In the background

We got fences stained and sealed this weekend.  That was a huge chore.  We'd planned on Saturday, but it was too windy.  Yesterday seemed perfect.  Just a little breeze and temps that needed a sweatshirt to be comfy.  It only took about 3.5 hours plus another couple for Rob to get set up and cleaned up.  Compared to what it would have cost to have someone do it (my originally preferred idea), it wasn't bad at all.  

We worked as a team.  I had a "drop wall" which was a drop cloth suspended on some 8' long 1x2 boards.  I would spread them out and lean them across the back of the section he was spraying and when he was done with that section, I'd accordion them up and spread them out over the next section.  They came out looking very dark and red.  

Rob is getting everything set up here.  The fences didn't look bad.  Rob washed them last week and that brightened them up some.  But, there were spots where sun and my water hoses had faded the stain and Rob said if we'd waited another year, he would have had to power spray a layer of gray wood off the boards before he could seal them.  

He even had enough left over to seal the outhouse (tool shed).  The outhouse was built from fence wood from the original fence that was here when I bought the house.  We've had it replaced twice since then.  

Since we didn't do fences on Saturday, we had time to go pick up background fabric for the double wedding ring 25th anniversary quilt.  Remember that we wanted a medium gray background.  But, we both fell in love with a dark gray.  It has a directional print, so it's going to be quite the challenge to keep that moving in the same direction throughout the whole thing.  

Next it was time to choose the joining squares.  There's a substitute background fabric here.  I just needed the right color because the actual background was in the washer being prepped.  This is what we chose because the joining squares disappear into the piecing instead of being a focal point of their own.  I'll use green on all the arcs going in one direction and yellow on all the arcs going in the other.  

I also played with this idea.  In the quilt, the joining squares form rows and columns.  I was going to alternate the rows and columns, so in this pic, there's a yellow row and a brown row and a green column and a blue column.  I think there's something there if I ever make this pattern again, but not for this quilt.  It doesn't make enough of a statement in all the randomly pieced arcs and ends up looking messy instead of artistic.

So now it's just finding time to cut out the background shapes.  Last time I cut them with thin plastic templates and a rotary cutter.  This time, I plan to use the templates to trace them on the back of the fabric and then cut them out with scissors or a rotary cutter.  Once I get them traced, I can use either method to cut them out without risk of cutting the plastic template and changing the shape of it.  Then, the quilt goes together in rows.  I remember there being a tutorial on YouTube about how to assemble the rows.  I'll have to look for it again as it was very helpful.  

A couple of funny things I want to share.  

And a couple that are less funny.  

I didn't mean to imply last week that I wouldn't still be bitching about politics.  I did that under Biden and Obama and I'm sure not going to stop now.  But, my thoughts need to be more factual and less name calling.  So, here's one that really hit home this morning.  If elon was looking for fraud in our government, he'd be hiring forensic accountants, not 22 year old programmers.  It appears that he plans to drain the American treasury and I have no doubt that he'd do it.  He and trump are both high from smoking their own cash and they've already done more damage than can be repaired in my lifetime.  The courts won't stop them.  Only rebellion will.  And, I'm not sure we have the stomach for it.  Yet.

And, now the white nationalists are calling last night's superb owl half time show "black nationalist".  That's got civil unrest written all over it.  

Dear maga, how many gays and people of color must die before you start to feel more special than the rest of us again?  Because that's what this is all about.  magats thought that gays and people of color getting attention meant they weren't more special than everyone else anymore and they cannot stand that.  I see it in my own family.  You will not be forgiven, on earth or in heaven.  

Be well.  Have a good week.  Stay strong.  We are watching the unwinding of our lifestyle, but not our lives.  At least not yet.  Hang on to who you are as long as you can.  And, remember, it's okay to pretend to be someone other than who you really are when your survival depends on it.  

Lane