Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, sitting by the fire on Tuesday evening. It rained earlier this evening just before I cooked supper’s burgers on the grill. It cleared up rather nicely and I have, so far, enjoyed a pleasant evening. My view tonight with the time lapse off, letting the camera only use the light it sees as available. 

 

I think that is going to change and I may end up finishing this inside. The weather is threatening showers. Tomorrow we are supposed to be getting a Nor’easter. I know when we get one of them in the winter it can be a ”watch out” situation, with high winds and lots of snow. Hopefully no damage will occur. We need some rain but not torrential downpours. 

Carol says that I can no longer bring my iPad outside by the fire with me. I had to replace it not too long ago ~ dropped it and broke the screen when it hit the pavers. Replaced it, this time I got the Apple care insurance. Good thing, I guess, dropped it again. I have an appointment to replace the screen tomorrow with an Apple genius. Time will tell how that goes. By the way, I’ve met some pretty smart dudes but never a bonafide genius. Anxious to see how that goes as well. As an aside for you quilters, Invisigrip works quite well to cover the cracks and allow the continued use of the iPad. Just cut sheet to fit screen, works great. Don’t ask me how I know that.

Quilting time is still being spent using up some 1-1/2” squares. I’ve been sewing them together to get four patch units then trimming them to either 1-1/2” finished four patch units or 1” finished units. After trimming to the correct size four patch I have then been sewing them into 3” finished blocks. These blocks are made up of either sixteen 3/4” squares. 

or thirty six 1/2” squares.

I’m trying to keep the 36 patch scrappy but depending on how many of the different scraps I had many of the 16 patch follow predictable patterns. Found some 1-1/2” 1/2 square triangles that I can see showing up somehow pretty soon in the mix. 

Continuing with exhibit quilts Rona 10, 11, and 12.

Rona 10 ~

In Rona 10 I wanted the sashing strips and the border to be what made the quilt impressive. Not the blocks. The block is a very simple collection of four patch blocks that I assembled within a common light background and frame fabric. Then I chose the slightly darker gray to begin to make the blocks pop a little. The turquoise V-block stars with the on-point Square in Square in the center of each one did the trick. The floating four patch on-point finished this one off quite well. One of my favorites and a favorite of many at the show.

Rona 11 ~

I liked the visual effect I received in this creating this quilt. I had been using piano key borders in several of the earlier tops, so I decided that this time I would use them in the sashing strips and not the border. In this quilt the accent was going to be on the piano key sashing strips and the stars in the cornerstones. So for the filler blocks I used some basic nine patch blocks that I framed with a common colored frame so I could again use it in the border. The stars were created by using my Corner Pop 2 tool and popping off the corners on the ends after I had sewn the needed piano keys together. I carried the stars out into the border to help complete the visual effect.

Rona 12 ~

 

In this quilt I was using up the regular nine patch blocks. They had supposedly been created by my youngest daughter as she was making a quilt for a then boyfriend. The boyfriend was dropped and the quilt was never finished. I saw them as blocks to use up. I paired them with a simple slightly different nine patch block that gave me a common background I could then use in the sashing strips and the border. By popping the ends with a larger than “normal” pop on only one side, I moved my seam from the middle of the sashing strip. This meant I did not have seams to match with the on-point four patch used as the cornerstones. It also gave the stars created a slanted look.

That completes the next three of the series. I hope you enjoyed, If you have questions feel free to ask.

I managed to not get rained out, as I am still by the fire. 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week and that the weather causes no issues to your lives. Stay safe, have fun until next time.