I can tell you what I'm working on.  Sort of.

Anyone who has called the house in the past week -- and for those of you who have called in the evenings this past week to keep me company while Jeff's working insane-o hours, I thank you dearly -- knows that I've been hard at work on a quilt.

Here's the problem:  technically, I shouldn't post pictures.  Why?  It's intended for someone whom I know reads this site. 

Here's the solution: the photos are friends-locked on flickr.  It means the photos won't syndicate on solecist.net, and I can control who sees them on flickr.  Problem solved.

If you're curious to see the quilt that named itself "red shift," pop over to this set on flickr. Users on my friends list will see multiple photos; those not logged in or on my friends list will only see the shot of The Unhired Help:

For those of you who don't keep an eye on solecist.net, here's my current obsession:

[Original on flickr: 'Some assembly required', or see the full photoset]

It's been a good project; it has been at the far edge of my current skill level, and I know I didn't get everything right. Luckily, about halfway through the sewing process, I stopped caring, accepted that lines wouldn't be straight and circles would point off in random directions ... and things immediately got a lot calmer.

The quilt's going to be more idiosyncratic than perfect, but I think I can live with that.

The twitter-followers know I've been working on this for a while, but I haven't mentioned it here because I didn't want to jinx myself. Regardless, my part in the process is done:

['Assembly no longer required (2)' on flickr]

I should have started this project years ago, but I was too chickenshit to do it. Years ago, on a visit to Heather and Andy, Heather offered to assemble a quilt top for me if I bought the fabric. I did, and she started working on it, but life eventually became too busy and she sent the pieces back to me, with all of the instructions and equipment I'd need to get started.

The box held enough fabric and squares to do at least two quilts.