The Backyard Flood and Some More Quilting

We got some rain yesterday. See the right and left sides of the walkway? Mulch used to be there. Now it's out in the side yard.


This is the temporary lake that formed in the bottom of the backyard.


I like to call this the meandering creek that formed through the same part of the backyard. We always thought that a creek would look mighty pretty down there.


Here is the river that was gushing down the hill. This water was coming from our neighbor's backyard (which was in a much worse condition than the lake that formed in our yard.)



The other day, I said that I would hold myself accountable to finishing a Christmas quilt for my cousin and her new husband. Well, I have worked on it now for 4 days. Last night (until after midnight-mind you) I finished a total of 9 more blocks. That brings the total up to 24 blocks now. I was curious at how many more I needed so I laid them out on the floor to get an idea. I figure that I'll need two more columns to finish up. I'd love to add a total of 3 more but I'm running out of some of the fabric and with it being this close to Christmas, I doubt I'll find anymore to match what I have. This is what the blocks look like arranged all the same way.


This is what they look like arranged in a different pattern. I can't make up my mind as to which way I like better. Any ideas? I'd love to hear what you think. The way in the above picture kind of struck me as more "patchwork" looking so I'm kind of leaving towards it. On the other hand, I like the tradition way in the former picture too. See? I'm hopeless when it comes to deciding the best pattern.

Looks like I need a total of 18 more blocks to finish. If I can make 9 more tonight and 9 tomorrow, that leaves me Saturday to buy the backing fabric. I can then start on sandwiching the blocks (I'm going to do the quilt as you go method- hey, I'm running out of time here!). I'll still have to quilt the individual block pieces but I may be able to handle that on the machine. (gulp....maybe)

Best case scenario, I'll have it done in one week. Worst case scenario, I panic with the quilting part and give in and "tie" the quilt together with embroidery floss. I'm hoping I don't have to tie it but that is an option if something happens to keep me from staying on schedule.

Well, there you have it. I sure hope I can pull this off. I'm ahead of schedule so far as I had originally planned to finish at least 6 blocks and so far, I've done more than that, all but one night.

We'll just have to see what happens next!