More Quilting, More Helper

 Ahhh, time to work on another elderly UFO. Got the video thing going on, got my partially-sewn 25-patch blocks ready to go. And of course, the Supervisor is on duty. This position? I could probably work around this a bit. After all, I'm only adding 2" block sets to this chain...

 But apparently that isn't enough togetherness for someone. Okay, this pose works for me. After all, I've sewn with a cat draped across my shoulders (Bailey thought that was where he belonged, especially if I was sitting down. Loved that little furboy!) So a cuddly cat on the arm kind of works.

This was also my Photo A Day shot. The theme was "shadow." All I could think of was Stevenson's poem:

"I have a little shadow who goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of  him is more than I can see."
--R.L.Stevenson

Well, I guess he's keeping my arm warm. After all, it got down to 80 today.

 And then he moved over out of the way a little more, so I was able to get more done.

Still not looking like much, but those are definitely "finished" 25-patch blocks. There's a set of green ones with the background print, and a set of yellow ones. There are spacers in the form of sashings in the background print, and

 there are some 9-patch blocks to serve as cornerstones. Here's how the strip sets look as I'm getting ready to assemble them. The print doesn't show up very well on these pictures, but if you go to Flickr (just click on the picture) you can see it closer up. It's lilies of the valley--a reminder of the Hotel Muguet in Paris.

 Sewed the first two rows together. Do you see the problem? Yeah, all the spacer strips need to be taken apart--the middle 9-patch needs to be turned 1/4 turn. Sure glad I noticed t his when I only had one of these put together--it's enough of a hassle to take one block out of the middle of a strip when it's attached on three sides. The other strips will be pretty quick.

But this is sort of the problem with this quilt. That's why it was languishing for so long in a box in the garage. I had cut and sewn the strip sets for the 25-patches wrong, and at that time, the problem seemed insurmountable. Once I pulled the box out and checked the problems, it took only a couple of minutes to rip off  the "wrong" strip and a few minutes more to redo it so that it would work. (The pink carnation Art Nouveau quilt was its companion in the Box of Shame. Also turned out to be an easy, if slightly more tedious, fix. Ah, the joys of having some of my mind back!)

Tomorrow I plan to get out Jack (the ripper) and my little rotary cutter and get those 9-patches turned around. I've cut the border strips, so here's hoping I'll have something a little more finished-looking to show you tomorrow.  And now, it's time to go to the TV/knitting chair and work on finishing up the blocks for the Ships Project afghan. Of course, my fuzzy friend will be there to supervise--he approves of my pattern choices, at least!