Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. The weatherman has decreed that it will get colder for a while. It is certainly windy now. Whatever will be, will be. Our road is holding up fairly well and so far is not too muddy. There is still plenty of time though. 

Last night I caught a visitor having a snack under the bird feeder. 

I bet it was the same one we had visiting last fall. It just would look up at me as it was feeding. When I closed the window it decided it was time to leave. It headed through the fence rails, it seemed to be doing fine until it got to its butt end. It stopped at that point and I thought I was going to have to go push it through the rest of the way. But it started wiggling and finally popped through. Cute little guy. I wonder what the X on his back is from? I also wonder if I’ll see it again. You got it , time will tell.

Yesterday I looked up the pond early in the morning and saw something on the pond way down almost to the other end. After closer inspection with the binoculars I decided it was a dog that belonged to someone up at that end. It was just standing there. I gave up watching it. (remember not much happens here so this was some major goings on) While taking my shower, Carol pops her head in and states I’m missing search and rescue collecting the pooch. I dry off and come out, and sure enough, search and rescue was gingerly creeping out onto the pond pulling a rescue sled. They arrived at the dog and eventually got it maneuvered unto the sled and pulled it to safety. We will probably never know why the dog wouldn’t go back to it’s owners but all is well that ends well. 

While we were talking about it my memories came up on Facebook and it was six years on the same day that we observed a dead deer up in the same area. Apparently coyotes must have killed it out on the ice. We watched various animals and birds feed all day. They got another deer the next night. Things you see when you have your eyes open.

In the studio I finished #17 for 2026. Size 65” x 77” The blocks for this top are pieced 3” blocks paired with squares to get 6” blocks. I then framed them to become 8” finished blocks.  2-1/2” sashing. The blue stars are made with Corner Pop II popped at 5. The all red stars were accomplished with Corner Pop III, popping at 7. The two color stars were made the same way only popped again at 4 for the added effect. 

2026-17

The layout either called for another row of blocks or for me to be creative and stretch the quilt taller. I opted to do this stretching with the alternating solid blocks along the top and bottom. That worked and I liked the nice bright colors for a change.

I then moved on to #18. In this one I framed 4” pieced blocks, and turned them into 6” blocks. I then paired them with 6” pieced blocks to make the twelve 12” blocks I needed for the 3 by 4 layout. Due to a computer error made by me, the top is a little smaller than usual, only 59” x 67”. I had changed my original layout on the computer from the 12” blocks I used to 14” and never changed it back. 

2026-18

This time I needed to make the top wider so I made the border of diamond rect pieces to get the proportion to come out better. The 3” sashing were popped with Corner Pop II at 6 this time. The brown stars were first popped at 9 then at 4-1/2 to get the pink smaller stars.

Since finishing #18 I have been making 3” half squares, quarter squares or hourglass units and combination units. These are your basic Tucker Trimmer units. This will be what I’ll be teaching in my first class at Sew Orchid Design on the 28th of this month.

I need a day or two of clean up and turning scrap into “trimmed and ready” units consisting of all sizes before I move on to #19. I find the process helps clear my mind and usually sends my imagination off into hopefully new directions to try. Then I will go chase those ideas and see what comes next. There is still a lot of March left so I’m sure I’ll turn out another top or two for March.

So until next time, stay safe and be glad the black flies aren’t here yet.