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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!

We started our day off with a four mile walk knowing that it would rain later in the day. It was a nice walk.

When I got home I decided to run some errands. The back seat of my car has been full of boxes for a couple weeks now. So I drove by Goodwill on the chance that they were open, and they were! So I unloaded all that stuff… finally!

Then I stopped by and filled my tank with gas. A half tank cost me $57!!! Regular here is almost $5 per gallon! Gas is always expensive here, but this is a record.

Then I stopped by the pet food store and purchased two big bags of dog food.

Once I got home I cut the perennial grasses out of the pots on my patio. They will start growing soon and I don’t want to have to cut off fresh growth.

Then we took a short two mile walk and had some dinner when we got home.

Finally, it was time to hit my sewing room. I didn’t know what I was going to work on but I decided to use the Aboriginal fabrics that were piled up in my sewing room and make another couple of panels for a bag.

I took that photo after I had actually straightened up a little. It’s sort of a mess in there!

I chose some darker and richer fabrics and came up with this combo.

I really like the darkness of this one. The other side is essentially the same, with a few minor differences.

Here’s both panels together so you can spot the differences.

Several years ago I heard that they were going to discontinue Kaffe Fassett’s woven stripes fabrics. So I went online and bought a half yard of everything I could find from a number of different online stores. I ended up with 56 half yards. That’s enough for a number of quilts.

And in buying all of these from different sites, I only duplicated two of them!

These fabrics are so amazing. The stripes are woven into the fabric, rather than being printed on. The colors and texture are wonderful! Look at these amazing colors!

I’ve been thinking about patterns to make from these fabrics for some time now. I even have a Pinterest board with some top options. There are some really simple designs on that board that I just love. I think the simple designs really show the stripes at their best.

This one is from a book called Parallel Lines by Quiltmania. It’s so spectacular!

It’s basically a Kaleidoscope quilt. Donna Jordan from Jordan Fabrics has a couple of video tutorials for making this. Here’s one.

I have some more Frankenbags to share tonight. This first one is from Diane Anson. This is the second Frankenbag that Diane has made. She used a foundation paper pieced heart combined with scraps. It turned out great!

This next bag was made by Christy Protheroe. Of course I love all the graphic black and white fabrics, and there’s fun dog prints all over the place. She included a zipper placket and a zipper pocket. I love seeing so many people going for it with the zippers!

Up next is this bag from Yvonne Seaman. I love the gentle curved piecing she did. It’s all very improv, which I appreciate. She included a zipper placket too! She said she made a couple of mistakes, but was able to set them right with her handy unpick tool!

Next up are a number of bags from Lyndia Thomas. This first one is made from really colorful and happy florals. And She included a couple of different slip pockets on the inside.

Lyndia’s next bag features mermaids and other sea creatures. I love the colors and the pinup style fabric designs. And the wavy quilting is so perfect with it!

Lyndia’s next bag was made from the same fabrics. I love how she arranged the panels differently. And the bold yellow borders are nice!

One more bag from Lyndia tonight keeps with the ocean theme and includes lots of fun colors and piecing.

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos!

What a great day! I spend a good deal of it outside and I really lucked out on the weather. The day started with Rico’s regular sheep herding lesson. It started out in a brief downpour, but most of it looked like this.

There were some sheep out there in the field with Rico, but I just had to take a photo because it was so gorgeous. I think they are just off camera on the left.

After that lesson I hit the road for Molalla for another herding lesson with a different trainer. And after off and on rain storms for the hour long drive, we got really lucky and had great weather for this lesson too!

Had to stop and take another picture of Rico with sheep at this second location. I actually got the sheep in this photo.

Between my two sessions with this trainer, I took Bender and Rico for a little field run since Bender hadn’t had a chance to stretch his legs yet.

And, of course, there was posing involved.

Rico did a great job on the sheep today! He really put in a lot of good work.

After his second lesson, all three of us took a hike on some forest land next to my friend’s property. We all needed this! Nothing like getting out in the forest with just me and my boys and not other people to intrude on our solitude.

It was perfect weather to be out there! Gorgeous blue skies with clouds, and the sun peaking through the Doug fir trees.

Look how gorgeous it was!

And a little bit of me thrown in to show you how happy I was!

Here’s three minutes of video of us on our hike.

And then a really quick video of these boys cooling off in a small creek.

We didn’t get home until after 6:00. It was such a lovely drive home with no traffic. After dinner I sat on my butt for awhile, then decided to hit my sewing room and see if I could finish up the Jack Russell zipper pouches I started last night. And I got them done!

They turned out pretty cute and I was able to use up some smaller pieces of fabric that were in my stash.

Here’s some close ups of the pouches.

And just look how cute this fabric is!

Here’s the measurements for these pouches. Just substitute the BC fabric with Jack Russell fabric, than make the pouch according to my tutorial.

This next graphic goes with this type of zipper pouch. It also gives the size of the gussets for each size pouch.

And now my Advil PM is kicking in and I might just fall asleep on the couch.

I received a message from an old friend about a week ago. She’s a friend I’ve never met in person but have known her for many years through Jack Russell Terriers on the internet. She asked me if I could make here some Jack Russell items to use as prizes in a dog show. Of course, I said I was in.

The dog show isn’t until August, but I wanted to get these done so I don’t have to scramble at the last minute.

She’s having me make six zipper pouches using some Jack Russell fabric I’ve had for years, combined with some fun novelty fabrics.

I got started on them tonight after our walk and got all the panels sewn, pressed and top stitched, and applied the fusible fleece to each one. I Also got zippers selected for each pouch.

I used to make a lot of pouches. I haven’t made any in a while because they became somewhat tedious to make and I had a good number on hand. So I moved on. But it’s fun to make some every now and again.

The next thin I’ll need to do is make the zipper tabs and then sew in the zippers. I may have these done tomorrow.

My friend also wanted 6 Jack Russell key fobs.

There will be a couple left over. Might have to keep one for me.

And, interestingly, I have a lot of zippers! I wonder why I bought so many beige ones? Must have been during my linen phase.

Here’s a detail view of some of the pouch panels.

That Jack Russell fabric is so cute! I’ve had it for years. Can’t even remember where I got it. Have about 3/4 of a yard left. I’m guessing I’ll be hoarding it from here on out.

I did get out and get my hair cut today and it feels great!

I’m guessing it will different tomotrow after I wash it.

Here’s a photo of Rico from this afternoon… killing the game of fetch.

Tomorrow I have two sheep herding lessons! It should be a good day.

Well, at least it’s still barely St. Paddy’s day here. Just made it in under the wire. We celebrated today with a very surprised daffodil!

I went to a friend’s house for a dinner of corned beef and cabbage tonight. It was a big old warm bowl of comfort and I loved every bite. And the company was so wonderful! It felt like it’s been so long since I was with people at a table.

After dinner I made quick trip to the post office to send this bag off to Texas. It made me a little sad to see it go.

When we got home I decided to head out for a two mile walk. It was so gorgeous out. The moon was really amazing. I wish I could get a better photo with my phone.

Once home from our walk I thought I’d just finish up the bag I’ve been working on. There wasn’t much left to do and I had it all done in about an hour.

Holy cow! Look at those colors. I just love that strip of green! And the deep reds and purples are so good together.

I decided to play off those bits of purple at the top of the bag for the lining. For me, the lining is really important. A peak of something spectacular or unexpected at the top of the bag is a great feature. This is not the place to make shortcuts!

Here’s some detail photos.

Wanda from the Exuberant Color blog commented on yesterday’s post that the blooming tree might be a red bud tree. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I took a closer look at it this afternoon when we passed it on our walk and it’s a flowering plum.

They are one of the first trees to hit full bloom in the spring. I have one in my back yard and haven’t gone out to look at the blooms in a few days. You really have to be sure to enjoy them while they are in bloom because they don’t last long. One good rain storm can knock all the petals off the tree. You can smell the blooms as you walk around the neighborhood.

Friday tomorrow! I’m actually going to take the afternoon off and get my hair cut! I’m almost embarrassed at what a mess it is! I’m going to a new hairdresser that a friend uses and I hope he’s not horrified by the mess I bring him!

So, it’s been quite a night! I took the dogs for a walk, and then I sewed on a bag!!! I know! You can’t believe it!!!

I did see a really pretty moon while we were out walking.

And I’m loving that I’m starting my evening walks in daylight! That gives me the chance to take a different route that gets me off the streets and onto the trail. I don’t walk the trail when it’s dark because it’s just too damned dark, and there are critters like nutria, bunnies, and coyotes. I’m not very worried about the bunnies, but the nutria and coyotes are another story.

Oh, and we had a special treat for our afternoon walk today when a co-worker joined us for a three mile stretch. It was really great to see him and the dogs were really happy to see him. He just loves Bender and Rico. It was a good walk.

It was a gorgeous afternoon and I took the opportunity to get a photo of the boys in front of my forsythia bush. They all look pretty spectacular.

My siblings and I posed in front of our forsythia bush every spring when I was a kid. It just seems right that I make these poor boys do the same.

I had a pretty productive couple of hours in my sewing room tonight. I made the handles and constructed the body of the bag I started last night. And I’m loving these colors!

And the other side.

Then I dug into the lining and got it all cut, fused the interfacing, and got the pockets made and attached to the lining. Look at that yummy green pocket on that purple!!!

Ooh! That’s so pretty! And the pop of green in this pocket lining is so brilliant!

I got the zipper placket made too. I just love the way the design on these fabrics have so much movement.

Here’s all the lining and placket pieces…

Here’s how the lining looks with the outer bag. I think that violet was a good choice. And that green pocket… I mean, come on!!! So good!

I’ve been invited to a friend’s place for dinner tomorrow night… corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. It will be nice to be around people, like in person and not through a computer!

I will probably finish up this bag tomorrow after dinner if I don’t drink too much wine.

And I just remembered that I’m supposed to bring dessert! Damn. I’m glad I remembered! That would have been embarrassing!