Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, frigid cold and snow for this weekend into Monday. Oh well, winter was bound to find us eventually. I’ll do my best to relocate whatever arrives, not going to worry too much about it until then.

Saturday I return to work with my new job at Sew Orchid Design, a local quilt shop in Norway. I am prepping now for a demo day celebrating your local quilt shops. I have been making different shapes ~ V-blocks. Corner beams, Half squares, Quarter squares, Combination units, Flying Geese, Square in Square blocks etc. using Studio 180 Tools.  Just making the blocks, I will demo trimming them on Saturday. I have a couple hours left of prep work to finish getting prepared. Hopefully I don’t make a fool of myself.

In the studio I have been continuing the process of consuming fabric. In #4 for 2026 I went with a double pop using my Corner Pop III. I first popped the sashing at 8-1/2 and replaced  with the green, then I popped again, same tool, at 4-1/2 and replaced with the orange. This gave me a star within the star. I finished off with a square in square 4 patch for the corner stone. 

2026-4

In #5 I followed the same idea only instead of the four patch as corner stone center I used the sashing color. I also used the sashing color for my replacement fabric on my second pop. This made the propeller blades appear narrow, I liked the look. Same tool and pops as in #4.

2026-5

In #6 I went back to using “other” 6” blocks instead of all four patches. It adds a wider variety of “things” that catch the eye. Along with more color variations as well. The accent this time was a blue inner sashing I used between the green stars to create a frame. The green stars were created with my Corner Pop III popped at 4-1/2. I carried the blue into the corner stones to complete the effect. 

2026-6

I haven’t decided on what #7 will be. I will probably need to get beyond my day of demonstrations before I get too involved with the next one. Still can clean up and make units when I tire of prep work.

Stay safe, if you end up with snow to remove don’t relocate all at once, pace yourself.  Not looking forward to relocation but it goes with the territory.  Enjoy.