Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Day 2: Rough Carpentry and New Subfloor

The old half wall was torn down and a new one made. It has to be higher to accommodate another plug, as per new codes.
Our contractor Jen also discovered two 3/4" plywood levels of subfloor! She had them torn out and a new subfloor installed, otherwise the kitchen floor would be higher than the surrounding flooring.
Plywood was installed where the soffits were taken out so the insulation in the attic does not fall into the kitchen.

We saw the new cork floor!

Tomorrow the plumber comes to move the water to where the sink will be, and HVAC will be installing the venting for the range hood. Then we wait for inspection before the next step: drywalling and sanding. Ugh.

After that things get interesting!

Sparrow Migrations by Cari Noga

Michigan author Cari Noga wrote Sparrow Migrations as part of  the 2010 National Novel Writing Month. The manuscript languished waiting for a publisher to accept it. Finally Noga self-published. The book was a semifinalist in the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest and is being published by Lake Union Publishing. I first heard about the book in a Detroit Free Press news article.

The novel follows the stories of three families whose lives were impacted by the 2009 "Miracle On the Hudson." Noga explores how the experience altered their perception, their goals, and their family lives.

Christopher and Deborah had successful careers when their plane went down in the Hudson. They had spent years trying to get pregnant without success. Christopher's post-crisis reaction is to enjoy the life they had been given, telling Deborah that becoming pregnant had taken over their lives and kept them on an emotional roller coaster. But Deborah had come through the experience more determined than ever to have a child. Her consequent choices divide them.

Linda and Sam and their twelve-year-old son Robby were on the ferry near where the plane came down. Linda and Sam are in different places concerning acceptance of Robby's autism and how it has changed their expectations of parenthood. Robby saw the Canada Geese flying near the plane and it has sparked his interest in learning more about birds--hoping to understand how to prevent more accidents along their migration paths. As his parents struggle to allow Robby the freedom to follow his passion they discover their son has depths they had never understood.

Brett was to have been on the fatal plane but delayed her return to her pastor husband and their child. She was supposed to be learning about food pantries as mission outreach. Instead she'd had an assignation with her female lover, another pastor's wife. Suffocated by the expectations of her role, and alienated by a husband married to the church, Brett faces the decision to out herself and destroy her family or to play the role she's been playing for years for the sake of her daughter.

The paths of the characters take them from the Hudson and into their their private crises until their lives intersect again with hope and redemption.

Robby is a memorable character and his story is informed by the Noga's own autistic son. The characters are memorable and likable. We learn much about autism and its impact on family. Robby's father is particularly interesting as he observes the changes in Robby because of his newly found passion.

I have known several couples who have tried to get pregnant. I won't give away the plot but Christopher and Deborah's marriage is threatened by their differences and by information withheld. Their marriage can only be saved by forgiveness and honesty.

I was particularly interested in Brett's story line. She and Richard had met in college and bonded over a mutual interest in Social Justice. Years later finds the Reverend has lost his boundaries; his role as minister has become his only identity and his ultimate concern. He has allowed the congregation's values to become his own. He shows no prophetic leadership.

We know Richard mostly through his words when he tells his family what he expects from them. Their daughter Amanda is told to fit in, don't stand out, don't show off--a long series of expectations that protect his image to the congregation and puts his child's best interests in the back seat--maybe out of the car all together. His relationship with his wife is called 'platonic' but truly is not even a friendship any more; she is just there for appearances and to enhance his image. I found him a detestable character.

Noga knows about parenting an autistic child. She had to imagine the other character's stories. Richard seems too much of a stereotype, but that is perhaps because I understand what a pastor's life is like and have known pastoral marriages impacted by a spouse coming out. I enjoyed the references to Michigan places.
Publishers Weekly said: “The plot lines are sophisticated, the characters intricately drawn, and the book has a remarkably strong voice… brimming with humanity and grace.”
I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Sparrow Migrations
Cari Noga
Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: June 23, 2015
Paperback $14.95
ISBN: 9781477830888




Monday, June 22, 2015

Day One Completed: Tear this Kitchen Down!

Today the old kitchen was torn out. The original cabinets were saved to be re-purposed for basement storage later. The soffits were torn out. The rug and two layers of linoleum were torn out.
It took four people to do the tear down.
 This is the corner where the sink and stove were.
And this is the wall where the refrigerator once was.

The contractor wants to remove the 3/4" thick plywood floor. It appears there are two layers that thick. The cork flooring is 1/2" deep and she wants the adjacent flooring to be more level with the new kitchen floor. So that's more tear-down ahead.

Kamikaze loves the sunshine
Our doggies weathered the ordeal. I spent the cool morning with them outside in the back yard. Kamikaze loves to sit outside. Suki only likes to be outside at night! All afternoon we stayed in a bedroom. I read, fell asleep, read some more. The doggies just slept.
 Its what they do best.


Day One: Tear Down

Good bye, old kitchen. My folks bought this house after my grandfather's death and my grandmother moved in with my family. Mom used to cook, and Grandma cleaned up. My brother was eleven when they moved in here, but I was at college.

I didn't do much in the kitchen until after Mom died. Then I would cook and clean up when visiting Dad. I inherited the house after Dad passed. A year later our son moved in after he finished college. And last June, a year ago, Gary and I moved in after he retired.

So this kitchen has seen four generations of my family.

We already have a new stove. The 1984 one had been the second in the house. When my folks bought the house the appliances were Harvest Gold. The lighted hood does not even have a circulating fan.
The empty spot is where the refrigerator was originally. Our new didn't fit.


The new refrigerator will stay in this corner. Mom once had a glass front hutch full of her Depression Glass collection there.

We have set up a coffee and microwave station in the living room. The family room carpet will be torn up also. We are having the same cork flooring in the kitchen and the family room.

Its going to be difficult for our doggies. Kamikaze is spooked by loud noises. Suki will be upset she can't get into her favorite room, the family room corner.

Kamikaze and Suki in the family room
But it is exciting to finally be starting the project!
Dad a few months before we lost him

How to Lure Men: Wear Gloves?

Continuing to share from the 1968 book  I Haven't a Thing to Wear by Judith Keith's, the chapter entitled Conversation Pieces beings with the wearing of gloves.
my haul from the flea market last March
Accessories, Keith suggests, should not be overused. Edit, edit, edit; and when in doubt--don't!

Gloves can be used to provide 'distinction'. Keith suggested short cotton gloves be worn with a simple cotton dress on a supermarket visit! "Snappy leather shorties perk up popped-out plaids, prints and suits." Pant suits were to be paired with pigskins, which were also great for driving, riding, and hiking. Wool and black leather in winter, and long white gloves with a gown, are still worn today.
In 1969 I wore long gloves to the school dance. And wings. Had to have those wings.
And, she contends, gloves can be conversations starters.

Take a simple pair of gloves. In fact take two simple pair of gloves in the most basic colors: one pair black, one pair white. Walk into any party or any place where people gather, wearing one white glove and one black glove! You will certainly create conversation!

Carry it off with e'lan and elegance. You will make many new friends. Strangers will ask, "Do you always do that?"

"Do what?" you smile.

"Don't you know you are wearing two different gloves?" they continue.

"The only thing I know for sure, is that I have another pair at home, just like these," you reply easily.

Once at a cocktail party in San Francisco a handsome distinguished gentleman came up to me and introduced himself stating, "I have always wanted to meet a woman who wouldn't let her right hand know what her left hand is doing." The next two days in San Francisco were just divine.
My mother and father's 1949 wedding. Mom and her sister in white gloves.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Vacationer's Souvenir Handkerchiefs

Handkerchief Designer Tammis Keefe created souvenir handkerchiefs for cities and tourist stops across America. Collecting handkerchiefs and other souvenirs from places one visited was a craze in the mid-twentieth century. These types of handkerchiefs are easily found.
John Wanamaker Department Store, Philadelphia by Tammis Keefe
Independence Hall, Philadelphia by Tammis Keefe
Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia by Tammis Keefe
New York City Bronx Zoo by Tammis Keefe
Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI by Tammis Keefe
Greenfield Village, Dearborn MI by Tammis Keefe
Chicago, by Tammis Keefe
Williamsburg by Emily Whaley
Wilmington, Delaware by Tammis Keefe
The Great Lakes
With the automobile people began to travel across the United States on vacation.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, rayon
New York City, 1930s?
Milwaukee
Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, silk
Hawaii
And with the airplane and jet liner vacationers could travel across continents.
France
Bern, Swizterland

Souvenir handkerchiefs were pretty, and useful, reminders of one's visit. Plus, they took up very little room in one's luggage!
Switzerland
Australia
New Zealand
The Taj Mahal, India
Bath, England Museum of Costume
The British Isles
Ireland
Spanish bullfighter
China?
Russian silk handkerchiefs circa 2000
Where will you travel this summer?

Friday, June 19, 2015

Dispelling Myths and Extolling the Unconventional

About ten years ago my Dad picked up a trunk from along side the road. When he got home and opened it he found an unbound quilt.
Carolina Lily owned by Nancy A Bekofske
It is not well made. The appliquéd flower stems were applied after the blocks were sewn. The quilting is primitive, the batting is bulky and, and the quilt weighs a ton. The fabrics include Gingham, florals, solids, and bandanna prints.
 
And yet there is an exuberance to the quilt; it makes one smile. I love the orange backgrounds in several blocks.

This is the kind of quilt considered in Unconventional and Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 by Roderick Kiracofe.  Kiracofe sees his new book as an extension of  his 2004 landmark book The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950.

The quilt collector, author, and artist says that in 2004 he suddenly questioned, what were the everyday quilts between 1950 and the end of the century? The quilts that were made to be used? He started collecting quilts from this era.

These quilts will not win a prize in a national quilt show. They break every rule we quilters have been taught to obey. They are individualistic. They can inspire artists to use what they have and express what they love. They are 'functional' not show quilts that have been "under the radar" and only recently appreciated by collectors and historians. They tell a story. Their energy and a vision is unique to the quilt maker. The artist will discover that the untrained eye knows instinctively the importance of rhythm, value, and line.

Kiracofe's quilts were ten years in collecting. They are wonderfully portrayed in oversize images that allow us to see the total quilt as art, some with quilt back or detail photos. The essays included offer insights on quilts as history, as art, and as a craft.

Never Seen a Blanket by Natalie Chanin tells the story of growing up in a Southern community "raised to work cotton" from picking bolls to sewing garments. "In the South cotton is your birthright, your way of life, your punishment, and your legacy," Chanin writes. 

Amelia Peck, Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discusses the artistry of late 20th c. quilts in her essay In Dialogue With an Anonymous Quilt, considering color and pattern, vision, and how the quilt speaks to the viewer.

We learn about "M-provisational" quilts in A Texas Quiltmaker's Life: An Interview with Sherry Ann Byrd by Robert Kiracofe and Sherry Ann Byrd. Byrd explains that family use quilts were different from those made for sale, having "more swagger, colorfulness, and a bit of jazzy bling and slang."  
Detail of Eastside Detroit 'make do' quilt
Unconventional Wisdom: The Myths and Quilts that Came Before by Janneken Smucker, history professor, author, and quiltmaker, dismantles what we have believed about quilts over the last hundred years. Her research shows that scrap quilting was not part of our early heritage. 

Professor and author Elissa Auther discusses A Brief History of Quilts in Contemporary Art from Rauchenberg to the AIDS Quilt.
Barkcloth and Decorating Fabric Quilt circa 1960, found on eBay
From Under the Bedcovers: A Culture Curator's Perspective by Ulysses Grant Dietz, decorative arts curator, considers the "Gees Bend" phenomenon and the cultural and historical background evidenced in quilts.
1970s Gees Bend quilt owned by Anne Soles

Quilts Are Quilts by Allison Smith, artist and professor, explores categorizing quilts as art.

Kaffe Fassett writes about The Joyous Anarchy of Color and Pattern considering how these quilts give permission for quilters to break free into imaginative flights of fantasy.

The Beauty of Making Do by Modern quiltmaker Denyse Schmidt gives permission to experiment with materials on hand, taking the risk of improvisation.

This Picture is Not a Family Heirloom by Abner Nolan considers things not kept, not heirlooms, that find meaning in a new context.

This is a beautiful book that will inspire many.
Improvisational scrap quilt by Nancy A. Bekofske