Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. It was a nice calm day today. I managed to burn off some of the wood I have been pulling off the pond. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to keep the chain on my EGO electric chain saw. I must admit I have probably cut more wood with it than was ever intended for it to cut. I will probably buy another one then you can count on this one finally working right. The chain just doesn’t function correctly, it falls off. I bet they are making new ones as I write this. Unfortunately, probably in China.

I managed to get most of the branches that were sticking up out of Mud pond removed. I was working on those at the edge where the blowdown occurred when the chainsaw decided to not function as desired. So I “harvested” what I had cut and took it up on the hill where the rest of the wood is stored. There it is waiting to be split.

I guess the splitting will need to be completed during shorter work sessions. I pulled a groin muscle from the repetitive motion of stacking what I had split two days ago. I could hardly climb stairs yesterday. Seemed mostly better today. It’s always interesting to wake up with a new issue. Then it’s not the normal things screaming at me as I lay there deciding whether to get up or stay in bed. So far I’ve decided to get up most days.

The cold weather has been brutal with the wind howling. Not so bad the last two days but before that and I guess next week will be even worse. I brought a little infrared cabinet heater down from the shed and it has been working quite well assisting in warming the house. The heat pumps are by no means central heating. Some areas get nice and warm, some too hot and some not so much. The heater assists in the area of not so much.

Last night I was treated to a treat of one of my solar lanterns putting on a show. Sometime the light and the designs created are pretty cool. 

I think I will need to replace many of my solar lights this spring. Many seem to no longer work or maybe it is just that where they are they don’t get enough sunlight. Time will tell.

In the studio I am back to cleaning and emptying bags and bins where possible. I am currently just making various different units depending on what I find. I found a ziplock bag full of several different sized triangles. The same shape as a half square. I think they were pop offs from when the original Corner Pop came out. I figured the size needed and started cutting squares to make completed half square triangle units. Several different sizes depending on pieces found. Mostly 2”, 2-1/2” 3 and 4”, we’ll see what happens with those when I decide to head off after another idea. I have an idea but don’t think I want to go there next.

#2 for 2025 was completed the other night. 

2025-2

 

The block started as a 36 patch, 9” finished block. I then took my Corner Pop and popped 3-1/2” off the corners as in a snowball block. 

The picture shows my Tucker Trimmer III preparing for a trim. Then I used the cut off pieces to make imperfect Shaded 4-Patch units. 

If I had popped at four inch instead I think the scrap would have made perfect shaded 4-patch units. I gave no thought to the scrap when I arbitrarily choose 3-1/2" to be my pop. I just knew I wanted the effect of the yellow triangles. I used the imperfect Shaded 4-patch along both sides as I made the sides larger. I used the split rects I obtained from the scrap after popping for the sashing strips in the top and bottom borders along with some of the shaded 4 patches trimmed to 2” finished. 

As you can see the border widths do not match sides and top and bottom. I did this to grow the quilt wider and not any taller. Remember there are no rules unless I make them. I usually make a few just to keep me on my toes. That way I can always count on screwing something up and have the fun of taking it out and fixing it.

I’m ready for it to snow, the tractor guy came today and replaced the heater so I will be nice and warm when/if it snows again.

Enjoy your weekend, Spring is coming except I guess it will get a lot colder first. So stay warm and stay safe.