wrote a wonderful book! It is a perfect guide to use uniforms in your everyday sewing and crafting. I have been doing it for years! You can too. Jennifer Eskridge is an Air Force wife and creator of great things. Deploy that Fabric has 23 sewing projects inside for you to try. Most are very simple and make using uniforms almost second nature.

Jennifer is a prolific quilt pattern designer. She has included several quilt patterns in the book. As you can see from the picture above the quilts aren't all uniform, but the uniforms play a supporting role with all the other fabric. That is my kind of sewing! I also really love it that her mom did all the quilting. That is one handy mom to have.

There are several bag patterns in the book but this bag is my favorite from the book. I love a hipster bag. I would have used one of the lower pockets on the front of the BDU top and quilted the heck out of it, but that is an option that is offered in the back of the book. I like that she has written how to make each project and then refers to different techniques that are covered in more detail in the back of the book. It is very tidy way to write a book. Deploy that Fabric is a great book for finding inspiration in how to get started sewing with uniforms.

Jennifer has all sorts of projects in Deploy that Fabric. From bags and quilts to scrappy note cards, zipper pouches and coasters to a checkbook cover, you will be sure to find something you want to make.

How would you like to have a chance to win a copy of the book and a nifty messenger bag from Stash books? Just leave a comment about what you think the ultimate thing to make with a uniform would be. ie: a quilted duffel bag, a tent, a hang glider, kitchen curtains....Make sure you leave an email address so I can get in touch with you. International readers are more than welcome to enter, but Stash will send you an Ebook rather than the physical book. That is still pretty awesome! Anyway, comment and I will select who the winner is on Saturday morning.

Fat Quarterly Blog will be reviewing the book tomorrow the 6th.

xo,
Tia

Hey there

2011-10-04T06:58:00.000+11:00

How are you doing? We are good here in West Texas. I think the weather may be dropping off a bit, it is only supposed to get up to about 89 F today. Burrrrr. I am joking! it is totally not cold. So, today I went to have a routine eye exam. I have been having a hell of a time threading quilting needles lately and my husband keeps telling me I am squinting. So...turns out I need some spectacles for reading and sewing. I have always wanted glasses. They are giving me a headache at the moment, but I think I will like them when I get them sorted.

I worked on this quilt a bunch this weekend. I LOVE my Long arm. I have finally figured out which thread it likes to quilt with and I have the tension sorted too. That was a pain in the butt, I will tell you. June (the lady who owned it before me), used to make drapes with it. It had been sitting in storage for 10 years, and there was no users manual. I have been learning a heap from youtube, and talking with Angela. What a lifesaver both are. I feel like quite the mechanic working with this machine. I love old machines. They are such an adventure to figure out their secrets.

Stu and I turned the other side of the garage/studio into Emma's painting studio. Saturday she and Sharon's son were painting while I was setting up the quilt. We were listening to music and the kids were singing away. It was so very wonderful.

Sharon gave us a painting lesson. Emma insisted on acrylics and I prefer watercolors. But we learned a ton.

Last but not least I am trying to learn to knit. My aunt gave me my grandmothers knitting needles and I have always wanted to put them back to use. I decided that this year was going to be the one I would learn to knit. I checked out a stack of knitting books from the library, but the one I learned the most from is Kids Knitting. I guess I need cartoon pictures and really simple writing to understand. I remember a time when I was quite bright and I could read and understand just about anything...I don't know what happened? It must be motherhood. Or maybe I have too much going on. Oh well.

xo,
Tia

Mary's order

2011-09-30T23:55:00.000+10:00

I am going to let the pictures pretty much speak for themselves in this post. Yes, this is all one order. I have been working in it for ages. I love each item in this set. You will see some brand new things in this post, so keep a sharp eye out. Thank you to my buddy Sharon for lending me yourself to use as a model.

Zippy pouch, foldy wallet and a checkbook cover

These are off to their new home. Mary if you are reading this, I tired sent you a bunch of emails, but they must be in your spam folder. Please let me know what you think when you get your big box of wonderful things.

xo,
Tia

Friday already?

2011-09-30T23:45:00.000+10:00

Hard to believe that it is Friday already. This week flew by in a swirl of activity and sewing. I finished one of my really big orders (pictures will be in the next blog posting) and took a bit of a bag break to quilt my moms quilt. I thought it would just take me a couple hours, but like everything I do I got carried away and spent most of the week quilting it.

This is a very large Queen sized quilt. Mom said that she wanted something different in each block, I think she was joking, but I took her at her word.. I love how on the front of the quilt the piecing shines, but on the back it is a whole new quilt. I used a variegated yellow cotton thread and the lowest loft cotton batting (quilters dream request cotton batting- my favorite).

Mom selected a really pale yellow solid back which I was terrified would show all my starts and stops and tension issues (you have to count on having some, so if you don't you can be extra proud of yourself).

I have been quilting a for 8 years on a "regular" home sewing machine. It has been fun to take the skills I have mastered from quilting with my Berninas and try them out on the Gammill where there is almost endless space to let the thread dance across quilts.

I used several types of quilting to make my mom's quilt extra special. There are swirls, twirls, loops, rays, lines, echos and bubbles. Bubbles are a bit new to me, and I learned really quick that they suck up miles of thread in their sweet shapes.

I think I am finished on the quilting for this quilt too. Have I shown it yet? I can't remember and I don't want to bother looking back through my blog. I think I may still add a bunch of hand quilting to the floral vine, but I may not.

I LOVE this quilt. It has turned out JUST how I imagined it would. I stacked it and pin basted it before I bought my gammill, so this one was quilted on my Bernina 820. I still adore my 820.

Last but not least I have found a bit of time to read before going to sleep at night. That is my favorite time to read...well really it is the only time I read. I am slowly making my way through Dance with Dragons. I love the two quilting books on the bottom and I will be on the Blog tour for Deploy that Fabric.

You can read more about that HERE. Come back to me on the 5th of October for my review of this book and your chance to win a copy of the book for yourself and a cool messenger bag. Not one of my messenger bags, but a pretty cool bag just the same.

I need to get a move on if I am going to be able to stop by the post office and still join my son for his field trip. Have a great day!

Tia

Good Morning!

2011-09-29T23:40:00.000+10:00

Have you seen my new painting? If you have been over to the house recently I am sure I have shown it to you. Sharon Smith, my wonderful friend and neighbor and fellow creator of wonderful things painted it. She painted it over another trilogy. I loved the clean lines and the fact that it looks like farm fields seen from an aircraft. (I always love looking down on the goings on of whatever land I am flying over when we move to new places or travel.) Anyway, she sent me a quick text that said she was getting ready to paint over it again and to stop her! Well I ran across the street with thread and pins and bits of fabric flying behind me. Stop! I said. I will buy you 3 blank canvases so you can start fresh if you let me have these!

She took me up on my offer. So now these babies are hanging in my living room. I love them. They look kinda like quilts.

So, I will be spending my day sewing. My creatures have assumed their fighting positions while I work. Such a hard life being a Curtis pet. Poor things.

Have a great day!
Tia

2 more quilts in my shop

2011-09-24T02:58:00.000+10:00

Do you ever look around your house and think that you have too many quilts? I do. I have been getting rid of things right and left in my house. I have gone through the kids rooms and my closets and the pantry and I have gotten rid of bags of things. Stuff that was just clutter...stuff we had not used in a year.

Well, I looked in my fabric closet upstairs and I saw a bunch of quilts that were looking so lonely. They were folded up and placed high on a shelf to keep them away from my kids. Well, that was a silly place for a quilt. I decided to put them in my shop. Maybe you will have a better use for them than just being folded up in my closet.

You will find both in my Etsy.com shop

It is raining everywhere but here.

2011-09-22T23:42:00.000+10:00

I have been a bit busy...

2011-09-22T23:37:00.001+10:00

September is always a busy month for us. Getting back into the groove at school, trying to catch up on the sewing that was not finished over the summer and 2 birthdays. My Emma loves to plan a party. Unfortunately she does not communicate well with me...or maybe I couldn't hear her over my sewing machine and the blasting Vitamin String Quartet that was playing in the background. Who really knows? All I know is that apparently I was having a birthday party at my house and 50 people were coming. Cool huh? Well, actually it was a great party and I had as much fun as the kids did.

I really have a dislike for the party bags that are handed out at parties. I appreciate what they represent, but I like quality over quantity anyday. I know that I tend to throw the little Indian Trading Company plastic made in Chinese nic nacks away as soon as I find them laying on the floor. I figure I am not alone in this. So I made all the kids (or at least the ones I anticipated actually coming to the party) a bean bag frog. All the frogs were different and each child got to select their own. I am still 2 short and their little bodies are lying beside my sewing machine awaiting to become beanbag frogs...I just need to find the time.

Each frog has a pair of vintage buttons as eyes, if you have tiny kids the eyes could easily be replaced with little French knots or little cross stitches. My youngest son assigned himself the job of finding eacy frog some eyes. I bet you want to make frogs too? Of course you do! Use this tutorial Purl Bee Frogs.

The kids played games...apple/lemon bobbing and an egg toss. These were improvised games as I was not going to the store to buy more apples, but I had heaps of lemons on hand. I also was not going out to buy little balloons for water balloon toss....eggs worked like a charm.

Emma made her own icing for the colored cupcakes while I was sewing on frog eyes and stuffing frogs with fiberfill and mung-beans.

For her real birthday I made a Lemon Curd cake. It was quite possibly the most rich cake I have ever had in my life. It was awesome! Just almost impossible to eat, maybe I knew how much butter was in the cake and how much time I would have to spend at the gym trying to work it off my hips? I let Emma choose whatever cake she wanted out of the Martha Stewart Baking book. Of course her first choice was a wedding cake with 3 tiers. I said not that one. This was the runner up. So if you have an entire day free and 5 pounds of butter handy oh and about 20 eggs...this may be the recipe for you to try! I tried to find the recipe, but it is not on her massive website. You may have to buy the book.

OK, if you are still here reading, thanks for sticking around. My wonderful husband made me a massive design wall for quilt block layouts. I love it. I love him too. He has been an enormous help with my long arm. You know how it is when you get a new sewing machine? You have to figure out all the tricks to make operating it easy. I have had a learning curve with each machine I have welcomed into my home. I have Angela on speed dial and I have been bugging her with all my questions. We were in KCMQG before I moved to Texas and her quilting is AWESOME! She knows EVERYTHING about long arm quilting.

This is the quilt I quilted for Jennifer. She wanted organic lines and I put vines and feathers in the coin parts.

I also finished quilting this quilt. It is awaiting a binding...well now that I can quilt a quilt in no time at all I have quite a few quilts awaiting bindings.

I also finished some bags!

This order took me forever to make. I am so embarrassed about how long it took me to complete. I did make a bunch of extra stuff to send to her as well, some new patterns I was trying out, so I hope that makes up for some of the delay. It is a great set.

OK, I have sewing to do. I hope you all have a great day!

xo,
Tia

Some quilts for the Texas Wild Fires

2011-09-08T23:15:00.000+10:00

So, yesterday evening I was sitting with my new book (37 sketches by Gwen Marston) and my pretty new fabric (some new stuff from Denyse Schmidt that I ordered from Jo Ann's fabric) and my fluffy cat, and I was thinking...What am I going to do with these 2 quilts I just finished? Maybe I should donate them? I really don't need them. Well, this morning on True Up blog I saw what I was hoping for! A great opportunity to give back to the community in which I live. Well, I live way down the road a way, but it is still in Texas nevertheless. The Central Texas Wild Fire Quilt Drive. I am going to bind them and send them off. Maybe you have something in your quilt chest you don't LOVE? I am not terribly attached to these quilts, I just wanted to try out my new long arm.

I am happy with how they turned out. I got excited about trying out my swirls, but they seemed to take on a life of their own. I used Quilters Dream Wool Batting with this quilt and the additional loft really makes the 3 dimensional shapes pop off the quilt top.

This quilt top has been in my UFO drawer for years. In fact I did a tutorial on how to make 3D pinwheels on Flickr back in 2008...heck maybe the tutorial is here on this blog somewhere?

I never really knew how to quilt it, so it stayed in it's drawer. All alone and all but forgotten. But now it will have a purpose. I hope it makes a child feel a bit of comfort after such devastation by Mother Nature (she really has been on a rampage lately hasn't she?).

On Tuesday I was driving home from the gym and I could see the smoke from the fires off on the horizon. Bastrop County is pretty far away from San Angelo, but it is so flat out here we can see forever.

This is the other quilt I am sending to the quilt drive. I made most of the top years ago with my very first jelly roll. But once again I was unhappy with the quilt and stuck it in the UFO drawer. I took it out on Saturday and made some changes to it so I could quilt a really big quilt on my long arm. I quilted it kinda like a sampler.

This quadrant looks like ripples on a pond.

This quadrant is intersecting straight lines. I have always wanted to quilt like this, so now I can!

Loops are always wonderful and on a long arm this quadrant took about 10 minutes.

And this is the quadrant I started with...my swirls. I love swirls!

OK, I have a list of things to do today beginning with washing my windows. cleaning my house is way up high on the list today since I have spent all my time sewing lately the house has taken some abuse. I also need to send out pictures of finished bags.

OK, have a great day and send a quilt to help the kids who have lost their homes to the Texas Wild Fires! Spread it around on your blogs too!

xo,
Tia

Tia Curtis Quilts

2011-09-07T08:52:00.001+10:00

I have a new blog for quilts. Mainly it is a bunch of quilts I have made and I am still in the process of updating it, but I have been getting so much interest in long arm quilting I decided to make it live. Please let me know if you want to have a quilt quilted! I can do any size. From a tiny baby quilt up to a massive king.

My new blog is Tia Curtis Quilts

http://tiacurtisquilts.blogspot.com/

Labor Day Weekend at my house

2011-09-04T15:08:00.000+10:00

So, this is our Labor Day Weekend so far...Emma now wears glasses. But seriously, they are the cutest glasses ever.

We got up early this morning to give the new Gammill some love in the form of maintenance. She has been in storage for over 10 years, so some love and attention was in order.

I think my husband likes this beast almost as much as me. It is so industrial looking. The neighbor boys (and little girls) kept popping into the garage to ask questions about the machine or give me their hypothesis about how the long arm actually works. They were really funny. Especially since over the fan and the machine and my ipod I really couldn't hear what anyone was saying. But I had lots of help and company setting up my second quilt on the frame. The first quilt was yesterday, and it was really just some ugly fabric with batting between. It is a quilt for Stanley now. Took more time to set it up on the frame than to actually quilt it.

My Ethan was even drawn down to try his skills out. He thought no one was home....so this is what he does when he thinks no one is around. It was about 0800 when this picture taken. It was still early. Obviously we were at home. He was not all alone.

I made these AWESOME buns. From Joy the Baker. I can't tell you how wonderful they made my house smell. Between the smell of raspberry - lemon buns, my sweet family and all the fabric and sewing machines this place was heaven today.

Because I am so short, and the table is too tall, my fellas made me a long stage to stand on while I quilt with the Gammill. Sam and Ethan helped out.

I got to invent a pin cushion for all these crazy pins. I don't know if you know or not (I sure didn't before I used a quilt frame) but you have to pin the heck out of your quilt before quilting. I have been using this wonderful Youtube video to figure out how to load my own quilts. June (the lady I bought the machine from) is coming over Tuesday to give me some pointers, but I really did not want to wait until Tuesday to use it. Mom, you should watch that movie. It may make the whole process more clear.

Even my little featherweight is getting in on the quilting action. I am using her as a bobbin winder.

So here I am quilting away. It is kinda like quilting outside. I will not normally have the garage doors open, but with all the commotion taking place it seemed fitting.

This quilt is not a fancy thing, it is really a horrible one that I started about 3 years ago. I think that it was the first Jelly Roll I ever bought. It is one by Fig Tree quilts. I stitched all these strips together, but it ended up being a really long narrow quilt top, so for a couple occasions I used it as a table cloth, but now it is a quilt...I unpicked a bunch and did some cutting and more sewing...and I think this will be about 80 by 100 when all is said and done. Anyway the quilting has gone well. I am already learning some tricks about this older Gammill.

The machine is really big, isn't it? I found it on Craigs list on a whim. June, had not used it for over 10 years and was looking to find it a new home. She said her asking price was negotiable, and I love a good negotiation! It is not new, but it is fantastic. And dear heaven it makes quilting easy!

I think we are just going to grill burgers tomorrow...maybe try the Cowboy church. The kids get to rope goats during Sunday school.

I hope your weekend is going to go well. Thanks for stopping by!

Tia

My new Machine!

2011-09-02T13:19:00.000+10:00

We had to have a trailer for our adventure this evening...and Sharon's husband, Brian. I really just got in the way.

After the fellas unloaded the table and set up sweet Lady June I was just amazed about how enormous this machine was. I will be able to quilt king size quilts with hardly any drama.

Doesn't she look happy here? I can't wait to put her in service. She will get the night off to settle in.

I am so happy!

My husband was dashing around so quickly getting everything set up just so, he was hard to photograph. You can see a bit of his knee squatted down on the other side of Brian.

Something I have been meaning to do for years

2011-09-01T23:33:00.000+10:00

This is my husband's checkbook cover. Yep, an old ziplock bag. He loves putting little things in ziplock bags, must be the Infantryman in him? It keeps little things safe and dry in the bottom of your duffel bag, right? Well, I finally made him a pretty checkbook cover. I think he asked me to make him one about 4 years ago, but I swear I have the train of thought of a Beta fish sometimes (3 second memory). Not really, I am being sarcastic. Sorta. My checkbook cover is still the blue plastic one I got when I opened my bank account 14 years ago! It looks worse than the zippy bag up there.

So here is the checkbook cover I made my dear husband. I used my special waxed canvas that I bought in Alice Springs, Australia. I will be so sad when I run out of this fabric. I gave him a pop of color with some Amy Butler fabric. I have a layer of flannel between the waxed canvas and the quilting cotton.

I quilted it with wavy lines using a verigated blue cotton thread named Aswan. Isn't that a great name for a blue?

Nice snug fit for a checkbook. Now I need to make myself one too. I used Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial from a couple years back.

See, he can still keep in it's ziplock baggy. But it just looks prettier, don't you think so too?

My Gammill long arm arrives this afternoon! Do you want to know a secret? Oh, I will just tell you after I have it all set up.

Cheers!
Tia

a new horse has been added to my stable

2011-08-31T06:08:00.000+10:00

What do you think? Pretty big huh? I have wanted to branch out with my quilting for some time now. With this baby I will be able to. I fiddled around with her for about an hour today and I think she is just the thing. It is absolutely stunning how quickly you can quilt a quilt with a long arm. She is a Gammill Long arm and has been in storage for a while, so I assume she will have some kinks to work out, but I can't wait to start quilting my quilts with her! When I am ready I will be quilting for others. This frame is tremendous, so I will be able to quilt up to king size quilts on her. Please let me know if you would like me to quilt one of your quilts.

Have a great day!

Tia

some bags from yesterday

2011-08-31T05:54:00.000+10:00

these are some of the bags I finished yesterday. A backpack for a little boy, a Stu tote for a very patient lady and a zipper pouch for a teacher (that was a last minute thing for my son's teacher's birthday. It is just 2 old 9 patch quilt blocks that I found at an antique shop made into a tiny quilt and then made into a zipper bag.). I am so very happy to be out of my bag rut. I feel like a thousand pound weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I get in bags ruts from time to time, but I don't think I have ever been in a quilt rut. I wonder why that is? Oh well, I am back at the bags and life is so good!

xo,
Tia

peppers and Horney toads

2011-08-29T23:14:00.000+10:00

Hey there folks. I hope your weekend was a great one. Ours was. We froze and entire bushel of fire roasted Hatch Chilies. They are HOT HOT HOT. I cleaned some out to make a roasted potato thing and it felt like I was huffing pepper gas (not that I ever have, but I have inhaled pepper gas in the gas chamber when I was in the Army) Not quite that bad but definitely hot peppers I was working with. I like spicy. Thank goodness the kiddos and my husband do too. ****the potato dish was wonderful. The roof of my mouth is a bit raw, but that didn't stop me from having seconds. The kids had extra helpings as well, but they tried to pick off the peppers.

My neighbors son found this guy ~~this~~ yesterday morning. Isn't he the cutest reptile you have ever seen? Emma immediately charged out into the "boonies" to find her own, but came back with not but a sunburn. Horny toads are an elusive beastie. I used to catch them when I was a squirt living in New Mexico, but I guess there were more of them back then. Heck, I caught any poor creature that was unlucky enough to stumble into my eyesight. My kids are the same. I have taken to having an entire cabinet of jars and containers just for them. Not for storing flowers and toys, but for trapping bugs and reptiles (especially ones found in my shower). Emma is just as feral as the boys. I love it. I want her bold and fearless. I want my boys the same way. I think it will work really well for them in the future.

I love Gods design. This guy is made to eat ants. Our tender human flesh blisters and burns beneath the venom of these horrible western ants, but God gave this fellow armor for his lifestyle. I think he gave us armor too. I always want to be positive and productive, but sometimes I am surrounded by too much negativity and I really do feel like horns and spikes poke through my pink skin.

But despite the thorns and spikes I am lifted up when I see the gifts that I have been given. I have a wonderful family a happy house to live in, more fabric than I will be able to use in my lifetime. I just need a bit of time to recharge and then I am good to go. You have them too, gifts and tools to use in your life. Your gifts and your armor are meant to be. Use them as you are lead, go with your gut and become the tool for great things.

I rearranged my sewing room the other day. Mainly so I could quilt Michelle's Quilt without having my chair smashed each time the back door is opened. I like it like this OK. I have to keep my cutting table small (It lets out to be really big, and I LOVE that when I am cutting a bunch of fabric for bags or quilts.) and that I am not wild about. I have to be much more organized with a small table. But that is fine. I really can organize myself. It is just a bit more of a challenge.

Great things are happening with my bags. I think my first Stu Tote (in months) will be finished tomorrow. Then a backpack quickly thereafter. I feel downright recharged regarding the bags. I have about 7 new bag designs in my imagination, but need about 3 more hours each day to make them pop out. I am working on a Duffel Bag design and I am quite thrilled about it.

I had to buy a new Iron today. My other one had a really terrible demise. It was Ike's fault, (big hairy black cat) he likes to jump up on the ironing board to soak up the afternoon sun, and knocked my iron off while it was turned on and super hot. So one of the plastic feet to the ironing board melted all over the hot part of the iron and liquid plastic got all inside the Iron and there is no way to get it out. The last couple Irons I have gone through have been pretty simple. I just want heavy, hot and Steam. Once upon a time I bought a really fancy one, it had little feet it would perch upon when you set it down...it was so fancy. But I dropped it on tile floor and it started having seizures, so I don't buy fancy ones anymore. I don't think it is worth the money. I will spend a small fortune on a sewing machine and only use 3 of the features on it, but I don't spend money on other things. I guess I have been doing this long enough I feel comfortable with my craft requirements.

OK, I am going to the gym for about 30 minutes and then back home to finish some bags. I can't wait to show you 2 of them. One I really really really want to keep for myself, but maybe I will just make myself one. I am due for a nice one, and I need a fancy bag to carry around Quilt Market in Houston. I am going this year. I can't wait!!!! Will you be there? We can meet up I bet.

Have a great day!

xo,
Tia

What a week!

2011-08-27T23:45:00.000+10:00

I should have a big sing on my house that says "The Sewing House" because that is what I have been doing all week. My stride is back and I LOVE it! I was worried that I wouldn't get back in the sewing groove, but with the kiddos back at school I am back in my sewing room full time. It is great. I have been going to the gym and jogging away on the ARC trainer, then a bit of those gym machines and I trot back home. My shower time has been seriously reduced due to me being afraid of the scorpion family coming to visit, but I am slowly getting over that.

Here is the Miscellany quilt all finished, quilted and bound. I do love it. It is so big, but it was really quite simple to assemble. It is based on the pattern from one of Kaffe Fasset's books, but the strips are all a bit more wide and I put put the quilt top together different. KF wanted me to assemble all the hexagons first, and then assemble hexagon to hexagon on the diagonal beginning with the top corner. Frankly I knew that would make me insane. Can you imagine trying to manuver this beast through your sewing machine when you get about 5 rows into it? With all the Y seams? No way Jose. I kept the hexagons as halves and assembled the quilt by rows. This did involve using the dining room floor as design wall, but that would have happened anyway. There are some points that aren't perfect, but if you are riding by it on a wild horse during a cattle stampede I am sure you won't notice (or however the saying goes). That is what Gwen Marston says. I love her...she has a new book coming out too. I have already ordered mine from her.

So, let's talk quilting. This is quilted very simply. That is what Michelle wanted, so I did it. Frankly I love it. I did add some little spots of hand quilting, just to keep the eye moving along.

Lots of lines, lots of silver thread. I did wish the Gammill longarm fairy would stop by my house and give me one. But since I am going to the gym again I took it! I took the burn. Frankly it was not as bad as it could have been, I do have a wonderful table and such a great sewing machine. But wow, a longarm would have been so nice. Someday I will have one. I will have a dream sewing boutique, little sewing stations set up for ladies to use, lovely bolts of fabric lining the walls, a gorgous Gammill longarm in the back...or maybe in the front? A coffee bar in the mornings and a wine bar in the evenings. It will be so nice and friendly.

Speaking of which, I brought a stack of some of my favorite quilts to the new local quilt shop. I wanted to chat about teaching a couple classes. The beginning quilts she has hanging up are ghastly (in my humble opinion) No one will ever return to her shop to make more quilts. Anyway, she looked at all my quilts and said they were wonderful, but no way could I ever teach anyone how to make them. They would intimidate everyone. So, whatever. I left. With my quilts under my arm. How many ladies have I taught to quilt over the years? Quite a few. I wonder....am I such a crap teacher that I made quilting terrifying for you? Did you leave my house trembling? I hope I made it fun and approachable
.

This has been Stanley over the week. He is terribly bored with me. All I do is sew and listen to music. I wonder if he gets bored with Maroon 5 and Bach? I don't.

Some of my sewing mess last night. I LOVE getting back to the bags. I have neglected them for too long.

But, I think they will be pretty great when they are finished.

Last night I made Chili shrimp quesadillas. And they were AWESOME. I have really enjoyed the last issue of Everyday Food. I made Tandoori chicken the night before last and before that some really wonderful meat, potato and cranberry hand pies. I think I will keep pastry puff sheets in my freezer from now on, you can turn ANYTHING into a savory hand pie. I made extra, so my kids devoured them when they got home from school. I think Emma even took one for lunch.

OK, we have a crazy Saturday planned. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

xo,
Tia

First Day of School

2011-08-27T22:51:00.000+10:00

Hey there Folks. How are you guys doing? We are good. Monday was the first day of school. I know it is now ~~Wednesday evening~~ Saturday morning...I guess that says how busy this week has already been. So, here are my 3 little school kids. This is the one picture I take every year. First day of school, and Christmas. I can't believe how tall they are all getting...well, Sam really isn't getting tall, but his brain is so freaking enormous, I guess the blood flow can't get to his limbs quite yet. Which is fine.

I love these guys. We had a great summer. Full of sun and pool and even the beach. A tiny bit of sewing took place, but mostly just having summer with the kids. They are only this age once, so I better take advantage of them now before they grow up and don't want anything to do with me, or they are embarrassed by me. Right now I am still cool. I like being cool for them.

Here is Emma towering over all the other 9 year olds. I keep telling her that I was the tallest kid in 4th grade and never grew after that (except a bit on the sides and around the hips) so she should take advantage of being so wonderfully tall. Big changes are ahead for this young lady. I can almost see them happening before my eyes. I am so proud of her.

I have been working on this quilt. In fact it is finished, ~~except for the binding~~ it is totally finished, bound and folded getting ready for a quick trip through the wash to get rid of all the cotton fluff from the batting that stuck to the black parts of the quilt. I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It is massive. Just to put this beast into perspective, it has 11, 44 ( 484 inches) inch strips of 2.5 inch binding to be attached to the quilt. This is the third quilt I have made for Michelle Engel-Bencsko. She is wonderful and I love her fabric. This collection in particular is my favorite. It is Miscellany by Julia Rothman for Cloud 9 Fabric. She gave me enough fabric to make a quilt for myself too. There are better detail shots over on my Flickr.

I hope your first week of school is going great. I have another post for some of my other projects.

Cheers!
Tia

cleanest scorpian in West Texas

2011-08-22T02:48:00.002+10:00

cleanest scorpian in West Texas, a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

How do I know? Because I almost killed myself leaping out of the shower trying to get away from him. I didn't notice him until I had my conditioner in...so he was in there a while with me. Why didn't I notice him? I was busy planning how I am going to quilt Michelle's quilt. He is now my prisoner in a Ball Jar.

Just some stuff...

2011-08-21T10:57:00.000+10:00

Happy Saturday folks! I hope your weekend is going well. Early this morning my friends called me and wanted to know if I wanted to join them in having their nails done and then maybe hit some antique shops. The kids were still fast asleep and the coffee was hot in my mug...but I sat it down and said what the heck! I would love to join you gals. My husband had a busy day planned full with getting rid of the junk we seem to accumulate. He loves to purge. So, I left him with it. We weren't going to be away long, so I would be able to jump in to assist before he really even missed me.

Between you and me, I really don't give a toot as to what my toenails look like. I keep them trimmed, and normally I do not polish them, but there is something really nice about sitting in the massage chairs while someone messages my calves. I am normally barefoot (or with just the left shoe on, since I kick off my right one to operate my foot pedal.) so my feet are not the most lovely things in town, but frankly I really don't care. They are feet, I flit around the house with them and I don't think anyone ever looks at my feet, so I don't either. So I was in the back of Jill's van trying to take off my glitter nail polish (Emma and I did do our nails a couple days ago while chatting about the pros and cons of bras...yep she is growing up.) with the last remaining teaspoon of nail polish remover I had on hand with the 2 remaining cotton balls I could find. You would think that 2 cotton balls and a bit of acetone would do the trick, but glitter is hard to remove. I admit that I am cheap. I didn't want to pay the $5 charge for them to remove my glitter nail polish for me. I knew we were going to some really good antique shops and I want...no NEED a good sewing basket to keep my Alabama Chanin dress and skirt safe while sitting beside the sofa.

So I was doing some mental math...should I spend $30 on a pedicure or save it for the antique shops?...One of the ladies announced that she would be sitting out of the pedicure area due to an ingrown toenail, so I announced that I would be too. I told them I was on the hunt for a sewing basket instead. Well, plans changed on a dime and we didn't go the the nail place at all. We ONLY went to the antique places.

I did find a couple items that would serve as great sewing baskets, but I didn't buy them. I figure I am the only one who sews in town, so they will be there when I go back. It was a good RECON. I did buy a bunch of buttons for $4. I love buttons. I used to play with my Grandmothers button box and I still love looking at my mom's button tin.

I love to sort them when I get home. Sam and Emma helped me. This little pile was the junk. Not buttons, and not snaps, just odd bits that wound up in the button jar. A shell fossil, a zipper pull, a bracelet closure some wooden bits and broken buttons. This pile is actually missing a tiny car and 2 old buckles. Sam scooped them right up. Makes me wonder if the lady who used to own these buttons had a little fellow giving her gifts all the time like my boys give me? My sewing drawer does have a couple sewing things like bobbins and seam rippers, but it also has lego dude heads and tiny paper airplanes and little glittery stones that the kiddos give me while I sew.

We sorted the buttons into darks, colors, lights and fancy ones. These are the blacks and brown buttons. These are the serious fellows in your button jars. See them all straight faced and their sarcastic sense of humor?
These are the go toos. I will use many of them as eyes for finger puppets that get given straight away to the neighbor kids as last minute birthday gifts. They will carry on in a different role from their former one. I can see where your previous owner cut you right off the tweed coat you used to hold secure.

These happy kid colors must have graced many a party dress and Sunday best. I can almost hear this little pile laughing and giggleing behind their dirty little hands.

I love the white buttons the best. I love to find the ones made out of shells, and the ones made from glass. I like their formal, yet functional demeanor. I like the change in color from pale yellow to opalescent pearl. Some are made of bone and others even ivory. I love the weight of a handful of these creamy buttons they are more heavy than the others.

We also have a fancy button spot. These are the date night buttons. These are the buttons that were worn on special occasions. They saw their owner on their best days and maybe on their worst. Emma has already snatched up a bunch of these and they are being made into necklaces for her new teacher and her little friends.

I also found these tools. A rusty thimble, a leather needle and a safety pin. All great tools with such important jobs. They were used hard. And I hope they were used well. As I was going through one of the antique shops, I found one of the dealers selling little sewing kits in ziplock baggies for a dollar. It looked like ladies sewing drawers were dumped out into bags. I hope no one ever does that to my sewing drawer. There are such treasures in there. Things that are truly special. Things that evoke wonderful memories. But if it does happen down the road, I hope someone like me finds it. I want my little bits and bobs to live on in their families.

I stacked this quilt yesterday before going to a school meeting. School hasn't even begun yet and already I am going to meetings with teachers and principals. I am not totally sold on how I will be quilting it, I know exactly how I am going to do the applique boarder, but the main blocks and background I am not positive on yet. It will be a while until I get to it, but it was nice to have it all stacked and pin basted.

My husband made a ton of progress on the house sorting by the time I got home. He was on such a roll, that he even set up an overflow area in the garage for some of my sewing things. I think we may have the most tidy garage in town.

I love a clean sewing room. I am all rady to get back to work while the kiddos go back to school.

I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. We are making pizzas for dinner, so I better get to it since the dough is not going to rise much higher.

xo,
Tia

School Starts Monday!

2011-08-19T11:14:00.000+10:00

Because School starts Monday, we have been trying to suck summer dry this week. We have gone to the pool (it wasn't time for Marine Corps Water PT...so no pretty pictures of hunky fellas...sorry. Someday I will try to be subversive and catch some fine looking American Men on my camera, but I don't want to be tossed in the clink.)

Last night Emma had one of her little friends over for a sleep over. My husband was away, so I figured, what the heck. So we watched some crummy movies and made party dresses for Ellie. Ellie is my studio/bed buddy cat. She is sweet...totally easy going and loud as all get out.

She is modeling her kerchief and cape (red riding hood was one of the movies we watched). It is really still too warm for this garmet, but she was a sport and showed us how pretty she was. The girls were so proud.

Heck I was pretty proud. Both little girls were sewing away with my fancy thread and scraps from my dress making experiments. Emma was such a patient teacher.

My cat really does not have much of a face, but what she lacks in face, she more than makes up in sweetness.

Dinner tonight is chocolate dinner rolls and sauteed squash (we are also having leftover grilled chicken and tabbouleh salad). I get lazy and just cook vegetarian while Stu is away. But he was sad about the lack of flesh on the table...until I told him that I grilled the chicken on his new grill. Wasn't that nice of me?

These rolls ROCK. I add more coco to the dough and a bit of molasses. If I only was able to eat one type of bread for the rest of my life it would probably be this roll. Can you see the pretty wheat chaff in the picture? My husband wanted to know if I used my Red Riding Hood wheat in the rolls (He meant Red Hard Winter Wheat) and yes I did. I ground it myself too. Over at Sharon's house with her fancy grinder.

Oh and one last thing...I have bumper stickers. Does anyone want one? I think they are pretty cute. Email me with your address and I will send you one.

Cheers!
Tia

My family as stack dolls

2011-08-15T11:27:00.000+10:00

How are you folks doing? I hope you are all good and I hope you had a GREAT weekend. We had a pretty good time. It rained finally yesterday, so maybe we won't have to drink our own urine (city sewage is perfectly safe I know, but the media around here has been reporting it like we will literally have to void in bowls, boil it and then drink it if we want to remain hydrated during the drought. I love our local media.) Anyway the rain was a blessing.

Have you ever wanted to see your family painted as a stack doll family? Well, I love stack dolls. I have a few. That big mama up there was smuggled out of Czechoslovakia back in the the early 80s when my mom would take tours across the boarder. She was great about smuggling all sorts of crystal out too. The next doll is a story of Cinderella. My older sister gave her to my Emma a couple years ago and I got the short Aqua doll when I was stationed in Germany about 11 years ago. I went on a tour to non-communist Czechoslovakia and was so impressed with the post fall art that I had to get her and let her hang out with her oppressed sister.

So, I was wondering around Hobby Lobby one day and saw the little naked wood stack doll sets and bought 2 on a whim. My wonderful friend and across the street neighbor Sharon Smith asked me to make a diaper bag set for a friend of hers so I presented my stack doll idea as a type of swap. I will make her bag if she will make my family into stack dolls. I would totally have made her a bag anyway...but Sharon is amazingly talented and I did want to reap the benefit of having such a skilled friend.

So, look! Here we are! The Curtis Stack doll family. All the fellas are wearing jeans and cowboy boots. Emma and I are decked out in Alabama Stitch reverse applique. Pretty awesome, huh?

The only 2 that open are the cats (Ellie and Ike) Ike has the blue bird in his belly and Ellie has a kitten...because she is a cannibal and ate one of her kittens. Sharon knows our family pretty darn well to have remembered that story!

Here is sweet Stanley. With his green and brown poka-dot collar and big wonderful brown eyes.

Each of the critters have paws on the bottoms. Isn't that wonderful?

These are my kiddos. Sam, Ethan and Emma.

Look at their little backs! Emma has on a reverse applique skirt. Fancy, huh?

Here are Stu and I. She made his hair sorta grey. and I am decked out in my Alabama Stitch and I have my sewing in my hands.

I love how she made my hair so curly...My stack doll me is having way better hair days than I normally do.

My little quilt is clutched in my hands as are my scissors and spool of thread. I have fancy boobs too...I don't think my bosom is all that fancy in real life, but my stack doll self is stacked. I have fancy boots like the rest of my family.

Stu has his Camel Cup trophy in his grasp. I guess Sharon likes the story of Stu riding a camel in the Alice Springs Camel Cup. He did come in third place. That is my man....quite the winner.

So, I bet Sharon Smith will paint your family as a stack doll gang for the right price. She has a new Etsy shop. So send her an email and let her know you are interested. She is wonderful.

I have the worlds best dad. Did you know that? I was talking to him the other day about some of the stories he would tell us when my sisters and I were little and I wanted to know specificly about the one named "The Bloody Stones of Kerrigan's Keep". He sent me the whole book so I could tell my kids the proper story instead of winging it like I had been doing. We used to love these tales. Dad even included a map because he knows my need to always know where things are "exactly". I love you dad! Thank you so much.

Here is the story! You can read it here if you want a good Irish yarn and don't want to go hunt for the book. On long road trip through the mountains Dad also used to tell us the story of "Falling Rocks" the young Indian brave trying to win the hand of the Indian princess. Sharon's dad told the story a bit differently, well actually totally different as it was not an Indian brave at all, but an ax murderer.

My weekend sewing has been going back and forth between a large bag order and my Miscellany quilt for Michelle Engle-Bencsko of Cloud 9 Fabrics. It is going to be awesome. I finished most of the top and just have the boarder to do.

OK, have a great rest of your weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

A hot but quiet weeknd

2011-08-08T10:31:00.000+10:00

It is too hot to go outside and play...but it was a fine weekend for hanging out all day in your underwear and wrapping up in quilts all day long (as long as you are a little boy). I love this guys summer hair.

See, just hang out and wrap up in a quilt...Mom has lots of them. They are everywhere.

You can even drag them into the dining room and make tiny paper airplanes to send your grandpa. He will spend hours making tiny paper airplanes.

We ripped out our sad little garden this weekend. It was just too hot for the tomatoes to bare fruit, so they just getting into trouble, and harboring horrible spiders.

We did find this guy tucked away under the pepper plants. We will let him grow a bit.

I finished this dress today. I love it and can't wait to wear it around. It is really easter egg, but I don't care. I will wear it anyway.

I dyed the pink myself when we were stationed in Australia. The dye job is all spotty and really quite bad, but once again I really don't care. I do love this dress.

I also finished this T-shirt for my husband. I think he likes it... He wanted me to stitch "Of the Walk" below the cock, but obviously I didn't.

I made fancy seams along the shoulders and arms and down the sides. A T-shirt is really easy to make. You don't even need a pattern. I took one of the shirts that I like the fit from his shirt drawer and drafted a pattern from it. All you will need is a front, a back, 2 sleeves and a neck binding. At first I was intimidated by the sleeves, but that was dumb because they were totally easy.

Another note about this shirt is that I used 2 sheet sets (a heathery blue and a brown) from Target to cut the fabric from. Cotton Jersey costs from $10 to $40 a yard. Well, I didn't want to invest that amount of money yet, so I figured a $25 king sized sheet set from Target was a better deal. It is not awesome cotton jersey, I will admit that. I am sure you can get MUCH better stuff from Natalie Chanin (and someday I will ) but for this go they worked fine. The colors do run like a race horse, so please wash them separately before you start your project. You get a TON of fabric in a King Sized Sheet set.

I love these needles. They are my new favorites. I got them from Purl Soho.

They are sharp, slide through fabric wonderfully and the rounded ends don't hurt your finger that bad while you are sewing for a long stretch of time.

Have a great evening, dinner is ready for us.

Ft McKavett and the South Concho River

2011-08-06T13:31:00.000+10:00

So, these are really some pictures for my sweet parents and sisters...but you can look too. Before we went to the beach we visited Ft McKavett and it was so hot we went to the river. I would have gotten in too, but I actually tripped over the swim bag on my way out to the car...no bathing suit means no swimming for me (in broad daylight with a hundred strangers...I probably would have jumped right in if it was just my little family it was a zillion degrees afterall.) Ft McKavett is the home of Government Springs. It has never run dry. It looks like it is getting close to being dry, but there is still some nice cool water coming up. We all had a drink and so far no one has typhoid. Ft Mckavett was a really well preserved old Cavalry fort, so if you are in the area and have a hankering to see an old Army fort, march down to a little stream and then drive to the river, it is a good day trip.

A little bit of sewing...not much.

2011-08-06T10:12:00.000+10:00

So, when we got back from the beach I checked the mail and look what I found!!!! The new Miscellany Collection for Cloud 9 fabric. It is organic and so very nice. I love the scale and the base cloth is so soft and wonderful. Well, with something so pretty sitting on my table and a couple more days of leave left I decided to dive right in. I know I have tons of other things to do, but really? This is too pretty to leave sitting lonely on the table.

So, first step was to go to the Local Quilt Shop. Wool N Cotton. It is under new management, but at least it is still here. It is a funny shop, fabulous layout and light and tons of notions and a good selection of Moda fabric. Pretty much only Moda, but they are still new to ordering so I may get to see some other lines before I move away next year. The ladies showed proper reverence to this stack of Miscellany and wanted to know how I got connected to Michelle. Frankly I don't really remember. I think I emailed her when I was in Australia and asked her if I could sew for her. I think it was that easy. I have made her 2 quilts in the past Dogwood (her first line with Henry Glass) and Shade Garden (the second line with Henry Glass).

Anyway, I wanted to SEE the solids with the fabric. I have quite a few Kona Cottons at home and really tired to make them work with this collection, but the results were just falling flat. I was sad. Well, not sad just frustrated. So when I entered the quilt shop my eyes were drawn to the grunge solids by Basic Grey for Moda. There is all this different tone in each piece and it was perfect with the Miscellany. And in case you see this quilt when it is finished and decide that you NEED to make one just like it it will be a bit easier to find the fabric I used to coordinate. I am trying to think globally. Right?

So, I am cutting 60 degree triangles from strata....

Here is some of the Strata.... Maybe you can see what I mean about scale? those are about 2 inch strips and you can clearly see each print of each fabric. I am a nut for scale. I really am.

Some more has been happening here. I didn't have enough pink fabric to reverse applique the side panels of the dress, so I improvised and appliqued swirls instead. As I am working on this dress...I have been having dreadful thoughts. You see I kinda think it looks like an Easter Egg. and with my red/pink complexion I am afraid I will look like a fool in it. I would give it to Emma, but it is to big for her. I never get this kind of phobia when I am making quilts. I have make just about anything work as far as quilting goes...but dressmaking may be for the birds. But I do love this pattern. I have been living in cotton jersey this summer. It ROCKS. Natalie Chanin has a third book coming out next year and you better believe I will be ordering it! The first Alabama Stitch Book and the second Alabama Studio Style are both awesome and I think you should order them if you haven't already.

Just in case you are still reading I had my eyebrows threaded this afternoon. I heard it does not hurt, but she had to stop and blot my tears about 8 times. Damn. I thought I had a nice high pain threshold. That HURT. The lady before me had her entire face threaded! And she was laying there like she was having a foot message. Complete with a little smile and everything. Oh and it was in the middle of the mall, so I was also a sideshow for the freaks who were stumbling about...and yes I mean freaks. I wish you could have been there with me we would have probably wet our pants laughing.

And yesterday we had lunch with Daniel Craig. He is handsome as ever...but he is having a bit of an alien problem...and he shouldn't ever wear a cowboy hat...or clothing for that matter. But that is just between you and me. He did get the aliens sorted, so that is good and mostly he did wear his clothes, but they were leather chaps so do they really count? I don't think so.

Last thing...summer is the moving season among military bases. I am getting some really good neighbors! I am so excited!!! But the sad thing is that our water reservoir has been making the news. Apparently we are running out of water (duh...it hasn't rained worth a damn in years) and what we do have is turning blood red. The end of the world is gearing up. I hope not! I don't think I have met my purpose, folks! I have stuff to do yet! Oh and the Warren Jeffs trial is wrapping in town. All the roads around the courthouse are kinda blocked off...but if you are a Texan and Drive a big 4 wheel drive you can totally go around. I know this. I saw it. Several times.

OK, have a great day!

Yours,
Tia

Gannaway Emma Backpack

2011-08-04T02:04:00.004+10:00

Gannaway Emma Backpack , a photo by CampFollowerBagLady on Flickr.

Have you wanted to make your own Emma Backpack, but you live too far away to take a class??? Well, no drama! I have just listed the instructions in my Etsy Shop. I will send you a PDF of the pattern. Hot dog!