Wishing Every Month Was October

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

OK, raise your hand if you love October. !!!!! 

That’s what I thought. We *all* love it. (Even those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, where October is spring). But for my purposes today, I’m talking about October autumns, and here in Northern Utah they are beautiful. Clear, blue skies, leaves changing colors, perfect days and cool, crisp evenings. Harvesting the veggies, planting bulbs and buttoning up the garden. Changing the summer wardrobe out for warmer, more snuggly clothes. The first pumpkin spice latte, hot chocolate and soup of the season. Even the cats have begun sleeping in their cozy beds! 

And this year it’s even nicer because we are happy, healthy and have so much to be grateful for. Where do I start?

Our grandson Easton graduated from naval Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport, Rhode  Island on Thursday. We were able to attend virtually and watch him become a fully-commissioned Ensign in the US Navy.

From here he’ll return home to Utah for a couple weeks before heading off to Charleston, South Carolina for Nuclear Engineering (submarine) school. Easton, we are so proud of you and just love you to bits! 

Some of my favorite memories of Easton include seeing him in a Jedi costume I made for him here and watching as he and his sisters made “snowmen” here (he was so little!). We wish you fair winds and a following sea. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My studio remodel is finished! There may be a few tweaks here and there, but I finally feel as though there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. I changed my mind about some things and had to adapt in other areas, but overall I’m very pleased. 

For those of you who may not know, we had two floods this summer. The first was in July when water came in along a foundation wall after a thunderstorm from Hell. Water leaked in through a hairline crack between the foundation and outer brickwork (building codes in 1963 weren’t what they are today). The issue was addressed and fixed and should be good for another 100 years or more, LOL. But we had to tear out a wall in my studio and pull back our new carpeting to dry it out. Then another storm hit us in August. An exterior drain (that we were keeping an eye on) clogged up and water seeped into the basement again in my studio. Luckily, we caught the flooding in the early stages. We moved everything out of the room, fixed the drain, sandbagged, and wet vacuumed the water out. The carpet was peeled back again and dried out over the next several days. The wall had already been stripped down to the foundation (mold remediation). From there on out, it was just a matter of building back - sealing, insulating, framing, drywalling, painting, installing new window coverings, restretching the carpet. And ordering in new furniture to accommodate the room that had shrunk a few inches due to the layers of the new wall. Oh, and putting in a new design wall to replace the old one that had gotten yukky after years of use and weeks of construction dust! 

Above you can see the new west wall, blinds, and the three Hemnes bookcases. I had two of those bookcases before, but they were on opposite sides of the window. With the smaller dimensions, the bookcase formerly on the left had to be moved over to the right. This necessitated getting rid of our old oak bookcase, which I moved into my “studio annex” (the downstairs bedroom). It replaced an old bookcase held together with duct tape, which is now out in the garage holding stuff. 

The third Hemnes bookcase was delivered from IKEA on Thursday. THAT was a story in itself. I ordered it online last Friday the 24th. I got an email on Saturday that said it would be delivered on Wednesday the 28th. On Monday I got a text message that said it “could not be delivered” and to call Customer Service. What did that mean?  I called the number and got a recording to visit the website. When I went to the website to check the order status, the page was down. On Tuesday night I got a text message that said it would be delivered between 9am-9pm on Tuesday. What?!? That time frame was already past! Then immediately afterward I got a text saying that the “Monday delivery had failed”.  The next morning (Wednesday) I filed an inquiry with the transport company saying I had checked our security camera footage and no delivery attempt had been made at our premises, and when could we expect delivery? They replied that evening by email that it would be rescheduled with us as soon as it returned to the warehouse. The next morning, Thursday, there was a knock on the door, and they delivered our bookcase unannounced. And that, my friends, is the cluster-Foxtrot (you know what I mean) that is the IKEA delivery service. 

So here is the view looking from my sewing station toward the design board on the north (another scrappy quilt in progress). You will also see that I have an eight-cube credenza-type storage unit upon which I’ve set my ironing board.

Originally we were going to have the cube unit raised up on 3” bed risers. But the risers arrived from Amazon broken, so I returned them. Cousin Kim and I are both short, so we decided that this height (about 32”) was good for us without risers. I have a piece of batting under the ironing board to keep it from scratching the surface of the unit. Although it looks a tad tacky, at least this way I can remove the ironing board if I need the small end to iron sleeves or something. And the unit can always be repurposed for something else down the road.

The credenza unit houses my backing fabrics (large cuts), my flamingo bag of multi-colored scraps, African fabrics and some WIPs.

The view below is from the east wall looking west. I moved two small plastic storage units into the left corner to house neutral scraps, and completed blocks awaiting assembly into tops.

The final picture, below, is our four-table set-up that can easily handle 4 quilters. The electrical cord comes down to the center area from the lights above and allows lots of things to be plugged into the power strip without us worrying about tripping over cords on the floor. And we can clear the tables easily (two machines, small personal iron and cutting mats) to use the surface for basting quilts. The door at the very right goes outside and the door in the back by the large painting (my son Shane did that in high school) is a bathroom. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And finally - the actual sewing I did this week! I finished basting two quilts and quilted two others. The first finish was this sampler quilt. The blocks were started in a class I took at a local quilt shop in 2019-2020 that was aborted because of Covid. I finished the remaining blocks this year as certain colors came up in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I sewed the flimsy and basted it to use for a quilting demonstration for newbies at our last Quilts for Kids workshop.

So, if you were to closely inspect the quilting (and I doubt you can see from these pictures), there is some basic stippling, some loopy designs and a hook-swirl flower on the quilt. It’s going back to Quilts for Kids, so they’ll understand the odd variations! The sampler finished at 44x58”.

The backing is a cute white-based confetti print that I had on hand. 

The second finish was the orange string quilt whose flimsy I showed last week. I’ve named it  Orange Creamsicle Strings. It measures 42x48” and was quilted with a basic stipple.

I had to add a strip down the back to make the backing wide enough. Excuse all the waviness in these pictures - the grass (at least it’s still green!) isn’t the flattest surface. But I figured I’d take advantage of the outdoors while I can!

There was more sewing too; I added borders to my Framed Pinwheel quilt, and sewed up two more scrappy flimsies. I hope to have those, as well as my Positivity quilt, finished by next weekend. I can dream, right? 

Linking up to Scrappy Saturday. 

Laborious Labor Day

It’s been well over a week since I’ve blogged, and while there’s been a lot happening around here, I’m pretty sure it’s only blog-worthy in summary. I’ll catch you up with some pictures and basics. As for me, I’m so glad that fall is beginning to make itself known and felt. It’s my favorite time of year!

******* The Garden ******

It’s keeping me busy. And now that the extreme heat of summer is past, even Bruce’s garden interest is once again revived. That’s good because I need him to annihilate chop down trim the weeds between the garden beds so I can harvest veggies without tripping or otherwise being dragged under by the unruly growth. We have lots of tomatoes and onions that I’ve been processing. For the grandkids and neighbor kids we have Jack-be-little pumpkins and bunches of grapes to pick on the grape arbor. Surprisingly (or maybe not), they all seem to love picking and eating the cherry tomatoes too. 

Our green beans and Armenian cucumbers were plentiful enough for us to eat and still have extras to share. The giant sunflowers bloomed magnificently. When their heads drooped, I cut them off (oh the humanity!) and set them out for the birds. And finally, this year we’ve been able to answer the burning question, “How much is too much spaghetti squash to plant?” The answer is 12 plants. Or maybe eleven, because one of them turned out to be a gourd plant. Gourds are inedible, but great for fall decorating! Don’t ask me how that happened, because we only buy seeds from nurseries. Anyway, we have enough spaghetti squash to last us all winter, plus we’ve been sharing with friends and neighbors and family and …you get the idea. Think zucchini. 

****** The Studio Remodel ******

How’s “studio remodel” for a positive outlook? Sounds better than “basement flood repair and recovery”. Well, it was no big surprise that our homeowners insurance didn’t cover one bit of the damage repair. Rainwater (or even sprinkler water) is like flooding, and unless you specifically have such coverage, fahgetaboutit. Good thing we didn’t wait on them; we got the insurance decision yesterday, the same day that the repairs were completed by our contractor and paid for by us. 

This is what the room looks like for now - a mess as we wait for the carpet guys to come back and re-stretch and trim the carpet. I can then use my new carpet cleaner (not the vacuum pictured) to shampoo the carpet.

The extra water-proofing and insulation ended up bringing the wall in a couple inches. That means I have less floor space in my studio - and it was a tight squeeze in some corners before. We were planning to get shutters for the window, but they mount to a window surround that would take up additional inches on the wall that would prevent a bookcase (for folded fabric) to be placed. So we have wide-slat wood (composite) blinds that will mount inside the window casing instead. We will install those this week.  Finally, I have new white flannel for the design board which has gotten filthy between years of use and all the construction mayhem.

Anyway, the smaller floor space means that one of my IKEA Billy bookcases won’t fit in its previous space, to the left of the window. And I hate that old oak bookcase I have, but desperately need the storage. So the plan is that once everything (window coverings, carpet) is installed and cleaned, we’ll move back what we can and then begin the process of assessing which storage pieces that I need and that will fit. But at least while that’s going on, I’ll be able to get back to basting and quilting again!

****** Sewing ******

I’ll show all my September orange Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing on Saturday when I link up to Scrappy Saturday. But in the meantime, I’ve been sewing string blocks. I gave up counting somewhere near 100. Plus I already had that many on hand. I need to do a full count, but this is what they look like for now, sorted out by color on top of my treadle machine that is tucked safely out of harm’s way for now.

****** Family and Cats ******

Tomorrow we take Alfie and Darla to the vet for their annual physical and booster shots. Our fingers are crossed that they don’t need any dental work. 

My daughter Megan, who lives in Seattle, has gone back to school (nursing), so is just working part-time in a bank. They mask up and are separated from the public by a plexiglass screen. She is fully vaccinated, yet recently contracted Covid. It’s a mild(ish) case and she is already feeling better. She is out for two weeks or until she tests negative. And they’re still paying her, so she feels very fortunate. 

Bruce’s brother Marv is driving up from Arizona. He’ll be staying with us for a week while he visits friends and attends his 60th high school reunion. If his schedule allows, we’ll be having a family gathering  so everyone can spend some time together. 

So that pretty much catches us up. I’ll be back here on Saturday!

We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

We had a contractor over last Sunday. It was the same contractor (Cousin Carrie’s husband Jeff) who did our living room remodel in 2016-2017. He began slowly digging into/ tearing down the west wall of my basement studio, which is the west exterior of our home. You may recall that our big storm at the end of July, which also split our maple tree in two, poured water into my studio. There was little, if any, good news as Jeff dug in. Long story short, the rain and sprinklers have been coming into the house through a hairline crack where the basement foundation wall meets the home’s exterior brickwork. The water then ran down a foot or so and spread out in the wall around and in front of the solid window and down the wall on each side and to the floor. 

Contractor Jeff starting demolition

Since the window blinds fell down during the initial storm (due to the wet and rot), I’ve been using a piece of batting taped to the window to block out the western sunlight. 

First, the window framing came off. The paneling and sheetrock on the wall were bubbled, so they got torn off next. There was no insulation on this exterior wall. The studs and woodwork were all sopping wet and moldy. So he tore those out and did all the mold abatement. The brand new carpet (3 months old) and padding were pulled back out of harm’s way. We set up a fan to dry things out. We’re fairly confident that when everything else is repaired, the carpet can be restretched and relaid. What’s left now is the cement basement foundation wall and the window.

This is the problem on the exterior - a hairline crack between the foundation wall and the exterior brickwork. No flashing; building codes in 1963 were not what they are today! 

So, this is how the studio looked for Monday and Tuesday, with plastic separating the problem area off. On Tuesday, I sprayed vinegar on any wood (carpet tacking strips) that may have gotten wet. It is the new preferred treatment (over bleach) for mold. But heavy storms were forecast beginning Tuesday night through Thursday, so Jeff routed out and sealed the exterior crack temporarily and taped it off.  

The storms started on Tuesday night, and the temporary fix worked. We stayed dry all evening and night. The next morning, everything was still great, and we began to breathe easier. 

Cousin Kim came over and we carved out a little area to sew. It was cramped, but we were sewing, listening to good vibes and reminiscing about all the fun of our recent trip. Bruce was upstairs and it poured all day. Occasionally he’d look outside to check the drain at the basement landing outside the back basement door to make sure it was still draining. And it was. About 2:00 I stood up from my chair to move to put in some new music and squish! My feet were wet. It took a few seconds for it to compute. The water had been seeping in the back door; the drain had clogged and risen over the threshold. You never saw three people mobilize so fast in your life!

Bruce threw towels down the stairs for us, then ran out to the sheds to unearth the shop vac. Kim and I moved supplies and fabric up and away as quickly as we could. We were using towels until Bruce brought in the shop vac, then Kim did that while Bruce went out to clear the drain. I moved the furniture (it’s all light) and machines and wrung towels. What a team! Bruce came back in and manned the shop vac while we drove to Home Depot to get more large floor fans and sandbags. Actually they’re silicone bags that expand when wet and contract when dry. Reusable. Brilliant. 

Jeff came over later (and again on Thursday), and we pulled back half the room’s carpet, and moved everything out of the entire west and south side of the room. It rained all day Thursday too, but the sandbags were in place and we had no further issues. On Friday, it was gloriously sunny and dry. We had the doors open to the warm sunshine and things are airing out and the carpet is dry. We think the pads are just about dry too. But this is the state of my studio now.

And through all this, Bruce was feeling miserable with a painful cracked tooth. On Thursday he finally was able to get a root canal and crown done. We’ve been eating soft food all week and he’s been living on Ibuprofen.

Sooo…… guess how much sewing I got done this week? Well, I did get some done between floods. The answer is 19 aqua string blocks. I haven’t removed the foundation papers yet, and there’s nowhere decent to photograph them, but here they are for what it’s worth. I’ll be sharing with Scrappy Saturday.

I was sewing together all my aqua waffle blocks when the flood part two happened, so they’re not done yet. On Sunday, Kim and I will probably just sew upstairs at the kitchen table and I can finish them then, and maybe something else. Who knows. We’ll see what contractor Jeff says and does with the room in the meantime. And then I’ll have to find where I squirreled all my stuff amid the chaos. Maybe we’ll just be working on puzzles another week! 

Oh, and this second round of storms also took out the remainder of our maple tree. R.I.P.  Neighbors are coming over today with a chain saw to cut it off and haul it over to the southeast corner of our property. We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful support group of family, friends and neighbors.

On a final note, I want to thank you all for the kind comments over the last couple weeks. It’s been another challenging time for us. I chronicle many of our life events here in my blog in addition to my hobbies because we convert them into annual printed books. Of course, there is much that I don’t share here (aren’t you glad?) In fact, there are some exciting things happening with some of our kids’ families that we aren’t sharing yet, but maybe in time. So with all the “downs”, there are also plenty of “ups”. Life is good. 

So Many Things to Share!

It’s been a busy couple weeks. Last night I finally wrote up a blog post about our week-long trip to a Missouri Star Quilt Company retreat in Hamilton Missouri. That post is HERE because I wanted to do it justice in a separate post. It’s fun and there’s some nice eye candy, so check it out! But I STILL have so much to share, so I won’t waste any time.

Let’s start off with the blocks I managed to get sewn up this week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The color for August is aqua/teal/turquoise. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday to share my blocks with the others who are working hard to put their fabric scraps to good use!

First up was the aqua momcat and her litter of five kittens. I always sew one kitten to match mom, and this month was no exception. 

Next came the two Spring Star blocks.

It took me a good two days after returning home last Saturday evening to recover from the trip. By “recover” I mean sleep, do laundry, rest, unpack and nap,  LOL. There was a lot of fabric fondling, too. Here are some pictures, but they’re not exhaustive (because I was exhausted). 

These are some of the large cuts (all are 4-5 yards except the teacups, which is 2 yards). The red Kaffe fabric with circles will be the backing to my International Sisters quilt - the one I’m making for myself. That will be a priority in the new year. The other Kaffe fabric, those luscious chrysanthemums, will be a backing for an orange quilt I’m itching to make. 

In the foreground of the above photo is a large cut of Tula Pink’s Fairy Dust background fabric. I fell in love with that when Julie stared using it for some of her RSC blocks. I plan to do the same in ‘22. The top navy floral was a sale fabric with metallic, and I just fell in love.

Next up are some fabrics I bought for the next quilt I’ll make for Bruce. Thankfully, he likes them! I took a sample of an orange fabric (see it there on the white) depicting radio circuits to match up. I got a couple science-themed fabrics, some red grunge and lots of solid gray. The gray matches perfectly, but I actually bought it for another project that I’ll show later in the post.

Next up is some navy Kona (because I’m on a navy kick), a pattern and batik strips with which to make this handled tote, and a yard of colorful sale fabric that I could just see for making lots of zipper blocks.

A puzzle and a rainbow jelly roll…

I couldn’t resist this Tula Pink fabric. I think it’ll become another pillowcase for moi! And the Kaffe Collective and Tula fat quarters (only $2 each) were too good to pass up. 

Now, let’s jump back in time for a moment to the week prior to the fabric acquisition trip retreat. This is a line of fabric I bought from Connecting Threads called “Alfie”. Regular readers know that one of my crazy felines is named Alfie. That, coupled with these beautiful florals, practically *forced* me to acquire them. I’m sure you totally understand. 

There are cats among the main floral! Anyway, that solid gray I showed above will be used with these fabrics to showcase them in one of those shadow-framed block quilts. Another project for myself for 2022. After eight months of sewing donation quilts almost exclusively. I’m planning selfish sewing in a big way for the new year!

Another thing I did before leaving for the retreat was to sew this orange 12” block. It was the final one needed to complete a long-running Rainbow Scrap Challenge sampler quilt.

When I returned home, I sewed up the flimsy. The top is now waiting to be sandwiched up. Unfortunately, this picture just shows the blocks pinned to the design board. The actual quilt top is sashed and bordered. I should have it finished next week.

At the retreat, I got all of these blocks sewn up, so it was easy to assemble the flimsy once I got home. I love the colors in this line, even though it’s way too matchy-matchy for my tastes. It was a layer cake I wanted to use up. 

There will be a small white stop border then a wider yellow border added. The backing will be the same yellow print. I’m thinking this will make a perfect quilt for my granddaughter Lauren’s high school graduation next May. 

And here is the status of the other project I worked on, the Ribbon Quilt from Jordan Fabrics. All the blocks are cut and sewn; they just need to be assembled and a border added. I’d like to finish this in August, too. 

Additionally, I’ll have two aqua scrap quilts to sew for Quilts for Kids. The pieces are gathered, but they can wait until I clear off the other things in the next ten days or so. 

Our garden has finally begun sharing its bounty. Even the compost bin had a volunteer snapdragon to present to us!

This was my harvest last Sunday, and Thursday’s harvest was nearly identical. Well, about two less spaghetti squash and double the cherry tomatoes.

The onions are almost ready too - their tops are beginning to fall. I pick one or two as we need them, but the bulk of them will stay in the ground until all the tops have fallen and I can pull and dry them out as a batch for storage. The birds are spending a lot of time in the higher more bird-accessible areas of the grape arbor. That means the rest of the grapes (reserved for humans) are not far behind. It’s a busy time of year. 

This coming week we have a dentist appointment (Bruce - toothache from a cracked tooth that will probably need either a root canal, crown, or both). I’ll be getting more cortisone so I can function again like a sixty-something instead of a ninety-something. And hopefully there will be a contractor visiting to give us an estimate on fixing the basement leak. We’ve already determined from a window contractor that it’s NOT the window. Some exploratory demolition of the interior wall will be happening. Of course - it’s in my studio. That means I’ll be doing The Fabric Shuffle again. Because the thought of sheetrock dust and my fabric in the same room makes me (pick any:) cry, itch, feel faint. 

The Thunderstorm From Hell

On Thursday night we finally got rain. It was a welcome relief, or at least it started that way. It came pouring down. Lightening, thunder, winds. And then the winds turned angry and decided to see if they could blow us all the way to Kansas or something. It was about 7:00 in the evening, and still light before the storm clouds gathered. Once the heavens broke loose with everything, however, it was almost dark. There was even a period of time as the wind howled through the trees of the neighborhood and the rain slashed down (or more accurately, slashed across) that we could not see across the street. It lasted about 10-15 minutes and then moved off, but the damage was done. This picture was taken just before I was finally able to go outside, but it was taken through a bedroom window. 

That’s Mort, our 11-year old maple tree. May he Rest In Peace. Notice in the picture below how our portion of the lawn is dry because we adhere to the city’s twice-per-week watering schedule. Our neighbor apparently does not. This thundershower aside, we are in the midst of Utah’s worst drought ever.

Mort has sustained a fatal injury and will need to be cut down, a job for a contractor with two arms. Two neighbors came by with a chain saw and helped cut the fallen limb down and haul it out to the street. There are lots of brokcn and uprooted trees in the neighborhood, so Murray City says they’ll be by next week to pick up the debris. We have lots of limbs of other trees to haul out to the curb

Bruce has to tie up my rose tree since its ties came loose from the stake and it is curved gracefully to the ground. Luckily, it’s not broken and will be fine.

Now, if that were the worst of it, I could live with it. But while the storm was raging, I decided to go into my basement studio to make sure everything there was alright. It wasn’t. There was water pouring in through the window casing and soffit above my ironing board and between my two fabric shelves.  Here’s an “after” picture of the area involved.

The blinds were attached to the soffit/casing above (as opposed to the sides). They came down. Bruce ran and got towels while I moved the ironing board, quilts, fabric and shelves away (it’s amazing how strong and quick you can be in a moment of panic!) Here’s the soffit:

Yuk. It looks to me like there’s mold there - perhaps the problem has been around longer than we think. We don’t know if it’s the window that’s leaking or what. It’s one of two windows in the house we did not replace because it was already double paned. The picture below is the paneling that’s on that wall - you can see how it has bubbled. And that bubbling is just from the last year since I had it repainted. Some of that bubbling was there before, but I naively thought it was from the steam of the iron. *slaps head* That’ll teach me to wait until a problem becomes a PROBLEM.

Here’s the window area from the outside (note the lovely clump of weeds...). No apparent issues with the bricks or foundation. The water did not come from above, because this area sits just below the master bedroom, and that wall and carpet and ceiling are just fine. It’s not the roof because that’s not very old either. To me, it almost HAS to be the window, because water will travel and follow the path of least resistance.

Our insurance (Safeco) has been great so far, but I’ve made it clear that I don’t want them to just cut a check for estimated damages. I want an expert out here to troubleshoot the issue and determine what caused the problem. We want to know the cause and get it fixed once and for all so it won’t happen again. At least I can finally replace those prehistoric window coverings!

But, hey, other than *THAT*, it’s been a great week!

Here are the dark blue blocks I sewed this week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Twelve string blocks of dark blue with black and white.

Twelve waffle blocks that I made into three 10.5” blocks.

And two quilts that I finished up before the disaster, but didn’t photograph until afterwards. So please excuse the makeshift arrangements. I’ve had to move a lot of stuff around to clear the area by the window. The pain of upheaval is real!

The Space quilt I’d so looked forward to playing with turned into a big MEH. Why cut up a perfectly good panel when it’s fine as is? And I saw other ones online (this is an older panel) where it was left intact, so I thought, why not?  I added the red and blue space fabric, which it turns out was from that same exact line of fabric. The back is just more of the blue.

But I did enjoy putting together this blue string quilt - Stringing the Blues. It finished at 42x48”.

Into the pile of quilts for Quilts for Kids it goes. Our next workshop will be in mid-August, so I’ll continue collecting and sewing more little quilts until then.

Have a great week, friends. We are about 8 days away from leaving on our trip to Missouri Star Quilt Company for a retreat. We (meaning Cousin Kim and the 2 others; not Bruce) plan to be very careful, masking up, social distancing, etc etc. The Delta variant is raging in Missouri (and here too) because - I’m just going to say it - some people are too ignorant to get vaccinated. One of my sons is one of them (although he just says he’s too busy). Not too busy to die, though. I don’t wish it on anyone, but geez..... *End of Rant* and *End of Post* xo

Good News and Bad News

First, the good news. The new issue of CQMagOnline is out and it is, IMHO, the best issue ever! If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? Check it out!

The bad news: We had another flood at our home. The first time in August (see account here), we caught it quickly and the damage was limited to fixing a pipe and replacing one panel of drywall. Unfortunately, this time I started a load of laundry in the washer (only 5 years old) and we left to take DD and DSIL out to lunch at Red Lobster. We were gone about an hour, and when we came back, half the basement was under 3 inches of water. It seems that the washing machine (bad sensor?) never turned the water off when it was done filling, and it overflowed and ran for that hour. The drain in the laundry room didn't handle it well, and ..... OMG what a mess!

So, we've filed an insurance claim and the disaster clean-up people were out. The water has been sucked up and the carpets torn back. About a half dozen huge fans are running down here, as well as a de-humidifier. They are deafening, and it's so breeeeeezy in here!!

It appears the only damage was to carpets (which may be saved) and some walls - which they won't know the extent of for a few days. Just depends on how far up the water wicked. My studio was OK, but I did have to move some things and one bookcase is in question.... The newly-remodeled bathroom was flooded, but the flooring is tile, so the only question is the state of the lower cabinets and the lower wall area. The office area, where I'm sitting at the computer now, just has a damp wall and carpet. DH's electronics "laBORatory" has wet carpets, but no supplies or equipment involved. And the furnace room was wet and the drain there seemed non-functioning as well.

So, tomorrow we're staying home. We'll get the rooter people out here to clean these drains, call the repairman for the washing machine, meet with the disaster company estimator and the insurance adjustor to work on estimates and claims. Can't get to my CQ stitching and piecing unless I crawl under my folding work table to get to that area of my studio. And yes, I'll probably do that!

Burst Pipe in Studio

On Saturday night, we had a close call. Both floods and fires are among a stitcher's worst nightmares. But looking back now, I know how lucky we were.

I was sitting in my studio, stitching on a block. I heard some water running, and thought DH had just flushed a toilet upstairs. He came downstairs and the water kept running. And running. After a few minutes, I called to him and we both went upstairs and checked the bathrooms. Everything upstairs was quiet - no toilets or faucets running. When we came downstairs, however, the sound was very clear AND the carpet near the east wall in my studio, which is situated between the doors to the laundry room and to the bathroom, was wet.

Panic!

There was no water running in the laundry room or downstairs bathroom, but we could now feel it in the wall. Bruce ran and shut off the main water valve and the sound stopped. OK, that's good. Now to find the leak. We moved away my bookcase full of cotton fabrics that stood along that wall. Next, we tore off the paneling, ceiling molding and began cutting into the sheetrock. We finally saw a water pipe up near the ceiling.


What we found was a copper pipe that had apparently been nicked many years ago when the basement was finished (the house is 45 years old, but the original basement finish may be 10 years newer than that). It appears that a nail in the crown molding grazed - didn't pierce, just grazed - the pipe. However, over the years it corroded. It had been leaking for awhile, but finally burst last night. THANK GOODNESS WE WERE HOME AND RIGHT THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED!

We ended up tearing out the entire panel of sheetrock between the doors.

Bruce went to the hardware store and bought a clamp as a temporary measure until we can call a plumber on Monday. As an extra precaution we shut off the water when we went to bed.

Now we'll pay for a plumber, get the wall sheetrocked - and while we're sheetrocking, we might as well fix the ceiling in the laundry room and take the vent out of the hall ceiling upstairs (since we've had central air for years) and have that sheetrocked too.

So tomorrow I'll find temporary storage for all the fabrics that had to be moved. And then I get to dust every little inch of my studio to remove the settled sheetrock dust. And cross my fingers that we can get a plumber in ASAP.

As Gilda Radner used to say, "It's always something!"