Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday. I think today will pass as a rainy day. I was going to Rangeley for the soccer game but it was cancelled because of the rain. 

I am writing this in the AM as I have finally managed to make an appointment to change the battery on my ever expanding laptop. Everything still works fine but the battery is out gassing causing the case to swell. The Man is going to swap out the battery and test to be sure it is charging correctly. I don’t know if I will get back today or not. Hence, I’m writing this now. 

After a few trips to The Man I now have my laptop back with a new battery. Amazing, not as hot and seems to work much better.

Yesterday and the day before I worked on getting the tree out of the water that fell in during one of last years storms. 

 

It was a good sized oak tree that had been host to a great many beetles and ants. When I split much of it I could see that the sections that were under the water had old ant and caterpillar borings in it. However, the sections that were not under water were still hosts to oodles of ants. Big black ants just everywhere. As I split a piece I could see more and more ants scurrying around trying to save the little tiny eggs. Oh well, my area around the splitter was covered with dead and confused ants. My question is are all the ants part of the same “family” or several. I wonder what they will do now. Maybe that is why I didn’t sleep too well last night.

I finished quilt #23 for 2024. I made this one still using polka dot fabric and my old friend the V-block. 

2024-23

I have made several quilts focused on the V-block. In the “old” days I would have needed to make them all with the V-block tool. Thanks to the Corner Pop II, all the sashing stars were created using that tool which eliminates a lot of seams. I was pleased with the result. The brown for the sashing stars was chosen to see if I could get rid of the rest of the bolt. I did ok as there is only a little less than 1/2 yard left.

While trying to come up with an idea for #24 I cleaned out my stash cupboard beside my sewing station. I still have several bins of pieces and parts of blocks and orphan blocks of several different sizes. The size that was the most abundant was a pile of 6” finished blocks.

I did a layout on EQ8 and saw I would need 120 - 6” blocks. A quick count of the “found” orphan blocks told me I had over 80 ready to go. I also located a few 12” finished blocks that could be used along with a larger bear paw block that now identifies as 12” finished. I used it in the center and built the quit around it. 

2024-24

I needed to make 15 to 20 more 6” blocks which I made with parts and pieces laying around. I made them Wednesday night and also started assembling the quilt. I was able to finish #24 for 2024 this evening. 

2024-24

I’ll pull that bin out again and see if I can find a way to make some of the various different sized blocks that are in it play together, or at least coexist, probably for #25.

While today was a washout, the forecast shows clearing and a stretch of half decent fall weather, nice days and cool nights. 

So enjoy what you get, and stay safe while you work on your fall projects. Mine will probably involve the crawl space, some projects you can only put off so long.