Sunday with Chickens and What to do Next

I met a friend this morning at one of our dog club’s agility training barns. We played and trained the dogs for about and hour and then chatted with the owner of the rented barn for about 30 minutes. I was talking to him about a 1984 Mercedes 450 SL he had parked there. I had posters of a 450SL on the walls of my college dorm room when I was a freshman. It was so fun to see that beautiful car. He’s going to let me take it for a drive when he gets it all fixed up!

Rico did a great job during our training session. Fun was definitely had.

The amount of fun he had is directly related to the amount of slobber on his face.

After we left the training barn we went and grabbed some takeout lunch and went back to my friend Anne’s house to eat.

And when we finished lunch we visited all of her fancy chickens. She has a LOT of chickens! Here’s some of them in her outside coop. They were all so happy to be out and were eating all kinds of plants and bugs. Their eggs will be delicious!

This is Lulu. She was an excellent poser during our photo session.

Here’s a bunch of Lulu’s girlfriends. And a couple tiny roosters thrown in for excitement. Click on the photos for a larger view.

And look at these beautiful and colorful eggs! A full dozen of them came home with me. Farm fresh eggs are so amazing!!!

Most of these chickens are pretty small and they make pretty small eggs. This egg was only about 1.5 inches tall!

I got back home right around 4:00 and I hurried and got the dogs out for a quick walk before the rain set in. Well, I hoped we’d get done before the rain set in. I had rain gear on, but Bender and Rico came home pretty wet and we only walked about 2.5 miles.

I didn’t get any sewing done today, but I did give some thought to what I’m planning to make next. I remembered the other day that I had dyed some fabric with indigo with an old friend of mine back before the pandemic started. I was thinking of using some of that indigo to make a bag. I thought it might be interesting to combine it with some indigo batiks that I bought several years ago for a different project I had in my mind and never got to.

There isn’t enough of the fabric we dyed to make something very big. But It would be a great focal fabric for a small project.

I bought these batiks back when I was still just buying 1/3 yards to build my stash. But there are a couple of pieces that are 1/2 yard so I could use one for the lining for a Frankenbag.

I’ll have to give this a little thought and sketch out some ideas. But I think I might dig in on this soon.

While I was turning my sewing room upside down looking for that dyed indigo fabric, I came across this little panel that a friend gave me a few years ago. She had picked it up on one of her travels. I’ve been holding onto it, wondering what to do with it. And now I think I might go ahead and make a bag out of it.

It measures around 18×18 so would be a good size for a bag. It’s all hand cut and hand stitched and quilted. And the colors are really vibrant. I have no idea how it would hold up to wear. I’m wondering if I should do a little more quilting on it to make it a little more stable.

All those colors are layers of different fabrics, combined with hand quilting and embroidery. It’s really cool.

And another bit of detail…

I’ll probably think on that one a little more before I start cutting.

I have some Frankenbags to share tonight. Some people have been pretty busy.

This first one is from Janet Hannah. She upcycled some old jeans into a bag and I love it! I’ve had a fascination with upcycled denim for a few years now. Check out my Pinterest board with way too many upcycled denim ideas! And here I sit, never having made one!

Next up tonight is this bag from Lesley Nammar. This is her first Frankenbag. I love her bright batiks and big blocks of bold colors. I think it’s a great first effort!

Next up: two bags made by Donna Martin. I love her fun and bold prints and all that black and white makes me happy! That little elephant on the second bag is so cute!

These next two bags were made by Wendy Shapiro and her 14-year-old daughter Laura. Laura made the first bag in these photos, and Wendy made the second one.

This was Laura’s first time piecing and quilting. She had only done a little sewing before this, so this was a big project for her. They worked on their bags together, but Laura designed and pieced the turquoise and orange one all by herself.  She designed the quilting and Wendy quilted it for her on her sit down longarm.  Then Laura assembled the bag, all except for the final combining of the bag and lining.  Wendy said the time they spent together in the studio together was the best part. 

They are both wonderful bags, but I’m so impressed with Laura’s first big project! It’s so well made and the colors and designs are so good! Congratulations to both of you!

Next up tonight is this bag made by Elfi. She said she was recently cleaning out her studio because it was making her feel suffocated, when she ran across these fabrics. So she decided to use them for a Frankenbag. It’s really a great way to use that panel, and I love the accent fabrics. Elfi also made a zipper pocket and said this was the first time she had ever done a zipper that way and was really happy with how it turned out. Oh, and she sent a photo of her dog Riley! Like us, they love their walks… but Riley isn’t a huge fan of his boots!

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos!

My computer is running out of power, so I’m outta here!