Wet and Wild

Good morning, my friends. Yeesh. It rained the whole live-long day yesterday. By day's end, we'd accumulated a full inch. We're expecting more of the same today. We're told today's weather will bring us less rain, but more wind. Fingers crossed we don't lose power. This is typical weather in our area in October. We generally get a big wind storm around Columbus Day. Historically, a big wind storm did a lot of damage in Portland in 1962, and it's still referred to as the Columbus Day Storm. We've had a pretty fall this year, but the early October wind storms often blow the leaves off the trees before they've really had a chance to give us their full fall glory.

So it was a good day to stay in and sew. I took the first stitches on the 2nd block for Home is Where My Flock Is.

Downstairs, Sadie was giving a TED talk on how to spend a rainy day.

Any questions?

And since I didn't think I was going to be able to pry her from that spot, Smitty agreed to be my sewing cat for the day.

With his help, I finished sewing two borders onto the Grandpa's Bridges quilt top. That's a finished flimsy right there.

I haven't given a lot of thought to the quilt back, although I do have an idea for the binding. As for the back, I'm expecting to receive two more yards of that border fabric. I might be able to piece together something for the back. If not, backing day is coming up at one of our local quilt shops. I can get 25% off if I go in with my finished quilt top. It finishes at 78 x 63 inches. I'll need 5 yards for the back, and so that 25% discount is looking pretty good.

It was nearing dinner time when I finished the quilt top. Heading upstairs, I looked out to see this stunner.

Whoa. 

Okay, so I'll get back to my slow-stitching "flock" this morning. I can't really do any more with Grandpa's Bridges until I receive the extra fabric on Monday. However, I did put the pattern in my Used Pattern Yard Sale. If you have any interest in that, take a look. 

Next up on my white board assignments is to quilt It Takes A Village.

I haven't given a lot of thought to this yet, but I'll probably do a straight line grid. There's so much going on in this quilt, I'm afraid any elaborate quilting would just muddy it up. It's 51 x 51 inches, and so I'll probably do this on my quilting machine, rather than my domestic machine. If memory serves, the binding strips are yellow, and so I'm thinking a yellow thread for the quilting might be a good choice. Until it's sandwiched, and I'm sitting at the machine, I never really know what my hands are going to do.

There are a couple of easy housekeeping chores on the calendar today, and I want to get in a walk on the treadmill. I've been watching Ken Burns's documentary about the Civil War while I do my treadmill walking. I think I'm on the last episode, but I need to finish it up because his documentary about the Revolutionary War will begin on November 16th. I'm looking forward to that. 

So that's my day in a nutshell. Mainly, I'm going to stay inside to keep warm and dry. I have an idea I can get some kitty help with the warm and dry part.