Merry Christmas from Nottville

Merry Christmas From Nottville!

Christmas Greetings to loved ones all across the country! We will be playing Santa in Alabama & Georgia this Christmas, because Jeff is working in Jackson, Mississippi (till the 29^th,) so logistics made this an easy decision. As a kid, every Christmas was a trek to AL & all these years later, going on that same Christmas trek, as a grandma! Oh what joy!!! We will have our family Christmas gathering at home on New Year’s Eve so; if you’re in the neighborhood….please join us!

Jeff continues to travel much of the time, contracting for various companies so we praise God daily for the work & for cell phones! It looks like we will be going to Billings, MT in the very near future so we are in for a winter adventure for sure. Our kids are all fine: Christopher, Renee & Gabriel are doing great in Chicago. They were here in May, along with Jeff’s folks, so we had a big feed here and really had a wonderful time.

                                                

Brandon has just completed Training with the TX Air Nat’l Guard and will be ‘launching’ very soon, we hope! Melissa is, as always, steady as a rock; working at Food Basket, taking classes at Lone Star College and will also be working as a lab assistant at the school, beginning in January.  My kids in Georgia are doing fine  and  we are planning on being there on Christmas morning when the 3 little girls wake. Pretty exciting stuff for this grand-ma!

Our life is blessed with so many material things, but praise God, I’ve lived long enough to realize the significance of things ‘unseen’. May your Christmas be blessed by Faith (Hebrews 11:1), Hope (Micah 7:7) & Love (1 John 4:10-12), Agape Love.

Jeff & Wanda Nott

Dec 22, 2010

All Stars & Psalms

Finally, here is the variation on Crystals All Stars quilt. Simply insert the Psalms rows (bordered to 12" wide altered w/2 4-patch blocks) and this baby is almost finished. I tried to quilt the wording on the panels but my machine left eyelashes on the back. Only did one, so must frog that and decide on weather to quilt or embroider over the words.....


Life has been so very full for the past few weeks, getting ready for MIL to arrive and our 'annual road trip'. This year was so full we actually combined my annual trip to visit relatives, young & old in Alabama & Georgia, with our annual trip. It was a great time, MIL getting to meet my family, folks I am always telling her about. We visited cemetaries, check out my grandparent's gravestones.....

 

Tommy was a cotton farmer and you can see the time period. Maggie gave birth to 18 children; 9 girls, 2 boys and 7 stillborn; Great stories there.

 We also hopped a few shops, one of my favorites is Qwiltz where I have been shopping since Robbie started out on Ebay, several years ago. They are now in their 2nd location where they are anticipating the opening of the Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA. very soon. Website is not up yet but I am following them on facebook. Lots of bargains were found on Friday at the Hwy 46 'never ending yard sale'. I picked up a JC Penney sewing machine with a box full of feet, for $8.00. Not as good as the deal we found last year, two machines for $7.00....yes, they both work. I love these old machines, so not disposable like the ones at WallyWorld.

Houseguest is gone, pets are past being mad because we left them for 8 days!, laundry is caught up, pot of soup is simering on the stove..... Really, it's seriously time for a nap.

Projects, the Process, All Stars & Butterflys....

I read on someone's blog that bloggers want to read more about the process, rather than the finished project. Here I try to provide some of both...

Projects:

For someone who's Mom always said 'you have a one track mind', I sure do have 'a lot of irons in the fire', so to speak. Road trip to see family all over the southeast coming up so several of the projects have to be finished, actually, some had to be started. Like the butterfly quilt for my sweet grand baby girl Sara Hope, who is one yr. old already!

The Process & the Butterfly's:  (finding a shortcut)

My first plan was to enlarge a paper pieced butterfly; copied, enlarged, traced, copied, ya ya ya! Pieced a few sections, decided this was not a good plan. OK, find a traditional butterfly template (with like 5 pieces of fabric for each) and various prints and solids to put them together, machine applique onto blocks, yes this will be much faster. So while I'm searching and auditioning fabrics I ran across this: 

Oh baby, now I'm cooking with Crisco! One piece per butterfly, cut them out in various square or rectangle pieces and applied steam a seam 2. I then applied them to various background neutral blocks (I bought the flat fold 102 yd. bundle from Marshall Dry Goods!). So here is how it is coming together on my design wall (really a 'big board' ironing surface, with a grid!)....If I was going to do this again I would have done the patchwork and then applied the butterfly's because orienting these properly 'after the fact' is a pain.  (Duh, you can iron right on your design wall! Is this the 'learning curve'? No, I don't do curves! Wanda, you are in the middle of a post here......)!

All Stars:

I really loved Crystal's All Star quilt that was featured on Moda Bake Shop recently and I thought it would be a great pattern for a 'clown quilt' I'm trying to work out in my brain. So then I was hit with news that requires a quick quilt. (Note* the word 'quick' is in my vocabulary but not my arthritic bones!, another relative term...) I'll try that All Stars pattern (since it is already printed and handy!) That top is finally done but you can't see it yet because I'm not finished with the second one (2nd one?)....There were a ton of scraps from trimming those several hundred little squares that were sewn on the diagonal, with those and more neutral backgrounds I can make a small quilt also! Sew them, trim them and I see pinwheels. Here they are, 2" and 4" pinwheels. I'll post pics of both Mommy & daughter 'Quick Quilts' when they are done. (If I have to write about the process, I expect you back to look at the product!) Yes, I like Crystal's pattern very much!

 
More on Process:
Just had to share this, these little girls denim skirts are too much fun. This one already has red thread and red rhinestone's on 1 pocket. I'm going to ruffle the bottom and add a heart applique since the back pockets have red metallic embroidered hearts. I'm listing these on Etsy along with a few quilts....check out my store there, WandaQuilts!

Glad you stopped by, going to finish the butterfly's!

This one is for Aunt Jimmie...

Two charm packs and some yardage...these Michael Miller fairy frost fabrics are too gorgeous! I want a bolt of every color, yeah...I know there are over 100. I cannot choose just one!!! I want to do another, with shadows!

In a 'bind'?

Isn't it great when you have completed several projects all at once? Sure, except 'finish' is a relative term in quilting.... We finish the blocks, finish the tops and even finish with the quilting but it still is not finished until it has the binding finished (and a label!!) I'm 3 quilts, 1 vest, 1 jacket behind on my binding, just from last week!  Labeling all of these at once will make it a quick project, (I print them on fabric treated with Bubble Jet Set) & may be able to do all of these on one sheet!
The first is a 'bolero jacket'; I've had this 'See & Sew (Butterick)' pattern (#5085) for almost 20 years and finally made one. It was a little tricky since the shoulder seams are offset to the front - (note to self - don't forget to mark the dots!) so when you are setting the gathered sleeve you put the gathers in the right place the first time. This is a size 12 and the shoulders are a little tight getting into it but it fits me nicely. I think it will fit my Aunt, if not, then its a good thing it fits me! The photo looks like one arm is longer than the other but it is just the way one of the sleeves is folded over.

This vest is so simple, if anyone out there has never made a garment, any vest is a great first sewing project. 4 seams and a finish-binding in this case! The crosshatching was not the best choice for quilting this but I had a quilt on the frame and this was quick and easy at my 'sit down' machine. had to Git 'er done!

The flip flop quilt is for my grand daughter. The scrappy one - I was very brave and used RED thread to quilt. Every mistake jumps out but I kept telling myself it is a scrappy utility quilt, it's OK. I'm happy with it and will likely make it my new traveler. The last one is going to to my neighbor, who is a Vietnam Vet suffering the effects of agent orange. I think it will qualify as a QOV but have to check with those folks to confirm and document - it has a plain muslin back and the QOV folks want printed backs.

For my regular followers, I wanted to follow up with you on the vintage selvage quilt. I inadvertently left it hanging out on the porch rail after day 2 of letting it 'air'. Well, it rained overnight so when I looked out that morning and saw it, I ran water in the tub and added a little soap; rolled the quilt up and transported to the tub, unrolled and pressed into the water. Repeat 4 TIMES and rinse, and then gently rolled and pressed the water out. placed dry towels under and over, press and switch towels. I threw the original ones in the dryer and switched them again until I had most of the water out, enough so I could carry it back out to the porch rail and  then before night fell, I threw it in the dryer on the 'low heat' and tumbled it for about 20-30 minutes. She is fresh as a daisy and back in the bowels of quilt storage, until I find that teddy bear pattern....Great, another project to add to the 'list'. Today I have a fairy frost fabric quilt to load on the longarm and do a panto on. 4 quilts, a vest and a jacket to bind....

I have Nott fallen off the face of the earth!

but it likely seems that way from my blog. I apologize to my follower's, you deserve better so I will try to get back in the groove! I've been on a couple of road trips w/DH, reclaimed my sewing room and gotten the longarm back up (cut her back to 8') and tackled the very long list of UFO's or WIP's, whatever you like to call them. I actually made a list which for some reason was so daunting, like the quilt police are going to penalize me? While making a list may not seem like such a big deal to you, mine is a spreadsheet, columns A - O and about 35 lines deep, Phases 1 -3; 1 is a kit or project in the planning stages; 2 is broken down into quilt tops/panels/paper piecing/hand projects/other projects; 3 is the longarming, binding and labeling (binding is broken down into cut/attach/finish). I had to do it this way, it was far to alarming to put each item in a single column, that is heart attack material! This makes me some special personality type but I don't know which, if you know please tell me, unless you see schizophrenic tendencies. I don't need to know about that. Anyway, it is working for me cause I have finished 5 tops that only needed assembling and/or borders, quilted 1 and almost finished another on the longarm and  decorated this little denim skirt.

Two of the quilts were flip flop quilts, one I satin stitched, the other I used a short stitch length and left them raw edge. I think it will be cool once it is washed. These will be on the quilt frame soon as they will be fun and easy background fill mostly. I anxious to put the ribbons on, branching out into a whole new area - embelishment, which reminds me of my dolly dresses panel and the clown quilt I need to start.....

The other 3 tops are approx queen size, one is a gift for a special aunt, (it is all fairy frost and I have heard longarmer's don't like it so we'll see, fairly soon as it is a P1 on the spreadsheet). I'll surely post a pic when it is done. Right now, I'm in wearables mode and going to finish that jacket I started last year....

Selvage surprise!

My dear friend Jane sent me this gift she found at a trade days/flea market about a year or so ago and in my recent 'cleaning/organizing project', it has surfaced from the depths of quilt storage. I was not up to  actually starting on the work that this baby needs but thought a good 'airing' would be nice and I could make notes on exactly what needs to be done. Maybe an appraisal?

The batting is cotton wadding! The hand quilting is giant baptist fans, one of my fav quilting designs!

Imagine my excitement when I found not one but TWO selvages!

The giant prints appear to be decorator fabrics, very thick; some of the center blocks are pieced in crazy patch style and then large strips were used to 'get er done'; definitely my kind of quilter. The back is a very sturdy (and dirty) muslin. The majority of the wear and tear is around the binding and on the edges. I would love to restore this baby but what a project! Washing it in the tub is the only option I know of but with that batting, I doubt I would be able to lift it out of the tub once wet. Anyone out there ever taken on a restoration project? Any tips or websites? The selvage nut in me is screaming "take it apart and check out the selvages, you know they are there"!

Good Grief! How is a Grand-Ma to keep up?

Technology has run over me like a steam roller in the past few weeks. It all started when T-Mobile offered a BOGO sale and DH got me a 'smart phone' cause he 'absolutely had to have a new one'. (Really! I was in agreement.) So this thing connects to gmail and does everything but wash the dishes but somebody has to show me how to make it happen! Just transferring my contacts took me days to figure out so I was feeling a bit disconnected for a while.
So, I also have a laptop that has only been used for business so I'm thinking I really want to do away with the old desktop as it has become a magnet that keeps me tied to the desk, (2006 model) so while the geek kid was here I want him to 'do the deed' and transfer everything to the laptop. We were trying to do this while taking care of Gabe and Renee was grooming the dog out back. The whole process he expected to take hours but one or the other of the 2 computers would go to 'sleep' mode and interrupt (cancel) the process so I start manually moving files, i.e. the fewer files to be moved the shorter the process?
In the meantime I get an E-mail announcing the opening of the Online Quilt Museum from Karen over at the selvage blog and sign up right away! Great, all my pics are on the laptop and I'm still working off the desktop. Karen was a doll and offered to post the pics for me from my webshots album since I was in technology crisis mode. There are issues with the pics but the thumbnails aren't bad. I have to resize the pics, another challenge! Technology 'bullying' me around again. And what the heck is Windows Mail and where is my Outlook Express? Did I mention I'm determined to learn this EQ5 program (maybe before EQ47 is released!) and cannot find the disk?
OK, Windows has this cool transfer wizard but I (duh) gave it a new identity so would you believe I now have 2 users on the laptop, pics are in original owner users files and everything else is in the 'new' users identity. Alas, they can share files, yeah, technology is grand and my name ain't Grand-Ma for no reason! XP to Vista, why can't I just skip up to Windows 7? It costs how much???? Gabe, at 9 months is already playing with an IPad!

Vienna on my mind

Vienna was my DH's previous wife, they had 3 children (Chris, Brandon, Melissa), then Vienna married Kenny and had 3 more (Sarah, Frank, Amy). Vienna passed away (breast cancer) when Amy was 3. That was 5+ years ago. Vienna's first grand child was born on the same date she passed away, 5 years later.

Fast forward about 9 months....Gabriel came to Texas to see all his family! 

Grandpa is so talented....can hold Gabriel and take a self pic at the same time!

Melissa, Sarah & Amy.

Great Grandparents, Jack & Lois Weikel from Montana...

This is a group shot of almost everyone who came, Jeff is the photographer so he's not in there and George & Carol Miller from Waco, TX. had already headed home. Thanks so much for coming everyone! I had a wonderful day.

Vienna took me by the hand and looked me in the eyes before she died. She said, 'Thank you for taking care of my kids'. I didn't really understand at the time, but she did. I could not figure out what I had done that she was thanking me for. Now, I get it.

'No, Vienna; Thank You!' They bring me more joy than I could have ever imagined, so much so, that I sometimes feel guilty for experiencing the joy that is rightfully yours, that comes with nurturing them, no matter how old or how big they get. Happy Mother's Day to all women, even the one's who never gave birth.

The Airing of the Quilts

If you happened to be in Huntsville, TX. on the first Sat. in May, of any given year....you are truly in for a treat! Even if you don't particularly get excited about quilts, you can't possibly resist this display of color!

Despite the threat of rain, volunteers arrive at 7AM to begin hanging the quilts.

This one caught my eye from a block away. 'To Grandma's House' by Helen Belcher. Helen has always been a big fan of redwork but now she has moved on to black. I love it Helen, in any color!

Check out this quilt called 'Fireman's Pride', made for Houston Firefighter Captain Don Gray from shirts worn during his years of service, received upon his retirement. Made by Pam Boyle.

The photo didn't catch the number of this entry so I do not know who made it but WOW! Love your boldness with the sashing/border colors!

Last, but my favorite of all is this hand embroidered beauty. The embroidered blocks were a gift (can you believe it?) to Charlene Foerster, who assembled the blocks in order of admission to the Union. Really beautiful Charlene. Bug, are you seeing this?

I only got a few shots, so to experience this, mark your calendar for the first Sat. in May, you want to be in downtown Huntsville, TX. More pics should be on the website in a few days, (takes them a few to recover) so visit the Tall Pines Quilt Guild for more....

And look who arrived at my house yesterday......

I gotta go play now, Gabriel is up and feed and ready for his first full day at Grandma's House!

More Gardening Than Quilting….

I'm quite proud of my little garden, even if I will have to spend a big part of the summer in the chiropractor's office. Wonder if he will take squash for payment? Don't laugh, we're getting there! I won't go off on politics, I'll leave that to DH....anything to keep him out of my sewing room!

These amaryllis's all came from my Aunt Nelda's yard when she passed away 4-5 yrs ago. I brought them home and stuck them in the ground, have never done anything else to them. the white-ish with red one has more than 20 blooms on it now and 6-8 more buds.

One of the stems was laying over from the weight of them all so I tried to 'prop' it up and snapped at the ground. I took the shot next to a bar stool for posterity! Fresh flowers in my house? Is company coming? Well, yes, in-laws, outlaws, kids and grandkids! The flowers were not my idea, that was God's doing!

Hello Hattie! (my mom) This is her Christmas Cactus, still in the same pot it was in when she died 12+ yrs ago. I have pinched and rooted dozens more from it and it never gives up, even this past winter when almost all if my cacti literally froze, even in the shed, with a droplight for heat. We rarely get below 20 degrees here and if so, it is only for a few hours but we had about 48 hrs of below freezing in Jan.

Here is what is left of Hattie's Bird of Paradise; she had it in a half whiskey barrel and moved it in and out every year - not me! I put it in the ground under a tree when we bought this house 8 yrs ago. I has not really grown any larger since it was really root bound and impossible to pull the roots apart when we set it out. It has a dozen or so blooms every year but has never done what is should. Sorry Mom, maybe this will help?

It covered this entire area of dirt B4 so this is a major trim. Look what I found while gardening in my flip flops! Picture definitely tells a story. I'm wondering where his momma and siblings are?

One more pic, cause this IS a quilting blog....

PS: the 'golden' machine is still in the shop with no call from them so what little sewing that is happening is happening on my classic Elna Stella. This is a 30+ yr old gem for traveling, only weighs 11 lbs and, unlike a Featherweight, has a zig zag stitch!

Hope you enjoyed your little tour of my backyard! Happy Spring!

Bad, bad blogger! And my machine is in for repairs again!!!

I owe my dear followers an apology and do apologize and beg forgiveness! I could give you an excuse for every day since my last blog, with most days having been 'stinking income taxes'! Whoo Hoo, they are finally done and for the first time in a long time, we are actually getting money back! QuickBooks is great - provided you know how to use it! I learned accounting with a green columnar pad and a # 2 pencil so wrapping my brain around this program has been difficult, at least that is the excuse my friends (who know nothing about accounting and pay other people to do their taxes) are offering up. I guess I can be anal about some things but thankfully, quilting is not one of them!
So to celebrate the taxes being done I went to the garden center at Lowe's! And went crazy with the plants. What on earth prompted me to buy okra plants? I like fried okra but do I need a whole row? Well, they do grow very tall so I must have been thinking something like a 'privacy fence' between my garden and the dump next door. Yeah, I'll stick with that one! So, I get up yesterday morning and start digging, going build a raised bed where I had that beautiful compost pile for over a year ago until the Bermuda grass took over! I have been a gardener for longer than I have been a quilter and I love to dig in the dirt, but there is nothing worse for my bad back. I have learned to take care of this old injury over the years and I know better, but the thought of paying almost $2.per lb. for squash just makes me cringe! This is because once upon a time, (in another marriage, in another state) I had about 1/2 acre of squash in the backyard and picked on average over 100 lbs. per week! I swear! When I could not give any more to the neighbors, I would stalk them and when they would leave home, I would leave squash on the porch! I was selling squash to the grocery stores! Anyway, a neighbor offered up some rail road ties he had stacked in his yard so long story short, the Bermuda grass and the rail road ties whipped my butt and I had to take a pain pill to get to sleep last night! I still have to get them set and the planting done so as reluctant as I am to take any kind of pill, I am anxious to actually have my plants in the ground, as I see it in my 'minds eye'! My desire to be out there working and the pain in my lower back/hip are at a 'draw' so I am sitting in front of the computer. I'm looking at the bright side here, I got a blog drafted, maybe it will get posted too!
Not much sewing for the last few weeks...my 'not-so-beloved-anymore' 'golden X' brand machine is in for repairs again! This machine has disappointed me greatly, having been in for major warranty work 5 times now, in 5 yrs. It's their 'low end' machine but it was a huge purchase for me! Plus, I had the fluorescent light and the knee lift added on, another cha ching.  I have bonded with it and miss it very much since it has been in the shop for at least 90 days of every year that I have owned it. Seems more like a rental contract! Some history here; out of the box the button-hole attachment did not work. That repair was 90+ days. Next it was the display panel; and I don't even remember the other 2 issues at this point. This time the feed is not consistent for the decorative stitches above #22. I mentioned my disappointment in my purchase with the dealer and I think I insulted her when I asked if this machine could be a 'lemon'. When, after about 10 days, I called to inquire, she said her DH (the repairman) was agreeable to exchange this machine for another (same model) that she recently got on trade in (upgrade) that is approx the same age. OK, I'm agreeable, provided it works! Oh well, he (DH the repairman) needs to go thru it and do maintenance/service b4 it goes out. Well, OK, when will that be? Likely August if history is any indication. She will call. That was about 10 days ago. This backache may have prompted more than just a blog post. I'm going to write a letter to the people at 'golden X' Company but aside from venting; what do I want? How about a $1300. machine that works 12 months out of the year without a 90 day vacation? I thought that was what I bought!  I have known I was going to have to do this but I avoid conflict like the plague so here I am in pain, wishing I could just go sew and getting PO'd all over again. Given just the info I have told you....would asking them to replace this machine with a new one be out of line?

My Ripple in 'Blogland' continues....

Jackie over at http://www.cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/ does a regular podcast about quilting. What’s a podcast? Well, I just graduated to a recycled ipod nano a few months ago, where I listen to audiobooks while I’m in my sewing room so, I’m not really qualified to answer this, but it is like a radio show that you can subscribe to every day. So, Jackie did an interview of (my new friend in blogland,) Karen Griska who ‘invented’ the selvage quilt and has fashioned, if you will, a whole new genre of Quilters.

So, this podcast is all about how Karen came to make her 1st selvage quilt and her journey since; including a book published by AQS, (an accomplishment in itself) all the rage around the globe and the projects that have emerged. This is a high tech operation, complete with pics. You can go to the itunes website, download to your desktop and listen on your computer too. If not, all the projects are featured on Karen’s blog,…. drum roll please….including my selvage wallet! Karen actually mentions it in the podcast, you can rewind and hear it over and over again, she says and I quote ‘a selvage wallet’!
Oh, I love these gals, they really know how to pump me up. If only I wasn’t working on income taxes and could go up to my beloved TMSR today! (TEMPORARY micro sewing room).
However, there is more fun in store because these 2 have teamed up to give away 2 signed copies of Karen’s book ‘Quilts from the Selvage Edge’. Jackie is such a sweetie, you can enter as many as 3 times! Oh, I hope I win one! Here is a link to my post with the selvage wallet that has gotten me involved in all this excitement…Enjoy!
http://wandaquilts.blogspot.com/2010/02/selvage-fu

Global Warming? Really?

This is what I thought was a lot of snow, considering we're near Houston.

Really glad I got the shot,

this won't last long....

hope the snow shows up in the pic.....


And I go on about my business and about an hour later ......

would you look at that. And they say we need to spend billions on research about global warming?

I'm having a hard time sewing too since I have window right above the machine.

Loving my 'Quilty' Life

I am so addicted to all the quilting blogs…I can’t stop surfing when every blog has incredible eye candy. Is there anything more fun than seeing all these incredible projects and getting the scoop from the artist, first hand? So inspiring too. And the selvages…let’s just say DH is worried about my mental health and not go there today, except to say that my little wallet caused a small ripple of it’s own in ‘blogland’ so how cool is that??? I sent a link to Kathy over at StudioKat and she said ‘I made her day’ so I’ve been on a natural ‘quilt high’ since my last post. Seriously folks, this stuff is addicting… connecting with Quilters all over the world, and networking, and forming new groups, with new projects to follow, and it’s ongoing, ….it boggles the (my) mind! And I’m just a beginner, an amateur at this blogging.  Ugh, I may be getting too old for this much excitement, or maybe I can call it exercise? Certainly gets the blood pumping so I’ll call it my ‘cardio’ workout;)

As for progress in my new ‘TMSR’ (temporary micro sewing room), I finished a simple, fall themed panel w/2 borders project one day and aside from the fact that the selvages have taken over, I am preparing for my BOM group that I teach. These two gals are so much fun…I must say that they are teaching me as much, or more than I am teaching them; the memories will be woven into the quilt, same as the thread. How could I not love my ‘quilty’ life? (Thank you Jeff, for putting up with me.) Teaching is challenging me to the point that I have committed to really learn that EQ5 program I invested in a few years ago. They came out with EQ6 just after I bought it and I have no doubt that EQ7 will arrive about the time I actually learn EQ5. Such is life, I am always playing ‘catch-up’.

Selvage Fun

Several months ago when I discovered 'The Selvage Blog' I have had a selvage wallet in mind. Here is what I came up with.

I have almost finished the binding on several of these adorable wallets. Tons of fun to make!

 

I moved the cc to where a checkbook will go so pic would show the checkbook or notepad pocket. They don't have a closure yet but not sure yet that one is necessary.

My design skills are limited; I searched out a free pattern on the web, made it, took it apart and then redesigned to be a complete clutch wallet, where the original only had cc pockets and a zipper pocket opposite, no fold. Here is where I found the original free pattern called a 'Cash-Keeper'.... StudioKat  If you love purses you will love this site! Check out Kathy's awesome purse patterns, follow her on Facebook or her blog!