Beginning with Impossible

Our day seemed a little disjointed yesterday. It's what happens when you start the day with an agenda in mind, and then start changing it as the day progresses. Our day started when Mike went outside to chip the ice skating rink off the bird bath. Garden Cat was very excited about this.

Back inside, Smitty was excited to help me sew borders on the next two Books & Roses blocks.

There's no more enthusiastic helper than a kitty primed to assist with life's most important tasks.

With his snoopervision, I was able to sew the borders on September's light blue block...

With October's light green block close behind.

While I pondered what I should do next, Sadie joined us.

Smitty was thinking her arrival opened a whole new world of mischievous possibilities.

There are only two more Books & Roses blocks, and then I'll be out of slow stitching projects. It seemed a good time to pull out the dreaded Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage and take a look at the final stitchery. 

All the sections are finished, but they were not sewn together. Except for the outer border of pieced blocks, this is the whole quilt. All the pieces will have to be connected before I can trace and stitch the final branch where the crows are perched.

Working on this had me yearning to go to the grocery store. And you know how I love grocery shopping. (Not.) And the final shopping before Thanksgiving is the most dreadful shopping of the year. So I sewed together the blocks on the left side of the quilt, and then I left it like this while we went and did our shopping. Happily, we found everything we needed at just one store.

When we returned home and had things put away, we both took a well-deserved nap. Miraculously, Smitty and Sadie shared Mike's lap in perfect harmony. This rarely happens.

There was time to spare in the afternoon, and so I finished sewing together the quilt blocks. When it was finished, it looked like this:

So here's where the impossible part happens. In the image below, I've approximated where the branch lies.

The paper pattern includes a line that should line up with the seam below the crows' legs. Then the branch extends toward the right, ending in thin sticks. At the left side, it appears to emerge from the apothecary jars. The lines cross over where the witch's hat is, but I was instructed to skip that part. Trace up to the hat, and then start again on the opposite side. 

And that's all fine and dandy, but all my previous embroidered blocks are backed with muslin. (I back all my embroidery with either muslin or iron-on stabilizer. It's the only way to keep thread tails from showing through.) Also, there are pieced quilt blocks and seam allowances. I laid it out on my light box, but it was practically impossible to see the lines on the pattern. I traced in what I could see, but then attempted to free-hand the rest while referring to the drawing. I'm afraid the results were fairly abysmal. Fortunately, my marker has a very fine point, and it barely shows on the fabric...which is both good and bad. 

Okay, so what to do? I'm of a mind to stitch the lines I was able to trace, and then just stitch free-hand with the pattern beside me for reference. It's far less than ideal, but I don't know what else to do. I briefly considered printing it on Sticky-Fabri-Solvy, but that solution comes with its own set of problems. This is a case where I'm going to do the best I can do, and then be satisfied that it's good enough. And like I said in yesterday's post, if I'd known then what I know now, I would never have started this project.

Today the construction workers will be here to finish off the baseboards. Mike pointed out last night they'll need to paint them first. That means they'll have to come back yet again to install them when the paint has dried. I was really hoping this would be the last day on our project, but apparently, there will be at least one more. And you thought I was joking when I said I thought we'd still be dealing with this at Thanksgiving. There's one housekeeping chore on the agenda, and then I'll have the rest of the day for sewing. I like this time of year when there's no yardwork, and I can sew my guts out. On the other hand, I'll be itching to get out in the garden by the time spring arrives. 

Cooking for Thanksgiving starts tomorrow, so today's sewing will need to satisfy me for the two-day sewing dry spell ahead.