Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, chameleon, You come and go, you come and go.

This ABU Thyme totebag was made for an Air Force officer's baby gear.   The bag was designed to have bright accent colors to please Mom, yet not too feminine so Dad could lug it around and not be embarrassed.

These bags hold up really well as DOD battle uniform fabric is tough and this one is no exception.  The rank was removed from the collar and appliqued at the base of the handle straps. The various tags, awards, and buttons, remained as originally placed.  The pockets are still fully functional.

On the inside of the front of the bag, a huge fully lined quadruple pocket was added.  The military uniform pockets come from the bottom of the front of the ABU. On the narrow side, a small pocket was added to fit a cell phone.

The interior was lined with 4 different fabrics.  The front and back interiors were made from denim and and a bright home-decorator weight print.. 

The side panels were made from quilting fabrics.  The patch panel had a vertical strip of the same floral to add some color.  The Dad's unit patch was appliqued on the top. Mom works at a university so we added the school mascot (repurposed from a drink koozie) to the bottom.

The other side panel was all about the Mom.  She is a PhD candidate in the field of Biology so we designed the panel to look somewhat like a DNA strand.

 This couple will be awesome parents and their future baby will be in great hands!

So what if I'm a Hamm and cheese on rye? I gots to do my thing and that's no lie

  

This tote was made for a USAF NCO wife.  She wanted something bright to contrast with the subdued colors of her husband's ABUs.

Between the Alexander Henry home dec fabric used as the interior lining and the Hoffman cotton used on the exterior sides, it should be vibrant enough! The interior pockets are actually double pockets.  The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone. The rank that was on the uniform sleeves was sewn to each of the narrow sides of the bag.

The interior pockets are actually double pockets. The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone.  The pocket on the wide side is made from two uniform flap pockets which then create a third pocket.

Came out rapping when I was born Mom said rock it 'til the break of dawn

This Thyme Tote was made for a woman who just gave birth to her first child last night.   Her colors for the nursery were orange and blue so I tried to coordinate the bag with that color scheme.

The majority of the exterior of the bag is made from the recipient's husband's Air Force ACU shirt. The side panels are a modern print and the handles have a crazy orange motif from Hoffman. I added the rank to the base of the handles.

The fabric is a vintage 70's print so it may be older than the proud parents.  The interior of the bag is very roomy and will be able to hold all the baby accessories that these little ones require.  The large pocket is actually a triple pocket (one big one and 2 ACU ones side by side).  The smaller pocket is a double pocket made from the ACU pen holder from the sleeve of the uniform and can fit a cell phone so it doesn't sink to the bottom.  This bag is definitely not too feminine for Dad to carry. 



I've got billions and billions of rhymes to flex 'Cause I've got more rhymes than Carl Richards got turtlenecks

This quilt was made for the retiring Regional Director of Webster University-National Capital Region.  Dr. Richards worked for Webster for nearly 20 years, expanding the one campus at then-Bolling AFB to four locations in the National Capital Region.  Webster-NCR is composed of 4 campuses to include the regional hub at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Fort Belvoir, the Bureau of Naval Medicine and Surgery, and Joint Base Andrews.  

The 3 branches of service are memorialized by the nautical signal flags that spell out CARL RICHARDS, the airplane fabric used in two flag blocks, and the Army BDU fabric used as sashing.  The BDU fabric is part of a uniform from an employee’s spouse.  The digital ACUs are from a former coordinator  who also serves in the National Guard. Carl is an avid skier, so snowflake motifs are utilized as well. The R fabric was chosen as it is the first letter of his surname. These can be seen in the H block at the bottom of the complete quilt.

 

The yellow with the light blue scrolls is the same fabric as used in the window treatments at the Fort Belvoir office.  Dr. Richards is a known coffee aficionado and an oenophile, so 2 coffee designs and a wine print were incorporated as well.   

Webster’s main campus is in St. Louis, so Cardinals fabric was incorporated. Additionally, Baltimore Oriole fabric was used to represent Maryland, Dr. Richards’ home. The cherry blossoms represent the District of Columbia, and the gold coin motif was chosen as a symbol of the financial success of Webster-NCR under Dr. Richard's reign. The bright blue fabric with large lettering is repurposed from Webster tote bags as is the central square.The center of the quilt depicts the Webster Gorlock, mascot of the University. I hand-tinted the image before quilting it.

   

 

We will miss Carl greatly as he steps away from Webster World and embarks on his new ventures.  Best of luck to him.

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Always

This quilt was commissioned for yet another Webster employee who was departing for greener pastures.  Actually she was going to Georgia which was just fine with her as it was closer to her extended family.  Once again, the Webster Gorlock is front and center.  The recipient loves the color purple so I made sure that was incorporated in the border.  She also is a big fan of angels so luckily I just happened to have some angel-motif fabric in my stash and said fabric also had touches of purple.

The quilt was machine-pieced and machine-quilted.  The recipient lives by the quote in the title of this post.  She has it on memo pads, a framed calligraphy, a quilted messenger bag (haha, guess who designed THAT! :) ).

I had a chance to share an office with the recipient (an SC State alumna!) for awhile.   She was a lovely, lovely lady, a true pleasure to work with (yes, I know that is a dangling participle at the end of the sentence).  Her husband was always so polite when he dropped by or called and her little guy was darling as could be. I will always remember that she specifically got a flu shot when my immune system was compromised due to the chemo and radiation.    I didn't ask her to do so.  She just always went above and beyond in caring for others, whether it was a student, a young soldier's wife,  or even her crazy co-worker.

So kick off your shoes and put on your swim fins Cause when it comes to quarries I'm known to swim

This totebag was made for a coach of the Cottontail Cobias, one of the many teams in the Northern Virginia Swim League. Like I do with all my bags, I appliqued pockets on the inside for a cell phone and other accoutrements.

I used a Cobia t-shirt and a fish-themed batik print for the exterior. Yellow and blue fabrics were coordinated for the interior.  The Cobia shirt was reverse-appliqued into the batik.  The entire bag was machine-quilted.

Factoid of the day:  The Cobia is also known as Rachycentron canadum. 

Thyme I

I'm a decent needleworker but only a so-so-at-best computer geek. My fellow Tartans would be appalled as our school is fairly well known in the computer world. In fact, I just recently discovered that it was at Carnegie Mellon where the sideways smiley :) evolved. This was back in the days when we had bboards and computer labs instead of PCs or gigantic mainframes with cards. In any case, I am not so great at formatting these posts but I will keep plugging along and hopefully I will get better. Thyme marches on....

The Thyme is a tote bag that uses both the back and front of the uniform. This Thyme was made for a Coast Guard wife who incorporated the colors of her sorority by selecting two shades of blue (and yellow) for her coordinating fabric. With the additional yellows and the blues, this color choice would be ideal not only for sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma (ΚΚΓ) but also members of Alpha Xi Delta or Sigma Gamma Rho. The recipient opted for an exterior side pocket so she could put a water bottle in it.

BDU shirts have 4 patch pockets with flap closures. My designs always use the two breast pockets on the exteriors of the Thyme, Marjoram and Pansy and I use the lower pockets in the interior of the bag. Since the Coast Guard utility uniform only has 2 pockets instead of 4 like the DOD service uniforms, I made interior pockets from the patches on the arms which I am assuming are there for reinforcement.