What a week

Good Morning! How are you doing? We are swell. It got chilly last night and we had a bit of frost on the ground when I woke up. That was pretty neat. A good change of pace from the Hot days. I voted yesterday. This is the first time there has been an election and I have been in town. Normally I am overseas and I figured no one cares about the ballots the military dutifully fills out so I didn't participate.

Well, This time I did! Did you know it was easier to vote than it was to get a library card? I had to fill out a funny ballot since I am still registered in Bell County and am now living in Tom Green County. But I feel very happy about exercising one of my wonderful American rights. So, all of you go on out and vote. Those of you who know me, I am sure you know how I voted ;o)

So, lots happened this week. My computer is back to it's speedy working order and the recovery went pretty well. I need to update my blog roll, since some of my everyday blog reads aren't listed below and some of the ones that are listed seem to be little dead blogs. How sad.

Let me introduce you to my brilliant neighbor, Sharon. She is an artist. I never think to introduce myself as an artist, but she most certainly is. I love going over to her house...she is always working on something AWESOME. We feed off one another's creativity. She is an Air Force wife and mother to 5 little boys. Our entire Curtis Clan really digs her family. And why am I introducing you to this amazing lady? Well....we are in cahoots! I am making little pocket clutches (as well as some other things, which I am wickedly thrilled about)  for the Christmas Bazaar here on base and Sharon is making tiny little "Texas" paintings on them. We were talking the other day and kinda whimpering about living here. Now, let me stop there a second. As military spouses we don't get much of a say in where we have to plant our uprooted families, right? If I did have a say, we would have moved to the rain. I am kinda tired of being landlocked or in a desert. No offense to you desert people....I just wanted my skin to hydrate a bit. Anyway, we were trying to jazz ourselves up about loving San Angelo, so we decided to have an art off....and then it kinda morphed into her doing little paintings on linen for me to make into bags. Bamm. Now we are making little clutches. I have some below for you to look at.

 Here is a shot for my family. The boys loving on sweet Stanley McCrystal. Can I just say how much we adore this enormous fellow? I think he has put on about 20 pounds since we brought him home from the pound. He is such a great companion. When the kids are at school, he is wherever I am, laying under my sewing table or here under the computer niche. He gets bored during the day and tosses his ball at me then takes me for a walk, so we don't get fat. Pretty good fellow.

 I finished this Cathy Bag for Michelle. I really wish my pictures could do justice to my bags....this is a great one.

 OK, here are some of our little pocket clutches. I think the Farm Fresh Hens are my favorite. I really liked making the little seed stitches that the hens are pecking at. Sharon pained a Horny Toad one that I really loved too, but she took some to show off to the good folks at Leddy's Boots and that is where they stayed.

 This is such a great pattern, because there are soooooooooooo many ways to tart the clutches up. You are limited only by your imagination. This pattern is by Keyka Lou. Her patterns are pdf downloads so they are INSTANTLY available. I am not really a pattern stitcher....I am more of a visual gal, so her step by step instructions are wonderful for me. As I am writing my patterns for general consumption I am investigating how other designers do it. Apparently I don't do things like other people, so I am trying to rewire myself. If you like making little bags (and you know I do!) you should go to Keyka Lou's website and give a couple a try. She even lets you make the bags and sell them! Most independent pattern designers don't let you do that. I don't think I want to....but I guess it makes sense.

 Oh and the final thing from this week (up until now anyway) is a self portrait. For this last Row 10 for Lucinda, she wanted to have square within a square, a wild block and a self portrait....well, there I am. I like my long legs. I don't have long legs in real life, so it is cool to have them in my quilting life.

OK, gotta go sew.

Have a great day and I will be back for a really AWESOME tutorial on how to make circles for applique. It will be the next step in our quilt along.

xo

Tia