Chamber of Chaos, Week One

I’ve dubbed our former and (soon to be again) kitchen the “Chamber of Chaos”. Want to see why? (Are you sitting down? It’s not pretty, I warn you…)

Looking east; stove wall

I guess it never looks good when you tear out cabinets and appliances and layers of flooring in a 40-year-old kitchen. At lunchtime on the first day, they had all the cabinets out. That’s when I took these three pictures of the demolition progress. By the end of the day, all the flooring was gone too. 

Looking southwest into the family room and hall

It’s all just subfloor now. And whew! It gets so dirty and dusty in here. I’m sure we’re tracking stuff all over the house, although we use special old shoes in this area and change to clean sandals or slippers when we move into other areas. 

Looking NW at dining room/family room corner

In the days following these pictures, all the new ceiling can lights and the new electrical panel were installed. The pendant light fixtures are among the last things to be hung once we near the end of the process. We also had the plumbing roughed in this week. Next week they will frame and drywall the ceiling where those recessed fluorescents were and patch all the other holes and gaps caused by running new electrical wires and plumbing… you know, making it all nice in prep for flooring and painting down the road. 

We’re managing just fine meal-wise. For dinner we’ve had barbecued chicken sandwiches, ham sandwiches, meatloaf with vegetables and rolls, and we went out once. Tonight we’re going out again with family, and it will be a nice change. But can I just say again, what a filthy mess!!

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I had finished my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for Aqua July, but I realized that I’d never shown my Aqua/turquoise string blocks. So I do have something to share - 18 blocks that will finish at 6”. No plans yet for these string blocks. 

I also finished the binding on the Anne of Green Gables quilt this week. Let me show you the “glamour” shots - such as they are - of the finished quilt. I believe the finished measurements were 65x78”.  

The quilting, done on my Bernina 570QE (a domestic machine), was a series of loops and swirly hooks.

The story behind the quilt is in THIS blog post. 

The backing fabric was a lovely medium purple (I’m sure there’s a more precise name for it) floral. Plummy. Yeah, that sounds about right. 

The best part was giving it to my friend Ann on Tuesday after our Weight Watchers meeting. She loved it, and several of our friends gathered around and oooh’ed and aaah’ed. (Non-quilters are easily impressed, aren’t they?) hehehe. I got a couple great hugs out of it! 

The rest of my sewing week consisted of sewing letters on some identifying safety vests for my team of community landscape captains. Here is what *that* hot mess looks like.

There are twelve vests, each with the letters VSE. That stands for Vine Street East, the name of our condominium community. We felt it would be wise to have identifying garments of some kind as we go walking through front yards, which are common areas (not individual, private courtyards). 

Anyway, each black cotton letter was interfaced (stabilized) before sewing them on. I hope to get them done this weekend so that I can baste up some more quilts next week. 

I’ll leave you with a cute meme. I shared it a couple years ago, but I love it and always think of it when we have a miserably hot spell in the summer….

Have a lovely week, friends. 

Sewing for Sanity

Hey, isn’t one’s sanity a top “charity” goal we sewists have? It sure has been for me lately! 

This week I finished up my aqua and turquoise and teal color blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Once all my primary blocks for the month are done, I turn my focus to working on coin columns and crumb blocks. I only needed four more aqua blocks to fill out the 11-block column of crumbs I’ll make into a column quilt at the end of the year. I also sewed strips and chunks together to make an approximately 4” wide column that will join the other colored columns later. Two separate column quilts. 

Not exactly exciting stuff, but they’ll be fun and colorful when they join their friends. 

My big accomplishment for the week was quilting the Anne of Green Gables quilt. Here are a couple sneak peeks. Obviously, it still needs binding. 

I’ll get it bound this weekend with that dark purple fabric in the outer border. And then hopefully Ruby and I can get some glamour shots of it before I gift it on Tuesday. I’ll show finished pictures next week.

But for this week, I have been working on HOA stuff way too much while simultaneously trying to get the kitchen packed up for Monday’s tear out / demolition. We’re also trying to pack a couple boxes of stuff we can use during the six weeks of no kitchen. The refrigerator will move to the living room and the pantry will remain untouched (except for painting when the time comes). We will keep our microwave, coffee pot and toaster and some paper plates and plastic utensils out and set up the table to function as a counter and dining space once the dust clears. The demo will include removing the carpet, so we’ll be living on just the subfloor until the new flooring is installed a couple weeks after that. 

Today I’m pre-cooking some pork loins and taco meat for quick meal prep that we’ll be able to do in the coming weeks. We’re going to try yo limit eating out to 2 nights per week, and we know just where the healthy and relatively affordable meals can be found. Once per week it will be fast food and once per week it will be a restaurant. Yes, there is healthy fast food - have you ever had Chick-Fil-A’s chicken wrap? Or Noodles & Company’s Chicken Caesar salad or … 

Are you ready for some scary photos? I haven’t shown these before. They are the “before” pictures of our kitchen and family room. They’re from when we first moved in 4 months ago, but much of the stuff was never unpacked. It looks just as horrible and forlorn today. But with the demolition and construction in the coming weeks, it’s going to look even worse before it gets better. But it will get better - I have to keep reminding myself. 

First of the BEFORE pictures. Everything from the beam back to the wall will be ripped out, except the windows, of course.  The cabinets were of excellent quality when they were installed in the 1980 (I almost typed “1890”) original build. But they’re very dated and very worn up close. Oh, and yes - we have a fourth matching chair for the dinette set - it was just in another room for some reason. The set opens up (with a leaf that rises up from beneath) and will be used as a table/counter during the construction process. Then the set will go to Cousin Kim. 

The picture below shows the odd configuration of the upper cabinets. I will NOT miss those! The new refrigerator will go there eventually. 

And these recessed fluorescent lights? Gone, baby, gone! This will be sheetrocked, painted and replaced with 6-7 can lights. The new cabinets will go all the way up to the ceiling with no dust-catching gaps.

The stove is fairly new and will be kept, but the hood fan will be replaced. 

The pic below is just another angle. But the peninsula will be ripped out and replaced with a large island that will jut out into the dining area. Oh, and that dishwasher is prehistoric and will be replaced by a stainless steel Bosch. 

The view below is looking from the kitchen out into the dining/family room area. That beige carpeting - again, original to the 1980 build - will be replaced with vinyl plank flooring that looks and feels like hardwood. It will extend throughout the kitchen and family room and down the L-shaped hallway. Cat owners (inevitable hairballs) will understand and appreciate that!

Last view: looking from inside the kitchen work area, out. That’s an old, unworking trash compactor in the kitchen peninsula. What a colossal waste of space! The upper cabinets there will be repurposed to the garage. That new area will see the “desk” area raised to counter height and flipped. We’ll have floating maple shelves on the wall to house my cookie jar and Pyrex collection. 

That potted poinsettia is now living out in the courtyard during the spring, summer and fall. It’s currently very lush and green. It will come back indoors as the fall weather cools. Here’s hoping the cats will leave it alone! 

I suffered my first-ever migraine this week, complete with aura, flashing lights, light sensitivity, yadda yadda. Thought I was dying of a brain tumor or something (haha) until the doctor’s diagnosis put all the puzzle pieces together. It seems to be mostly passed now, with just some residual eye twitching. Likely stress-induced. Stress? I can’t imagine what is causing that (she said sarcastically).  But life goes on….. 

Have a good week, my friends!

Linking to Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Sewing Aqua and Friends

It’s hard to feel motivation to do much when you’re entering the second week of a 100-degree+ heat wave. Ask me how I know. I’ve felt like a slug. Yet I do manage to find time for HOA meetings indoors, (working outside for than 10 minutes at a time is nearly impossible), take naps, swim in the evenings, and do laundry in between naps. And I’ve been drinking lots of water and, if I’m being honest, new Diet Dr. Pepper with Coconut. Simple pleasures… 

But even though I’ve been Missing In Action from blogging for a couple of weeks, I have been sewing. What’s not to enjoy about sitting at my machine with a very green view out the window, the fan overhead whirring softly, good tunes playing in the background, and fun scraps lining up for their turn under the needle?! 

Here’s some proof that I’ve made progress with July’s Rainbow Scrap Color of the month, Aqua (and teal, and all the blue-greens):

Three Color Stix blocks:

One 16-patch star to finish at 12”:

And three Windmill blocks to finish at 8”:

And yes, I finally got my design wall up with the help of my friend Ruby. She also found a 100-yard roll of white flannel she had stored from her days as a home dec seamstress, and gifted it to me/us (our little sewing circle). 

It’s been so nice to have a design board again, even though space in the sewing room is at a premium. You may notice that there’s a quilt top lying on the table. 

The Anne of Green Gables top is ready to be basted, finally! That’s my primary job for today. Along with meeting another set of contractors to get a bid for resurfacing the irrigation ditch that runs through the condo property. Yeah, fun times…. But I digress. The Anne top measures 66x80”, and when finished will be a gift for my friend Ann. 

Since I’ve finally caught up on some serious sleeping, I may even have enough energy to cook something for dinner tonight! But if the energy is gone by supper time, there are always ingredients for sandwiches or salads.

And just to make this a more colorful post, here are some pictures of my little courtyard garden…

My echinacea (coneflower) is loving life. The rhubarb next to it, however, is being eaten alive. But the ground has been treated and the slugs and snails are history. But the plant will die back naturally in the heat anyway (for the season) and I will keep a closer eye on it next year. I’m finding that we’re having to deal with a lot more pests in this condo than in the old house - ants, snails, and wasps here at our place and other plant diseases in the trees and shrubs of the condo complex. And I’m learning a lot. 

I don’t think the petunias (clumps of green) are loving their too-shady spot, but everything else is happy enough. Begonias are real troopers for sun or shade. And the blackberry bush in the back corner - a cutting that I transplanted from the old house - is actually bearing fruit. Three whole berries so far, LOL, with three more on the way. But that’s OK. Our old bush started out that way, too. Next year it will grow and produce significantly more, and then by the third year, look out!!

The hydrangea is loving its life! The little plant in the white pot is a bell pepper plant. It seems to be doing well, too, although I don’t see any peppers yet. But there are buds. What is it waiting for??

And here’s Ringo the (cockatiel? Macau?) bird standing guard over the courtyard. My granddaughter Lauren and I painted it together years ago…

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Now, the rest of this post, which I’ll try to keep brief, is personal stuff that you can skip if you’re just here for the sewing. But I have to let some people (and my personal record) know what’s been going on. 

Bruce’s annual cat scan to check for cancer after his 2020 arm amputation came back in May showing an enlarged lymph node. This in itself doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the doctor ordered a biopsy. The results said non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a very treatable cancer. Since the doctor herself is an oncology surgeon (who Bruce will continue to see annually), he was referred to an oncology specialist for the new cancer. He has had a series of three monthly blood tests (and treatment for slight anemia), and the specialist revised the diagnosis - CLL, or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. It’s not the horrible acute leukemia, but a chronic type wherein the bone marrow is making cancerous white blood cells. It is verrrrry slow in progressing, thankfully, and some people have lived 30+ years with it. Since Bruce is 76 and relatively strong and healthy, and because CLL is relatively easy to control, this is likely something he can live out a normal life span with. But still. This is his third cancer. 

On a brighter note, as I may have mentioned before, we are in the process of making a VA (Veteran’s Administration) claim, and expect that due to his Agent Orange exposure in Viet Nam, he will be granted 100% disability. But that process will take months. 

The final news for this week is that our contractor let us know this week that it was time to make our lighting selections and the vent/fan selection for over the range. Wanna see the pendant lights? 

These will go over the kitchen island - not sure yet if we’ll need 2 or 3. But the MAIN news is that demolition begins a week from Monday, so I’ll be spending this week packing up the kitchen. Luckily, all the fancy dishes, rarely-used items and decorative items (cookie jars, Pyrex) were never unpacked from the move. So, I only have the basic pots, pans, dishes, glasses and silverware to do. And the pantry will stay the same, so that’s good. And I get to figure out meal prep with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster and barbecue only! I see a lot of dining out in our future for 4-6 weeks! Hey, in this heat, it sounds good to me!!

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday. 

Nothing Going On

Actually, there WAS a lot going on this week, and I’m exhausted. But it can all wait (including pictures, if I remember to take some) until next week. My only sewing was making some blue 6” crumb blocks and two blue (one light, one bright and dark) blue “coins” columns.

Anyway, all is well here and I will be back next week with a meaty and photo-laden post. At least that’s my goal! Today I’ll be making apricot jam, doing laundry and relaxing. 

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day for my friends in the U.S. 

String Fever

Just a short post this week. We’ve been busy finalizing details on the kitchen remodel, filling out forms for the Veterans Administration (VA) and planning a fun day with Bruce’s daughter Stacy and her five kids. We haven’t seen the grandkids since before we moved from the old house (3 months ago), so we’re really looking forward to a fun day today of playing, swimming, walking (and collecting pinecones), eating and getting some pictures with them. 

In sewing, this week was all about sewing string blocks from my blue scraps. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June is all the blues. 

Here were my blue strings at the beginning of the month. I should’ve taken them out of their piles and spread them out more for a better depiction of the quantity.

And here is the “after” picture with the 56 blocks (to finish at 6”) I made from them, plus the leftovers. 

I’ll use the 56 blocks to make a quilt that is 7 blocks across by 8 blocks down for a finished size of 42x48” - a good sized kid quilt. 

At our Weight Watchers workshop last Tuesday, someone said that MaryEllen (right, in pic below) and I (left in pic below) looked like twins with our curly gray hair. HA! So we had to have our pic taken. Of course, we look nothing alike (and I adore her!) Her hair is naturally curly and my curls come from a curling iron and wilt quickly in the heat! 

That’s all for this week! Next week I’ll be sharing some information I’ve been putting off for awhile (this is mentioned more to remind myself to write about it than to be coy). We’re still gathering information and will be ready to share by next week). Hint: we are *not* going into Witness Protection, hahaha!! Have a great week!

Sewing and Swimming

It’s been another busy week here at Chez Kizerian, but aren’t they all? 

We finally signed the contract on the kitchen remodel and the cabinets have been ordered. We ended up going with maple cabinets in a clear finish - very light, much like the cabinets in our old house. Anyway, the cabinets take between 5-8 weeks to be built. Our general contractor will give us a timeline in a couple weeks, once he knows more from the cabinet manufacturers and he can also touch base with the sub contractors. We’re most likely looking at sometime in late July or early August for demolition of the existing kitchen. That usually happens a couple weeks before the cabinets are ready, in order to have time for the plumbers, electrician and sheetrock guys to come and do their things. Then it’s cabinet installation, counter tops and tile, more electrician work (lighting) and plumber finish work, painters and flooring guys (why do I say “guys”? Maybe there will be a woman or two in the trades to show up! One can hope). September is looking like when we’ll be done. I am going to keep two silver linings in mind as we go through the miserable process: (1) I’ll be cooking a lot less and (2) It’ll all be worth it when it’s all done. 

It was lovely to spend lots of time in the sewing room this week. June is All the Blues for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC), and here is what I got accomplished:

First up on my To-Do List for the week was the 16-patch star block, a simple yet stunning pattern from Julie .  I usually only make two per month, but blue is a wide color range. So this month I made three - a dark, a medium and a pastel blue. 

Those Star blocks are always fun to make! They’ll finish at 12”. 

Next up were the windmill blocks (to finish at 8”).

I’ve also started working on my blue string blocks. I’m hoping to get at least 56 made so that I can once again make a completely blue string quilt.. But this time I’m combining all shades of blue in each block. I’ll show them all next week. 

And apropos of nothing, here is a random picture of the heavenly condo complex we live in. This was taken from our seats on the upper deck of the pool area. The water is great and the view is just as lovely!

 

Come to think of it, there’s a lot of blue in that picture too! Can you see our wet footprints? 

But it wasn't all fun and sewing and swimming this week. There was work around the condos (grooming up the planted island at the entrance, and organizing zone captains), plus a trip - likely first of several - to the Veteran’s Administration (VA) to get Bruce registered and start the process for receiving benefits, which we should have done years ago. But we’re on our way. There’s a back story there, but that’s for another time. 

And with that, I’m off to play in our courtyard garden this morning and then maybe to sew. Or maybe some swimming? Or a trip to Lowe’s to get materials to put up a design board in my sewing room? Or even a nap! Oh, the possibilities! Life is good. 

Blue Sewing and Blue Skies

So, here it is Saturday again. Who turned the Time Machine up to warp speed? The days just seem to fly by! Summer has arrived here, and the temperatures have been in the 80s-90s (F) this week. The swimming pool is a welcome respite, but we did have to finally turn on the air conditioner yesterday. 

In a nutshell, because we’re running out to participate in the condo’s annual yard sale momentarily, I’ll sum up my week: Lots of walking, swimming, some sewing, condo meetings and chores, a visit from our dear friend Terri (love you, T! Wish we lived closer!), and we have finalized the kitchen remodel contract. We’ll get the timeline on Monday, and we’re also meeting with a painter to get a bid on the kitchen and family room (and possibly the bathrooms). 

It took me For.Ev.Er to get my blue scraps sorted - what an “overgrown” mess they were! But they’re sorted and I have lots of cutting and prep done for my blue blocks this month. Since we’re combining all the blues for Blue June in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I have more than the usual number of blocks to tackle this month. 

All I got actually sewn were these six Color Stix blocks, a free pattern from Cynthia Brunz.

On one of our evening walks, I snapped this photo of our street.. The street is actually the only long one in the complex, and I’m standing at the very southern end and you can see the very northern end.

The Little Cottonwood Creek along our western border is running at peak levels. The snowpack melts quickly in the June heat. It will likely stay this way for a couple weeks before tapering off. 

Alfie is living his best life, sunbathing in the morning light.

After this picture, he started doing “bunny kicks” with his rear feet. He gets so excited when Mommy takes his picture! 

We’re off to the yard sale. We don’t have much to put out, but there are a few things. Once we get home from that (noonish), we’ll either go swimming and/or just kick back in the cool house and read or sew or nap! They’re all great choices!! 

Goodbye Beautiful May, Hello June

It’s been a great week here in the Salt Lake Valley. I hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day. Ours was quiet, but nice and restful. 

Tuesday was a gorgeous day, sunny and bright. That is, until I changed into my swimsuit and coverup. The clouds came out to threaten, but I walked to the condo pool a block away anyway. The wind came up and all the cotton from the cottonwood trees began falling and swirling like snow. By the time I’d sat and talked with friends at the pool for about 15 minutes, the surface of the pool was entirely covered with cotton! But I wanted to get in anyway, so I did! I just splashed and cleared an area for me to immerse up to my neck and paddle around for a few minutes. Then I called it good, got out and dried off, donned my shorts and coverup and walked home with the friends. Two hours later, the sun was out again and the cottony wind abated. I hope my next pool foray will be more successful, hehe. My friend Karen said it took her two hours to clean/skim the pool when I saw her later that evening as I was out walking. 

On Wednesday, Bruce and I drove up to Ogden to visit my friend Pat and her husband Eddie. I hadn’t seen them for about 8 years, and Bruce had never met them. Pat had a load of fabric to pawn off donate to me and Quilts for Kids, my friends or whomever could use it. The fabric, in a half dozen almost full tubs, came from her twin sister who no longer quilts due to health issues. 

L-R: Bruce, Cathy (me), Pat, Eddie

So, on Thursday, my friend Ruby came over and we spent about four and a half hours sorting through the fabric. My plan was that anything I took for myself would be primarily things that would work as quilt backs for my kids quilts, or small scraps in colors I was getting low on. I also ended up keeping a quilt that just needs to be trimmed and bound (and donated), a set of blocks ready to be sewn together, and green scraps that may potentially match a quilt I’m planning for another friend (story on that to come in a couple weeks). Oh, and fabrics for more potential kennel quilts. But my storage space here is limited. So, for everything I do end up keeping, the plan is to remove from my existing stash (and donate to QFK) an equal or greater amount of fabric. 

Ruby took several in-process quilt tops and block sets that were clearly not intended for kids. She also took some yardage and lots of precut squares in sizes from 2.5” to 10”. I had recently shown her an easy way to make 4 half-square triangles from 2 blocks of equal size, so she wanted to match up some of the squares to try that method out. She’ll take what will work and return the rest so they can be passed on. When her stuff was taken home, I snapped this picture of the remaining fabric. Down to 3 tubs and a few piles! 

Much of the fabric is too dark or too thin or just wrong for kids quilts. That’s what those three tubs in the foreground are. Cousin Kim will go through those on Sunday, then the remaining fabric, probably 2-3 tubs full, will be donated to my friend Bernadette who works with several other quilting charity quilt groups, like Project Linus, guilds who make placemats for Meals on Wheels, retirement homes and the like. No scrap left behind!!

So anyway, I haven’t made a start on my June Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks yet. Angela has called blue for June. We usually divide blue into two months; darks/brights one month and lighter blues another month. But this year Angela wants us to just go for it with all the blues together and I’m up for the challenge! I did get my blue scraps all sorted and made a list of all the blocks I need to sew in June, so I’m ready to jump in with both feet!

I did finish up the last of my pink scraps and made eleven crumb blocks that will finish at 6”.

I also sewed up a column of pink scraps. Here are the five columns I have made so far this year.

I’m going to sew two blue columns this month, and the width of at least one of them will be a couple inches wider for size variety. 

Here’s a recent pic I snapped of the brilliant red of our Japanese maple, the green of the other landscaping and the blue of the sky. 

And one picture taken as I looked up, mesmerized. 

What can I say? I love color. And so do all the quilters who participate in Scrappy Saturday and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. So why not follow the link and come check it out? Until next week, be safe and be happy!

Running in Circles

Two steps forward and one step backward. (Or is that one step forward and two steps back?) Same old same old. Spinning my wheels. Pick your cliche’! Basically, those are all overused ways of saying what I’m feeling these days. Uninspired. Tired - of crappy weather, of too many errands, of a To-Do list that never seems to get shorter and never seems to produce anything when items do get checked off. I have too little time to sew and too little motivation (restlessness) when I do get time to sew. Is this old-lady-onset ADHD? I think I need a good day of sunshine, a nice stiff margarita, and a day with no obligations, LOL.

After a stormy day today, the weather is finally forecast to clear up and warm up as the long Memorial Day weekend unfolds. Our condo’s pool is opening on Monday, and I plan to take serious advantage of it this season. 

There actually has been some sewing going on here, along with all the many other things. I’m now officially on the HOA Board (as an alternate until November’s annual meeting), and Bruce and I are still waiting for the final kitchen remodel bid. But this week we did have a ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom and picked out paint colors and bedding for that room. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. 

But let’s talk about May’s pink scraps. I managed to get 32 pink string blocks (finished size 6”) sewn over the last two weeks (I didn’t have a blog post last week), and added a couple dozen of the light neutral/white string blocks to make a scrappy string top. The light blocks were made last fall during my string frenzy. 

I think it will look better when it’s finished off with pink binding. The top measures 42x48”.

And I’ve also been working here and there on the Anne of Green Gables quilt. Here are the first two (of 5) rows up on my “design wall”. That’s just a plain wall in my sewing room and some painters tape. Sorry the lighting is so bad. It’s just been dark and gloomy weather lately…

My goal is to get the top finished this week and hopefully basted as well. I’d like to gift it to my friend Ann sometime in early June.

I have a few garden/courtyard pictures to share, even though there is no sunshine in them!

Everything in the Greenstalk planter has sprouted  - and needs to be thinned. There is alyssum in the top tier (not shown). Then there’s lettuce, carrots, basil and spinach (or is it spinach and then basil?) Whatever.

We also have a small tomato plant in the foreground pot and a rhubarb plant loving its life behind the pot. After the season, the rhubarb will be moved to another location so I can plant a rose there. It’s the sunniest spot in the courtyard. That is, when the sun deigns to make an appearance.

The rhubarb will eventually go in the area behind the serpent in the picture below. The rest of everything - a mix of annuals in the foreground and perennials along the back  - will fill in as time goes by. 

Here is the flowering almond bush that is on the outside of the gate to our courtyard. Its tiered flowers almost remind me of strings of garland on a Christmas tree. They smell heavenly. 

That’s about all I have for you this week, but at least it’s something. I’ll be sewing the rainy afternoon away today. We have no formal plans for the weekend yet, but that may change. See you next week, and thanks for dropping by!

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.