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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.

I met a friend after work to play some pickleball tonight. We didn’t actually play a game, but instead worked on drills to improve our skills. But it was still really fun! And it was good to take advantage of the good weather before the rain sets in tomorrow night.

When I got home I hurried and took the dogs for a quick walk and then spent just a few minutes in my sewing room.

I packaged up a birthday gift for a friend. I will get in in the mail tomorrow.

Then I Organized some fabric that arrived a few days ago. I had purchased some pieces that needed to be replaced in my stash.

The fabric in the plastic is an order that arrived last week. I had a gift certificate from Fenwick Fabrics and also made a trade with the owner and got a nice pile of fabric. I haven’t opened the package yet because I don’t know where I’m going to put it! And it’s packaged up so pretty. I’m enjoying looking at it. It’s around 15 yards of fabric.

The fabrics in the foreground are the most recent order. I ordered several color ways of Jumble, several color ways of Kaffe’s Lotus Leaf (one of my favorite Kaffe fabrics) and a couple other odds and ends.

This is such an amazing color way of the Lotus Leaf.

And I needed this other color way to finish cutting the pieces for a hat. If you remember I cut a couple of pieces wrong last week and didn’t have enough to cut the pieces needed for the hat.

So now that fabric will have a chunk cut out of it as it sits in my stash. It will drive me nuts!

Since I had all the pieces for this hat cut I went ahead and cut the interfacing pieces and got it all fused to the hat pieces. So I’ll be able to get right to sewing tomorrow night after work.

After making this mistake in cutting, I clearly marked all my pattern pieces so it’s clear what’s a regular piece and what’s an interfacing piece.

I ordered some paper tags and small pins so I can keep track of the sizes of the different hats I’m making. They’re pretty cute.

Spring here in Portland continues to be amazing. The peonies are looking pretty amazing right now. I saw these two on our walk today.

One more day and this short work week will finally be over.

For a short work week, this week sure seems long! I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday night.

I met a friend last night at a pickleball open play time. We played for nearly two hours and it was so much fun! I’m loving it because it feeds my competitive spirit and I just love learning something new… learning the rules, how to make different shots, and learning the strategy. And I’m loving the physical activity! I think I’ll be playing for years to come!

We’ve had a couple days up in the 70s and it’s been really nice. Another day or two of nice weather and the sun will be leaving for a few days. Rain arriving just in time for the weekend. It was so gorgeous after our walk tonight. I just sat on the patio for a while enjoying a cool breeze.

After I had a few minutes of quiet I hit my sewing room to whack away at another bucket hat. I wanted to try a few things that some blog readers suggested for making the construction a little easier and to avoid tucks.

Here’s the finished product made from Philip Jacobs’ brassica and Kaffe’s millefiori in jade. I loved the small pieces of green in the brassica and thought the millefiori went really well with it.

Here’s a little Bender looking dapper.

Isn’t that brassica amazing!?!?!?

A little eye candy…

Now onto the construction: instead of using a lot of pins to connect the sides to the top of the hat pieces I used lots of clips.

Using clips on this part worked really well. I probably used more than I needed and may try fewer next time. So that’s a win.

I also sewed a line of stitching close to the raw edge of the two brim pieces once they were sewn together and top stitched. This held all those pieces together so they were easier to handle during the final construction. So this is another win.

I also used clips to sew the brim to the lining of the hat. And that worked really well too!

So I just had the final step left — sewing the right side of the hat top to the brim and hat lining. So I got it all lined up and used clips again to hold it all together.

And when I had the seam all done and looked at the back of what I had sewn, I had sewn a tuck into the lining of the hat… about three inches long. So it was time to pick it out.

I think the clips worked really well, I just did a terrible job of making sure the fabric on the under side was pulled flat. Lesson learned. I won’t do that again and I’m hopeful my next hat will be perfect and trouble free!

I have five or six more hats cut out. I hope I don’t lose enthusiasm for them before I get them all made.

I had a great day today filled with dogs and friends! It started when I met friends at 10 this morning to do some dog agility training. We did a little training and a lot of talking. A friend who had a knee replacement recently was there and we had a lot of catching up to do. It was great to see everyone.

We met at my friend’s place in Oregon City, southeast of Portland. She has a beautiful piece of property and a really nice horse arena that she uses for dog training. It rained off and on while we were there so it was nice to be able to be under cover.

My boys definitely enjoyed themselves.

After dog training one friend and I went and played some pickleball. The weather had cleared up a little by this time and it was so good to be outside and moving around! Nothing better! We had the pickleball courts all to ourselves! We are having so much fun playing pickleball!

When I got home I hurried and did a little tidying up around the house and had an early dinner to be ready to head off to my dog agility class at 6 pm. Rico was a good boy, but you already knew that!

Here he is, saying “Come on! Let’s play!!!”

There was a gorgeous sunset view from the arena. I had to get outside with my boys and take some photos.

Here’s Mr. Photogenic! Bender never takes a bad photo.

What a good poser!

Rico got in on it too.

The skies were so amazing all day long!

This is such a gorgeous time of year here! Here’s a few more photos.

Bender is so funny. He will leave me to go and get in his crate in the car from quite a distance.

And look… he made it!

I didn’t get home until just before 10 pm. That hour long drive is a trek at the end of the day!

I had thought I might get another hat sewn tonight but I was just too tired when I got home. But I have been thinking the last couple days about a project that I was working on when I bought my Bernina six years ago. It’s been sitting in a drawer ever since.

It’s a shoulder bag made from batiks using the Bonnie pattern from Swoon. If you search for this bag on Pinterest you’ll get a ton of results. There are a lot of them on there with some fun fabric and color combinations.

At the time I was afraid that my old machine wouldn’t be able to sew through all the thickness of the handles. But I also remember that this project stalled because the idea of making a zipper pocket had me totally intimidated.

And look at me today! What was I so afraid of??? It probably wouldn’t take me more than a couple hours to get this all assembled. I’m glad I put all the pieces together with the pattern!

And while I was digging in that drawer I found a table runner I made that I have completely forgotten about.

Thanks to everyone who commented with suggestions and tips for making sewing my hats easier. I’m definitely going to try some of them out.

I have a couple Frankenbags from readers to share tonight. This first two were made by Kate Goodspeed. Two very strong and graphic bags that she made while vacationing in Mexico. She had to use fabric that is less than she wanted, but she’s back in the states now and has access to her stash.

These next bags was made by Sandee Henricks. I love how colorful the first oneis, made from Laurel Burch fabric. The dog panels are really fun! And everything about that bee bag is absolutely fantastic! It’s such a pretty yellow and those panels are wo wonderful. It was perfect for International Bee Day!

Now we have this bag made by Niki Sage from some Australian designs combined with some gorgeous Kaffe fabric… in fact, one of my favorite Kaffe designs!

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos!

And I’m sorry to report that the one thing I had hoped to accomplish this weekend, making the Octopus backing for my Ice Storm quilt didn’t get done. But when I have the chance to be out and about with people, I have to make that a priority.

Here’s to a short work week!

I had a great Sunday… much of it spent with friends.

I met a couple of friends at noon to to play pickleball. It rained up until the time I left home, but we lucked out that it stopped raining and a nice breeze dried off the courts quickly. It was a perfect temperature to be outside doing something physical. So comfortable. The wind did make the ball do some crazy things so we had to be on our toes.

After pickleball I followed one of my friends to her place and we did a little dog training. I also let the boys run in her field.

After a quick run to Costco I took the boys for their evening walk and it was so nice out. Nice and cool and we had the neighborhood to ourselves. While we were out I let them run loose in the park for a few minutes.

After dinner I hit my sewing room and got one hat sewn together.

You’d think after making a few of these I’d be better at it. But this one really gave me fits. It all went together pretty well until I was sewing the two crown pieces to the brim. I managed to sew a couple of tucks into the brim, so had to pick out two areas and sew them again. The tucks were minor, but they would have driven me crazy if I hadn’t fixed them. So I thought it was better to fix them before I sewed the opening shut and did the final topstitching.

And look at that amazing fabric — Philip Jacobs Luscious. It’s really something. The pops of wine and ochre here and there give me chills!

I also like a simpler lining that doesn’t compete with the main fabric. I think it really allows the main fabric to be the star while offering a bold color with a simple but strong pattern in the lining.

It’s amazing to me that I can sew flat pieces of fabric together and end up with something so three dimensional. It makes me feel so powerful!

Amazing that with all the pining I do I still ended up sewing tucks into this thing. I’m still trying to figure out an easier way to do this… maybe glue? I’ll have to give it some thought because I’d like to speed up the construction a little.

Imagine the mess I would have had without all that pinning!

Here’s a few more pictures because I like to look at this fabric… and this dog!

Another good day on tap tomorrow. Meeting some friends in the morning for some dog training and then more pickleball. And then agility class tomorrow night. I’m making the most out of my long weekend!

I got up this morning and after a breakfast of fresh pineapple with yogurt and granola and a good cup of coffee, we were on our way to Rico’s sheep herding lesson. The forecast called for rain so I was all prepared to come home soaking wet. But we really lucked out and it was gorgeous! And… Rico was such a good boy, especially after having two weeks off! It felt really good to be out there.

On the way home the clouds opened up and it rained most of the afternoon. So I knew most of my day would be spent inside.

So before I headed home I hit a fabric store up near where we do herding and picked up a few fabrics to make some hats… like I don’t have any fabric in my stash that would work. Sheesh.

Here’s what I came away with.

Here’s a closer look at each one. You can get a larger image by clicking on the photos.

I spent a good deal of time today cutting out the pieces for hats. Then I’ll just be able to sit down and sew like a sewing fool!

I cut out fabric for five hats today. Since I figured out how to get two hats out of two half yards, I cut enough for one large and one medium hat from each fabric combo.

The set at the bottom was to use up a smaller piece of the pink brassica that I had on my sewing table. I had just enough fabric for the outside of a hat. So all in all I have seven hats cut and ready to sew.

Tomorrow I’ll cut a bunch of fusing and get at least one of these put together. I do want to make at least one quilt backing tomorrow.

I did do a very small sewing project today. I sewed a 1.2 inch tuck into the hat I made that was so big. I just love that hat and want to be able to wear it.

Here’s what it looks like from the outside of the hat. I’ll just have to be sure to keep this pleat at the back of my head.

And now it fits perfectly! And that makes me happy because I love this hat!

Another mostly rainy day tomorrow. A good opportunity to get some stuff done.