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.