A Little of Everything

We had the worst weather yesterday, and I was glad I decided to stay home. It rained so hard and so much that we broke a December 24-hour rainfall record with 3.32 inches of rain. The old record of 2.59 inches was set in 1977, a year before Mike and I moved to Oregon! Impressive. Here's a little rundown from our local paper if you're a weather junkie. It shows some pictures of flooding in the valley. It makes me glad we live on a hill.

Today I simply must venture out because we need groceries and I need to mail a couple of letters. There have been no reports of flooding in Newberg, where I'm going, and so I'm hoping for the best. More rain is expected, but it won't start up again until later on this afternoon. An early start is a good idea. (While I was writing this post, the rain started up again, so never mind about that last part.)

So how did I spend my rainy day? Well, for one thing, I took a morning nap. Dark gray days tend to make me sleepy. Eventually, I was up and running, and I got quite a bit of sewing done. To start, I perused my white board to update my list of projects. You can see it in the upper middle of the image below. It's hard to see the sewing room for the cats, but if you squinch your eyes a little, you'll see it back there.

Given that I started it in July of 2012, you might think that The Doors of Ireland quilt finished yesterday would be my oldest UFO. And you would think wrong. Actually, my oldest UFO is this Barn Quilt wall hanging that was started in May of 2011 from this photograph.

It was a project started for a Quilt University class. I took it this far...

...and then I kind of got stuck. The tree in the front was sort of a distraction, and I wasn't sure what to do about it. It's only taken me four years, but I know what I want to do with this now. For one thing, I need to add a roof to the little red structure on the right. The tree is going to disappear (because pictures always lie, you know) and I'm going to replace it with a trellis and then machine embroider some greenery and flowers there. Also, I need to add the cupola to the top of the structure on the left, and I'm going to make a little quilt block to hang on the wall there.

This quilt had me stuck for so long that I despaired of ever finishing it. It's been hanging in my closet all this time. I've learned a lot in four years of quilting, and so now it's probably safe to pick it back up again. And to get back to my white board, I penciled this one in for finishing in February. Don't hold me to it, but it's back on the to-do list...and that's always more optimistic than the back burner.

After that, I decided to get to work on my Block Lotto block for December. 

blocklotto.com

This one was pretty easy.

It's a strippy, scrappy, wonky block, trimmed to 5 x 18.5 inches.

With that done, I decided to get started on the Four Fabric Forest 2.0 quilt. You may recall the first one of these that I made as a part of a class I took from Lisa Crnich.

After I finished that one, I pulled four more fabrics from my stash to make this one in orange and brown. Having done one already, this one is going together pretty fast. You can see that I'm working from left to right, and I'm ready to add the third tree.

If I survive my trip into town today, I'll continue on with that this afternoon.

This morning, I finished stitching across the bottom half of the latest Gingerbread Square stitchery.

This is a fun one to be stitching in December. And now it's hooped up and ready to go again. 

And with that, I'm ready to don my waders and head out into the epic rainfall. Hunting and gathering awaits this intrepid traveler. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know it's because I forgot to take the boat with me.