Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

How do Wednesday, I know that because yesterday was Tuesday and all is well.

We had a 4-5 inch snow storm Monday during the day and into the evening. It had been plowed when I got out of bed yesterday morning. The people who plow the driveway often do so between 1:00 and 3:00 in the AM. That’s in the morning. I am not awake nor does them performing their duties wake me. I often have just gone to bed. I sew at night. I do not get up early.

Carol saw a beautiful sunrise on Tuesday morning. I do not see many sunrises, it looked real pretty in the pictures. Real life was probably much nicer but I will live with the pictures.

Yesterday, as I cleaned up the snow, I was also attempting to scrape up the last storm that I had failed to clean up while it was fresh. Whine, whine complain ~ it was just too heavy, so I had left it. Unfortunately, it froze into concrete so it has been waiting for a beautiful day like we had yesterday.

As I cleaned up the snow there were snow fleas everywhere. I have always thought they were a weird insect. I guess they are not really fleas but if you get close they hop like one.

I was beyond happy that the new shoulder/neck heating pad had arrived. It is heaven.

I have not been able to figure out the rural mail delivery that we receive here. Sometimes it is here at 10:00 in the morning, sometimes it shows up at 5:30-6:00 in the evening. Sometimes there is more than one delivery vehicle on the camp road per day. Just don’t understand. But, don’t get me started on things I don’t understand.

I have started on Rona 13 and at least know the direction that the body of the quilt will take. 13 originated from a bin I was pawing through that had some 9-patch blocks left over from a commission quilt that I made. I have really only made two commissioned pieces.

Commissioned Bear Quilt ~ 2008?

These leftover blocks were from a 9-patch and appliquéd bear quilt that I made a very long time ago. They were rather odd sized blocks, as the 9 patch blocks measure 6-3/4” finished. These blocks were made odd sized to get the math right to get the blocks to fit on the customer’s bed. Odd sized blocks equals weird math.

I decided to use the blocks anyway and I found a fair amount of other matching and similar fabrics that were being stored with them. I found another fabric that worked to be used as the background to make more 9-patch blocks so that I would have enough blocks to create something with.

I figured out my layout and sashing strip/corner stone possibilities and proceeded to make enough 9-patch units to perform my layout. Truth told, I made too many. How do you think I get so many bins of parts and pieces and spare blocks?

I knew that I needed to deal with the weird math or else I would fight it in the math for the sashing strips. My new go to method to solve this problem is to frame the block with a little weird math to make the block more “normal.” I added a 1-1/8” finished frame around the 6 3/4’ finished 9-patch blocks to bring the finished block size up to 9”. Math then just became “normal,” I design with 9” blocks all the time. It simplified my thoughts on a possible sashing strip. I think I am ready to get the parts and pieces for the body of this quilt assembled and see what it looks like.

The paint project Is proceeding, albeit rather slowly. I think I would have to say I prefer quilting to the delicate painting on this project.

Remember, where ever you go, there you are, if I’m supposed to meet you there and you get there first, draw a blue line where we planned to meet. If I get there first, I’ll rub it out.

Until next time, stay safe and happy, let me know what you are working on.