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The Rain Settles in… Still Looking for Inspiration

The weather is looking pretty dreary here in Portland. It looks like the rainy season has definitely arrived.

I worked pretty late last night and had to be on a Zoom meeting this morning at 8 am, so I made a point of stepping away from my desk this afternoon for a full hour-long walk with the boys. There would be no evening walk with all this rain.

I ran across the prettiest little maple tree on our walk. Just look at these gorgeous colors!!!

Since I was going to be in the house all evening, I decided to sit in on the monthly meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I had the meeting running on my laptop while I did some stuff in my sewing room. I straightened up a few things, cleaned off my cutting table, and put together some fabrics for the KFC and low volume white fabrics quilt I’m thinking about.

It’s all bundled nicely in a big zip lock bag and has been put away in the closet in my sewing room. I’m going to force myself to finish at least one other quilt top before I start this one.

Here’s some of the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics in this bag.

There are 12 different KFC fabrics and 12 different white with black fabrics. it’s entirely possible that some of those fabrics will change before I actually start cutting.

I did sew three strip tube sets for my Aborginal trip around the world quilt while I listened to a presentation by a quilt historian in the guild meeting.

I’m a little anxious to see what this quilt will look like when I get more blocks done. It’s definitely going to be chaotic. I’m hoping it will actually calm down just a little once there are more blocks and the patterns made by the diagonal lines is more apparent. It will probably look totally different!

Those fabrics are so gorgeous! Here’s another strip set.

And here’s the third one I made tonight.

I might make a few more strip sets before I start cutting the ones I made tonight. Then I’ll be able to have a good stack to pin to keep my hand busy during long Zoom calls.

I’ve had a little flurry of Frankenbags appear in my email box and social media feeds over the last few days. So here’s the latest collection.

This first one was made by Jan Ballentyne in New Zealand. Jan made this bag from fabrics that were left to her by her dear friend who passed away. She said it took her some time to get to where she could work with the fabrics. She will gift this bag to her granddaughter Lily when they are able to visit each other again.

This story just makes my heart feel like it’s getting too big for my chest! What a wonderful and loving gift to make.

This next bag was made by Marty Link. She did a lot of customization to this bag, which I love. She made the handle just a single strap attached at the side seams of the bag… which I’ve actually been thinking about doing, and now I think I have to do it!!! I do have some hardware that I purchased a couple of years ago.

She also added lots of pockets and some foam to make the bottom more rigid. I love it that I get so many ideas from all these photos that my readers submit!

Next up is this bag from Laura Fitzgerald. She used Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics that were left over from a quilt she made. I just love all these cool greens with the blues! I love the way she did her piecing. There little bits of organization, then all kinds of wonderful chaos! And hey… y’all are knocking me out with your linings! No beige linings here!!!

This next bag was made by Judy O’Connor. For her handles, she used some cork that she had laying around that she knew would be perfect for a project some day. And the bag is made from really lovely batiks. I love the simple horizontal strips with the little dragon flies. And those diagonal lines are fantastic!!! I just love batiks and this bag looks so squishy and comfy!

Next up is this bag made by Niki Sager… it’s pretty freaking amazing! First off… I love the black and white crumb piecing. And the way she combined it with those little cat panels… so good! And that fun panel on the other side with all the strong black and whites and the little touches of pink… well, it just all works so well! And look at that lining. Bazinga!!! Love it!

Last up tonight is this bag from Anita Goodson. first off… I just love the print on the front. I know I have some of that in my stash, but I can’t think of the name. I love those big floral blocks with the graphic black and whites. And those stripes across the top and sides play so well with the blooms. Very nice!

Thanks to everyone who sent photos. This was a really good batch of bags. And now I’m feeling a little of that inspiration I’ve been looking for!

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Trying to Find Some Inspiration

I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a dry spell in my creativity. I keep trying to find a project that is what I’m looking for. But no luck so far.

Thinking I might dive in and finish this wall hanging.

This was a Row-By-Row pattern from a local quilt store several years ago. I only gathered a few Row-By-Row patterns over several years, and this is only the second one I’ve ever made. And I have to say, it’s my favorite.

The local store that gave away this pattern has a stand of amazing sequoia trees on the property. They had originally done this pattern in wool applique. I translated it into batiks.

It was really fun to make and it was my first ever try at applique. It’s just raw edge applique using Heat and Bond.

I stopped by the big box fabric store last week to buy some interfacing and took a few minutes to look at the thread and saw these two greens that will be perfect for the quilting on this. I haven’t decided on the quilting pattern yet, but I have a few ideas.

My friend gave me the batik for the tree trunk. It’s so perfect! I only have a few small pieces of it and will save it for the perfect tree project in my future.

My friend and I each made one at the same time one summer while she was visiting. Remember when people used to come and visit? Yeah. I miss that.

She made hers with a clouded sky background. I went with this batik background because it feels like a cold and rainy Portland winter sky.

It shouldn’t take very long to get this quilted once I decide to just do it. I think I’ll hang it in my living room. The colors are just perfect for that.

There’s another quilt I’ve been wanting to make for years. It’s called Aboretum and you can find a b it of a tutorial for it here. You really should follow that link to see this quilt. It’s pretty spectacular.

I think I originally saw this quilt three or four years ago. And it was recently made available as a kit by a woman who I see often on the Kaffe Fassett Collective page on Facebook. If you like KFC fabrics and are on Facebook, you should follow that page. There’s a lot of inspiration there.

I’ve never purchased a quilt kit. I did make one that a friend of mine gave me as a birthday gift a number of years ago. But this kit includes 99 different fabrics cut to size. The pattern really relies on all that amazing variation in making it really sparkle and I hated the idea of pressing and cutting all those blocks from 99 different fabrics.

So I bought two kits… one for me and one as a holiday gift for a friend.

The kit includes the 99 different rectangles, along with these various Aboriginal Dots to be used for the trees. There is also fabric for the binding.

The kit includes a few of the new Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabrics.

I just love it when you purchase fabric and the seller presents it in such a pretty way!

I have no idea when I’ll start on this quilt. I keep telling myself that I should finish us some of the many quilts I have in progress.

My friend knows that I have purchased this kit for her. And she has purchased the backing fabric for me as her holiday gift to me.

I had another weekend of sheep. Saturday was our regular sheep herding lesson, and on Sunday a friend and I went up to Olympia, Washington, for a day of working our sheep on some more advanced skills.

We were all happy to be out there and it was a gorgeous fall day. There was about a 50% chance of rain but it stayed dry while we were out in the field.

As we were finishing up I looked down at a pile of dirt pushed up by a mole and saw this:

It was only about an inch long and I don’t know how I even saw it! It looked exactly like the dirt and if it hadn’t moved at just the right time I never would have seen it.

It sure seems like a long time until the weekend.

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Learning More Making My Denim Bag

I didn’t have much to do to finish this denim bag with some fun Brandon Mably fabrics so I dug in after dinner and our evening walk and finished it up.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but I was right about the proportion of that pieced strip… it needs to be wider.

I like the way I put the handles in, but I think I might make the top section of denim above the handles just a little taller in future bags. It just seems a little off to me.

So here’s what I like about it. I love the heft of the denim and it feels really cool with the fusible interfacing. It’s plenty to give the bag heft and structure without making it too thick. I also really like the fusible interfacing in the lining. I will probably add this to all my upcoming bags, but may use a little lighter interfacing. I also added a piece of interfacing to the pocket and that was a really good move. I’ll also do that in future bags.

I also did the construction of this bag in a different sequence than I usually do. I typically finish the outside of the bag, then finish the lining (leaving an opening in one side), and then I sew the final top seam.

With this bag I wanted to try sewing the top of the lining pieces to the top of the bag pieces first.

My thinking was that this would simplify the final finishing at the top of the bag… which is usually a wresting match with the nearly complete and bulky bag.

Starting with the top of the bag made it really easy to press that top part and make sure it was done nicely. Nice finishing on the top of the bag is really important to me. If the rest of the bag is well made and you screw up the top, it ruins the bag.

I sewed and pressed the top seams. Then I sewed and pressed the side seams. I left an opening in one side of the lining. Then I sewed the bottom seams of the bag and the lining. Finally, I sewed the gussets.

Here’s the learning part.

Through all of this I wrestled with all the bulk of entire bag. What I had hoped would be easier was actually a colossal pain in the ass! I don’t think the ease of constructing and finishing the top of the bag is worth all the other frustration it caused. So I doubt I’ll go with this method on future bags.

But I’m glad I tried it. Now I can just walk away from that idea.

Here’s some more pictures.

I will definitely make another denim bag because I want to make the changes I think will make it better. I also have some dark denim with a pinstripe running through it that I plan to combine with a piece of Brandon Mably’s black octopus fabric. So stay tuned for that.

I was looking through some photos on my computer last night and I’m pretty sure there are a few Frankenbags that I saved that never actually made it to my blog. My apologies to these makers!

The first one is this bag made by Antoinette Todd. Her tropical prints are really fun and this looks like a bag that’s been loved and used for years, which I love. And I love the random and free form approach to the piecing. It looks easy and casual.

This next one was made by Margot Pritchard. I love the way she used that Queen of Hearts panel and mixed it with a great eclectic group of fabrics. See that green fabric at the top of the first photo? That’s Kaffe’s kite tails design. It’s out of print and nearly impossible to find. How I’d love to have a few yards of that.

The last bag tonight was made by Linda Allen. I love that she included a printed panel of her pupper! What a happy little dog! And I love the combo of the little paw print fabric with the bright prints! And the lining is perfect.

Thanks to Antoinette, Margot and Linda for sending photos and for your patience with me!

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OK… I’ll Sew

Another stressful and busy week at work has left me tired and uninspired in the evenings. Bender was trying his best to lighten my work day yesterday during zoom call.

But today was an especially stressful day and I decided to get out and take the boys for our evening walk before it got dark and before the rain settled in for the evening. I just couldn’t stand the thought of sitting around the house for hours with nothing to do. A friend called me part way through our walk and that was nice to have that conversation. We were so occupied that I walked 3.5 miles. Which made six miles today!

Once I got back I did a little more work and then decided to get into my sewing room and get a little bit done. I got the panels done for the denim bag that I started a couple weeks ago.

First, I attached the handles to the upper section of the bag body and topstitched on the handles to reinforce their attachment to the bag, and I topstitched along both sides of the seams joining the denim to the pieced panel.

Then I added the large bottom panels to each side of the bag. Then I fused an interfacing over the entire bag panel to give it structure and body since there is no batting. I also got the lining cut and got some light interfacing fused to the back of it. I’ve been wanting to try interfacing on a bag lining to give it some oomph. I thought this was a good bag to try that on.

I really like this stage of making a new idea into an actual item. It’s a learning process and I find things along the way that I want to change. Here’s what I’ve learned on making this so far.

  1. the proportion of the pieced panel is off. I won’t know for sure until I get the gussets in the bottom and get the side seams sewn, but I’m thinking it needs to be at least 1.5 inches taller. I’ll adjust that with future bags.
  2. I’ve been constructing this with 1/4 inch seams, which just isn’t enough with the thickness of the denim. So on future bags I’ll adjust to allow for 1/2 inch seams. However, I WILL use 1/2 inch seams on the sides and bottom of this bag.
  3. I’ve fused interfacing to the back of the pieced panel and to the entire bag panel once it was finished. I may put the interfacing on the bag pieces prior to sewing them together next time. I got some distortion in sewing and pressing and I’m wondering if the interfacing fused to each piece will help keep it all true.
  4. the pieced panel seems like it needs more dimension. So I may actually use some batting on just this section in future bags in a quilt as you go fashion to give this more texture and interest. Might add some different quilting. All up in the air, but it needs something.

I think that’s all I’ve thought of for now, but I’m sure I’ll have more adjustments as I go on. I am planning on putting the panels and lining together in a different sequence than I usually do to see if it’s easier than the way I’ve been doing it. I’ll share more of that once I give it a try.

I took last Friday off to recover from some overtime at work and got up at oh-dark-thirty and met some friends at 7:30 am for a hike along the Molalla River. I walked 4.5 miles with my friends, and when they left, I continued on and walked a total of 9 miles!

Here’s a video of part of our walk. It lets you see the kind of country we were walking through. There were three of us with a total of nine dogs, all border collies. They all had a wonderful time.

It was a gorgeous day. I just love it when the early morning sun comes shining through the trees.

And in the 9 miles I walked, I only saw one other person that wasn’t with my group. I just love being out there and having the trail all to myself… except for these two kiddos!

What a gorgeous morning…

I entered Rico in an agility competition this weekend and he did an excellent job! with the pandemic, he hasn’t done much in the way of competitions. We were just starting out when the pandemic hit. So this is just his second competition since January of 2020!

He earned his first ever qualifying score! And he took first place!

This was the first agility competition in our area that required either proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test for you to enter. Masks were required on the property, even outdoors when you were around other people. We were allowed to remove our masks when it was our turn in the competition ring.

It was fun to see so many people that I haven’t seen in such a long time. I was amazed how easy it was to recognize people with their masks on.

I’ve had a little flurry of Frankenbag photos sent in by my blog readers over the last week.

This first one is from Rebecca Caisse. The fabrics are really fun and I like those various pops of blue. This looks like a great vacation bag!

Next up is this bag made by Pam Herrick. Of course, I’m a big sucker for all that crumb piecing, and I love the way she did those black strips on the front. I love the batik panel on the other side, and the lining is pretty wild!

This next bag is from Judy Perkins. I just love the saturated reds and oranges in this one. And there’s something fantastic about the little pops of green in this bag. Yummy!

Next up is this bag from Sarah Nelson. Sarah said her daughter embroidered the cat pillow probably 30 years ago and frequent display caused wear and tear so the linen background began to disintegrate relegating it to a drawer. Inspiration struck and she appliqued it to a background to create her bag. What a great way to use something her daughter made that was so well loved and well use.

This next bag was made by Sharon Pepping. She said she couldn’t decide what color way to use for her bag, so she made each side a different color! It’s like having two bags!!! You can carry it and show which ever side makes you happy! I love her fabric choices and I love all that saturated color!

Next is this bag made by Rayna Lusby. I love the way she used those big blooms, and that black and white swirly fabric at the top of the bag and on the handles is so wild! I love it! And I have to say, I really appreciate it that everyone is really going for it with their linings! Look at how this one just makes this pretty bag sing!

This next bag was made by Diane Rossy. She entered it in the fair and took first place!!! How cool is that? I just love her fun and vibrant fabrics! And you know I love that graphic black and white fabric! what a fun, really fun award winning bag!

Next is this bag from Valerie Wootton that came in just under the wire for me to get it in this post! She said she didn’t put a pocket in her lining. Instead, she used a purse organizer that fits perfectly in the bottom of the bag. What a great way to reuse something! I love Valerie’s soft purples in this bag. The little geese make me so happy. I also love how the two sides of her bag are different… but they are perfect together.

Thanks to everyone who has sent photos of their Frankenbags. If you’ve sent me a photo and I haven’t posted it here, please let me know. It’s been a little tough to keep track of what I’ve posted and what I haven’t.

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What a Week! And a New Idea

Work has been crazy busy the last week as we had a fundraising drive running on our radio station. We wrapped that up last night and I feel like I can take a breath.

I haven’t done any sewing at all in the last week or so. Just too busy and too tired at night to focus. But I have been thinking about a new project that I’m getting pretty excited about.

Over the last year I’ve purchased a good number of low volume white/black fabrics and haven’t used any except for a couple of small projects.

They are really fun fabrics and I’ve just loved a lot of the quilts I’ve seen using them.

I’ve seen some really cool quilts recently that combine these low value fabrics and bright Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. The low volume fabrics tend to brighten and lighten up the KFC fabrics in a really cool way.

So I pulled out some of my low volume fabrics the other day and mixed them up with a selection of Philip Jacobs’ brassica color ways that I had sitting on the dresser in my sewing room.

I have to say, I really love this combo! I would add more fabric designs for variation, but I think this is a good start!

So once I saw these fabrics together, I started thinking about a design. I’m kind of riffing off of one that I saw online, but is more complicated than I want to make.

So after thinking about this for a few days, I sat down with some graph paper and drew out my idea. I’m thinking I’ll combine some big quarter square triangle blocks made from KFC fabrics with 16 patches made from KFC fabrics and low volume fabrics.

Here’s what I came up with. This first one is with the blocks set in straight rows.

And then I thought it might be more interesting if the blocks were set on point.

I might actually like it better set in straight rows, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to play with that once I have the blocks done. I do like the secondary stars and squares that appear when you put the blocks together.

I’ll use a good number of different fabrics in this to give it a really scrappy feel. No idea when I’ll start this. I already have a good number of quilts in progress! Just what I need… one more unfinished project!!!

The heat has finally gone away here in Portland and fall has definitely arrived. We’ve had some rainy days and some really gorgeous fall days. It’s really nice to have cooler weather. I actually had to turn my furnace on the other day.

And of course I took advantage of a cool day to torture my dogs a little.

I found this gorgeous bloom on my Rose of Sharon on the patio yesterday morning.

This plant was given to me by a friend earlier this summer. She said it probably wouldn’t bloom this year, but this is the second bloom so far and there’s another bud that should open in the next few days. It should be covered with blooms next year.

A friend of mine recently bought a property down in Canby, Oregon, and she’s got a newfound obsession with fancy chickens. This means she’s going to have a lot of chicken feed bags. These are sturdy plastic bags that have nylon thread running through the fabric for strength.

I’ve seen some really fun and simple tote bags made from these feed bags. So my friend gave me the one she had that was empty and my plan is to make a bag to develop a simple pattern. I’ll want to cut it to take advantage of the cute little chick picture, and I’ll have plenty of fabric left over to make handles and maybe an inside pocket. I won’t line these bags in the beginning since they will be utilitarian. But I may change the design over time.

I’m taking Friday off to recover from a crazy work week. I’m hoping to get the dogs out for a nice hike and will probably actually spend some time in my sewing room!

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Working Out An Idea — Denim Bag Edition

I’ve been thinking about making a denim bag for a few weeks now. The design has been morphing in my head. I’ve made some sketches and keep changing how I want to approach this.

Last week I made a quick trip to the fabric store and bought some denim since I don’t have any old jeans on hand. And tonight I decided to start cutting and make a prototype bag.

A few nights ago I made a couple of pieced panels that will go into the bag. I used the same Brandon Mably fabrics that I used in the curvy pieced bag I made recently. I sewed the strips onto a paper foundation in a wonky fashion.

These strips will be a horizontal panel in the denim bag body.

I went back and forth on what I was going to use to give this bag some body. I thought I might use fusible fleece, but decided tonight that it would be too thick with the denim and would be a real nightmare to put the bag together.

So I decided that I would use some Shapeflex that I had on hand to give the pieced panels some oomph. I cut the Shapeflex to the same size as the panels and adhered it to the back of the piece. Then I top stitched along each seam line.

I wanted to attach the handles differently than I do with my Frankenbags. Here’s how the handles will go in. This is all just pinned now. I cut the handles six inches longer than the handles for my Frankenbags to accommodate the handle placement.

I made the bottom section of this panel by sewing together three vertical pieces of denim. I pressed the seams open and top stitched on both sides.

I got ahead of myself and sewed that seam between the pieced panel and the strip at the top of the bag before I had the handles made and in place. So I decided the best thing to do was to completely rip out the seams and start over and place the handles correctly.

Not my favorite activity.

The proportions of this bag aren’t looking quite right to me. I’ll look more closely at it tomorrow and may cut that top piece a little taller. I cut these strips to around 2 3/4 inches. I will play with some different sizes and see what works. The pieced panel may be a little too narrow as well. But I’ll know for sure when it’s all put together. It’s hard to know before you see it finished.

I’m considering this to be a prototype and anticipate that it won’t be exactly what I had in mind. I always like to get something actually made and then adjust where necessary to make future bags look and function correctly.

I’ll probably fuse another larger piece of Shapeflex to the bag panels to give them a little stability and to hold it all together. I’ve also wanted to try using some fusible interfacing on the lining of a bag, so I’ll do that with this bag as well to see how it works.

Maybe I’ll actually end up with something that I’ll be able to use.

After an absolutely gorgeous weekend, it poured rain almost all day today. My poor dogs were so bored with being office dogs.

We did actually have a brief break in the rain this afternoon so we stepped way for our usual two mile walk. We had pretty good luck but did get wet during the last half mile.

And then the boys took another snooze.

I have a busy work week coming up. So many meetings and a big fundraising campaign starting on Thursday. Better get some sleep!

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So Tired I Forgot This Blue Sixteen-Patch!

I was so tired when I did my blog post last night about the five quilts I picked up from my long arm quilter that I only posted FOUR quilts!

Here’s the one I forgot to post and it’s the one that I like more than I ever thought I would.

I had wanted to make a sixteen-patch quilt for some time but was pretty intimidated by the thought of matching all those corners. Then I tried the amazing tutorial from Wanda at Exuberant Color and it made it all so easy!

Blue is not one of my favorite color, but I just love the beautiful blues in this quilt. It just makes me so happy!

Take a look at these corners of these blocks! It makes me pretty happy to see this all so precise! All thanks to Wanda!

And while you’re looking at that, take a look at that binding. That’s Kaffe’s shirt stripes in blue and I just love it!!! It gives a fun variation around the quilt with little pops of color. It’s a pretty spectacular design!

This is the first time I’ve used the Kaffe Fassett Collective wide backings and I couldn’t be happier with it. The colors are so vibrant and the fabric is soft and velvety –the texture is really something. I will definitely use more of these wide backings in the future. It will be fun to see more and more designs appear in the wide back.

We spent today at a sheep herding clinic down outside Mollala, Oregon. It was a beautiful day weather wise and it’s always great to spend time outdoors with dogs and sheep and with friends that I haven’t seen in months. Rico approves!

Why is he in that tank? Dogs get really hot when they’re working hard in the field. So they need a good cool off and most sheep dogs are more than happy to jump into a water trough!

We’ll be going back tomorrow for a second day.

Before we headed home this afternoon we took a nice hike on the land next to my friend’s place. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs before getting in the car.

And tonight I’m going to share more photos of Frankenbags from my blog readers since I’m not too tired!

This first bag is another one from Una Walker. The fabric is what she calls a primitive linen that she did a combination of Gelli printing, stenciling and airbrushing on. I just LOVE this bag. The colors and fabrics are so pretty. And the bag had that soft and squishy feel that I envisioned when I first started making Frankenbags. It’s just so wonderful!

This next bag was made by Kelly Thibeault. I love her crumb piecing and the fun and larger patches of fabrics in the center photo. And those orange squares are really a spark! And a really good lining! I appreciate a good lining!

Next up is this bag from Jane Dawson. I just love the fun animal prints she’s used in combo with the bold black and white fabrics. This is a really fun little bag!

Next is these three bags made by Barbara Ryan. The photos show the fronts and back of the three bags. Barbara included half rectangle, Seminole band, wonky Log Cabin, and nine patch blocks. She combined batiks with quilting cottons. I love that Barbara made three very different looking bags! It’s fun to see that she really let her creativity go!

These next two bags were made by Marion Hughes. I love her colorful and fun crumb piecing. And the crumb pieced pockets are such a nice touch with the neutral lining. I also love that she’s made more than one bag! I love seeing people have so much fun that they make more than one!

Big thanks to Una, Kelly, Jane, Barbara and Marion for sharing photos of their beautiful bags!

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A Good Day — I Picked Up Five Quilts from My Long Arm Quilter!

My log arm quilter texted me yesterday to let me know that the five quilts I left with her on Aug 24 were done and ready for me to pick up. I’ve made 20 quilt tops during the pandemic and these are the first that have actually be finished.

Here’s the first one. This is an Aboriginal fabric quilt that will go to my brother and his wife.

I just LOVE how this turned out. It’s always exciting to see a quilt top turned into a finished quilt.

Look at all these amazing fabrics! The colors and designs are so amazing!

The photo below shows the quilting. The design is called Malachite. It’s basically a squiggly sprial that was quilted using a light gray thread. It’s pretty perfet.

Here’s a look at the backing. It’s pretty special too!

The next quilt is this one that will be a holiday gift. This is so happy and cheerful!

I really love that border and the binding! What a great choice!

Oh man… look at that border and binding!

And the quilting was done with a dark yellow/golden thread in a floral pattern. I love the way this turned out.

This next quilt is a scrappy batik wedge quilt. It’s quilted with a musical instrument design. it’s for someone who just started their first job as an elementary music teacher. It’s hard to find the musical instruments.

These photos show the quilting a little better.

It’s a fun and casual quilt, which I love!

Last up is another Aboriginal fabric quilt. It’s almost exactly the same as the other, but there are some different fabrics here and the backing is different.

Good grief! That’s so gorgeous.

I’m in the middle of making another 100 greeting cards with the Philip Jacobs brassica on them. I will easily get them done this weekend. However, I provably get much done in y sewing room as I’ve got another weekend of sheep on tap. I’m really looking forward to some time outside and just having a grand old time with the dogs and some friends.

I spent a few minutes last night playing with the Philip Jacobs print scraps. I found a design that I’m having some fun with. But it just drives home the fact that I don’t have the patience for all that handwor

It would be fun to do a set like this but it’s really slow!

I’m going to give some more thought to my new denim bag this weekend. I’d like to get some measurements taken and have a good idea of what I have to to do make this bag.

I have a few photos of Frankenbags to share, but I’m really tired and I have to go to bed so I can be on the road tomorrow morning before 7 an.

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100 Brassica Cards are Done and Packaged

Wow! That went fast! I got all 100 Brassica cards assembled and packaged up.

I’m getting really fast at making these! It’s amazing how quickly you can move when you figure out a system.

Oh, and my stickers arrived today and I love them! They are a very nice touch to these packages of cards.

And these cards are so gorgeous! I love the variation in each card within a color way. I’m really glad I went with different color ways of the brassica.

Here’s a clear view of one of each color way. I’ve packaged these cards into sets of ten cards — one card from each color way.

Look how gorgeous those are!!! I love it when the fabric happily works that hard!

Here’s each set of cards by color way. The variation within each color way is so incredible.

I also got labels put on the Aboriginal card sets I finished up the other night. They look so cool!

Here’s a closer view…

I also took a minute to put these little stickers on the sets of smaller colored cards with KFC fabrics.

Stickers everywhere!

Here’s all the 5×7 cards I’ve made in the last few days. There’s another box of the smaller cards.

Note to self… put the stickers on the top of the card pack… not the bottom.

Today was a gorgeous day following our weekend of rain. I was actually cold in the house this morning, but it’s way too early to turn the furnace on.

I took the boys for our regular walk this evening on our regular route. And I noticed something that I’ve never noticed before… boulders! A perfect opportunity to take a photos of my boys. How could I walk past that spot literally hundreds of times and not notice those boulders?

That’s a pretty damned cute photo!

Unbelievably, I don’t have any photos of Frankenbags to share tonight!

So what’s up next for me? I really want to make a Frankenbag using the octopus fabric. And… I’ve promised myself that I’m going to start working on one of my many UFOs.

It will be interesting to see if that actually happens.

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A Lazy, Rainy Weekend and More and More Cards

After our very hot and very dry summer, it was incredibly refreshing to have two days of significant rain this weekend. I actually had to wear a jacket to walk the dogs this evening!

The sun did peak out a little today. And we had some really nice showers.

I didn’t get a ton done this weekend. I was, in fact, a little lazy. But I think I needed it.

I did accomplish SOMETHING this weekend. I finished up more than 80 cards made with Aboriginal fabrics and got them all packaged up. Here’s cards showing the different fabrics I used for these cards.

Good grief! Those fabrics are so amazing!

I divided all the cards up into sets of ten and packaged them in cellophane bags.

I ended up with eight packages of ten cards and had a few cards left over for me. Here’s a close up of one of the packages.

I ordered some stickers that should be arriving in the next day or so. They will be a nice finishing touch on these packages.

I decided that I’m going to make some card sets from ten different color ways of Philip Jacobs’ brassica. Tonight I got all the fabric cut and prepared with Heat and Bond and ready to be cut for cards.

I was anxious to see how the cards would look so I finished ten cards out of this gorgeous purple color way.

Oh my god! Look at that fabric! And I have to say, I prefer it cut randomly rather than fussy cut. I love how graphic it is and I think the patterns are crazy interesting! GAH! Here’s a close up of one so you can enjoy this spectacular fabric!

I’ll work away on these cards over the next couple of nights. And then I want to get to some unfinished quilts.

But I’ve also been thinking about a new bag idea. I want to make something that has exterior pockets that are sort of constructed as part of the bag body. I made a few drawings and measurements earlier today. I’m not quite where I need to be to start cutting and sewing.

I’ll probably make this out of either denim or some linen that I have in my stash. My plan is to make the body plain and give it a pop with a KFC pocket lining and bag lining. I still have some figuring out to do. I’m also thinking of using some of the faux leather I have on the bottom section of the bag. I need to get my ideas organized and drawn out.

I took the dogs and met a friend this morning to do some dog agility training at a really lovely barn down in Canby, Oregon. It was so great to get outside and just have fun with the dogs. Can you tell that Rico enjoyed himself?

Rico is a sweetie pie, but he’s also a slobber puss! I’ve never had a dog who has a mouth as wet as Rico’s! That means that a lot of flotsam and jetsam sticks to his tongue, his face, and his toys. Oh, and it’s usually all over my hands!

I got a lot more photos of Frankenbags made by my blog readers over the last few days.

This first one was made by Sally Ekhardt. I love the bright colors and how she made the front and back different color stories. It’s just so happy and cheerful.

This next bag is from Niki Sager and I love it. It’s such an interesting combo of colors and fabrics. This makes me want to dig into my stash and see if I could duplicate this color story. I love it!

Next up is this bag made by Diane Levine and I just love it! It’s so fun to see others strike out and make what I had so much fun with. And look at her fun lining! It’s got all the colors of the fabrics on the front of the bag. So cute!

This next one was made by Linda Allen. She appliqued that great big bloom on the front of the bag! It’s so much fun with the scrappy treatment on the back of the bag. And that lining… well, it’s one of my favorite fabrics and it’s great as a lining!

The next bag was made by Eve Nicholls. She made this all with hand sewing. It’s made from figgy “needle cord,” or a fine wale corduroy as we Americans call it. Not only is it hand sewn, but it’s hand quilted too. I think that cat might be as impressed as I am!

Up next is this bag from Anita Goodson. I love the way she left that big bloom intact. And I love the cool feel of her colors. This bag reminds me of a glacier.

This next bag was made by Aimee Kaneko. She had seen the bag I made with corgis and wanted to use some corgi fabric she had on hand… and she has a cute little corgi. I like the way she combined the corgi fabric with other fabrics. It’s bright and very eclectic. And look at that pupper!

This next bag was made by Susan Marocco and it’s so much fun! I just love the way she used that octopus fabric! It’s so organic and the movement is amazing! I’ve been wanting to use some octopus in a Frankenbag, and now I’m sorry Susan beat me to it! And if you look closely, you’ll see a lot of hand quilting is this bag too. What a fun bag!!! And all kinds of ideas are flying around in my head!

The last one tonight was made by Una at Woolywalkers on Instagram. I just love this bag and natural and soft look and feel of the fabric. She made the bag from fabric left over from a chair project. I love how soft and squishy this bag looks. This is really the comfy look I had in mind when I made my first Frankenbag.

Thanks to everyone who sent photos! I’m having so much fun seeing what you all are making!