The Collars Are Moving

The bear biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks posted on social media this week that “the collars are moving.” I thought that was such a descriptive way to let people know that the bears are waking up and coming out of their dens. We haven’t seen any signs, but we’ll be watching (and making sure the electric fence is on around the chicken coop). I haven’t seen any robins yet, either, although I’ve heard the pileated woodpecker. Spring is coming.

DD#1 and DSIL made it to Ketchikan. The ferry arrived around 4 pm Sunday afternoon and they were at their house a few hours later. They are renting a house from a friend of DSIL’s family. It’s right on the water in a small bay and I’m sure that it feels like a palace after living in a closet in Seattle for three years. (Their apartment in Seattle was about the size of our living room.) DSIL had his first day at work yesterday and DD#1 is busy getting the house organized. She’ll look for a job once things are settled. I said to the husband that I am a bit envious of their big adventure and he asked me if I wanted to move to Alaska. I don’t, but I remember the excitement of moving out here to Montana.

Clearly, it is time for a road trip.

The big brown truck of happiness delivered these racks to me yesterday:

Accuquilt has a weekly Facebook live broadcast—I usually watch it on YouTube after the fact—that includes some screaming deal on their website. Last week, it was “buy one, get one 50% off” on accessories. I wanted racks for my big dies and they were finally back in stock, so I ordered two. The dies have to be stored upright so as not to damage the blades. I had them leaning against the closet door but kept stubbing my toe on them. This is a much better solution.

These dies continue to pay for themselves in time savings, especially in situations like this:

I need 15 star blocks for this quilt. Each block has eight of those green and white HSTs, or 120 total. I made them by cutting 60 white and 60 green 3” blocks, sewing them together on the diagonal, then cutting them in half and trimming to 2-1/2”. I am pretty speedy with the rotary cutter, but it was SO much faster to cut the piece of fabric I needed, lay it on the die, and cut all those 3” squares in one pass, perfectly sized. (If I had the triangle dies, I could cut triangles and chain piece them into HSTs, but the squares work fine for me.)

As soon as I get these star blocks put together, I’ll start working on the chain blocks.

And finally, I recommend this excellent piece entitled Come and Take It: Part One of a Series on Practical Wisdom, by Spencer Klavan, a young man I follow on Twitter. We’ve somehow lost the capacity to have these kinds of philosophically-minded discussions with each other, as it’s far easier just to default to calling anyone we disagree with a Nazi. (I saw that happen again on Facebook this week, sadly.)