A Little Progress

Good morning, my friends. There wasn't as much progress in the sewing room yesterday as I'd hoped. I'd blame my helper cat, but you'll soon see he was doing the best he could to help move things along. For example, he held down this quilt block as I added strips to it. He learned this "holding down" technique while at the veterinarian one time. He's also seen it demonstrated when we try to put flea treatment on Sadie.

With his help, I added enough strips to get the block to the right size.

After I took that picture, I realized I still needed to add the decorative stitching around the middle pentagon.

Then it was finished, and I laid it out with its brethren. I just need one more before I can start sewing them into a quilt top.

Next in line were the Barn Blocks from the Moda Sew Sampler. This one looks kind of tricky.

Of course, my helper cat was there by my side. He's very good when it comes to things that are "tricky."

What he really wanted was to encourage me to just turn my gaze a little to the right, and I would be able to see plainly that his catnip dish required attention.

Okay, and this was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. I needed less help to keep all these little pieces straight.

It was getting late in the day when I had these sections sewn together, and my patience quotient was running low. I decided to stop for the day and pick it up with fresh eyes today.

Today requires a trip into town. We have a short shopping list for the grocery store, but we also need to stop off at the post office (shudder), and then at the feed store. The birds have eaten most everything we purchased on our last trip. Ordinarily we're not around to feed them in the winter, but when we're here, I feel guilty looking out at their empty feeders. The best part of feeding birds is having lots of birds. The worst part is that they are all my pets now, and I have to take care of them.

My spirits are up from yesterday's morning of melancholy. There are plenty of distractions today, and time (even a little bit of time) has a way of making those disappointments fade into the background. I believe today will be more productive. If I can finish off the barn block, I'll move on to the next of the Purrfectly Pieced blocks. If memory serves the next one is a cat lying on a stack of quilts, and that will be fun to put together.