Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday. Weather today was a lot cooler than yesterday that was for sure. Yesterday I moved about a cord of firewood from my yard to the neighbors woodshed. It was wicked hot. Today I took about a cord of wood out of his wood shed and split it finer and started re-stacking it back into his wood shed. I’ll finish up tomorrow. Carol was happy, that meant that much time was not spent sewing.

As we move around the area spring is showing its bounty. The Canada Mayflower is starting to open. 

One of my favorites, the Star flower is in bloom. 

I found a Lady Slipper in its early stages of its glory. 

Many more will be showing up as long as I walk around with my eyes open being observant.

It has been too windy most of the time since the kayak trip Carol told you about. I am sure it will stop blowing at some point. Time will tell.

My quilt shop class went well last Saturday. Most had a fairly decent understanding of the process when they left. Several still needed a bit more practice, but was declared a good class.

I keep playing in the studio. I detoured from the square in square blocks that I had mentioned I was planning on next and played with blocks made from using the leftovers accumulated from my Corner Pop usage in my sashing strips. The Corner Pop II and III both rely on correct fabric placement when popping and when cutting the replacement triangles. This leads to a plethora of one sided V- block like stars that I make to use them up. Here is a 4” finished block as an example. 

(I always liked the word plethora, I remember being pleased when I looked it up to see its meaning. It really meant a lot to me.)

In #25 for 2026 I used 42 of these 6” stars and framed them to get to be 8” blocks. I then drew up a sashing star pattern as random as I could on EQ8 and threw this one together. 

2026-25

After that, I went back to the fussy cuts and the Square Squared blocks. I came up with a nine patch of consisting of nine 3” Square Squared blocks with 3/4”sashing and cornerstones. I framed my 20 blocks with two different fabrics so I could alternate them to add interest in the layout. I then used a gray/blue as my 2-1/2” sashing strip and two different sized green stars for more interest. The large stars were made using my Corner Pop III and popping at 6 before replacing with the green. With the smaller stars I used my Corner Pop II and popped at 4. I was pleased with the outcomes with these both. I included a few closeups for your enjoyment. 

2026-26

I am still fixated on the Square Squared blocks and am currently constructing more of them. Many of those under construction are letters of the alphabet. Time will tell what trouble I will get into with those.

Last night’s sunset was fantastic, too early tonight to tell. I’ll add one if I get one. Here’s last night. (Tuesday)

Until next time stay safe, it is almost tourist season which means more crazies around, not just us locals. Oh yeh, the black flies are here.