Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Disappearing nine patch

Hard to believe that I had never made a disappearing nine patch block before these that I slapped together last night. I had a Layer Cake of Moda's "Fig and Plum" so I cut 3" squares and assembled these blocks, which will finish at 7". There's enough to make 36 blocks. What they will turn into I have no idea. The colors are appealing and you get a fair amount of complexity in the blocks for not a lot of time or work, so I'm enjoying this. It will probably be a Project Linus quilt, unless someone I know announces they're expecting a baby girl in the next several months.

On another front, this morning Mom found that a window in one of her outbuildings had been messed with and the screen was gone. Nothing in the building seemed to be missing, but it was obvious that the window had been pried open. The windows are aluminum frame awning type with the screen on the inside. It's fairly easy to pry on them and pivot them open. She's going to look into installing bars on the windows. We're not sure if it was jimmied the same night the downspouts were stolen or they came back last night.

A security system would have to be fairly complicated. In addition to the house, on the acre lot there is a detached garage, a small storage building where she puts the garden tools and lawn mowers and a third building about 12 ft by 20 ft that's fully finished inside, which we used to jokingly call the bunkhouse because we kids would sleep there in the summer. She uses it to store furniture, things she has collected over the years, her quilting frame, and stuff from my and my brother's childhood that we have left there for the last 45+ years (I blush to admit it.). That's the building where the window was jimmied. There's really nothing the creeps would want to steal in there, since they just want stuff to sell, probably for drug money. It would be a little hard to sneak out with a desk or a butcher block table, not to mention that stuff like that would be hard to sell, unlike scrap aluminum or hand tools they could dump at swap meets.

You know, she's not inside city limits. Wonder if it would be legal to do a little target shooting out on the back of her property, down toward the creek? Might scare the whiz out of the neighbor she thinks is doing this if he heard a little gunplay. Make her look a little less vulnerable, you know?

When I visit her in a couple of weeks I'm getting estimates for a security system, which I'll have installed and pay for. Which she will fight me over paying for. She's very independent.

1 comment:

momtofatdogs said...

In reference to target shooting - when we lived on the lake in north Alabama - the jet skiers would would come into the cove & do 'rooster tails" all over - So? to stop them, I called the kid nextdoor & we went to my dock - he slung clay targets off the dock & I shot them with my shotgun. I'm good for about 50%. There is no gun law, I was not doing anything illegal. Though Prince Charming told me I couldn't do that. Well, yes I can! Then he revised his request & ASKED me not to do that - Well, I didn't while he was home - but the Jet Skiers stopped. You don't have to wonder why!!!

Security systems - get her a BIG dog. One that growls on command. (one of mine does when I ask him "where's the BAD MAN ?") One that is trained for protection. Might be cheaper than installing something electronic.

Sam