Author: agilejack

I had my dog agility class last night and didn’t get home until 10 pm and was so tired I just plopped on the sofa! And it felt good.

I go to class at my friend’s property down in Hopewell, Oregon, a little north of Salem. It’s absolutely gorgeous country. Lots of farms and field after field of grass seed, Hazelnuts, and vineyards. It was so beautiful last night… the sky was dark and the sun was shining on the trees a few hundred yards away.

If it wasn’t cloudy you’d be able to see Mt. Hood in the distance on the left side of that photo.

The training barn that my friend built this winter is open on two sides. So we get lovely views of the countryside as we’re training our dogs.

Here’s a more expansive view of the barn and it’s view.

On the left side of that photo you can see the tops of an orchard of Hazelnut trees. There are A LOT of Hazelnut orchards in the Willamette Valley. Some of them go on for miles. Farmers are doing away with other crops and are planting huge fields of Hazelnuts.

We took a quick stroll along side the orchard next to my friend’s property after class last night. Here’s a video snippet.

These trees are probably only a few years old.

There were more beautiful skies on the way home last night. Oregon has really amazing skies!

I met a friend for some pickleball practice tonight. I really wanted to get out because the weather was cool but gorgeous and it was so good to be outside!

I didn’t get home until about 9 pm and hurried and took the boys for a quick walk while I talked to a friend, then came home and spent a little bit of time in my sewing room. I wanted to get a little bit done on my crumb pieced bucket hat, but knew that all those bulky seams would be challenging to work with, so I didn’t want to finish the whole thing tonight. So I set out to finish the brim, and I got it done.

And I was right… all those bulky seams in that crumb piecing can be challenging to sew over. I’m glad I didn’t try to finish this hat while I’m tired!

It’s just amazing to me that I can make something so three-dimensional out of flat pieces of fabric!

Did you know that I’m a pinner?

I am a devotee… a true believer in the pin.

A little hint on making this brim, and it applies to the top of my Frankenbags as well. Did you know that when you want to fold a seam line back on itself, like on the edge of this brim, it all works better if you press that seam flat first? Well, it’s like magic.

After I sew the seam around the edge of the two brim pieces, I open it up and finger press that seam first.

I do the same thing at the top of my Frankenbags where the lining is sewn to the outer bag.

After finger pressing I give it a good press with my iron.

Once pressed I fold the brim carefully, making sure that seam is on the very edge, and then I press the hell out of it! Like pins, I’m a big believer in pressing. I think pressing as you go gives a much better finish.

And look at how sharp this edge is. That seam line is right on the fold!

I’m a big fan of making sure details like this are sharp! The details make all the difference in the finish of any item.

Once it’s all pressed nicely, I stitch the concentric rows along the brim.

Once all the rows are stitched, I stitch one final row right along the raw edge of the brim. This line of stitching will hold the layers together as I sew the front and lining cap pieces to the brim.

Here’s the front and back of the brim with the finished rows of stitching. There are a few wobbles in there due to stitching over all that bulk.

I’ll probably finish this up tomorrow night. I’m anxious to see how it all looks when it’s a finished hat.

I have some great Frankenbags to share with you tonight. Let’s get started! This first bag was made by Laura Hillaker. I’ve known Laura on Instagram for a good number of years now. This bag is simple in its piecing, but I really like the effect of the big blocks of fabric… and I do love batiks! Laura’s colors are really nice.

Next is this bag from Joyce Triezenberg. She’s made this from leftover batik quilt blocks and scraps. I love these colors. And that turquoise across the top is really good! The piecing and partial blocks is a really nice effect too. It feels very improvisational and I like that!

The next bag was made by Judith Tomkins. She said this bag is different from the other Frankenbags she’s made. They were all wild colors and crumb piecing. This one feels very sophisticated to me. Judith calls it her little black dress of bags! I love how the two sides of the bag are different, but similar. It all feels cohesive.

The next bag tonight was made by Sabine Muller Ruckreim who lives in Germany. She said this bag is her favorite. colors. I love the free form and random feel to her piecing. And look… she made a little pouch to match! Oh! I just noticed the curves! I love it!

Next up is this bag from Julie Robertson. I love her eclectic mix of fabrics and the nice scrappy feel. She did some fun quilting on this too. Julie said she stitched a good deal of profanity into this bag… and I know where she’s coming from!!! I’ve been know to do a little of that myself!

These final two bags were made by Julie Knaub. She made these bags as gifts for friends who both love birds. I really like those water color effect fabrics and all those gorgeous blues on that first bag. And the colorful birds scattered across the second bag are just wonderful! I think her friends will be really happy with these heartfelt gifts.

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos!

Over the last week I’ve been getting the same questions in comments here and in emails from blog readers. Here’s the most asked questions of the last week and their answers:

1. How do I get the hat pattern you’re using: http://orangebettie.com/2021/05/31/summer-bucket-hat-tutorial-and-free-sewing-pattern/
2. What interfacing do you use on your hats: Pellon 931TD Fusible Midweight Interfacing
3. How can I get that salmon soup recipe: https://food52.com/recipes/73800-lohikeitto-finnish-salmon-soup
4. Where can I get your Frankenbag pattern: https://agilejack1.com/2021/03/25/frankenbag-tutorial/

Today was another rainy day. It rained most of the morning and sprinkled off and on through the afternoon. So there was no pickleball for me. I went to a friend’s house for dinner and after that the sky was amazing. This is my back yard at around 8:00 this evening.

After dinner and conversation I took my boys for a lovely evening walk. It was nice and cool and the skies were gorgeous. This photo is looking due east.

I actually had a little bit of productive time today. I’ve been getting annoyed at how cluttered my plastic container drawer in my kitchen has gotten. It was past time to go through the drawer and match containers to lids and get rid of everything that doesn’t have a partner. Look how calm and serene this is!

I wonder how long it will look like that.

I’ve been keeping all my completed hats on the bed in my guest room and caught this glimpse of them as I walked by this afternoon. They all look so pretty together. ‘

I did spend a little time in my sewing room today. I’ve been thinking about making some crumb blocks out of all the scraps I’ve been producing as I’ve made hats. So I sorted through all those recent scraps and separated out the pieces I wanted to use and started sewing.

I really love crumb piecing because it’s very free form and relaxing. No seams have to match, you just grab two pieces of fabric and sew them together, and then grab another two and just keep going until you have a long string. Here’s a bunch of sewn pieces on my ironing board ready to be cut apart and pressed open.

Once you press them all open, sew these pieces to each other, and then sew those resulting pieces together and so on. Here’s a few crumb blocks that I made today.

Because of the shape of the pattern pieces for the hat, I’m left with a lot of triangular scraps, which makes for really interesting crumb blocks!

Of course I did all of this with the intent of making these blocks into a hat. How much fun would that be?!?!?! So I thought about cutting the hat pieces from the crumb blocks and decided that the easiest way to do it would be to carefully cut my interfacing pieces, use them to determine how big my crumb blocks needed to be, then fuse them to the back and cut out the hat piece. The interfacing will also help keep all those seams in place when the hat is worn, washed and dried.

I got enough crumb blocks made, fused on the hat pieces, and got them all cut out.

That’s going to be a fun hat! It’s a good thing I made it in the size that fits me.

I tried a bunch of different options for the lining and landed on this red Guinea Flower fabric. I got the lining all cut out and fused.

Maybe I’ll get this sewn together when I get home from agility class tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see how difficult all those crumb seams make the assembly.

When the pandemic hit and I started working from home more than two years ago we were told we would be working from home for a few weeks. So I started a daily post on Facebook called my Flatten the Curve Diary. It was a fun way to keep track of the days and what was happening at the time. Today was post #800 and our final post.

Here’s what I wrote today:

Flatten the Curve Diary: Entry 800

800 is enough. I’m done.

When the pandemic first started they told us we’d be working from home for a few weeks. So I thought I’d do a daily post until we went back to the office. 800 days later, working in the office is still nowhere in sight. So I’m done. 800 daily diary entries is enough.

Here’s the photo that accompanied my post:

And here’s how a friend of mine edited that photo:

My nephew and his girlfriend will be visiting next week. They will be in town for a friend’s wedding and will spend a couple days with me. I’ll have to do a little housekeeping this week to get ready, but all the heavy work has been done.

Rico and I had a sheep herding lesson this morning. After several days of rain we were blessed with cloudy but dry skies and sheep with pink toupees.

We worked on shedding today. Shedding is basically where the dog and handler work together to split a group of sheep and let one group or sheep leave while you hold the other group. It’s really challenging for both me and Rico. And that Rico is such a good boy. He worked so hard today and it was so much fun to see him think so hard.

Here’s a video of a very accomplished and national trial winning sheepdog handler and dog doing a shed. Rico and I are NOT at this level! this is really spectacular.

After our herding lesson we hightailed it home to get all our stuff together to head down to Hopewell, Oregon, for our Finnish potluck dinner. I prepared all the things I needed for my salmon soup last night so all I had to do was toss stuff in the cooler and hit the road. I made the soup at my friends place because it’s a simple recipe and I didn’t want to cook the fish until the last minute.

I have to say, this recipe is a keeper! I was not quite sure until I put the dill on top after I dished up the bowl, and that was just what it needed!

Look at all that butter sitting on top of the broth! It was just a little rich and decadent. But definitely a recipe I’ll keep and serve again.

There were only four of us at the dinner. We had a couple casseroles, some lovely sweet rolls and my soup.

It was fun to see everyone. One of or friends was unable to join us because she has Covid. But we took her some food and left it on her fence post.

While we were there I took my boys out for a run after dinner. The property next door has all kinds of animals. We really stirred the curiosity of the llamas.

And when one of the horses saw that the llamas were interested, she came running! Bender let her know that he appreciated her.

He’s such a good dog. I think the horse was disappointed that we didn’t feed her.

The skies were beautiful on the drive home. This was at about 8 pm. Oregon has some amazing skies.

Once I got home I fed the boys their dinner and then we took a quick two-mile walk.

When we got home I hit my sewing room and sewed up the hat that I cut out yesterday.

I really like this one. That fabric feels vintage to me, and the colors are so wonderful. It feels like it will be a well loved hat the day that it has its debut. Maybe I’ll have to keep this one too.

Here’s a few more images to soak in all that gorgeous fabric.

I’m hoping to get out and play some pickleball tomorrow morning but the weather isn’t looking very positive. I’ll check in the morning but I’m thinking it will be a pickleball free day.

I’ll join some friends for dinner later in the day.

Today was a wet day. A really wet day. It’s been raining solid all day and my rain gauge tells me we’ve already gotten more than 1.5 inches… with a good deal of rain still to come.

I’m pretty unhappy that I spend another day of vacation stuck in the house. These boys are even more unhappy about this than I am.

They are so bored. They did absolutely nothing today except lay around the house and go for a short ride to the grocery store.

We’re all ready for this late spring rain to hit the road!

I got some really nuts and bolts stuff done in my sewing room today. First, I made a decision about the lining fabric I would use for my next hat. Philip Jacobs Dorothy in his original color way will be the outside. And I’ll use this vibrant jumble for the lining.

I looked at a lot of different options and kept coming back to this jumble. So it must be a good choice.

I got all the hat pieces cut and got the interfacing cut and fused on.

I also decided to cut interfacing for the eight hats I have cut out that are waiting to be made. These are mostly dupes of the hat’s I’ve already made since I can get two hats out of two half yards of fabric.

Cutting all the interfacing pieces for these hats went pretty fast because they don’t require the same precision as the hat and lining pieces require,

Here’s all the fused hat sets.

They make a nice little stack of sunlight on a rainy day.

My friend who received the birthday gift from me earlier this week sent me a photo of her at her birthday dinner wearing the octopus hat I made her. She said it fits perfectly!

She’s the person who introduced me to quilting and to Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics all these years ago. I’m really glad to see her wearing this hat! And now I want to make a couple more out of that octo fabric!

I had planned to sew that Dorothy hat together this evening but I was reminded of a special event tomorrow that needed to prepare for.

For a few years, a group of friends and I have been getting together for the Northwest International Potluck Food Association (NIPFA) dinners. This is a fancy name for a very casual group of people! We choose a country and then make dishes from that country. We meet at someone’s house and enjoy the food together.

Tomorrow’s NIPFA meeting will be with Finnish food. I am sort of notorious for finding some kind of stew or soup recipe for these dinners. I just love soup and soup is easy to make ahead and take a long.

So I started out on an internet search a few weeks ago to find a Finnish salmon soup recipe and came across this one. It’s called Lohikeitto. I’m going to have to pronounce that with confidence tomorrow!

Since I had forgotten about the dinner until early this evening, I had to hurry to the grocery store to get everything I needed to make this. I’m hoping it will look like the picture when it’s done.

Mmmmm. I just love soup!

When I got home I prepped some of the veggies and the fish for the soup. It’s a pretty simple recipe so I’ll actually make it at my friend’s house tomorrow, rather than making it ahead of time. I think it will be better if it’s piping fresh. I hate to think of what would happen to that expensive salmon if it had to sit too long.

I’ll take photos of the food tomorrow. I’m guessing it will be a lot of fish and a lot of beige and white.

I had a pretty good day off today. It was cloudy, but it didn’t start raining until later in the afternoon.

After breakfast I took the boys for a nice walk and then got ready for pickleball and hit the road. I played at a court in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a town just south of me. It’s a pretty swanky area and the courts were really nice. I went by myself again as my friends are all heading out of town. I had a blast because I was playing with people who are above my skill level, but not miles above. It really forced me to think about the finer points of the game and not just power the ball back over the net.

Our play ended at around 3:00 when it started raining.

On the way home I decided to stop at a lovely garden center to pick up some lettuce and some peppers. I ended up taking home a star jasmine plant and a six pack of lettuce.

I’ve wanted a jasmine plant near my patio for some time. I’m not sure where I’m going to plant it, but I’ve narrowed my options down. They didn’t have a very good selection of peppers so I decided to see what I could find somewhere else.

After we got home I took the boys for a walk and the skies opened up! We got really wet so cut our evening walk short at 1.8 miles. It’s many hours later and they’re still wet.

I talked to my friend as we walked in the rain. Today is her birthday. I sent her three things:

I didn’t make the hat with her in mind, but she loved it so that was a no brainer. She said it fits her perfectly! I did make the bag with her birthday in mind. She loved the indigo batik with KFC scraps one I did a few months ago and I know she loves Aboriginal fabrics. I also sent her this extendable magnet. I bought one for myself a few weeks ago and it came in a two pack. It’s wonderful for picking up pins and other metal things in my sewing room.

It extends out to 3 feet or so. That means I can easily pick up pins I’ve dropped under my sewing table! I always worry about pins being left on the floor and my dogs picking one up in their paw.

Before my vacation I gathered a bunch of eggs from my chicken owning friends. So when I got sick and my company couldn’t come, that meant I had way too many eggs on hand. So today I boiled 1.5 dozen of them up. They’re nice to have on hand for breakfast or for a salad. And I even give them to Bender and Rico occasionally.

They each got two eggs with their dinner tonight. I laughed so hard at Rico… he just didn’t know what to do with these slick little orbs.

After dinner and our walk I hit my sewing room and sewed this little number together.

I had seen this fabric combo in a hat posted on the KFC Facebook page and just had to make one for myself.

Here’s some eye candy… take a look at the gorgeousness of that coleus fabric!

I just love things that are nicely finished… with details like top stitching, nice pressing, and smooth seam lines… And after this was all sewn together I realized that I had forgotten to top stitch around the sop of the hat.

It’s not a huge deal… certainly not worth taking the hat apart to fix. But it does bother me.

Here’s me pressing before I add the main fabric to the lining and brim.

This hat went together really nicely. Odd how one comes along now and then that gives me fits.

I’m still using lots of clips when sewing the crown to the top of the hat.

… and when sewing the main hat top to the brim.

Tomorrow is going to be more rainy than today. We’re supposed to get a good soaking. So I’m planning to get some things done in my sewing room.

I have a four day weekend coming up. It’s supposed to rain all four days. And I think this is supposed to be a real soaker. I’m hoping they’re wrong. I’d like to have four days when I can actually get out and so some things, rather than sitting home the entire time.

I went and played pickleball last night. Local pickleball clubs host open play nights where you can just show up and they’ll get you into a game. None of my friends were available, so I went by myself. I am a raging introvert. I mean, I’m REALLY a strong and dedicated introvert. So this was a big deal. And I had a blast!!!

I’m so glad I went. I mean, look at that happy face! But I’ve been paying the price today. I’m going to get a good night sleep tonight and then more pickleball tomorrow afternoon… IF the rain holds off.

Since I was so worn out last night I didn’t spend any time at all in my sewing room, and I didn’t do much in there tonight either. I did manage to get two hats cut out and get the interfacing fused. So I have two more hats that are ready to be sewn together.

I used a fabric combo that someone used in a bucket hat they posted on the Kaffe Fassett Facebook page earlier this week. I loved it so much I just had to do the same thing.

That top fabric is Philip Jacobs coleus in yellow. It’s so magnificent! That’s a beautiful design, but that color way is so special. It’s combined with this bright and cheerful jumble in pink and yellow. This will be a beauty!

And I swear… I AM going to get at least one quilt backing mad this weekend.

The roses here in Portland have started blooming… and just in time. Portland is known as Rose City. In fact, The Rose Festival is going on right now. So the roses have started blooming just in time.

I took a lot of time to do my afternoon and evening walks today because I stopped and took a lot of photos of roses.

This first one looks like it has two buds in one bloom. I wonder if that’s really what’s going on here.

This next one was soooo big! I swear it was at least six inches across!

Here’s a bunch of photos. Click on each photo to see the image enlarged.

I kept having to explain to people why I was in their yard!

A friend of mine gave ma a rose of Sharon plant last summer. I got a few blooms on it last summer. I’m hopeful that it will do a little better this year.

A few weeks ago I had my yard buy move the plant from a post and plant in one of my flower beds in the back yard.

It looks really happy and is growing nicely. I think I even found a bud! that makes me so happy.

And here’s something fun. I’ve picked up some fun free plants on my walks in the last couple months a nd tonight i carried home this Norfolk pine . I’ve also gotten some Japanese maple trees, a couple clumps of crocosmia, some day lillies. I love geting free plants!

A friend of mine gave me some bamboo last summer. I put it in that pot, but it looks completely dead now, so It’s in the bin and this tree is planted in that big pot.

I was looking at my tattoo last night and decided to take a photo since I haven’t done that since I got it back in April. And it looks really good!

I’m pretty happy with it.

Bender is worn out. I’m with Bender! Off to bed so I can start my exciting weekend tomorrow.

He looks so comfy!

Finished up work at 5:00 today, hurried and grabbed some dinner and then hit the road for Rico’s agility lesson. I got there a little early so let the boys have a nice run on the edge of my friend’s grass seed field. The grass grows by a foot every week! Rico and Bender just disappeared out there! You can see that they’re both covered with seeds.

I never would have found Rico if it wasn’t for that tongue!

They really had to work hard to run through that tall grass.

Bender was nice enough to pose for me.

I got home at a little before 10 pm and hit my sewing room to put together another hat that I had cut out and ready to sew. It took me about 90 minutes to sew it all together.

And there’s Bender. Happily posing for eternity. And on the flipside…

Rico is a picture of stress when I have him pose for a photo. He just hates it. Here’s a selection of photos celebrating Rico’s discomfort.

As happy as Bender is to pose, Rico is just as miserable. And he’s not very good at showing off my handiwork!

I don’t sew a lot of stuff in blue, but I tend to like these mid tone blues the best. I plan to make a quilt in these mid blues some day. I have a few patterns in mind and I’m mentally collecting the fabrics for it from my stash.

Here’s some eye candy.

I looked at my calendar when I sat down to work this morning and realized that I had absolutely no meetings on Thursday and Friday. I decided to take a couple days off since my vacation was such a bust. Now I just have to decide what to do. I’m thinking I might actually go back to the coast! I know two dogs who would be very happy about that!

Today was another low key day. It rained a good part of the day, but not hard. We got a nice walk after breakfast this morning and when we got home I dug in and started sewing.

I finished up this hat that I cut and fused last night and it’s definitely one of my favorites so far. And here’s the link to the hat pattern for those of you who don’t know which one I’m using.

I just love that orchid fabric and the blue background makes it all pop. Bender looks good in it too!

I went back to all of my original techniques and this went together really easily. The only thing I’m doing differently is that I’m using clips for most of it rather than pins.

Here’s some eye candy. That fabric! That dog! That pink lining!

After I finished this hat I spent some time outside with the dogs and then did a few things around the house. After dinner I had to run to the post office and made a quick trip to the grocery store.

Then it was back to my sewing room. I had this jade millefiori left over from another hat I cut so dug into my stash and found a quarter yard of the red mosaic circles that was left over from another project. I got it all cut and fused and started sewing. I finished it up around 11:30 pm.

Oh man… how I love that red fabric! You might remember that I just used it for when I made the backing for my scrappy trip quilt.

Here’s some red hat eye candy.

I sure feel like I had a non productive weekend. The rain really put a damper on my plans. I’m hoping to get some activities going a few nights this week.

I received some photos of Frankenbags made by Beckie Bouchard. She’s used some really fun fabric combos. I love the first one with the African prints, and the black one. And that frog is pretty darned cute! Thanks for sending photos!

Here’s to another week!

I really don’t know where today went. I got up late and had a leisurely breakfast. Then several hours went by and I don’t know what I did to pass the time.

It rained most of the day. Not a soaking rain but enough that you could have gotten nice and wet if you went walking in it. So we waited until there was a bit of a break in the afternoon and got out for a nice walk.

After our walk I changed the sheets on my bed an did a couple loads of laundry. And before I knew it, it was 8:00 p.m.! And then I hit my sewing room.

I finished up this fun little hat using Brandon Mably’s Sholl fabric. I just LOVE this one!

I went back to the construction techniques I has used on previous hats and it all worked really well. I did make a point to keep fabrics smooths to valid sewing in puckers. And it all worked. Here’s a link to the pattern I’m using:

I went back to the construction techniques I has used on previous hats and it all worked really well. I did make a point to keep fabrics smooths to valid sewing in puckers. And it all worked. Here’s a link to the pattern I’m using.

Look how good that spot is for the lining!

Here’s some eye candy…

When I finished this hat I got the fabric and lining all cut for a new hat out of these KFC fabrics.

That iris fabric is going to make a really fun hat. Here’s the piees for two hats all cut, fused and ready to sew together.

I’ve taken some Advil PM so I’m fading fast. I’ll be able to get an earlier start tomorrow and get more done.

It was cloudy most of the day and finally started raining early this evening. The forecast is calling for rain most of the day Saturday and Sunday. It doesn’t look like I’ll get much in the way of outside time. So I’m planning some weekend projects.

I had to run to Costco tonight to pick up one of Bender’s prescriptions, so I did just a little bit of shopping while I was there.

When I got home I hunkered down in my sewing room to sew another bucket hat. This time, I wanted to try some techniques I saw on this tutorial by Made and Making earlier today. I finished the hat and wanted to jot down some notes on how the tutorial worked.

The tutorial has you sew some lines of stitching prior to sewing pieces together, has you do a fair bit of clipping seam allowances, and uses a completely different approach for sewing on the outside of the hat top to the brim.

Although these techniques all worked, I’m not sure they’re worth the extra time for me. The part I did like was the approach for the final step of sewing the right side crown to the brim and lining. It has you fold and press down a centimeter of fabric all the way around the bottom of the crown. Then you pin this carefully into it’s final position above the brim, making sure that the folded and pressed edge just barely covers the line of stitching that attached the crown lining to the brim. Then one line of top stitching finishes the hat. There’s no need for an opening to turn the whole thing right side out.

So I did like how much easier and simpler this was than the method I’ve been using, but my lining turned out taller than the outer hat, so the two pieces of the hat don’t fit together as well as they do on my other hats.

You can kind of see the bumps and folds of the fabric in the lining. It’s not horrible, but it bothers me. I’m thinking maybe I folded over and pressed too much fabric. That would make that difference. I’ll have to decide if I’m going to try that method again. I’d like to be able to perfect it!

Now moving away from the techniques, take a look at this amazing fabric!!!

Eye candy time!

So, what’s on deck for this rainy weekend? I need to do some grocery shopping. I think I might do some light housekeeping. I’d like to finish two quilt backs. And I think I’ll make a hat or two.

I’m really hoping there will be some breaks in the rain so we can get outside.