A Great Week!

Ah, the sun is shining, the birds are singing (literally!) and Darla is curled up in my lap. It’s been a good week. The basement is dried out, the exterior west wall is permanently fixed and the inside renovation has started. Any potential leaky cracks in the foundation have been sealed with foam and the waterproof backer board is in.

Today the framing studs go in, along with the insulation batts and the start of the sheetrock. I can’t wait now until it’s done so I can paint the wall a new color - probably gray instead of the institutional white that’s been there longer than we’ve lived here. I’ll also be ordering white shutters for the window. And on the exterior of the house, we are having the rain gutters and downspouts cleaned, adjusted and spruced up with leaf guards (separate company). Jeff, our contractor for the interior, has also said he’d work on our laundry room this fall, so I can finally get some new lighting, cabinetry, paint and a new washer/dryer. It’s really about the only place in the house that we haven’t remodeled since we moved in 19 years ago.  It feels good to be moving through some of the fixes and remodeling we’ve wanted to get done for a long time. 

In the meantime, Cousin Kim and I were able to start sewing again. On Wednesday we set up two (out of four) of our sewing tables. With a temporary place to work, I got busy on the remainder of my aqua/teal/turquoise blocks for the August Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Twelve 5.5” waffle blocks, sewn into three 10.5” big waffle blocks:

Two 6.5” crumb blocks and five 4.5” four-patches for the Parts Department. 

And finally, eight “chips”, four white with black and four black with white.

These, then, are my aqua RSC blocks for the month. They totaled 46.

I used my two tables to lay out and baste a small quilt for Quilts for Kids (QFK) this week as well. There are two larger quilts waiting to be basted, but I don’t have the space to set up more tables until the remodel is complete. So, I’ll just do the small ones in the meantime. This little quilt (posed in the construction area) finished at 31x41”. It was my only quilt finish for August. 

But I’ve kept busy. I decided my string bag was way too full, so I’ve begun chipping away at it. Here are 39 string blocks that will finish at 6”.  No noticeable change in the string bag yet! These blocks will get added to the 200+ in the Parts Department. When we get the studio finished up, I can do an official count of all my string blocks and make plans for a string quilt assembly extravaganza! 

Later this morning I’ll be attending our Quilts for Kids workshop. We try to vary the workshop location all over the Wasatch Front, which means the gathering can be anywhere from Ogden in the north to Provo in the South. About every other meeting is in the Salt Lake Valley, which is best for me. In fact, today’s meeting is here in Murray where I live. Yay! I have 17 scrap quilts I’ve made over the last 3-4 months to donate. I’ll continue sewing string blocks in the workshop. 

It’s going to be a crazy and fun weekend with contractors, family, friends, Quilts for Kids and the Farmers Market . Woo-hoo! Bring it on. Life is good!