Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Not much happening here on the pond. Hot heavy daytime weather kept me in the studio most of the day. Having no interest in the water and with no projects that can’t wait until cooler temps, that seemed like a nice cool place to be. Carol has been under the weather this week so we both have been laying low. I’ve been bunking in the studio so hopefully we share less germs. The weather is supposed to get hotter over the weekend, I don’t believe there is any real rain in sight,. You got it time will tell.

The lily has finished it’s display for another season. 

It was a really good presentation though. My short lily will be finishing up soon as well.

I was not too impressed with the flowers in the bed by the driveway. Many have broken side branches and died off, I forgot and fertilized the dahlias and they made lots of foliage but few blossoms. It seems like this is not the first time I did that. Mums and asters will be available soon and I’ll swap some of them out then.

In the studio I have finished quilt #21 for 2025. Size 65" x 77". When cleaning up after the last quilt, I saw a large number of 1-1/2" strips. Most were not width of fabric, just pieces. I proceeded to start sewing lights/darks and connecting them together. I trimmed them to 1" either side of the seam and 5" long. This gave me a 2"x 5" unfinished unit. I knew this would give me a 4-1/2" finished block when I sewed 3 sets together. No order, just grab and sew as long as the fabric only appeared once per block, hopefully. There are even a couple that I noticed were used “wrong” side up. They weren’t batiks but I left them anyways.

Remember, no rules. As someone once told me, “you paid for both sides, use the side you want.” I did. I then found two stacks of charm squares in one of the charm square bins and cut them up to get my unfinished sashing strips of 1-1/2" x 5". I used my Studio 180 Design, Corner Pop III and popped at 2. I replaced my pop with the yellow to get the star. Fifteen blocks of each sashing strip fabric were painstakingly created. I completed the blocks by framing them with two different fabrics and trimming them to 12" finished. Then they were quickly assembled with only the block seams to match. The yellow border just finished it off. I hope you enjoy. 

2025-21

I had planned to alternate the plank unit blocks with nine patches made up of 1-1/2” four patches. I thought the 36 patch 4-1/2” square would look cool but not really be that hard to create. Time will tell, not all the strip sets I have been sewing are in multiples of 5”, this means that I have also been making many 1-1/2” four patches to add to the 1-1/2” unit bin. They will keep the V-blocks and half squares etc. company that are already in that bin waiting for a home. Maybe someday, so much fabric so little time.

Enjoy your weekend, hopefully the wind won’t blow all the time so I can burn some wood. I no longer say I’m going out for a campfire, I have learned to be honest and say, “I’m going out to burn wood”. I pile it on and watch it burn. I had a least 10” of red hot coals the other evening when I quit stacking wood on the fire. I’ll try and remember to get a picture of the current woodpile for next time. I think you’ll see I am in no real danger of running out wood anytime soon. After all it is everywhere and it grows on trees.