Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Sunday evening, no fire tonight and sadly they are probably over for the season, at least evening fires. Forecast calls for night time temps in the low 20’s. Time to move inside until spring. It’s only 6 months away. Be here before you know it. I’m glad I won’t need to walk so much pretty soon. My walking is now at just over 1950 miles for the year. Maybe after I stop walking so much I can gain some weight. Time will tell.

Back in June I commented that I was making a commission quilt. I was hired to piece it and Carol to quilt and bind it. 

The quilt was for our good friend, Michelle Rene Hiatt of Sew on the Go. Let me tell you, piecing a quilt following directions for all trimming and pressing requirements was a challenge. Especially anyone who knows Michelle knows that she likes a whole lot of different fabrics. I only use a bunch when making scrappy quilts. Which is about all I have been making for the last couple years. 

This was a quilt that she needed for Island Batik to use in their fall catalog promoting their fabric line HOLIDAY AT HOME and Michelle's pattern HOLIDAY SOLSTICE. This is a block of the month program, kits are available through quilt shops promoting the Island Batik line of fabric. 

The pattern is available from Michelle.

Michelle produces an excellent pattern enabling wonderful results. Here are some pictures and more info.

Quilted with the digital pattern HOLLY & SWIRL by Urban Elementz.

From the Island Batik Fall Catalog..

I am continuing to build shelves in my new shed. I am slowly moving the small boxes from rented storage into it. Slow process. Grandson Evan has been too busy to help, so I am only saving the heavy stuff for him to help me with. Then he will only need to find a little time to help this old man. Hopefully, we can get it done this week. Time will tell. I’ll keep plugging away. I also had the mind stabbing thought that most of the boxes that are going on the shelves contain things of value we no longer want and need to find a way to dispose of. Probably would have been ahead of the game to have thrown everything away and not built a shed. Oh well, you guessed it, time will tell.

The current project, still unnamed, but destined to be my quilt, is coming along nicely. The body is complete, the borders are assembled and the two long sides are sewn on.  

All I need to do now is design and assemble the six inch finished corner stones for the corners of the quilt. I’ve tried several, but EQ8 is not playing well so I will need to go old school, and go back to graph paper. How I started, still remember how. 

I think I have an idea but need to see if the idea is worth the effort. After playing with the old school method of graph paper I have arrived at the corner stones for MY quilt. Unfortunately I did not get a corner assembled so you don’t get to see until next time. You know me, there is going to be a least five or six pieces in this cornerstone block. I don’t know if I counted right but somewhere between 65 & 70 pieces in each six inch finished block. You all know I’m crazy, but hey, it’s my quilt. Of the hundreds I’ve made this is only the second that I have made just for me. Boy, I hope I like it.

Enjoy your week, til next time, Dan signing off.