Rain Arrives

The Oregon we know and love has returned. It's raining sideways outside. I'd planned to get outside yesterday, but then sewed past the point of good taste and missed the last of the sunshine. It's okay because I was sitting next to a window while I traced out my next stitchery block.

My quest yesterday was to prepare Block #6 of Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. It's a pieced block, and so I needed to do the piecing first...or at least, I thought I did. Reading further in the pattern, I realized I could have just done the tracing first and the piecing later, but I was already started when I came to that realization. It started with a row of half square triangles for the top block border.

Block #6 is a large block, and so it will take some time to stitch it. When it's all finished, the pieced rows will be sewn to the top and bottom. For the bottom row, I was to make a pinwheel...

a nine patch...

and a nine patch variation.

Then those were sewn together. That patch on the left in the image below appears orange, but everything is done in off whites and tans. I'm using my scraps for the pieced blocks.

Those were sewn together into a row, and then I was ready to start on the tracing. 

I use Pigma Micron pens for these. In general, I use brown and the "01" size. For all of the blocks I've done on this piece, I've had trouble seeing the tracing once it's finished, and I've been stitching with the pattern close at hand to guide me. Last time, I used a black pen, but still the same size, and that was only slightly easier to see. This time, I switched to the "03" size and used black ink. That worked much better, and I think the lines will be easier to see.

It's a large piece, and so it will take me a while to stitch it. I've hooped the lower left corner, and that's where I'll start after breakfast this morning.

When that was finished, I was feeling lazy. I turned off the lights in the sewing room and lazed around the rest of the day. It's been a busy week of unpacking and sewing. With rain expected for the next week, I'm going to have plenty of time to get back to the inchies. I'm still puzzling over where to start sewing this together. I'm inclined to start at the upper left and work my way across diagonally. 

As I'm looking at this picture, a strategy is emerging. Possibly I'll have a finished quilt top by the end of the day if it doesn't put up a fight. We'll see who's the most cunning...the sewer or the sewn. That might be the title of my next book. As if.

That's all I have for you today. Did you remember to spring ahead? We did. It feels as if I'm getting off to a late start. Better late than never, right?