Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Sunday evening from the studio. It has started to snow and the forecast is for 6 - 10 inches by the time it ends on Monday. You guessed it, time will tell.

Carol and I went for a walk on snowshoes out on the pond Sunday afternoon. 

It wasn’t really that great, the 5-6 inches of snow we got a couple days ago has turned into about 3” of snow on top with 2” of slush underneath. The snow would make snow balls under Carol’s snowshoes. This made walking uncomfortable for her, as the shoes just kept getting heavier and the shoes no longer laid flat. We both commented that different muscles were used snowshoeing than going for a walk. Maybe if we do get more snow we can try again. Who knows though, they are calling for 40 degrees and rain on Thursday. 

I think I’ll quilt and hope for spring. Carol commented the other evening at 5 o’clock “wow it’s not pitch black at 5 anymore.” Spring’s coming, although at least now there are very few bugs.

I have finished quilt top #5 for 2023. I’m still digging around in the 3-1/2” squares bin and so far all I have been doing is pairing them into 4-patch units then trimming to a five inch 

4-patch block. I can see a reduction in the bins but there are still many thousand squares in the bins.

The trick is the trimming of the 4-patch blocks. Having each 4-patch virtually identical, makes assembling these multiple 4-patch blocks quite easy. Spinning the seams whenever possible at every opportunity allows for all seams to nestle together during assembly. 

On this top I again used four 4-patch together to get my space filler ten inch blocks. 24 blocks were needed. 

I saw that I had a nice long sashing strip. 10-1/2” to be exact. I decided I would use the Corner Pop III. This pops at a 3:1 ratio on my sashing strip stars. This means if I pop 6”, than 6 divided by 3 equals 2. Or for the not so math minded my add on triangle or star points would be 2” at the base and go up the side 6”. I liked the 3D effect that I got with this star point and the dark blue of the base sashing strip.

I am at the assembly step currently on #6 for 2023. I again am using the same 10” scrap block. For the sashing strip I went to the Corner Pop II and popped at 4”. This tool pops at a 2:1 ratio so 4 divided by 2 equals 2. In other words my star point will be 2” at the base and extend 4” up the side. I’m thinking I’ll loose the 3D effect but the stars should stand out better. As I look at the pieces on the floor I envision the next top and am pretty sure that I’ll be using more than one color on the stars. Hopefully #6 will be ready for borders by bedtime. I have a great many 4 patch units well on the way to being usable.

These either need pressing and trimming or just trimming. Then there are others needing a little more attention. This means that the top I was envisioning a few moments ago will come out the chute quite quickly.

Enjoy your week, I think this week’s progress will be dependent on the amount of snow relocation time is that is required.