Several people mentioned that the block I used in the quilt design yesterday was called Perkiomen Valley Block and an internet search showed that both the block as found in the antique quilt and what I call a split 9 patch – one with there’s a half square triangle also in the center block where this one just has a square – are both being called by that name. Maybe I’ll pull out my block encyclopedias when I finish with this isolation and see if both variations are called by the same name
My scans and appointments went fine today without any issues and we got home about 1pm. I didn’t feel great but I went to my isolation room (Keith’s office where we have a daybed), ate a little something after the prescribed time on clear liquids and then took a nap. I’m feeling better this evening so I pulled out the iPad and drafted another quilt using the same block. It’s similar to a log cabin in that you can lay it out in a number of ways, getting different results just by rotating the blocks.
When I eventually get around to piecing one of these, I’ll have to think about how to press them and if the pressing plan gets too complicated I’ll press the seams open. I prefer my seams to be pressed in opposite directions but when I’m working on a quilt where the blocks are being rotated in all directions, sometimes it’s easier to press open rather than risk seams coming together where they’ve both been pressed to the same side – I find those very hard to line up accurately even with pinning.
Thank you all for your emails and comments. I appreciate all the encouragement and prayers. This has been a long drawn out process but as I said in the beginning, I’m lucky that thyroid cancer is very treatable and by this time next week I’m hoping that I’ll be done with everything except the ongoing follow up to monitor for any future problems. I’m also having less symptoms from my thyroid replacement hormone so it feels like life is going to get back to normal soon.