Rain

This has been an extremely wet summer.  We had almost 8 inches of rain in the last 5 days alone!  The run-off ditches at the side and back of our property have been flowing like a river.... the ground is completely waterlogged!

Back in the end of May/early June we had arranged to have some large trees near the house removed because we noticed some of the large branches were splitting and there is a risk of them breaking off and damaging the house! Because of the proximity to the house and fenced yard, they need to bring in some heavy trucks with buckets and cranes... and that is just not possible with the ground so saturated... unless we want the lawn totally destroyed!  The almost constant rains are preventing any work being done.

We also wanted to have our driveway repaired and repaved.  The city did their part and fixed the top, but again, the paving must wait until the rains stop. 

So far, the rains have not damaged or washed out the new gravel base.  Once the paving is complete, we will have to bring in some dirt to "support" the sides of the driveway and hopefully direct the water away to prevent damage again.

The rain has kept me inside and I have been working on a challenging (for me) customer quilt.  The majority of the quilting I do is with pantograms and occasionally, some echo stitching.  This quilt has twenty 15inch blocks and she requested a different quilting design for each block.  There is lots of ruler work and some free-hand quilting that I am not accustomed to doing, so progress has been slow.  But, I am nearing the end and hope to get some pictures soon.

Pat Sloan issued a challenge to sew at least 15 minutes every day for the month of July as a means to bust some UFOs!  My Orca Bay quilt has been my leader/ender project for quite some time as I completed other small projects and worked to complete my Easy Street.   Orca Bay is now my daily sewing project and I am making steady progress.... I'm about half-way done with the Step 5 Winged Triangles.  Only 3 more steps to go!

I've been following Esther's blog and the excitement over her newest pattern, Love Entwined.  I've gathered some fabrics and just found and ordered a fabric that I believe will work well for the background.  I still haven't decided if I will do this or not as it involves lots of very challenging applique over the next 18 months.  I could possibly make just the center block... which may be enough of a challenge and time commitment for me.  I'm waiting on starting until her next updated post... and the release of a simpler pattern (Lilly, Rose & Cherry??) that I hope will be more realistic for me to accomplish.