I started this Frankenbag back in November to be a gift for a co-worker that I hired back in 2013 and worked with ever since. She had taken a job with a large internationally known non-profit organization and was leaving mid November.
I had all the pieces stuck to my portable design wall since November. We had a time set aside for happy hour last evening so I decided to take advantage of our wet weather last weekend to finish it up.
I gave it to her yesterday and she loves it! She is a frequent traveler and thought it would be perfect for that purpose.
I was really happy with how it turned out. She loved the fabrics. Said they reminded her of a night sky!
Once I got all my diagonal black and white blocks up on the design wall I realized that I had quite a few blocks left over. So I decided to continue with my original plan with these blocks. So I finished them up to make an Algorithm quilt. Just the blocks would make a small quilt, so I ordered 1.5 yards of the strip fabric so I can add a substantial border to bring this up to a good size. I didn’t want to make more blocks.
Here’s all the bocks for reference.
I’ll do more tweaking of these blocks before I declare it ready for final assembly.
Rico and Bruno have continued to play raucously on a daily basis. I’m so happy to Rico adapting and realizing how much fun puppies are!
Here they are running out at the sheep coop on. Saturday. This is the first time they’ve run together like this. It’s a very common border collie activity and so much fun to see! Poor Rico finally gave in… against his will and better judgment.
A very special order arrived yesterday. Bruno is very excited because he LOOOOOOVES this!!!
It’s good in dog training to have high value treats that the dog loves more than other things. And now I can rest assured that I have stock on hand in case of puppy emergency.
Bruno is sprouting some ridiculously long legs! And his ears are trying to keep up! He will be in the awkward and goofy stage soon.
My knee is feeling so much better! I played pickleball this morning for the first time in 2.5 weeks. My knee isn’t back to normal yet but it held up quite well. I felt a little limited in my mobility and agility, but my shots were really good! It felt so good to be out here moving my body again.
I also took the boys for a walk this afternoon. I felt the urge to get out and take advantage of the dry weather.
Tomorrow morning is my last sheep herding lesson before lambing season begins. I’ll be spending some time with my trainer during lambing season. It will be nice to do it at my leisure rather than having to schedule time off! It’s very possible I’ll see lambs tomorrow morning!
We are in the midst of another atmospheric river in northwest Oregon. I’ve gotten a couple inches of rain so far this week and will likely get a couple more by the time it moves out early Saturday morning. We’re all stuck in the house and I haven’t played pickleball for nearly two weeks, and probably not for at least another week.
About 10 days ago I was feeding sheep at a sheep herding coop that I bought into, and I got my right foot tangled up in bailing twine and went down HARD and slammed my left knee into the concrete. My knee is much better than it was, but it’s still not ready for pickleball or for walking dogs.
I’m trying to keep dogs entertained in the house. And I’m trying to keep ME entertained in the house.
So I’ve been doing some sewing over the last couple weeks.
The new project I’ve been working on is made from leftovers of my black/white/pink Interweave quilt. I decided to use those black and white fabrics, add a few from my stash, and play around a little. Initially I thought I would make another Algorithm quilt so started off in that direction.
The colored fabric on the right is a piece of Kaffe fabric I bought online and I ordered the wrong color way. It seemed perfect for this project and I had enough of it.
So I cut the black and whites into 10 inch squares, cut them in half and added in the colored strips. As I made blocks I threw them up on the design wall and liked what I saw and started thinking…
What if, rather than continuing down the Algorithm path, I just leave these blocks as they are and play with the arrangement.
I drew out some design ideas on graph paper and realized that I was limited by geometry in my layout options.
There’s no way to make the lines not intersect in odd ways if I added more than one diamond pattern. So one diamond pattern it is!
I had originally planned to make this quilt top 8 x 10 blocks, but the blocks will finish at 9.5 inches so it would have been a bit big. So I chose to go with 7×8 blocks. That means I have 24 blocks left over. I might save them to use in a backing, might make a bold baby quilt or might cut them up to make bags.
Some eye candy.
I’ve always wanted to make a black and white quilt. And now I’ve made two! I do still have a lot of black and white fabrics in my stash so I’m hoping for more ideas to come.
I also made four quilt backs last week.
The fourth backing is for the quilt that has been unfinished for far too long… the yellow/brown/purple Japanese X and + quilt for my guest room. I’m pretty sure I started this quilt in November of 2020!
This quilt is big, so the backing is essentially three full widths of fabric sewn in horizontal strips. Nothing fancy. Three different fabrics combined. I forced myself to get it done and deliver it to my long armer.
That photo doesn’t show much. I’ll take better photos once it’s back from my long arm quilter.
I had two sets of visitors last week, both from my old home of Salt Lake City. I went to lunch with the first set. The second visitor arrived that afternoon. I met her at the light rail station. We went to dinner that night and I drove her up the Columbia River Gorge the next day to her friend’s place. She was flying out to Africa a couple days later. She promises to bring me some bold African prints on her return.
The trip up the gorge was a great day trip. We stopped at Cascade Locks to have fish tacos that a friend had recommended. They were soooo good!
We also had a nice walk on a small island in the Columbia.
That’s the Bridge of the Gods in the background.
Rico has really been warming up to Bruno! They have been playing a lot and he seems to be a lot less irritated with the puppy. I was in my sewing room the other night when it seemed terribly quiet. I found this in the living room.
Bruno is getting so big! I weighed him at around 21 lbs the other day.
Here he is the other day, compared to the day I got him!
I was looking for some paperwork in my guest room this morning when Bruno discovered the mirror in the dresser.
His little howl just kills me!
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A lot has been going on since I last posted on December 17. That’s almost three months ago!
First, I have dived head first into retirement and absolutely love it! I have been amazed that there wasn’t more adjustment time needed to move from work to retirement. I slipped into my new life easily and enthusiastically!
Before I lost Bender in December, I had let a border collie breeder in northern Utah know that I was interested in a puppy from a litter she was expecting. The mother is a half sister to Rico and she is a very talented sheep dog. They have the same mother. Rico and the mother are grand niece and nephew of Bender. I had wanted a puppy from this same mother a few years ago but there was only one puppy so I was out of luck. But this one worked out and the litter was born on December 6.
My friend Linda flew up to Portland in January and we planned to drive to Utah to pick up the puppy, and then drive home. But luck would have it that the breeder had a friend who could drive the puppy and one of his litter mates to Eastern Oregon where we could pick him up… saving a lot of driving and time. This friend shortened our trip even more and had us meet her in Hermiston, Oregon, on January 25. That’s a a three hour drive one way, compared to what would have been about 12 hours one way!
And in no time I had this guy in my arms! This was the moment Bruno and I met!
I named him Bruno after my uncle who loomed large in my childhood. He was my mom’s only brother. I asked my uncle’s twin sister, now nearly 100, if she was ok if I named a puppy Bruno and she LOVED it! Of course, she had named a cat Zeke, after her father/my grandfather.
He was so scared! Imagine what he had been through over the previous 24 hours: He left his mom and litter mates to travel with one litter mate for 8 hours with a stranger. Then his littermate was handed off to his new owner. He spent the night in a strange place with no siblings. Then the next day he was back in the car and handed off, yet again, to total strangers.
But within a few seconds of introducing myself and telling him how wonderful he was, he seemed to know that I was his! He nestled into his crate in the back of the car and didn’t make a peep on the three-hour ride back to Portland.
By the time we got home, he seemed perfectly happy to be where he was.
He was only 7 weeks old when I got him and so tiny! He came to me a week earlier than what is typical because that’s when his ride was available. And he never looked back!
Since my friend was here visiting and we didn’t have to make that long drive to Utah, we had time on our hands to have some adventures. Bruno hadn’t had all his vaccines so he was a bit limited in his exposure to the environment.
Knowing that we would want to make a trip to the coast and knowing that Bruno would not be able to be on the ground because of his unvaccinated state, I whipped up a sling bag so I could carry him comfortably. We took it for a spin on a walk around my neighborhood.
He was so good! Once we got him in the bag he rode along happily and didn’t make a fuss at all. Several days later we all shared Bruno’s first trip to the Oregon Coast.
He rode in that bag and soaked up everything he saw, smelled and felt. And he was such a good puppy! It will be so much fun when he’s fully vaccinated and can join Rico in a rousing beach run.
Rico has been adjusting well. He was not in love with the puppy in the beginning. He seemed a bit horrified that this little whirlwind was so intent on convincing him to play. But he has been very tolerant and has corrected the puppy appropriately occasionally. I call him “Rico the Saint.” This video shows how patient Rico is with Bruno.
Rico has warmed up to Bruno more and more over the last couple weeks. They even wrestle and tug on toys together. Rico and I will both be very happy when Bruno’s puppy teeth are gone!
I’ve been training some little behaviors with Bruno, but mostly I want him to have fun being a puppy. It’s amazing how much they learn from play. But he is learning all the time, whether I want him to or not, so I am being mindful of what he’s learning!
Here’s a cute thing the breeder taught the puppies. They learned to sit nicely to get what they want. Bruno learned quickly that he got his meals in the puppy pen in the dining room. He was only eight weeks old in this video!
Oh, did I mention that he LOVES food? I’ve never had a puppy who is food crazy like this puppy is!!! You should see how enthusiastic he is about ice cream!
Bruno has continued to grow and turned 13 weeks old yesterday. I weighed him with me on the bathroom scale yesterday and he is around 21 lbs! He’s beefy! And he’s so handsome. This is him taken yesterday. He will be a looker when he’s fully grown. His breeder says he looks like his mom at this age, but more masculine.
Here’s some photos showing how much he’s grown. They are in chronological order. (you can click on each photo to enlarge.)
And his ears… I just LOVE natural prick ears on a border collie and am so happy that his are up and staying that way!
Now that he’s fully vaccinated he has been joining us on our daily walks. He is very impressed with himself and is happy to join Rico in this activity. I love this video.
It feels right to be walking two dogs again.
I’ve been trying to give Bruno lots of new experiences… new places to see… new people to meet… new things to experience. His breeding should bring a solid temperament but good socialization is important too. So he’s been having visitors, has visited friends, and has met and played with a lot of new dogs.
His breeding also means that he should have great potential in sheep herding. His parents are both quite accomplished. He won’t have the chance to work sheep for some time now. I did carry him out into the sheep field with me a couple weeks ago and he was very keen to meet the sheep! It will be fun to see how he does once the time comes.
I haven’t had a puppy for nine years. I had forgotten how much work they are! But for now, I’m just enjoying him being a puppy and doing what I can to make sure he’s a good dog.
I’ll close with this video of Bruno playing with a box a few weeks ago. This is just pure joy!
agilejack 