Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Hoping we don’t loose power on this Tuesday evening.  It has snowed hard all day.  Until about 5:00 this afternoon, then the blacktop started to go from the black where the snow just melted all day, to deepening layers of white.  To look up the pond reveals pretty much a whiteout.  It is hard to look up the pond though because the wet sticky snow has stuck to all the windows. 

I rode up to Rangeley on Monday and hung a dual monitor, wall mount, for grandson Parker’s computer.  He has had it a while and due to crazy circumstances no one has been able to install it for him.  Finally done, tight quarters for two monitors and a tv set, but he was pleased, so all is fine. 

Recommendation for anyone headed that way would be to avoid Route 17 from Rumford to Oquossoc.  I didn’t think I could find a worse road than the road into our house, but I did.  There is a 3-4 mile stretch on Route 17 that I found difficult traveling at the whopping speed of 5 mph.  I chose to not come home that way.  

Quilt #17 for 2023 is complete.

I used more of the 4-patch blocks that I have been using.  These, you remember, are made from pairing the 3-1/2” units from the bins and squaring them to 5-1/2” unfinished with my 4-Patch square up tool.  I changed this time and did not combine them to make the 16-patch blocks.  This time I combined them with some 5” finished hourglass units I found in my spare blocks bins.  They worked great with the 5” finished 4-Patch units.  I essentially made 15” finished blocks using five 4-patch units and 4 hourglass units.  This gave me a 15” finished 9-patch.  I set them in a 3 x 4 grid, added a funky star in the sashing so the blocks would take the back seat, and let the stars shine.  Stars were made by popping corners on the sashing strips using my Corner Pop III.  I popped 6-1/2” on one side and 4-1/2” on the other.  I like the effect that they created. The square-in-square block as cornerstone lets the sashing “come back” through the center.

#18 for 2023 is also complete.  

With no more hourglass units I returned to the 16-Patch format again.  I again used a star in the sashing strip.  Two colors this time.  Different pops as well.  This time I popped one side with my Corner Pop III at 5” and popped the other side with Corner Pop II at 3”.  I found some fabric with roses on it whose background was close to the sashing strips and fussy cut them to fit in the square in square centers.  

#19 will still be from the same 3-1/2” squares bin and will probably follow similar albeit slightly different formats that the previous 18 tops have used.  I will make something different I promise.  No idea what yet, but you guessed it.  Time will tell. 

 

Snowing hard out now and the wind is howling.  The power has flickered several times.  Hopefully it stays on, almost doubt it as the gusts are getting louder.  Just checked the anemometer and it is showing wind gusts between 9 and 15 mph.  If the power does go off, hopefully I’ll be stuck listening to the generator not sitting in the dark.

So until next time, stay safe and enjoy.  I’ll do my best as well.