Dan's Ramblngs

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Not a big fan of this lousy unseasonal weather, I would almost rather have snow storms than this wet icy mess. Oh well, I was not consulted so will need to put up with what we get. I did fire up the tractor and raise the blower so hopefully it will not need to be chiseled out of the ice after everything refreezes and it is maybe needed again.

With the weather not conducive to being outside I have been spending my time in the studio. Of course, I would probably have been there anyway, but the weather provided me with an excuse. I spent several days after finishing #45 for 2025 cleaning up and making shapes and usable, ready to go blocks. During that cleanup I made a scrap load of 6” finished (F) four patches. I also cleaned out my 3” F shape bin of odd shapes and half square triangles like I told you last time. That process made a scrap load of 6” F pieces ready for assembly into something.

When I decided I was bored with the cleaning process I moved on to top creation. I decided to use just the 6” F four-patches and pair them with 6” F squares of darks and lights chosen randomly from a bag of them I found. I decided on a pale green fabric for the 3” sashing and a bright orange as the pop. I popped the stars as needed for my layout at 4-1/2 on my Corner Pop III. This gave me a V-block like look but with higher sides. 

2026-1

With #2 for 2026 I stayed with the same concept only went with four fabrics for my 6” F squares instead of random choices. These worked well as I attacked the drawer of half yard cuts and used them. I found I could get two 6-1/2” strips and with most a 4-1/2” strip as well. Ten of the 6” F squares were used on this quilt and two saved for another time. The 4- 1/2” strips are cut into squares I can pair with the 4” F blocks when I tire of using the 6” four patches. Again a 3” sashing was used only this time I used my Corner Pop II and popped at 4. I thought the green/yellow/green batik and the yellow stars worked well. I think I prefer the look using the less scrappy 6” squares. 

2026-2

With #3 for 2026 I moved away from the four patches and moved on to the 6” F blocks I made using the 3” half square triangles and other odd blocks. I used four prints for the 6” F squares and was pleased with the results. The lighter sashing, still at 3”, worked very well. For the pop I went with a dark blue. I popped the stars using my Corner Pop III at 6 on all the stars then popped again with the same tool at 3 for the other side. This kept my base looking like a V on the base, as one pop left me at 2” on the base and the 3” pop’s base is at one. A lopsided V-block. I thought it worked quite well. 

2026-3

I will probably continue with this same concept with small variations for the next few or until I get sick of it. I pulled forty 4-patches from my bin for #4 and hardly made a dent in the bin. The 5” bin along with the 4” bin are quite full as well. I also will need to refill my 3” shapes bin again in my spare time.

It is supposed to get cold again which will change once more the look of the pond. Here is a picture I just took 6:30 PM, a time lapse of 3 seconds, it still shows the pond with it’s shiny places where the water is standing on the surface along with the areas that did not melt with the last couple days warm weather and rain. All the foot prints are from deer as there has been very little activity on the pond.