The next home improvement project

If you've been reading this blog for awhile you know that we bought our house nearly five years ago and spent almost a year remodeling the kitchen and replacing windows and moving a few walls before we moved in. If you missed it you can see a bit of that process here. Then, a couple years later we built the studio and the greenhouse. Now, a couple more years later we are remodeling the main bathroom. This house will probably always be a work in progress.

The contractor and his crew are showing up this week to get started, so I thought I'd show you where we are starting. The bathroom is horrible. It has been ugly since we moved in, but things got really awful a few months back when the toilet flooded and soaked the gross pink carpet. I could rant for awhile about carpet in bathrooms, but I will just leave it for you to imagine stinky, soggy, ugly pink carpet in a bathroom. It had to go. Ray pulled it out and to our horror/amusement/disgust we found that under the carpet '70s style vinyl flooring covered half the floor and the other half was raw plywood. Nice. Not.

I will say that the bathroom is functional. Nothing is rotten or unsanitary, but nevertheless it is disgusting. Here is a better look at the wallpaper. I could not hate this wallpaper more.

After some serious sweaty work, I am happy to report that this wallpaper is no more. Part of getting ready for the workmen, was removing the wallpaper. It is gone.

The new bathroom will be bigger, with a new shower, toilet, two new sinks, a new floor, storage cabinet and a new window. Not luxurious or fancy, but oh, my it will be such a welcome change! The "bigger" component will be accomplished by moving the wall on the right 18" further to the right. This will make my office 18" less wide, which is fine, but it means everything has had to be moved out of the office for demolition and reconstruction of the wall. Here is my office just before my desk was dismantled and moved out. There's that pink carpet again. Unfortunately its removal is not yet in the plans. Another project for another day.

So there is major disruption happening around here, but it's all for a good cause. And you know I'll be posting photos.

Kick off Your Heels!

 Here is something fun, for a good cause.

Art Shoes! I made these for the "Kick Off Your Heels" fundraiser. The goal is to raise $5,000 for The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California - because they not only treat women, but also educate and do major research for this disease with women. Did you know that more women die from cardiovascular disease each year than from all cancers combined? I didn't know that. Now I do.

Ironically, the week this challenge was announced my heart was "going nuts"—beating wildly, erratically and skipping beats. It terrified me, since I have never had any heart problem of any kind. A battery of tests showed that my problem was not dangerous and can be easily controlled with medication, but it was a wake-up call to pay attention to my health and my heart. So I am stepping out with my heart on my heels, exercising and eating healthy. 

My entry is called "I'm wearing my heart on my heels." Go to the Kick Off Your Heels web site to see all the shoes that will be auctioned online, starting tomorrow! The artists have really "stepped up" to this challenge! You will see that mine are conservative, compared with some of the entries.

Here are a couple more views of my shoes:

By the way, these are actually wearable and size 5.5.

The Kick off Your Heels fundraiser begins tomorrow morning and shoes are sold on a first come first serve basis!
Shoes can be purchased for $300 on  May 20 and 21,2013 beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST
Shoes can be purchased for $200 on May 22 and 23,2013 beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST
Shoes can be purchased for $100 on May 24 and 25,201
3 beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST

The Quilt Show

What an interesting morning I had!  The production crew from the Alex Anderson/Ricky Tims web TV show, The Quilt Show, was here taping in my studio for about 4 hours. There was a big surprise element, as well. While I knew the crew would be here, I did not know that Alex Anderson would show up as a surprise. I think I was expected to scream or jump up and down, but I was so confused that I think I just looked a little stunned! Ray was on hand, with his phone/camera and caught a little of the surprise.

Alex coming in the front door

Me, stunned.

This all started last October when Shelley Heesacker, the producer of the Quilt Show, came to my Open Studio. Shelley also works for Oprah and Dr. Phil and just happens to live near here in Forest Grove, Oregon. We talked about doing a segment for the Quilt Show and Shelley left her card and said she would be in touch. I didn't hear from her again until last week. The Quilt Market is in Portland this weekend. It is the big national Trade Show for the quilting industry and an opportunity for Shelley and her crew to tape some of the big name quilters who are in town for the show, and some of us local quilters as long as they were on a roll. So Shelley contacted me. Since Alex was also in town for the market, they decided to have her make a surprise visit to the studio. They might make this a regular feature—"ambushing" a quilter in his/her studio—in the future. While she was here she taped a little promo for the show, which I captured on my phone. Click the arrow to play.

We taped a tour of the studio. We talked about my series of shirting quilts and I showed some older work. We talked about the Twelve by Twelve project and book. We talked about my blog. I talked about myself and how I got to be an art quilter and what I want to do next and blah, blah, blah! It was a lot and will probably end up as a 10 minute, or less, segment on the show. The crew were terrific and Shelley is super impressive—so organized and interested in everything and obviously very professional in her work. Alex is just as she seems on TV—very energetic and vivacious and very warm and friendly. Smart and pretty too. I was really fascinated by the entire process and ceased being incredibly nervous about 3 minutes into it.

Me and Shelley.

Shelley couldn't tell me when this will be shown. They do a lot of taping, then start sorting it out into individual shows. It will probably be next year before it is on. I will know in advance, however, and will post the information when I know.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was good. It isn't my favorite holiday. It is a little contrived and some of the sentiment is pretty forced, but it was a good day here in my world.

I think the best thing about Mother's Day is that little people really get into it and really seem to love an opportunity to express their sweet, pure love for their mothers, and their grandmothers too. In our family we have never made a big deal about Mothers Day or Fathers Day. We know how we feel about each other. This morning we went to breakfast with my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. I got cards and a beautiful potted lily. The cards were the best. My granddaughter, who has recently learned to read and write, loves having the ability to express herself in writing, in her own words. She wrote on my handmade card, "for all the time youve bin aliv, here is a speshle secret. I love you. Happy Mothers Day to Terry from Sofia."  The sweetness of that—what can I say? My son and daughter both posted pictures on Facebook and wished me a happy Mothers Day. That was plenty.

Here are my girls—daughter Emily and granddaughter, Sofia, at breakfast this morning. I didn't take a picture of my guys this morning, but I have a son, Andy and grandson, Marco as well. Here they are are several weeks ago.

Marco adores his Uncle Andy, who makes silly faces for him.

While Mothers Day is a day to be thankful for these special-to-me people, I also remember my own mother, who I miss dearly, and I know it is a day that isn't so great for everyone. I can't help but think of those whose mothers weren't so loving, and those who are not mothers, by choice or fortune, and saddest of all, those mothers who have lost their children. This day must be an agony for them. I have friends in all these categories, and I know they are left out of the rosy Mothers Day schmalzy-ness, despite their nurturing, motherly spirits.

To be a mother is everything and nothing. Everything, in the way it changes you. Someone said being a mother (a parent) is like having your heart walking around outside your body. I have never heard anything that more accurately describes the sense of vulnerability and helplessness and connectedness of being a parent. Forever after, you are connected, for better or worse, to your child, feeling every hurt and every joy they experience. And, in a more prosaic way, parenthood is nothing—the inevitable biological imperative. It is what humans do and the way the species continues, not much different from worms and birds and fish and monkeys. But, as a human mother I can't help but think about the profound meanings and consequences and rewards and liabilities of motherhood.

Whether a mother or not, I hope you had a good day today, and I hope you have people to love, who love you in return. That's all that really counts.

Phone photos

Maybe you have seen the Apple ad that says that the iPhone is the most used camera in the world. That really struck me and I believe it. I love to take photos and I have a nice camera that I like and use a lot, but having that iPhone camera in my pocket nearly all the time has changed the way I think about taking photos. Today my niece sent me a phone photo of her year-old baby taking his first step. Amazing. Today my daughter smashed her finger in the heavy old window of her classroom. She sent me a phone photo of her cleaned up, nicely bandaged finger from the E.R. A picture is worth a thousand words.

When I see something I want to remember or share later with Ray, or someone else, I snap a photo. My week, below, in phone photos.

 Baby geese;

a bunny;

the first wild rose of the season;

an interesting mushroom.

Do you shop with your phone camera? I do.

A sewing machine I was considering. I bought a different one, but this one was a contender and here's all the information, including model # and price.

Toilet for our upcoming bathroom remodel. This was the winner and all the info was right here.

Nice metal table. The tag with the dimensions and price information is another photo. Unfortunately this is not going to work where I thought it might. Nice to know before I bought it and had to return it.

Me, right now.

I mean, right now...

And, so it goes...

Blog to check and my new sewing machine

If you aren't reading Lisa Flowers Ross's blog you are missing a lot! I discovered Lisa several years ago and love her blog. She lives in Boise, Idaho (I lived there once—many years ago. That's where I found Ray) and writes about her textile work, her work at the Boise Art Museum (one of the best little art museums you will ever see), her views of one of my favorite cities and her lovely family. Her occasional photos of walks and bike rides through the sagebrush covered foothills makes me quite nostalgic for Idaho.  (Despite its dodgy reputation, Idaho is a miraculously beautiful place.)  Lisa is thoughtful and interesting and I love her work. Look at this one.

Lucky me. I am now the proud owner of this piece. This past week she has been writing about printmaking classes she is taking. Good stuff.
 
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Here on the home front I have been worrying about my sewing machine. It's getting a little old and has been worked awfully hard. I have been thinking I need a sturdy workhorse machine to do the hard jobs of piecing and quilting, to spare my wonderful computerized Janome that wear and tear and preserve it for the more artistic chores, like fancy stitches and buttonholes and such. It is getting a bit old and frail. Today I found a great deal on a heavy-duty mechanical (non electronic) machine that does none of the fancy stuff, but excels at the meat and potatoes—straight stitching and quilting. I will sit them side by side and use each machine for what each does best.  Meet my new machine.

 She is heavy and she's my Brother. Some accommodating needs to take place. As you can see she does not fit the hole in the table/

White