Four weeks in..

 Max after his bath. 

 A few of the masks I have made. 

I bought a bolt of sew-in stabilizer many years ago for a specific quilt project that has not materialized, so am using it as a lining inside the masks, making them three layers. Using fabric to make bias tape for the ties. That is my oldest Hunter trying his on.

 I set up a sewing area at home. I usually do all of my sewing at my longarm studio, "The Hive". It overlooks the front yard. Getting some piecing done, just not the same as having all of my tools at hand. Kind of like a perpetual retreat, lol. 

 I purchased this kit over 5 years ago at Chattanooga Quilts. I didn't have a reference photo for it. The pattern is from a book of Christmas quilts and this fabric is spring/dandelions. So after I thought I had cut one of the fabrics incorrectly, I messaged the shop for a photo. They amazingly were able to locate a photo which is pretty impressive since it was sooo long ago and they weren't in the shop at the time. Great customer service, really recommend stopping by if you are ever near by! Link here: Chattanooga Quilts website or Chattanooga Quilts Facebook page. Four blocks done, five to go. It took me several redo's to get these right. 

Above left is my empty design wall at the Hive. The quilt on the right has been in the works for many years and occupying the design wall for months on end. It is Jen Kingwell's Long Time Gone. I finally got the parts put together and added the outer border. I am thinking of doing another pieced border also. Stay tuned. This is one of my UFO projects for this year, making progress.

 I have been spending more time at home with my 17 yo, so not too much being accomplished at the studio. I did start quilting this sweet 42 in quilt for my great niece Aubrey Elizabeth. She is a month old already!

quilt back

This is Karen M.'s Splendid Sampler, about 76 in sq. It is absolutely wonderfully made and has so much going on. She opted for a simple curlicue pattern called Denali in white thread.

We haven't gotten take out this week at all I am proud to say. Here is a sampling of our food situation this week. 

Quinoa salad (from Daniel Plan Cookbook, that's the picture above my plate). Nice to have something a little lighter. We have been eating a lot of heavy comfort food. 

 I discovered baking my bacon several years ago. It is amazing. about 20 mins at 375 degrees and it comes out crispy and melt in your mouth yummy. Easter Sunday breakfast was waffles with peanut butter and bacon. Completely reminded me of my dad!

What's more comforting than good ol' meat and potatoes. This is a meat pie, basically a meatloaf w/o ketchup with your favorite mashed potatoes on top (mine are garlic and sour cream laced) and then melted cheese. For me a side of corn makes it perfect. 

Homemade pizza using Martha White crust. I like sausage and mushrooms on mine. 

Flamingo a Friend website

This weekend was my Huntsville bestie's 60th birthday. This is the girl wearing her 59 turning 60 shirt for the past six months, so not being able to celebrate was not really an option here. I made her favorite apple cake (and kept back a couple of slices since I couldn't eat it with her), had her yard flocked with Flamingos, and helped her hubby arrange a drive by birthday parade. See more on her FB page here: Pam Anders FB page. She was quite surprised and thrilled. 

Max chillin' at the Hive. He goes just about everywhere with me these days since we humans can't really go in anywhere there is no risk of having to leave him in the car. Luckily, he didn't go with us to run a quick errand, as it would not have ended well for him.

 This is old blue. We bought her new in 2008, she is a Honda Pilot and had over 185,000 miles logged. All three of my boys learned to drive in her. She met her demise after colliding with a Toyota 4Runner on Monday. My almost 18 yo son was driving, it was his first accident and he has never had a ticket. I am thankful nobody was injured and that little Maxoroni didn't go with us, also that I was with him. It was my first experience with air bags and it all happened so fast. I was looking the other way so did not see it coming and the next thing is an awful smell, smoke, and disorientation. Chandler's wrist is swollen today but he feels it is not broken and I do not have any desire to visit any sort of medical facility if it can be helped (Coronavirus and all). He is keeping it iced and wrapped for now. I am a little sore through my shoulders, feels like I did yard work (which clearly did not happen this week). It could have been much worse if the other car had hit ours any further back, I believe we were protected. 

 The yard of my rental house does not have much grass, a lot of ground cover type plants (aka weeds). These cute little berries are growing right now, along with clover and other unidentified plants. No wonder the birds love my yard! They are in the front and back. 

Learning to Just Be: Weekly Journal Mar 29-Apr 4

I would say that I am not typically a go, go, go person but I do keep a fairly full calendar. In a week my average driving mileage is a little over 100 miles. As an example of how life has narrowed, last week I drove 37 miles. (I have always kept track of mileage since my dad taught me to when I learned to drive. I know my car keeps track now but just a habit I cannot break!) 

One of the things I am working on during this time is to "Just Be." It is difficult for me to sit for any length of time, much less just be home. I could do home improvements, but in reality it is a rental that I am moving out of this summer so am not interested in doing much here. I have begun doing a short yoga video on YouTube each morning, Yoga with Adriene, and I think that will help me be able to better focus and be better able to be in the moment rather than always thinking about what to do next.

As I turned the page in my planner to April it made me sad. Everything that was planned is to be erased. I typically pencil in things at first and then change them to ink when I know they won't change. Saves a lot of white out that way.

Here is how my life changed this month: 

1. 10 day trip to Germany, Austria, Czech Republic cancelled.

2. Stitch group meetings x 5, cancelled.

3. Eight days of working as a substitute school nurse, cancelled. 

4. Quilt guild meeting cancelled. 

5. My son's Senior Scholars awards cancelled.

6. 5 k race in Memphis, cancelled.

7.  House hunting in Memphis, postponed.

8.  Son's Academic awards for his senior year, cancelled. 

9. Trip to Paducah KY for AQS quilt show, cancelled. 

Most of these will be rescheduled but some are just lost to time. In the big scheme of things it really won't matter, but it is still disappointing. And it is okay to feel that right now. Just can't let the negative feelings take over. 

Wednesday night church service. We are using RightNow Media, a study by Pastor Tony Evan. I wonder if I can bring my quilting to church when we start meeting again? 

Max being cute in front of the design wall

Quilts I quilted: Pam R's Sizzle

Pam R's baby quilt, I quilted dandelions blowing away on it 

This was the week of unusual fabrics in a quilt. This one had three different fabrics including one that is almost like a loose upholstery or drapery fabric, which was used for the binding also. This was a purchased kit on line, so she didn't get to pet the fabric first. The binding was so thick it bent a needle when I got to one of the mitered corners. Otherwise, it turned out nice. 

This maker wanted a Minky or fleece backing but couldn't find the right color. So she went with a fuzzy terry cloth. No my preferred backing but it turned out pretty good. Quilted with loopy hearts. 

And this baby quilt was backed with a flannel sheet. Quilted with Star of David pattern. 

For personal quilting, I just have one section left to assemble for Long Time Gone. I am planning to do alternate borders from the strips in the original pattern. 

Max and I took a decent walk Sunday. These are some neighborhood Dogwoods in bloom. 

I don't know what this it, looks like a hydrangea but its a tree not a bush. Pretty blooms though. 

I put out my new garden flag and got a cute Flamingo solar light. 

Pretty azalea bush down the street.

Hard to see but I laughed when I walked by this house. They are flying their flag, have a Santa in the yard, an Easter Cross, and a Halloween ghost with a mask in place so he doesn't spread his germs, haha. All they need is a groundhog. I have forgotten what day it is any more...

Stopped by Mad Malts to fill up my growler, Raspberry Blonde this time.  Miss hanging out there on Fridays. 

Chandler is learning to cook since he is stuck at home and I am still doing the intermittent fasting and only eating a snack and one meal a day (OMAD). This meal is spaghetti with from scratch meat sauce. I am pretty happy that this week I hit my lowest weight since before 2012. 

Today was to be the first day back to school after spring break. Chandler is a senior and has straight A's in all of his classes. He is able to use his current grades as the final ones and so is done with school. He will still need to take his AP exams, but those scores won't affect his GPA at all. To pass the time he is learning the choreography for IMPs upcoming summer musical. Auditions are to be video taped and submitted on line.

I did my grocery shopping today and snuck over to The Hive to get stuff to make some masks and  start a t-shirt quilt order.  Just trying to set an example by staying home and staying well. Stay home means Stay home, right?  

Let me know, how has your April changed and what are you working on? 

Passing the Time

Here is my photo journal for the past week or so. These are historic times but I cannot bear to watch much news. I am doing as asked and staying in, if not for the good of our resources and healthcare system then because I have no desire to get sick with his horrific virus. It is mind boggling that the Walmart parking lot is as full as at Christmas time.  

I have come to realize that I am more of an introvert than I realized. While I do miss the freedom to go where I want when I want I pretty much have all I need between home and my studio. I am very grateful to have my studio separate from my home and just 1.3 miles away. I am able to go be socially isolated there and have one customer at a time come pick up or drop off their quilts. I am getting quite a lot done not having other obligations. I do miss working in the schools and seeing the kids a couple of times a week though, plus the high school activities I was helping with (band, theater, etc).  There is quite a bit I could feel sorry about, but in the scope of the global crisis it would be silly to entertain this. Being able to have a place to go has probably helped my son more than me, I would probably drive him crazy if I were home more. 

So here is what I have been up to. 

This is one of my UFOs getting quite a bit of work done on getting the string appliquéd around the borders. 

I ordered a new cutting mat. The one on the right is probably over 8 years old and is not self healing any longer. I do use it a lot. You can see how faded it is compared to the new one on the left.

Max being cute. Needs to be groomed desperately. 

Another UFO I found, its about 12 x 10 inches. From a mini quilt of the month pattern I got many years ago. I made this over 3 years ago and it just needed binding, so I added that today. Took about an hour. 

These two are different sashing options for Long Time Gone, white or green. The pattern calls for gray but I don't have enough. So I will pick something else. I still need to make about 5 or 6 pineapple blocks but wanted to pick the sashing so I can feel like this project is moving along. What do you like, white or green?  

This was quilted for my friend Pam. It's a quilt she made a while ago, a BOM sampler. She added borders to get it up to king size and is gifting it to a friend as a wedding gift. 

This was quilted for Cecilia B with a pretty floral edge to edge. 

This was quilted for Dana L. A small lap quilt with modern edge to edge. I also finished a table topper for her but forgot to get pictures of it. 

Tulips in the neighbors yard. 

Orchids in bloom and weeds in my yard. 

A baby girl quilt top finished for a great niece, Aubrey Elizabeth, born a couple of weeks ago, just in time for the chaos of today. I will quilt it next week probably, if I have a pink backing. I may need to order on line. 

Bees in the holly bush. The blossoms smell so sweet!

Friday night I was going to order pizza from my favorite place, Big Ed's, but the phone line was busy, busy, busy. I had stuff to make our own, so we did. Chandler is finally going to learn to cook, just in time to go away to college. 

         

Max and I have taken nice long 4 mile walks the past two Sundays. It has been nice to walk the neighborhood and see all of the Spring blooms. After our walk we watch church, Weatherly Assembly, on YouTube. Just trying to keep something sort of the same. 

Another thing that hasn't changed is that I don't like to cook on Sunday. So this week we got take out Chinese from Ding How II. I love their shrimp fried rice and won ton soup. I have exhausted the comfort meals this week. Even Chandler asked for something more healthy, lol. 

Just me alone at "The Hive" being socially isolated. Thank goodness for audiobooks, Podcasts, and No Shoes Radio on Sirius XM!

What are you doing to stay occupied during these unprecedented times?