Author: agilejack

Today was this guy’s ninth birthday.

We spent most of the day outside. It felt like winter. I’ve been home for 5 hours and I still haven’t gotten warm. But look at that gorgeous sky. It was like that all day long.

I didn’t have time to make this guy a cake for his special day. I’m planning to do that tomorrow. I think that will make him happy. I’m thinking I’ll make this Applesauce Banana cake, but it won’t be this fancy.

I had a sheep herding lesson this afternoon down outside Molalla, not far from Trudy’s place. So I decided to go down a couple hours early and get my final lamb fix for this season. And look what I got to see… the tiniest little lamb I’ve ever held.

Picking up that lamb was like picking up a little sack of air. I bet it didn’t weigh more than 2 lbs. So tiny. It’s one of triplets born to a yearling ewe with her first ever babies. It’s very unusual for a yearling to have three lambs. One of the lambs is bigger and two are tiny. But this one is the tiniest.

That is a 12 ounce water bottle, to give you an idea of how small this lamb it. Trudy is bottle feeding this waif. She’s not strong enough to nurse on her own. She will spend a few nights in the house. She is very special.

After seeing lambs, I drove a few miles to a different location for Rico’s herding lesson. He did a great job, and we have another lesson tomorrow.

After our lessons, my friend and I took our dogs for a nice hike on the logging land next to my friend’s property. It was so gorgeous, and we were all happy to get out.

You have no idea how hard it can be to get five dogs posed and all looking happy at the same time. But we did it. And that sky looked just like that all day. It was so beautiful.

And since we did such a good job of posing the first time, we gave it another whirl.

I had a nice hot dinner, hoping it would warm me up inside. And then took the boys for a three mile walk. The walk actually helped me warm up.

I’ve had a bit of a dip in my desire to do any sewing. I think it’s partly because I’ve just been so damned busy. It’s also partly due to the fact that I’m not in love with the bag that sits unfinished on my cutting table.

All I have to do is sew the side and bottom seams of the lining, and then sew it into the bag.

But look at all that distraction on my cutting table! That will likely be my next bag. Here’s a better view of the fabrics I’m considering.

I just LOVE orange and blue together. And I’m sort of intrigued with the idea of combining some KFC prints with Aboriginal fabrics. I will probably edit this pile down to five or six pieces before I start cutting. I posted a photo of a frankenbag a few days ago that was made by one of my blog readers and I’ve been thinking about these fabrics ever since.

And I’m going to force myself to finish that unfinished bag while I sit in on a sheep herding webinar tomorrow. It will be good to finish it up and start working on something that makes me a little happier. But I know that if I don’t finish that bag now, it may likely never be finished.

Here’s another thing I’ve been thinking about…

I saw one of these last week that was made from KFC fabrics and it was spectacular! The problem is that this pattern wants you to purchase a $45 special ruler to make these blocks. I’m wondering if I can figure out how to make something close — maybe cutting the arcs organically, rather then with a template. It’s likely that I’ll play around with this tomorrow evening. It will be fun to see if I can pull it off.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about… economy block quilts. I’ve wanted to make one for a long time and have been giving it more thought lately. What’s an economy block quilt? The block is just a square in a square in a square. I have a Pinterest board all about my love for economy blocks.

I’m thinking I’d like to make this using a paper piecing template. Or will that just make it go more slowly? Hmmm. Maybe I’ll try it with traditional piecing. Well… if I do decide to do it what a paper Template, I’ll have to make it. I’ve seen templates online that cover almost ever size except the one I want.

I’ve gotten a few more frankenbags from blog readers in the last few days. Let’s take a look. This first one was made by @quilty.girl on instagram. And I just love it!!! I’ve had this dog pattern on my list of quilts to make for a few years. This bag is a great way to play with that idea without committing to many, many doggies! I just love it!

This next bag was made by Niki Sager and I love it! Of course I love those little pieces of the sunburst fabric. Gah! Now I want to make another one from KFC fabrics and get away from the dark one I’m struggling to finish.

Next up is this bag made by Joyce Triezenberg. Of course I love all that green! And it goes so well with the red accents. And I love the square in a square block… love that strong diagonal design!

This next are these bags made by Cherry Naylor. Cherry has made a lot of these bags. I think I’m actually getting to where I can recognize her bags before I know she made them ! Cherry has been making matching zipper pouches for her bags and they are a great touch! I love it that Cherry really goes for it with old fabrics and graphic element. They just work so well!

Holy cow. I’m so exhausted. And still not terribly warm.

After spending two days lambing last week I didn’t do any sewing on Saturday and Sunday. I’m not even sure I could tell you what I did on Saturday and Sunday. I think I took it easy, walked the dogs, and didn’t do much of consequence. It’s amazing how an entire weekend seems to disappear.

Oh, I just remembered what I did! I’m finishing up my huge budget at work for the upcoming fiscal year and had to spend several hours working on Saturday AND Sunday! That must be why I feel like there wasn’t a weekend. I also got my tax materials put together and shipped of to my accountant. He always saves space for me because he knows I come in under the wire every year.

Tonight I finally had some time and inclination to get into my sewing room and get a little bit done. I managed to sew all the pocket and placket pieces for my blue Aboriginal bag.

I didn’t feel like finishing the lining and getting it sewn into the bag, but still felt like I wanted to get something done. So I dug out the pile of 17 additional key fobs I prepared last week. Had already applied the fusible fleece, so started tonight with pressing these pieces in preparation of doing the top stitching.

Then I chain pieced them to add the three lines of top stitching to each piece. I use my walking foot and feed them through the machine one after the other, then turn around and feed them all through to add the top stitching along the other edge. then I do another line down the center.

I backstitch and the beginning and end of each piece so the stitching won’t unravel when the fob is done. And by the way… I’m sewing with one hand and holding my phone with the other hand. I don’t recommend sewing with one hand!

Here’s what it looks like when the chain piecing is all done.

Here’s the finished 17 fobs.

NOT SO FAST! I found two pieces that slipped by some how!!!

I’ve put these on my sewing machine and will finish these the next time I sit down to sew.

And because a couple people will ask… here’s the key fob tutorial I use.

I just realized that I made my Frankenbag tutorial a year ago March 25. It’s hard to believe I’ve had a year of making these bags.

Let’s celebrate with a ton of Frankenbag photos sent in by readers. First up is this bag from Sharon Logan. Sharon expressed her appreciation for the push to create… and I can’t tell you how happy this makes me! I love it that people are doing things they’ve never done before! And look at what she made! All that color is so good!

Next up is this bag made by D Maillard (she didn’t provide her full name). This is her first Frankenbag, but she said it’s not her last! She added all kinds of bells and whistles to her bag. I love that!

this next bag came from Linda Klysner. She made this from some left over collage pieces and other orphan blocks. I love the purple. She also took her own approach for the handles. This looks like a really well made bag.

This next bag was made by Susan Stewart. And you know I love this one!!! It’s GREEN… my favorite color! Here’s what she said about making this bag: “I was as nervous as a virgin on her wedding night when I decided this green Frankenbag needed a zipper placket closure. I followed your excellent instructional tutorial, however, and voilá! It worked!!” Hahaha! She made me laugh, and I’m glad it all worked out!

Up next is this bag from Lynne Hummel. She said she’s finally getting the hang of making zipper plackets. this is for her sister in law who loves bright colors and lives in Florida. It feels tropical. I wonder how many people have received Frankenbags as gifts over the last year. I love the little piece of orange fabric Lynne added next to her zipper. It’s a really cool design feature!

This next bag was also made by Lynne Hummel. She made this one for her sister in law who lives near the beach and loves blue. I think it will be a hit! What a great gift! I love that pink lining with the blue bag! It’s such a lovely surprise!

Next is this bag made by Tina Hadden. She’s really come up with some fun bags. She said this one really pushed her beyond her comfort zone… so much so that she’s now working on a black and white bag. Well, I LOVE this bag! All that fun and bold piecing. The colors are so good. It’s just so good in so many ways! And I especially love it because Tina is really pushing herself to do new things! How good is that???

This next bag comes from Sabine Muller Ruckriem. I love the bold and graphic black and white fabrics and the images are really interesting. She also made a matching zipper pouch, which is a great touch! It’s so cool that I keep getting photos of bags that are completely different from other bags and include so much creativity. I’m loving it!

This final bag tonight was made by Sue Everett. I just LOVE her fabric combo! That orange paisley she used is one of my most favorite Kaffe Fassett designs. And I love how she combined it with the blue Aboriginal fabrics. I just love everything about this bag!!! It’s pretty likely that my next bag will be a riff off of this one! I love that I’m getting inspiration from what others are making!

Thanks to everyone who sent photos! I hope I didn’t miss anyone.

Now I want to dig into my fabrics for my next project!

I hate to have to say this, but day two of lambs included absolutely no new lambs. Not one lamb was born today. But I found myself thinking I should take these two home with us.

We started our day again with feeding sheep.

These sheep know when breakfast arrives and they all come running. Wyatt helped hold the sheep off while I put the grain out. Even the lambs got in on the feast!

Little acrobats…

And then we went up and fed all the pregnant ewes, looking for new lambs as we did it.

Mmm. Hay.

Munch, munch, munch.

As we were watching the preggers girls eat and realized that there were no lambs, we picked out four ewes that we thought might be close to lambing. So we separated them from the group and took them down to a paddock near the barn so we could keep our eyes on them throughout the day. We were very hopeful that a couple of them would lamb today.

Isaac joined them to keep them all safe.

Then he had to pose for a perfect photo with his girls…

Good grief. He’s such a sweetie pie!

While we weren’t busy dealing with lambs, we decided to move the earliest lambs and their moms to a larger field with a lot of delicious grass and trees for cover.

They all ran into that field like it was the best place on earth.

Look at these little suckers!!!

So many good mamas there.

Before lunch we took some time to work our dogs again on the goats. Rico was even more amazing than he was yesterday. Maybe it was the little practice he had with geese first.

For a good portion of the afternoon I just sat and watched a ewe that we thought might lamb. While I sat and waited, I watched these two little fritters have a blast on this pile of dirt.

While the ewe was debating whether or not she should give birth, I decided to take Bender and Rico for a quick drive to my other friend’s place nearby for a forest walk since they had spent a few hours in the car. They got a good leg stretch and had a chance to be dogs on logs…

I don’t know any dog who can stay off a log!

When we got back to Trudy’s place the ewe was still undecided on the whole birth thing, but I got back in time for the lamb races.

OMG! How cute is that !?!?!?!?!

I waited a little longer for that ewe to produce her new lambs, but finally gave up when it got cold and some rain moved in. So I headed home disappointed, but with another good day under my belt.

I’m pretty confident that I’ll get news of lots and lots of lambs being born tonight and tomorrow.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love lambs? Well, I love them a lot!

I was on the road at 8 am today and made it to my friend Trudy’s farm around 9 am. I saw lambs before I even got my car parked!

Does this face look happy to you?

After oohing and awing at lambs for a minute we started our day with feeding the sheep. We fed the ewes who have had their lambs over the last week and are in paddocks near the barn first. Then we grabbed a couple buckets of grain and some hay, hopped in the four wheeler and headed out to a back pasture where the pregnant ewes are held… and most likely some lambs that were born overnight.

There must have been at least 20 pregnant ewes in this pasture. But I was pretty sure I could see some tiny little legs among all the ewe legs. And sure enough, there were two brand new lambs in with the flock.

OMG! They are so tiny and so beautiful! And it’s amazing how well they get around. Here’s a little video of these fresh babies. I love how their mother is so attentive to them.

After getting this group fed we headed back down to take care of some of the lambs that were born yesterday and their moms.

The ewes are wormed after lambing and they get their feet trimmed. And the ram lambs get their little testicles banded (a thick rubber band is placed around the base, and then they will fall off in a week or so). The female lambs have their tails banded. Each lamb gets an ear tag with a number that is used to identify them. Here’s all the tools and supplies that are used.

I actually got to band one of the tails and banded two ram lambs’ private bits. I put ear tags on three lambs.

There are special tools for each of these tasks. For banding, you slip a small yet thick rubber band onto special pliers and open it up, pull the lamb’s scrotum through the open band, making sure the testicles are actually in there, and then you close the pliers which closes the band around the base, and then slip the pliers off. Putting the ear bands on is very similar to getting your ears pierced.

Here’s a video of Trudy putting iodine on a lamb’s umbilical cord, banding him, and giving him an ear tag.

At the time she does all of this with the new lambs, she also worms the ewes and trims their feet. It can be tricky to catch a sheep so it’s handy to have a dog who can help out. Here’s Alice holding everyone in place while Trudy gets ready to move in.

Trudy’s dogs Alice and Wyatt were with us all day and helped out a lot! It would be so hard to do all this work without these working dogs.

There’s a lot of physical work involved in owning animals. Trudy caught this ewe with a leg crook (the blue hook in the photo) then flipped her onto her butt where she sat calmly while she was wormed and had her feet trimmed.

Here’s another ewe getting the same treatment.

Once you get the ewes into this position they are amazingly cooperative. But even then, Trudy says she’s usually sore and tired at the end of the day.

Another task that needed to be done today was to “tube” a couple of triplet lambs who were competing with their larger triplet for milk. Trudy fed a rubber tube down their throat and used a syringe to feed some colostrum to them.

You have to have a lot of different skills when you have a sheep ranch!

Trudy has three guard dogs that keep her sheep and lambs safe from predators — a great Pyrenees, a Maremma, and an Akbash. This is Isaac. He is an Akbash. He is very young, very large and very sweet. I think his head is about the size of a basketball!

Have I mentioned that I like dogs?

At around noon we took a break and I got Rico out of the car so we could do a little herding… this picture shows what a gorgeous day it was! It was cool enough that I wore a light fleece all day. Perfect weather for being outside all day. And look at that incredible sky! It was like that all day long.

And for the first time in his life, Rico got to herd GOATS!!! I was afraid that there would be goats flying all over the place, but he was such a good boy! He had them all nicely organized and did amazing work!

Apparently, goats can be more difficult to herd than sheep. But Rico was cool as a cucumber.

After a quick lunch and giving Trudy a chance to train some client dogs, we headed back out to the back pasture to bring those new lambs and their mom down to join the other moms and babies.

The first thing we had to do was separate the new mom and her babies from the rest of the ewes. That part went really well and we had the lambs loaded in the trailer and were ready to go in no time.

What usually happens is that you drive the four wheeler slowly and the ewe follows behind because she wants to stay with her lambs. But some times it can be more challenging. This one started out pretty well, but the mom got nervous and jumped the fence and went back and joined all the pregnant ewes.

So that meant we had to go back and separate that ewe from all the pregnant ewes and bring her back to her babies. We ended up bringing her back with some of her preggo friends and were able to make the trek back to the other lambs successfully… we even picked up some goats along the way!

And Wyatt helped make it all run smoothly!

After taking care of those brand new lambs and their mom, we hopped in the four wheeler and headed into another pasture to check on a fence that had been smashed by an oak tree that fell in last year’s ice storm. After pulling some branches off the fence and making sure it was secure, we were done for the day.

I got home at around 4:00. After our evening walk, Trudy messaged me a photo of a yearling and her lambs that were born after I left.

And then she sent me this video of moving this mom and her new babies down to join the other ewes and lambs. I love how Alice is helping move them along and how the mother is so protective of her babies.

I am so excited to go back tomorrow! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for lots of new lambs born over night and waiting for me when I get there.

One more day of work then two days off to hang out with lambs! I can not wait!!!

In anticipation of two days off, work is very hectic. I have a lot to get done before I take off and a full day of meetings tomorrow.

I was cold in the house all day today. It got up to 60 degrees but it was cloudy all day. The air outside is thick with the smell of trees blooming. I walked by something tonight that was so incredible I had to stop and enjoy it. I’m pretty sure it was a Daphne. Their smell is so wonderful.

After a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on bananas, yogurt and chocolate, I hit my sewing room and finished quilting the second panel of the bag I started a few days ago. Then I went ahead and sewed the bag body together.

I have to say that this is not my favorite bag that I’ve made. It feels flat and bland to me. I think it’s because all the fabrics are too similar. It’s not terrible, it’s just not terribly good. But I’ll withhold my final judgement until it’s done.

I managed to get the linings, pockets and zipper plackets cut and I applied the fusible interfacing.

Tomorrow night I’ll be ready to start constructing the lining and associated attachments and fiddly features.

Here’s the bag with that ugly batik on the back of the quilt sandwich.

It’s a good thing that once the bag is all done you completely forget that this crap is in there!

Here’s the bag with the lining and pocket fabric.

And a closer view so you can see it’s not completely terrible. Seeing the colors in the lining fabric help it make more sense with this bag.

Time for a Bender update. It’s been four weeks now since we increased his potassium bromide dose and I’m very happy to say that he hasn’t had a seizure since then. So his last seizures, the two in one day, were 4.5 weeks ago. This makes me very happy and I’m hopeful that this streak will continue.

The downside is that he’s still pretty wobbly from the meds. He stepped off our front porch the other night as we were starting our walk and totally biffed it. It seems like he may be just a little better today. It’s likely that he will adjust to this dosage of meds and he will become steady again. I’m keeping notes on how he looks every couple of days. I need to get him scheduled for a blood test to check the level of these meds in his blood. With his wobbliness in mind, I’m guessing the level will have gone up significantly.

These boys are much happier hanging out while I work when the weather is nice. They will snooze in the sun for hours on a nice day!

And a closer view because it makes me laugh…

He’s just sitting there.

Wow! What a day full of meetings! It’s amazing to me that I can spend a full 8 hours on Zoom some days. It’s exhausting.

I ended my last meeting today at about 5:10 pm and then hurried and made a peanut butter sandwich to eat in the car on my way to my first agility class with Rico since the pandemic started. And it was a fantastic night! The class was in my friend’s new dog training barn on the property she bought last year. It’s a gorgeous barn in wine country north of Salem, Oregon. It’s absolutely gorgeous country side and my friend has done an amazing job building her new training barn.

You can just barely see Rico in the field in that photo.

I didn’t get any video during class tonight but here’s a video of Rico and I doing agility from September 2020 that gives you an idea of just what this sport is.

It’s a really fun and challenging sport and it’s REALLY exhilarating with a dog like Rico! He’s so fast, so talented, and so athletic. He definitely keeps me on my toes in training and handling him!

My friend’s place is a full hour drive from my house, and that’s without traffic. So it was just before 10:00 when I got home tonight. I did spend a little time in my sewing room and I used some of the yards and yards of fusible webbing I’ve had for a couple years and made my quilt sandwiches for the bag panels I made last night — since I made the mistake of buying an entire bolt of fleece that is, indeed, not the fusible variety. And I managed to get one of the panels quilted tonight.

Here’s the full view of this panel.

This piece really needs close up photos since the full view doesn’t really do it justice.

And this…

A couple of months ago a friend of mine gave me some fabric she picked up at an estate sale. There was a 2 yard piece of some really ugly batik. I’m using it for my quilt sandwiches.

I like using batik for the back of my quilt sandwiches because it has a nice high thread count and adds extra body and structure to my bags. And it doesn’t matter how ugly it is because it will all be enclosed inside the bag and you’ll never see it. So I’ll take ugly batik off anyone’s hands!

I am getting so excited about helping my friend with lambing later this week. She messaged me tonight that she’s already had some lambs born. Here’s a sneak preview of what I’ll be seeing Thursday and Friday… and I can’t wait! I’m so excited!

She said the lambs are already playing with each other!!! So freaking cute!

I’ve got a bunch of Frankenbags from my blog readers to share with you tonight, so let’s get started…

This first bag is from Birthe Aust. She’s made a lot of bags, and this blue one is just as nice as she’s made before. It’s possible that she’s made as many as I have!

This next one was made by Dana Ligon. I love the bright oranges in this one… such a great color and it gets such a bad rap. And you know I love that black and white fabric she used!

Next is this bag made by Anita Wiggins Goodson. It’s a festival of chickens! I love her loopy quilting… it’s so fun with the chickens.

And now a bunch of bags made by Sandee Henricks. I just love that first one with the cat panels. Her bags look really well made. And that striped zipper placket… it’s so brilliant! Makes me think I’m going to need to pull out some of my KFC stripes. And I love the fabrics in the more free form second bag. It’s a really nice color combo. And of course, the doggie bag is just too cute!

Up next is this bag made by Robbi Courtaway. She used some really fun fabric and added her own customizations to her bag, which I just love! It’s so fun to see people taking my basic bag design and making it better!

This next bag was made by Pamela Alf and I just love it! I love the blues combined with the whites and yellows. And the bold design of the circle, strips, geese and stars… it’s so good! And it looks really well made. And I have to say that that orange strip on that bag is just so brilliant! And somehow, Pamela made a divided zipper pocket and she can’t figure out how. Now she wants to make another one! Good luck Pamela! I hope you can replicate that happy accident.

Phew! I think that’s it. Thanks everyone for sending photos! I just love seeing what you’re all making!

I had a great weekend and I’m not ready for the work week to start.

Our weather has been absolutely amazing. Spring really arrived with a bang. So after work on Friday I got dinner and took the boys out for a wonderful walk while it was still light. I’m so thrilled to have light in the evenings! It’s the best thing to see it coming back.

After our walk, I hit my sewing room but didn’t really feel like a larger project, so I dug into my scraps and started cutting fabric for key fobs. I cut enough fabric to make 37 fobs. I got 20 completed Friday night.

The remaining pieces are all fused and ready to press. They will whip up pretty quickly one night this week.

We didn’t have a herding lesson on Saturday because our teacher is busy with lambing, so instead I took the boys for a lovely long walk in the morning and then met some friends for some agility training in the afternoon.

Here’s Rico before agility…

Here’s Rico after agility…

Rico was so happy to be out there doing agility, and so was I. The weather was nearly perfect, and it was great to be out there with friends and dogs. We even extended it into a pot luck dinner and it was so wonderful to hang out with friends on the patio.

This morning I met a friend at the farm where we usually do our herding lessons and we did a little training. Then we took a short drive to a big field to let the dogs run.

This was toward the end of the walk and these boys had done a lot of running! Bender needed a good cool down when we got home.

When we got home we took a nice long walk in the sunshine and then headed home and hit the sewing room. I whipped up a couple of panels for a bag using purple and blue Aboriginal fabrics.

I’m digging into my stash and finding smaller cuts to use up, rather than cutting into larger pieces. And I’m generating a lot of scraps. I’ll have to make some really scrappy Aboriginal bags to use them all up.

A few weeks ago I bought an entire bolt of fusible batting. As I finally opened it and cut some this evening, I realized it’s actually NOT fusible.

So now I have an entire bolt of it to use up since they won’t let you return cut fabrics. I’m going to have go pay more attention the next time I buy it. And, of course, I bought an entire bolt! It’s too bad I didn’t notice it before I took the plastic off. Oh well. Live and learn.

My dogs are exhausted tonight! When I finished sewing I found Bender on my bed and he didn’t budge when I walked into the room. He didn’t even move after he opened his eyes!

Back to work tomorrow, but this will be a short work week for me. I’m taking Thursday and Friday off to go and work with Rico’s sheep herding trainer on her sheep farm. She’s busy with lambing right now and I’m going to help! It should be a couple of days of hard work and I can’t wait! I’ll be outdoors with a lot of physical work, and LAMBS!!! You might not know this about me, but I love lambs!!! I will try to document my experience.

I’m absolutely loving having more light in the evening. I finished up work at 5:30, grabbed some dinner, and we were out walking by 6:30. It was wonderful to be out in shirt sleeves, with no rain, and so many different things blooming — and our entire three-mile walk was in daylight. Spring has arrived all of the sudden.

I’ll share some photos further down in this post… but first…

I wanted to finish up this Aboriginal fabric Frankenbag tonight. So I dug in after our walk and got it all put together. The little bit of prep work I did last night meant I was able to get right to work sewing and assembling.

Here’s the finished bag.

I really like all these dark fabrics. And the bag will be really practical. Might have to keep this one for myself.

Here’s the other side of the bag.

Here’s some detail of the bag.

I LOVE that red fabric on the inside! Gah!

Now I have no idea what I’m going to make next. Maybe another octopus bag combined with Aboriginal fabrics. Thinking of going the blue and purple route this time. I’ll have to see what mood I’m in tomorrow night.

Oh, and I think I’m going to dig into scraps and make another pile of key fobs. I’ve actually given away almost all of the ones I made previously.

Ok, now for some photos of everything blooming around my neighborhood.

Cherry trees! They are kind of a thing in Portland. These are ornamental. The blooms are the softest pink and they just glow in the sunlight. The picture doesn’t do them justice.

And this magnolia tree is just loaded with these amazing purple blooms. And the tree itself it so pretty.

This next tree is in my next door neighbor’s yard. I’m not sure what it is… gardenia? Camelia? Not sure, but it’s really pretty. That bloom is about four inches across.

My plant identification app told me that this pretty pink bloom was a peach.

There are lots of flowering plums and apples everywhere. You can smell them in the air.

I’m starting to see the first azaleas blooming. There will be a lot more of these coming!

Lots of things low to the ground blooming too.

Hyacinth.

Grape hyacinth.

Greek Anemones.

I don’t know what this one is and I didn’t check my app. But it’s pretty.

And the candy tuft is one of my favorite spring bloomers.

Oregon grape is another really lovely aromatic plant. It’s considered an invasive species.

And this lovely bush is a red-flowering currant. The blooms are so delicate.

All this and spring is just getting started!

I was tired tonight so sat on the sofa after our evening walk and watched some TV. At around 10:00 I got up and went into my sewing room to get a little bit done on the lining for the bag I’m working on.

I managed to cut and fuse the lining and interfacing pieces, the slip and zipper pocket pieces, and the zipper placket pieces.

Since I’m going to sew this all together using black thread, I thought it wasn’t such a great idea to start on it when I was tired. So I’ll be happy tomorrow night when it’s all cut and ready to go!

Here’s how this will look with this bag. Both of the fabrics I cut are in the body of the bag. In fact, they are the fabrics in the 16-patch block.

When I’m working with these Aboriginal prints I can’t help but stop and appreciate all the intricate detail in the designs.

This red design and color way is one of my favorite Aboriginal designs. There’s just something magical about the reds and purples together.

And look at this!!!

And more detail…

One one more, just because it makes me happy!

Several weeks ago a friend of mine put some of her stash up for sale and I bought it immediately. It’s really not a typical color combo that I would gravitate to, but it included some sheep fabric that I really wanted.

A friend gave me several yards of that fabric on the top a number of years ago and I used it all up. I’ve been trying to find more for years but have never been able to locate it. So when I saw it for sale, I snatched it up. I got a total of 8 yards for $50. I’m thinking I will combine it with some of my border collie fabric into a basic quilt design, and maybe include some different black and white fabrics to brighten it all up a little.

Yup. Not my typical palette. But It would be a fun utilitarian quilt… maybe one to keep in the car. I’ll have to see how it turns out before I decide. But I’m happy to have some of that sheep fabric!

Spring is really going crazy here. The flowering plum trees are in bloom and you can smell them all over the neighborhood. there are daffodil blooms everywhere. And today I noticed that the first blooms on my flowering pear trees have opened up.

I have 11 of these trees in my back yard. I’ve planted them all over a few years. I just love them. They are ornamental, so don’t produce fruit and they grow in sort of a conical shape. Whoever buys my house eventually will wonder why I planted so many of them!!!

Today is National Puppy Day. I don’t know about you, but my social media feeds are just full of photos of puppies! I marked the day with a photo of the moment when my terriers Forrest and Skeeter met for the first time on the day I brought Skeeter home in 2008.

Forrest was a very special dog that has blessed my life. He was a very difficult dog to train, but he managed to earn multiple dog agility championships in two different competition venues. I often tell people that I put more effort into training him than I did in earning my college degree. He left this world held in my arms in 2017. He is the dog to which all future dogs will be compared and none will measure up.

This is my favorite photo of me and Forrest…

My friend Heather took this photo and I remember this day vividly. I was meeting Heather for a forest hike on a cold and wet May day. I was going to leave Forrest at home because he was 13 at the time and I thought the weather would be too hard on him. But he absolutely wouldn’t let me leave home without him. So I grabbed his coat and took him along. I knew that I would end up carrying him for a good portion of the hike. But I’m so glad I took him along. It was such a great day! And he had such a good time.

Here he is with all his border collie friends on that hike. They were all so wet and dirty!

And another photo from that hike that I just love….

Skeeter is now living with a friend of mine on Vashon Island, Washington. She probably lives a better life than I do. Here she is on the Puget Sound wrapped in a sweater and a coat.

She was an affectionate and sweet dog with people, but really needed to live in a house without other dogs. My friend Melanie had lost her dog several years previously and let me know she was looking for another dog. And it was a match made in heaven. Melanie refers to it as an open adoption! I could never have found a better home for Skeeter than with Melanie and her family. She is so well loved and cared for.

Skeeter went to live with Melanie a couple months before I brought Rico home for the first time. She will turn 14 on May 5. Cinco de Skeeter!

Yes it was. And I’m happy it’s over.

It rained most of the day, but I did manage to get an afternoon walk in and it felt really good to step away from my desk. After work I had dinner and sat down and watched a co-worker’s appearance on Jeopardy, and she did so good. She was leading going into the final question, but didn’t get the answer… but I did!

Then we took our evening walk in a nice wet mist. I had to clean my glasses several times during our walk, and I even had a baseball cap on. My boys were pretty wet when we got home and thoroughly enjoyed their towel-off.

Then I logged into a dog training webinar and sat down in my sewing room to quilt the bag panels I made last night.

Oh, and before I go too far… I get asked nearly every day where people can find my tutorial for these bags. The tutorial is free on my blog, just click on this link.

I’m really liking these darker fabrics in this bag. And I decided to quilt it using black thread, which I really like now that it’s done, but it was a pain in the ass to quilt! It was so hard to see each line of stitching that I really struggled to keep it all straight. But it turned out really well.

You can see how the threads almost disappear in these fabrics. It’s a cool effect.

Here’s the panels once quilted and with the gussets cut out.

And I love this look at this panel. It looks so three dimensional.

Once my panels are quilted it only takes about ten minutes to get the bag body constructed, so I went ahead and made the handles and got it sewn together.

Oh, man! I really love this one!!!

The other side of the bag is almost exactly the same, with the exception of a couple pieces of fabric at the bottom.

It will be fun to choose a lining for this one.

I’ve nearly used up my first order of the tags I use, so I ordered some more a few days ago. They arrived today.

I get a good number of comments and emails from people asking where I get my tags. This is the Etsy seller I use, called All This Wood. They actually had a record of my previous purchase and were able to recreate my exact order. It was so easy. They provide great service and get my orders shipped quickly.

And I had some surprise visitors in my back yard this afternoon.

This nesting pair has hung out in my neighborhood each spring for a few years now. I’ve seen them with their babies a couple of times over the years. I’m glad they were just visiting and not nesting in my yard. I doubt they would have gotten much peace or privacy.

But the best thing that happened today is that I WON THE LOTTERY!!!!!

Looks like I’ll be retiring any day now!