Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday all over again. We seem to be getting spared from the big snow storms. I did have to do some clean up after Wednesday’s clipper system dropped about 3” of snow. We received nothing from the big blizzard. That’s ok though. I don’t really mind not having to relocate the snow. Knock on wood, the tractor has been functioning correctly so no issues there.

We saw an eagle out sitting on a depression in the snow on the pond. I still think there is open water under those spots. I am not really interested enough to walk out and see. They appear, then disappear, no real idea why or what they are. Still say a drone would be handy, then I could go look from here on the shore. The eagle sure looked big as it took off.

The moon has been allowing me to get some nice night shots of the pond. This is from 7:30 Wednesday night. 

Kinda cool to hold up the phone and have it look kinda like daylight over the pond. Here is tonight’s shot. 

As you can see there is very little difference between the pictures. That is much like my days, which is why I’m always surprised when Carol reminds me I need to ramble. Thursday again? Part of my routine though, generator runs on Tuesday and I have to ramble on Thursday. I never knew retirement was going to be so predictable and busy.

In the studio, I got quilt #13 completed. As I said before, I made it from 4” finished blocks paired with squares and other blocks to get to 8” blocks which I then framed to be 10” blocks. 10” blocks equals a 30 block requirement for my layouts. I used a common frame this time for uniformity. In my eyes this top failed to be all it could be. My fault not the quilt’s. I had decided on the purple and the lavender for my star colors. I don’t think I vetted the sashing well enough for use with the lavender. I think it got lost, the lavender just tries to hide and not be seen. Oh well, still pretty, just not what it could have been. It ought to still cuddle ok, so I guess it’s still a win. 

2026-13

After completing #13 I was a counting my 6” blocks and found that I had quite a few of them made from leftovers from constructing other units. Primarily from when I pop the corners off when I make my sashing strip stars. Normally, I trim these type pieces down to be side triangles for V-blocks and Corner beams etc. but these triangles were not created in pairs because corner pops are made with the fabric either right side up or not depending on the slant of the pop. I came up with this rather odd block to use them in. They are really a V-block with only one side attached. 

 

After counting them I found I had 29 of these blocks. I knew I was going to “grow” them to be 8” but also knew an 8” block layout would require 42 blocks. I played on the computer with EQ8 and decided that if I created the quilt on point, I would only need 32 blocks. The layout showed me a possibility for a 4 block “center” in the quilt. On the top of my ready to use 6” blocks was 4 pinwheel blocks, if I used them in that center, then my 29 “odd” blocks was enough. 

So #14 for 2026 used 6” blocks set on point. I used sashing color as well as corner pops to get the look I wanted. Stars were created on my 2” sashing strips with Corner Pop II popped at 2 then replaced with the white. I love the look of “on point” but hate to produce them, I always seem to confuse myself. That means no audio book that night.

2026-14

#15 is coming along very well. The 6” blocks are complete, framed and trimmed to 8” finished. Normal 6 x 7 grid layout so 42 blocks were needed. Tomorrow should see most if not all of that one done.

I have no idea what the weather is supposed to do this weekend, after the blizzard forecast fiasco (at least for us) I’ll just look out the window and check the thermometer. Spring is coming. I’ve cooked on the grill the last couple nights so that must mean something is happening. Stay safe and enjoy winter.