Category: Uncategorized

It’s been another week and I will be really happy to see the end of it. The weekend just can’t get here fast enough.

Plus… DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME STARTS THIS WEEKEND!!! The day the time changes in the spring is, literally, my favorite day of the year! I just love having light in the evenings.

I feel better just knowing it’s coming!

I was tired last night and didn’t spend one minute in my sewing room. So I got in there tonight after our walk and cut and fused the lining for my current bag project, finished the slip and zipper pockets, and made the zipper placket.

I was just too wiped out to get the placket sewn onto the linings. So I’ll save that for tomorrow night. I should get this bag finished tomorrow night and get it ready to ship this weekend.

I did something crazy on the zipper pocket. I rotated the zipper so the pull is on the opposite side. It just seems to work better for a right handed person.

Would someone even notice the different orientation for the zipper? Is there an industry standard for the proper way to install a zipper? Or is it like toilet paper on the roll and there are equal number of fans for over and under?

I’m a big fan of over.

I’m getting pretty fast at making these zipper pockets. But this was not one of my best. It’s not terrible. Just not perfect.

Here’s a photo of the zipper pocket after the zipper is sewn into the opening and before the pocket edges are all sewn together. It helps me understand how the mechanics of this all work.

And here it is after the pocket is folded up and the edges are all sewn closed.

I make these pockets a nice generous size… much bigger than in the tutorial I use. I might have to make my own tutorial that shows my measurements and how I place the pocket on the lining. I could use my new gooseneck!

As I was fumbling around in my top drawer for my zipper foot this evening I happened to notice some of the tools I use over and over.

Starting at the left, my brother gave me this wooden combo stiletto and seam ripper. Next is a pair of long tweezers. I’m amazed how often I use these… picking off threads, I use it a lot in paper piecing, all kinds of uses for this. Then there’s the Purple Thangle that a friend gave me. This is a great little tool. I’m not sure what it was made for, but I use it for all kinds of things. The next one is a fake bone tool. I think it’s made for folding paper, but I could be wrong. I use this for poking out corners, like on my zipper plackets and slip pockets. The tip of it isn’t sharp so I do less damage to my points. Next is that pair of scissors with the yellow handle. I keep those handy for trimming the fabrics off corners. They are serrated, so grip the fabric nicely. The last tool in this photo is a little pair of snipper scissors. I keep this at my right hand all the time to cut threads as I sew. I like to clip threads as I go along so everything stays neat and nice. I can’t stand having stray threads all over the back of a piece.

And my new plaything… earlier this week I purchased a goose neck stand to hold my phone so I can use it to video tape. I’m thinking I might make some quick little videos of how I do things that I can include here. I’ll have to come up with something to be the first thing I test it out on.

Here’s the picture from the box.

Here’s the real thing hovering over my cutting table.

The neck has a lot of heft to it, so it should stay in place once I get it set. It looks a little like some kind of prehistoric bird.

We’ve had a week or so of nice weather and we’ve been enjoying our walks.

The rain is supposed to come back on Saturday and will stay with us for at least ten days. pretty typical for this time of year.

I may have purchased a bag of 200 googly eyes a couple of months ago.

There are a good number of these around my neighborhood.

Here’s to the weekend . . . almost.

I’m tired tonight and have an early meeting…. so I decided I’ll do a quick recap of my recent Frankenbags.

I think I’ve made around 40 of these bags. I really should count them to see exactly how many I’ve made.

All of the most recent ones have been full blown with zipper pockets and zipper plackets. Here’s a look.

Here’s a few of the simpler bags.

Good grief! that took me all the way back to August! I knew it had been a few months that I wasn’t making any bags, but that’s crazy! It was all the way at the end of December when I posted the first bag after that months long stretch.

What happened in the mean time?

Fabric greeting cards, feed bag totes, a few quilt finishes. And that’s about it!

Like I said, I’m close to having mad 40 bags. It might be more than that. I’ll have to go back and see for sure. I still have a few more bag ideas that I want to try out before I have another dry spell!

Today was Monday. It felt like Monday. The good part is that it was a gorgeous day. It was a little foggy first thing this morning, but it burned off quickly and the sun shined all day. We took our evening walk under a blanket of dazzling stars.

I got the Aboriginal fabric panels that I made last night all quilted tonight and got the bag body constructed. (I feel like I’ve typed that before. It’s like deja vu.)

I’m a little disappointed that the long strips around the two sides of the pieced block aren’t as bold as I was envisioning, Which just means that I’m going to have to make another one to test it out again. It needs more contrast between the two darker fabrics. And that red I wanted to use originally would have been really strong in this. I might have to buy some more.

Here’s the other side of the bag… almost exactly like the first side.

There IS something about this side of the bag that I just LOVE! Let’s zoom in…

I’m just loving that little blue kangaroo! And that was totally serendipity since these were made from strip sets! What a happy little accident!

Here’s a few more detail photos just because I Love looking at these prints!

And this little detail also makes me happy. Look how that curvy dotted yellow line in the center of the photo continues uninterrupted from one fabric to the next. It’s like I planned it! Total chance, but fantastic!

Here’s the bag with the fabric I plan to use for the lining.

There’s a strip of that in the bag, so this will work nicely.

I took a break between quilting these two panels and called my quilting friend. As we were talking I was hit by an idea. I’ve been wanting to make another bag using Brandon’s black octopus fabric. What if I combined the octopus fabric with Aboriginal prints??? So I just tossed some of what I was using most recently onto the table with a piece of Octopus.

Maybe not these specific fabrics, but I think there’s an idea here worth exploring. I’ll be noodling over this for a while, but don’t be surprised to see something like this materialize soon.

As I was finishing up tonight I decided to spin a bunch of bobbins. I do this all the time, that way I can just pop in a new bobbin and keep going! I have no patience for stopping to wind a bobbin.

My neighbor across the street moved early last fall and she gave me some pots that she’d had on her patio. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed that there are tulips and other bulb plants growing in some of them. And today I saw these adorable Tete-a Tete Miniature Daffodils.

I can’t wait to see what else will bloom!

I slept in this morning. I planned on getting up at 9 am. But I didn’t. I slept until almost 10:30. And it was glorious!

So our Sunday morning walk started a little late. We walked for over four miles as I talked to a friend on the phone. It was another gorgeous day! I had to stop half way through to strip off my coat and gloves. The sun was glorious. And when I got home I drank a beer on the back patio with the sun on my face.

And while I sat there I realized that it’s time to pick up my yogurt containers that Bender gets to lick out every morning.

That’s about three weeks worth of breakfasts!

Once I sucked the last golden deliciousness from the can, I did a little puttering, did some laundry, made some nectar for the hummingbirds and then I hit my sewing room to finish up the Aboriginal bag that I started on Friday night. And man… I LOVE THIS ONE!!!

Here’s the other side. I just love that bold red! It’s all so pretty with those left over strip sets.

And the obligatory tag photo… Holy cow! Those colors are so rich, so deep… just amazing!

And I love the dark lining on this one. It really works well with all the color on the front of the bag.

Here’s some detail…

As I started working on the lining this afternoon, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to use a pen to mark the line for placing the zipper placket. I thought I could use chalk, but figured it would all be a muddled mess by the time I got that the point where I needed it.

So I put a piece of painters tape on the fabric to mark where I needed the line…

And then I just stitched a line along the edge of that blue tape.

It worked really well and was very visible. And it was there when I needed it.

I will definitely remember that trick the next time I’m working with a really dark lining where a pen won’t work.

Here’s a picture I took as I was sewing the final line of top stitching around the top of the bag. I love this step, but man… it’s really a wrestling match to manipulate all that bulk around the machine!

When I finished this bag it was early enough that I wanted to try something that I’ve been thinking about.

Several months ago I made two batik bags from a wall hanging I made during the pandemic. I wasn’t terribly crazy about the wall hanging so decided to cut it into four pieces and make two bags out of it. It was a really good decision… I loved the bags much more than the wall hanging! Here’s one of the bags.

I just love those bold borders on two sides of the improv block. So I made one big block from my left over Aboriginal strip sets and then bordered it with some gorgeous Aboriginals. I wanted to use the same red that’s in the bag I finished tonight, but I didn’t have enough of it. But I like what I used instead.

I like it, but won’t really know how it works until it’s sewn into a bag. I’m thinking the two strips around the pieced block need more contrast.

I finished piecing both panels for this bag before I called it quits for the night. I’ll probably make some progress on this tomorrow.

I’ll probably try this same design with some of my KFC scraps next. Maybe some fun Brandon Mably black and white prints. Hmmm. Ideas.

One more week and we switch to Daylight Saving Time. That is my favorite time of the year! It was light until 6:00 tonight. Next Sunday, it will be light until 7 pm!!! I love it.

What an amazingly gorgeous day! Spring has definitely arrived here in the Pacific Northwest. Well, at least for now.

I took Rico to his herding lesson today and he did a really good job! Here’s a little video of us working together.

He’s such a great dog! I hope to live up to his talent some day as a handler.

But look at how gorgeous it was today!!! It was so wonderful to be outside!

After herding we hightailed it home to grab lunch so we could make it out to Oregon City by 4:00 for some agility training with friends. It was great to be around some friends and have even more activity on a Saturday. Here’s a nice photo as the sun was going down.

It really cooled down once the sun went behind the trees.

When I got home I grabbed dinner for me and the dogs. And I was wiped out. I didn’t go for a walk of any kind today! That’s probably the first day without a walk in many months. I thought about going for a walk after dinner, but decided I was going to sew instead.

So I hit my sewing room and finished up the quilting on the Aboriginal fabric bag panels I made last night and got sandwiched this morning.

OMG! That fabric is just completely magic! I really love working with these gorgeous designs and colors.

I also got the bag body constructed. I think this will be the front of the bag.

Look at that!!! Holy cow!

And the other side of the bag.

I decided to get the linings cut and fused before I wrapped up for the night.

I may use that red fabric for the slip pocket and zipper pocket lining.

Here’s how the lining will look in the bag.

That lining fabric is left over from the aboriginal quilt I made for my nephew. It’s really gorgeous. Look at these close ups of the designs…

And here you can see it with the bag to get a feel for how they look together.

That fabric reminds me of stars in the night sky when you’re in a place far away from city lights and there’s no moon. I’ve seen stars shine like that!

I will probably finish this bag up tomorrow. I’ll have to squeeze it in with a couple of long walks. I have to make up for my lack of walks today! The dogs will expect it.

I’ve received a few photos of Frankenbags over the last week. Let’s dive in.

This first one is from Yvonne Seaman. She wasn’t sure it qualified as a Frankenbag, but it looks like a Frankenbag to me! She said despite my warnings about the pitfalls when assembling a bag, she managed to make most of the mistakes I had highlighted! Well, Yvonne, I call those learning experiences! I love her cirved piecing. I’ve wanted to do some of that and found a good tutorial a few months ago. I guess I should jump in!

This next bag was made by Sandee Henricks. I just love this bag. The colors of the fabrics are so bright and springy. This is not Sandee’s first Frankenbag. But I love that she got brave enough to add a zipper placket on this one!

Next up is this bag made by Deanna Apfel. She made a quilt and this bag for her friend who makes masks and is very generous with them throughout their community. This is all mask leftovers. It’s a great bag and a great use for all those fabric scraps!

Last up tonight is this bag made by Betty Sims. She used an Arizona desert theme for her bag. I love all the fun colors. and it looks like she added a zipper placket and her own handle approach.

Oops. One more! This one was made by Barbara Ryan. she included a zipper pocket and a zipper placket at the top of the bag. The little dogs and cats are Laurel Burch fabrics. I love all her bright colors and her wavy vertical quilting.

Looking forward to a Sunday at home getting some stuff done.

I got so much done on this Ice Storm bag last night that I didn’t have much left to do tonight to wrap it up.

This will go in the mail tomorrow. Here the back side.

And look at how nice this is!

I’m loving that each one I do is just a little better than the last one!

Here’s some detail.

I got this done so quickly that I dug out my Aboriginal fabrics trip quilt left over strip tubes and whipped up some panels for my next bag.

Good grief! Those fabrics are so amazing!!!

Here’s the other side.

I’m having fun using up these old strip tubes. But I have a LOT of them! I could make a lot of bags out of these babies!

Rico has a sheep herding lesson tomorrow at noon. Then we’ll probably follow that up with a nice field run. We’re meeting friends for some dog agility training at 4:00. So it will be a busy day.

Sunday is a free day. I’m thinking we may get out and take a walk on a trail somewhere. It would be good for all of us to see something different.

So, today was totally different. I worked. The we walked. Then I worked some more. Then we walked some more. And then I sewed on yet another bag. It was so crazy! We’re all so excited with such a stimulating day!

And here’s something nice… SPRING ARRIVED IN PORTLAND TODAY WITH A BANG!!!

It was cloudy and damp in the morning, and then we had some downpours with blue skies. And then it all cleared up and the sun came out and the birds were singing and it just looked… different.

I went out and walked around the yard to see what was going on… forsythia buds opening up… flowering plum buds ready to burst… first daffodil fully bloomed…

And Daylight Saving Time arrives next weekend. MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR! I just love the extra light in the evening. It’s so hard to believe it’s March already.

So, I did get a lot done on this second Ice Storm bag tonight. I got both quilt panels sandwiched and quilted and I got the handles made and the body of the bag constructed.

I intentionally used some darker grays than in the other bag. It has a little bit different feel.

I also got the lining cut and interfacing fused. I got the zipper and slip pockets made and attached, and I made the zipper placket. I decided to stop before I made a mistake!

Several people have asked me about the fusible tape I’ve started using to install my zippers. This is the product that I bought online.

I will confess right off the bat that I didn’t read the instructions. Fair warning.

The tape is 1/4 inch wide, fusible webbing that is sticky on both sides, and has a paper backing on one side. this photo shows me peeling off the paper backing and you can see the webbing left on the fabric.

Here’s what I did for the zipper on the pocket:

I peeled off a section of tape off the roll, leaving the paper on one side, and stuck it to the zipper tape.

Then, with the paper still on, as the photo shows, I hit it with my iron to fuse the webbing to the zipper tape. Then I peeled off the paper and centered the zipper pocket opening over the zipper and used my fingers (not the iron) to press the fabric of the pocket opening onto the adhesive. Then I hit it with my iron to fuse the webbing to the pocket opening.

Look how nice that looks!!!

I left the iron on this long enough to make sure the heat got through to fuse it all together. There are two layers of fabric and two layers of interfacing between the iron and the fusible tape.

Once this was fused, I top stitched around the opening according to the tutorial I use.

For the zipper placket, I adhered the tape to the edge of the two fabric placket pieces, rather than to the zipper.

Then hit this with the iron, pulled off the paper and pressed (using fingers, not iron) these pieces onto the zipper tape of the long zipper. When it was all in the place I wanted, I hit it with the iron. Again, lots of layers so I made sure the heat got through and melted the webbing.

Once it was fused, I did the top stitching.

I’m a big fan of this stuff! It’s giving me really nice zipper applications. And the zipper pocket I made tonight is probably my best one yet! It turned out so good!

I’ll get this bag done tomorrow night ad get it ready to ship. I have another bag to ship so am wanting to get this one done so I can just make one trip to the post office.

Another stressful work week. I’m really glad tomorrow is Friday. I’m thinking I might take the afternoon off. I could really use a break… maybe have some extended time out in the sun.

My weekend is pretty typical… Rico’s herding lesson Saturday at noon, then meeting friends for agility practice. Sunday is wide open, but I’m thinking some kind of outdoor activity will be called for. Maybe we’ll go for a nice long trail walk. Don’t tell my boys until I decide for sure because I don’t want to disappoint them!

A friend I’ve never met in person contacted me the other day and wanted an Ice Storm Frankenbag, so I told her I’d whip one up for her since I was thinking about making another one but using darker gray batik fabrics with the left over Ice Storm strip sets.

I dug in tonight after after work and got the block elements made and started auditioning some darker gray batiks to see what I liked.

After our evening walk I dug in and started sewing. I got the two panels done really quickly since the block elements were already done. I like the darker colors. It will be interestingto see how different this bag looks once it’s done.

Here’s the first panel.

And the second one.

I’ll get these sandwiched and quilted tomorrow night.

I have another friend who wants a bag like this one…

So I’ll be making another one of these as well.

While I was in my sewing room tonight I caught a glimpse of all this hardware that I bought a few months ago.

I think that big bag is 100 key fob hardware pieces. It might be 200! What am I going to do with all those key fobs?

The smaller bag at the lower left is D-rings. I thought I might sew those into the inside of a bag to attach your keys. I should figure that out on my next bag.

The two bags in the upper left are the hardware you would use to make a lanyard. There are 50 pieces in each bag. I had ordered one bag from Amazon, got a notification that it was delivered but I hadn’t received it. So I contacted Amazon and they sent another set.
A few days later my neighbor contacted me to let me know he had my package. So I have more of those than I needed. Here’s what they look like.

The quantity of this stuff is such a good illustration of how I do things. I tend to think that I need to buy in bulk. I’m happy knowing that I have this stuff available if I need it.

Years ago I made a few little fabric wallets that each had one snap closure. I bought hundreds of different snaps and a tool to attach them to fabric. I think I made around 10 wallets and haven’t touched those snaps since. But, by God, I have them!!!

I saw this cartoon tonight on Instagram. It’s one of my all time favorites.

After about ten days of significant rain, we are getting into another stretch of really wonderful winter weather.

I’m starting to see signs of spring in my yard. My daffodils now have buds on them. My forsythia has tiny yellow buds forming. My flowering pear trees will be blooming in the next couple of weeks. Spring is an amazing time in this part of the country. I will share spring blooms as they start showing up.

I think I’m paying for some video functionality on this blog. This is a test to see how this video comes through.

A number of people said they would love a tutorial for the fabric knitting caddy I made for a friend last week.

I thought I might write up a quick tutorial over the weekend, but then I realized that it really wasn’t necessary as there are probably hundreds of free tutorials available for a caddy just like this. All you’d need to do is add your own fun piecing and put the handles where you want them.

Here’s a few links to tutorials that will probably work really well:

The One Hour Basket by Easy Patchwork.

This one by Pink Penguin.

30-Minute Fabric Basket by Flamingo toes.

And here are a few video tutorials on Youtube.

That should keep you busy for a while!

It poured over night last night and for most of the morning. I’m pretty sure it must have rained three inches. My rain guage was completely full by noon.

The beer is there to show you how big that dog dish is.

We were lucky to get a bit of a break for a somewhat damp afternoon walk and then our evening walk was dry and almost 60 degrees! It was freakishly warm. We have a lot of rainy days coming up. But it looks like today may have been the most significant. Looks like the weekend might be pretty nice.

After our evening walk I dug in and finished this gorgeous green batik Frankenbag. Oh man, how I love those greens!

I wasn’t sure how the green batiks would work with the KFC scraps, but I really like it. The reds really pop with all the green. There’s a reason… check your color wheel!

Here’s the other side of the bag.

It was really a good idea to use that lighter faux leather with these green batiks. And it works really well with my favorite tag.

And the obligatory detail photos.

When I’m constructing the lining, pockets, and zipper placket, I get everything cut and fused and sit down and do as much sewing as I can. Here’s everything all prepped and ready to sew.

And here’s another photo of the lining with the zipper placket attached. Next step is sewing the side and bottom seams, and then the gussets.

It’s nice to be able to look at this and know that it’s right, even though it feels so wrong!

And I used the self stick adhesive tape to place the zipper for the pocket and placket and it worked perfectly! It was so much easier to place the zipper for the pocket and I got a better installation. It was also easier to get the placket all ready to assemble. I will use this on all upcoming bags. I like things that make processes more efficient and give a better finish.

The best thing happened this morning during one of my Zoom calls… this squirrel ran up the tree with a peanut butter bottle on his head!!!

It was the most amazing thing! It just might be the best thing that I’ll see this week.

I called Bender’s neurologist first thing this morning. She called me back late this afternoon. We talked about Bender’s seizures for a few minutes. After a few minutes of conversation she decided that DOUBLING one of his medications was the way to go. It was a big boost to this same medication that started his 5-year seizure free run. So I’m feeling hopeful that this will get us a few more years of a normal life for this kid.

And Rico had to get in on the photo action too!

My next project will be another bag made from the scraps from my Ice Storm quilt because an acquaintance of mine wants one. I sold the other one to a co-worker. But on this one, I’ll use some darker grays to surround the lighter blocks to make it a little more practical.