Month: August 2022

I’m not completely out of my creative slump but I’m making some progress. So I’ve been thinking about my next project and buying stuff I think I’ll need for the direction I’m going.

I bought this book several years ago and just love the stuff that’s in it.

I’ve followed this woman on Instagram for a few years. The stuff she makes is relatively simple, or maybe she just makes it look simple. But it’s all really nicely made and she has lovely taste in fabrics… although she tends to use a lot of neutrals. But I find her stuff really attractive.

Here’s a couple of bag patterns that are in this book. Simple. Incredibly well made. Impeccable.

I bought another bag pattern from her that wasn’t in the book. It’s similar to the one with the blue print above. I’ve never made it but want to.

Earlier this week she posted a link to a YouTube tutorial she did for a very simple tote bag. I decided that I’m going to make one just to see how it feels when it’s done. Here’s her tutorial.

I’m going to make it out of some denim I have on hand and will line it with a piece of fabric a friend of mine gave me a few months ago.

She said she uses the Pellon SF101 fused to the outer body of the bag. It’s a woven fusible interfacing. It should be a little more rigid and structured than the non woven fusible interfacing I use in my Frankenbags. So I bought some online today and picked it up at the store this evening. I think I might use it on the outer bag and the lining because I like that extra structure.

I also did some other online shopping this week. First, I bought some 1/2 inch metal snaps and some rivets.

That’s a lot of snaps and a lot of rivets! I’m guessing they may last me the rest of my life. I really like snaps. That click when they’re all nestled together is so satisfying. And I love the finished look that rivets give an item. So expect some rivets in my future. There’s just something about the look that the metal hardware brings to a bag that I love.

I also spent some time looking at various types of straps and webbing to use for bag handles. I couldn’t make myself pull the trigger on any of these because they don’t feel very high end to me. And I want something that feels a little nicer. Also, I’m hesitant to buy webbing online because you just have no idea how it feels, how substantial it is, or what the actual color is.

So I had an idea… biothane. If you’re not a dog person, you may not have any idea what biothane is. It’s a synthetic leather type material that’s used for dog leashes and harnesses. It’s also commonly used for horse bridles and lead lines. It’s water proof and cleans easily with soap and water. It should hold up really well to washing.

It’s a lovely material. It’s soft and pliable and comfortable in your hand. And it’s really durable. I have a feeling it will make really nice bag handles. At least I hope so since I just bought 100 feet of it! You can buy it in any color in the rainbow but I went with the brown to mimic the feel and look of leather.

I’m guessing I’ll probably use this with more practical fabrics, like denim and maybe some canvas, and not with KFC fabrics for this type of tote. But you never know. If I like it I might have to end up buying it in every color they have!

The snaps and rivets should be here tomorrow. The biothane won’t be here for a week or so. I might just use some black nylon webbing I have on hand for this first one. Maybe wrap the webbing with some of the denim. I probably won’t be able to wait until the biothane delivered.

I had an idea the other day for a fabric combo for a Frankenbag that I’m going to make for a friend. She loves teal and pink together. So this fabric came to mind immediately.

My friend also loves Aboriginal fabrics. So I’m going to dig into my stash this weekend and see if I can find a combo of some KFC fabrics and Aboriginal fabrics that will work with the pink and teal color way. It might really be fun. Or it might really be awful. I’m going to hope for really fun! I’m planning on doing more of the curved blocks I did a few months ago, like in this bag.

In fact….. just picture this bag but in pinks and teals instead of purples and greens. It will definitely be bold. It will be interesting to see what fabric combo I land on.

We’ve had lovely weather this week but it’s getting hot again this weekend. We’re supposed to hit 100 again on Sunday. So it looks like I’ll be spending Sunday at home… but I might get out early and play some pickleball before it gets hot.

Rico has his regular herding lesson tomorrow morning.

I might actually do the tune up on my Featherweight tomorrow! A friend of mine said it should take an hour or so. That sounds like a good project for a hot weekend. I’m itching to get going on making a lap quilt for my friend who gave me the machine!

It was another beautiful day here in Portland. I’m loving the weather now that it’s cooled down a little. It was so nice that Bender and Rico were content to hang out in the back yard all day as I worked.

We had a nice 3.5 mile walk after dinner. We all needed it because we didn’t get an afternoon walk today. The weather was just perfect.

Last night we saw a coyote near the end of our walk. It was a REAL coyote this time… not one of those yellow lab coyotes. It was standing right in the middle of the road about three blocks away from my house. By the time I got my phone out to get a photo, it had moved into the yard on the corner.

That’s a really terrible photo, but I swear that little gray smear is the coyote as it ran up that hill. Although I’m not particularly scared of coyotes as it’s really unlikely one would come after us with two big dogs, there’s something really creepy about seeing them in the dark!

We took our walk a little earlier tonight so were home before it got dark so there wasn’t much worry about coyotes.

Once we got home I hit my sewing room to finish up the blue birthday bag. I didn’t have much left to do so it didn’t take very long. (I’m adding the link to my Frankenbag tutorial here as I get comments on nearly every post asking me for it.)

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s definitely a totally different feel than the dark bag I finished a few days ago.

The back side actually is different from the front side. Honest.

I just love that blue ferns fabric for the lining. It seems more periwinkle to me than my photos show. It’s a gorgeous blue… and I’m not typically a blue person.

On this bag the white zippers are perfect!

Here’s some detail for your perusal.

Oof. That photo of my tag is pretty blurry.

Oh, and this is a good time to point out that I’ve started sewing my tags on by machine rather than by hand. I just set my machine for a zig zag stitch with a zero stitch length. I like the way it looks.

I went and played pickleball last night… the first time in nearly two weeks. The hot weather had kept me home. It was fun but I felt like I played like crap. I definitely felt pretty rusty. I’m going to play again tomorrow night and am hoping I’ll be a little more in the groove.

I’m happy that my shoulder was not irritated by playing! That’s some good news. But I did ice it last night and will put ice on it again tonight just to be sure.

There was one photo from my brunch with my friend Anne on Sunday that I forgot to share… and I love this photo. That’s me with Finley. She’s my friend’s youngest dog. She’s a pistol and she has a soft spot for me. She had me covered in mud after jumping in the pool and then jumping in my lap…. thirty or forty times!

She’s a Pyrenean Shepherd. You can read a little about the breed here.

The last thing I’ll share tonight is this mammoth strawberry that I picked yesterday! Look at that gorgeous thing!!!

Now if I could just grow more than one at a time…

But before I get into that, let’s talk about something good today.

First of all… it was cooler today and it was fantastic! I think it only got up to about 87 degrees. I did take the dogs for a walk before work and it was so nice we walked for 3.5 miles! That’s the first time in more than a week that we’ve been able to do a walk that long. It was a great way to start our day.

Now for the other stuff…

I had to run to the post office tonight, only to find that I couldn’t accomplish what I went there for.

I have other post offices I can go to but I find that when one machine is out of order, they are often ALL out of order. I’ll give it another try tomorrow night.

Now some good stuff. When I got home I took the boys for our evening walk. We actually started at 8:30… the earliest evening walk we’ve had in over a week. It was really nice outside.

When we got home I hit my sewing room to work on the lining and pockets for the blue bag I started this weekend. I did end up getting the slip pocket, zipper pocket and zipper placket completed.

That’s the good news. Now comes the shit balls part…

As I was sewing the slip pocket on to one side of the lining I noticed that the top hem of the pocket was at the bottom of the bag. I had already sewn a line of stitching, so decided that it would just have to be that way and I kept going… topstitching two lines of stitching all the way around the pocket, with two vertical lines up the center to divide the pocket.

Once it was all sewn together, I realized my mistake.

I sewed the pocket on upside down, so that the opening is at the bottom. I had actually positioned the pocket correctly, I just sewed around the sides and top instead of the sides and bottom. So once I got all the other pieces finished I sat down with my seam ripper.

That’s a lot of stitches to pick out!

I know this probably comes as a huge surprise, but using my seam ripper is not my favorite part of the creative process.

Luckily, it all came out much easier than I thought it would and I got the pocket sewn on the correct way before I called it quits… I didn’t want to keep going and make an even bigger mistake.

Here’s some detail to enjoy.

Isn’t that blue ferns fabric pretty!

And speaking of pretty fabric, today I received a small order that I placed a few days ago.

Most of this is stuff that I tend to use over and over again and it was all on sale. Then there are two pieces that I just love and wanted more of… the spiral shells in the foreground just because it’s so magnificent and I just used a piece for a bag lining. It’s one I definitely want to have in my stash.

The one in the upper left is Philip Jacobs’ Dorothy in his original color way. I’ve wanted a couple of yards of that but the store where I bought it is out.

I had my first tomato harvest today and ate them with my big salad for dinner. They were so good! The first home grown tomatoes of the summer are always very special to me!

I’m also really happy that the crocosmia plants that I picked up in a neighborhood “free” pile are blooming!

I also have some onions blooming. These were red onions that I had in the house a couple months ago that started growing, so I just stuck them into one of my planters to see what they would do.

I met my friend Anne yesterday morning to go on a quest for local peaches. And we found some. Along with a bunch of other fruits and veggies. Luckily, we bought them from a farm stand that also serves strawberry and black berry milk shakes!

So of course we had to take time to enjoy one.

After the farm store we stopped in at a nursery on the way back and picked up some plants and some fertilizer. They had some really gorgeous hanging baskets.

That first one mush have been almost five feet across!

And look at this gorgeous cone flower they had! COLOR!!!

On the way back to Anne’s place we stopped and got some take out eggs Benedict. We ate them in the shade of a big tree surrounded by hot dogs.

Rico and I felt obligated to give Brody the pug some love and attention after our brunch.

Did I mention it was HOT?

I have some Frankenbags to share with you tonight. It’s been a while so I have a few!

First up is this one made by Lisa Kerns from British Columbia, Canada. She said she found making this bag fun and creative. I love her very scrappy approach and all that bright color. And look! A Zipper placket!

This next bag was made by Beverly Rose. I love her combo of blues, purples and pinks. And her swirly quilting is a lovely touch.

This bag was made by Jane Bers. Here’s what she said about making this bag:

“I loved doing it and using scraps from a batik quilt I made 10 years ago! Plus a paper pieced block for the front! I knew those scraps would be put to good use some day!!  I am officially hooked on making this bag and my friends and relatives will be getting them for Xmas.”

I’m a big fan of batiks and these fall colors make me think of my mom who loved colors like this.

Next up is this made by Rachel Snee. Here’s what she said: “I finally got around to making my first Frankenbag, starting with an experimental improv skull block I made.  It’s for my daughter who loves pink and green, and she’s very happy with it.”

That skull is pretty damned amazing for being improv! Nice job!

This next bag comes from Margaret Douglas. It’s a fun and scrappy bag. I love the black and whites and all that color!

These bags were made by Janice Quinn. She said she’s having a lot of fun making these bags. She started simple to get the hang of it and has taken off since then! She plans on making a lot more in the next few months. The last photo shows her next bag in process. Of course I love all of her bright color and I love that she’s learning as she goes!

Thanks to everyone for submitting photos!