Tumblers and Testing

I’ve got several bins with die-cut scraps—one with 5” charm squares, one with 2-1/2” squares (although that one is a bit thin at the moment), and one with tumblers. I pulled out a bunch of tumblers a few weeks ago intending to get them sewn up into something. Totally scrappy tumbler quilts look like a jumbled mess to me, so I imposed a few rules: I limited myself to three colors of dark blue, bright yellow, and aqua, and I alternated the dark blues and the aquas as well as the dark blues and the yellows. I’m hoping that the placement of the dark blues will keep the rioting in check. So far, it seems to be working. I sewed the tumblers into pairs, then the pairs into quads:

Then ironed them open:

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I think this will be at least enough for a wallhanging, or perhaps a lap quilt with the addition of some borders. (I see that it is probably time to wash the ironing board cover, too.)

I found a block in BlockBase+ to play with. This one is called “Providence” and is attributed to Nancy Cabot. It’s on a 5 x 5 grid of 25 squares. This website has instructions for making it in 5”, 7-1/2”, and 10” sizes. I chose to do the 10” size (I am having trouble wrapping my head around making quarter-square triangles that finish at 1” square, although I might try it sometime.) The block has several variations depending on how you choose to color each square. Mine looked like this:

I did it in Christmas colors just because the fabric was handy. This block has some potential. Despite the number of units, it went together easily. With a solid sashing to tie everything together, I think it could also be made scrappy.

We’ll see. where it ends up. BlockBase+ has a huge number of blocks that don’t seem to have made it into many quilt designs. I love playing with the more obscure ones.

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Dave, the younger rooster, has decided that he wants to be King of the Coop, so he and Baby (his dad) have been duking it out. When I went into the coop yesterday, Baby was a bit bloodied up and wandering around dazed and confused. (The husband said the same thing happened last spring, when Baby and the black rooster got into it.) I don’t care who is in charge. And I don’t think Dave will get aggressive toward me. He is a year and a half old and he knows the coop routine. He won’t eat out of my hand, but he will come and stand next to me until I get the scoop of scratch grains, at which point he hustles the hens out to the chicken yard. In terms of rooster behavior, he does exactly what he is supposed to.

Hopefully they won’t kill each other, but I am not going to stand out there and referee.

Our neighbor, Mike, had a bear in his yard the other night. The bear left a calling card:

Clearly, it has been raiding trash cans somewhere. The husband said that the homeowner he’s been working for a couple of miles south of here saw a grizzly sow with two cubs. The bears are awake and looking for food.