Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening after a nice day. Quite breezy here on the pond. Carol had set some quilts and wall hangings etc. out on the chairs out front to air out. She is doing this as we begin to go through all the quilts etc. that were in “climate controlled” storage, Except as we mentioned before, it may not have gone below freezing but moisture levels were way too high. A nuisance but hopefully all the items can be salvaged without too much effort. You got it, time will tell.

Earlier this week as I was cleaning up around where the now gone motorcycle trailer used to be, I found this little guy. A spotted salamander. 

 

He was just there doing whatever it is the salamanders do. I covered it up with the same clump of pine needles and let it be. I checked the next day and Spotty had moved on.

This afternoon we were treated to an eagle flying around trying to get a duck for supper. When it first swooped down at the ducks there were four of them. After the first swoop, two took off and the other two dove under water. When they came up the eagle tried again several times to no avail. The ducks took off and the eagle chased them out over Mud pond next door. I am sorry to say I don’t think duck ended up on the menu for the eagle tonight. They are big and it is fun to watch them fly around.

As I said last time, I sold a bunch of wood. One pile I sold as a whole and they came and removed the whole pile. The other wood I sold I just removed from the pile and delivered it next door to Pond and Pines Glamping Cabins for use in their fireplaces. Naturally because I removed a bunch from the pile it caused even more to fall over. I like my woodpiles like my quilts, neat and orderly. As you can guess I have been relocating and re-stacking the wood to address the unacceptable looks of the pile. One customer had complained that my normal woodpiles being round are hard to figure the amount of wood. I argued not really, I just need to measure and calculate the volume of a cylinder and not the volume of a rectangular block. I still need the calculator but I can still do it easy enough. I proceeded to create a more “normal” woodpile to make him happy in case he wants more. 

I normally build round ones because they are easier to construct and are less likely to fall over. Hopefully the new one remains standing until it is torn down. Time will tell.

In the studio I have completed quilt  #26 for 2025. 

2025-26

Another lap or couch quilt, size of this one is 65” x 77”. I again used 4-1/2” finished (F) blocks as the base to create a 10” F block. I used the 4-1/2” blocks with a 1” sashing and corner stone. Two different fabrics made up my sashing strips and I made 15 blocks each way. I used the opposite fabric as the corner stone to add contrast.

I went with a light fabric for the main 2-1/2” F sashing strips between the 10” F blocks. I came up with a pattern of stars of a couple different types. The four stars in the corners were created using my Corner Pop III and popping at 6. This meant that the base is at 2”. After replacing the triangle with the blue fabric I used in the block inner sashing, I popped again at 4 and replaced with the orange fabric.

I then decided on a more “normal” V- block star with alternating star points of the same blue and orange fabrics. I went with two on the top and two on the bottom of the quilt. These were created using my Corner Pop II and popping at 2-1/2, this put the base at 2-1/4” or the center of my sashing. I then decided on two more stars to add something to the center row of sashing. I returned to my Corner Pop III and popped at 4, I again alternated the two accent fabrics for my star points.

Since finishing #26 I have been cleaning. As you may remember, cleaning for me is cutting scraps and strips to different sizes and then making those into different shapes as I daydream what #27 will look like. So far I have been adding to my bin of 2” with V-blocks and half square triangles and adding the same to my bin of 3” F units. I also found myself making about seventy 2” x 4” flying geese so far. I will probably continue cleaning for another day or two unless an over whelming urge or one of my voices starts screaming that there are ideas hatching and now that there are lots of units to build with, let’s get started. So I will have to say that #27 is TSTT. This is short for for “too soon to tell”.  It works very well with “we”ll see” and “time will tell”.

The weather individual has stated that we should see some much needed rain this weekend. Hopefully we don’t get two months worth on Saturday. We’ll see. I leave you with my attempt at a moon shot tonight. 

Stay safe and enjoy your weekend.