Quarantine Chronicles - Corona Style - Week 6

Welcome to another edition of Quarantine Chronicles!!  This post is my response to our current global health crisis.  It's my record of the Lockdown Life.  Knowing that I couldn't cope with a daily post...

Corona-cation.  Week Six.

This series began on as Thursday, March 19th.  It's hard to believe that a month has gone by.  And yet another is hot on its heels!  Thanks for staying with me to see how the time unfolded.

On Day THIRTY-SIX, Thursday, April 23rd...

It's my favorite day of the week!  ZoomBEE met this morning:

This afternoon I made a big push to finish my current project:

Before dinner, I made a quick trip to Needleb's.  I had a piece of fabric I thought she might like.  She had a potential solution to my thread emergency!  A lavender that might work on the next quilt to be quilted on the longarm:

Day THIRTY-SEVEN, Friday, April 24th...

I overslept and joined in late to our ZoomKnit meet-up...

... But, I thoroughly enjoyed talking with the following Knit Group members today...

Tracy:

Stacy:

Beth:

Wait!  Who is this?!  I don't think he's part of our knit group:

Cindy:

Nicole:

And , Linda, who shared a few of the masks made with my fabric donation...

Look how happy she was to receive a yard of that bright anchor fabric which will be the backing of my "Birthday Quilt" in the coming months:

Linda paired the anchors with a number of solid backing fabrics:

I just used this floral on the back of my Q.2 Project QUILTING challenge and now she used the leftovers for face masks:

Linda gave us a virtual tour of her two-room studio space...

Fabric:

Yarn:

Cutting table with a ton of masks:

Another look at the construction of the cutting table:

Pressing station  with about a dozen more completed masks:

Sewing station:

Storage:

A design wall:

A drafting table:

Yoga studio/ guest room down the hall:

What a fabulous studio, Linda!  Thank you for the tour.

Later...

A thread consult with my friend Deborah arrived at the following...

This photo wasn't clear enough to make my point:

The one for the back wasn't much better, as these are two VERY different shades!  The "dark" one is a gray-lavender and the lighter one is WAY lighter than shown in the photo below:

Look at the difference on the purple border:

I tried another shot of the dark to light transition area:

Deborah wanted to know about the pale center of the quilt and the lavender looks REALLY good on that area:

However, I went back to the pale thread on the purple border to remind her that we have to choose ONE thread that looks best over the entire quilt:

My time this afternoon was split between loading that quilt and piecing the letters for the back of my niece's baby quilt:

As it continued into the evening, that work was part of Friday Night Sew-In with my friend Kathy @ Kathy's Quiltng Blog, who asked, "Are you busy Friday night?" and I was SEW thrilled to be asked (last week) that I responded with the following comment:

Thanks for the invite, Kathy! I don't normally join, but my monthly (LIVE) Friday Night Sew-In has been canceled for the second month in a row and I miss that time with friends. Want a sewing buddy? I'm your girl!! :o))

Once again, I forgot to link-up with Wendy @ Sugarlane Designs for FNSI.  Whoops! Sorry, Kathy!  I still had fun working on a couple of projects.  That might not have happened without your invitation to the Friday Night Sew-In.

I also released a new Design Floor Friday post this evening.  It shows just how much I got done today.

Day THIRTY-EIGHT, Saturday, April 25th...

This morning, I linked-up with Angela and the RSC Quilters for ScrapHappy Saturday.  The afternoon was filled with a whole lot of nothing, but tonight Mr. Basket and I enjoyed Date Night.  Special dinner, a glass of wine, and a delicious dessert.  Sweet!!

BBC.com's COVID report showed yesterday's U.S. numbers.  870,000 confirmed cases and more than 50,000 deaths.  More than 3,000 deaths came in across the country in the last 24 hours.

Day THIRTY-NINE, Sunday, April 26th...

It's release day for the Q.3 challenge of the Quarantine.  I've got ONE WEEK to start AND finish a project.  Or do I???  You can read all about this week's prompt HERE.

Day FORTY, Monday, April 27th...

Today, Bonnie Hunter released the fifth step of UNITY: The Quiltville Sew-in-Place QAL and I'm no closer to beginning my version of her quilt than I was 5 weeks ago!  :o((

My goal is to come up with an abbreviated version of the Sew-in-Place UNITY QAL.  The resulting quilt will be something that (vaguely) resembles this segment of Bonnie's quilt:

I bet you'll be surprised when I tell you I've finally begun!  I've still got another few projects that require my attention before beginning on this one.

Day FORTY-ONE, Tuesday, April 28th...


Last night, I played with the layout of the baby quilt:

Today's task is to finish loading this:

I always find it a challenge to wrangle such a large quilt.  The backing is loaded, the batting has been "fluffed", and it's time for the high school geometry class to kick in.  Ugh!  That was NOT my best subject.  :o((

But first, a Zoom meeting with these two monkeys:

This afternoon, I'm ready to rock and roll:

News report...

As of yesterday, the number of U.S. confirmed cases of novel coronavirus passed the one million mark.  (That's up from 500,000 on April 10th.)  In North Carolina, we are nearing 10,000 confirmed cases and 361 people have died from COVID-19.

Today, THE HILL states the U.S. death toll due to the pandemic now exceeds the number of servicemen killed during the Vietnam War (58,220) which lasted nearly 20 years.  It's been just 3 months!

Day FORTY-TWO, Wednesday, April 29th...

After yesterday's zoom meeting, I woke up wanting to give my Light/Bright BLUE scraps one last hurrah:

You'll be able to see more of this project on Friday.

SEW...

There you have it.  Another week of staring at these four walls.  I'm grateful that I don't have to look far to find things to do.  Are YOU faring as well?  I hope SEW!!!

Until next time...
That's it for Week SIX!

Hands2Help 2020 - 4/26 - 1st Check-In

Welcome to the first check-in for H2H2020!!  In case you missed the original announcement, it's that time, again.  With five SIX charities from which to choose, YOU should be able to find one that speaks to your heart or caters to the size quilts that you like to make.  I signed up (early, in fact) and I know one of the charities (yes, more than one this year!) I will be choosing for this year's event.  In fact, I've already made BOTH of my quilts!

(Thanks to the global pandemic and national shutdown,) There's still time for you to jump in and make a quilt, too!  Search your heart and your stash.  I even published a TUTORIAL that my friend developed.  It easily makes use of your stash of large chunks of scraps to create a super quick quilt.

My own Magic Star quilt, from start to finish, was made in TWO WEEKS!!  The other quilt I made took QUITE a bit longer.  Here are my completed quilts waiting for their trip to the post office:

I keep forgetting to ask DH to bring home boxes.  :o((

Don't worry.  They will be mailed off soon enough.  :o))

Not SEW long ago, I posted about Mercyful Quilts.  That post was already in the planning stages when I discovered...  Serendipity!  It was on Sarah's list of participating organizations for this year.  Along with Mercyful, there are other charities who will be getting the bulk of the quilts made during this year's charity quilt drive:

1.  Quilts of Compassion
2.  Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo
3.  Caregivers Quilt Initiative
4.  Mercyful Quilts
5.  Quilts for Cure
6.  Little Lambs Foundation

Each organization has their own list of requirements for the quilts they hope to receive.  You will choose based on the quilt size and style that you prefer to make.  Sarah also allows for donations to your own favorite LOCAL charities, if postage will be a problem for you.

Watch for the following updates:

5/17 - Progress Check-In Post
5/31 - Finished Quilt Link-up Post

Sharing with Cynthia

for

Oh, Scrap!

and 

Sarah @
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Until next time...
QUILT for comfort!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC20 - Week 17

Welcome to Week 17 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week, the RSC Quilters are continuing to work through their Light/Bright BLUE scraps.  I'm going to try to USE a few more.

Let's see how that went...

SUNDAY - Early this morning, I released this week's Q.2 challenge POST for the Quarantine Limited Edition.  This afternoon felt like a Bonus Day!!!  How?  It's complicated.  Suffice it to say, I spent the entire afternoon sewing.  Yay!!  REAL progress on my niece's baby quilt - with bits of Light/Bright BLUE:

MONDAY - Mini Monday!!!  Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict had an little quilt show today.  Find out more in THIS POST.

There really IS some Light/Bright BLUE involved in the project.  See?!  This CHICKEN fabric is the back chosen for my small quilt:

I chose it on Sunday.  The day that Corona made me miss a date with Kevin the Quilter.  His visit (along with the Goodnight, Darlene class I was signed up for) was canceled.  :o((

TUESDAY - The Bright BLUE bag in the photo below is absolutely LOADED with scraps, chunks, and yardage from my stash.  I delivered it to my friend for her mask making mission:

WEDNESDAY - DH took a trip back to my MIL's to install her new hot water heater.  You know what THAT means, don't you?!?!

More quilting time... ALL DAY!!!  :o))

The most important thing that happened during that time was burying the thread tails in my friend's quilt before she came over to pick it up.  She stayed in her car and I popped it in the floorboard in the back.  One last look at it's super scrappy beauty (with bits of Light/Bright BLUE for the RSC) before it headed home:

THURSDAY - I shared a few projects at my ZoomBEE meeting this morning, got started on the post our group blog, and assembled the top of my niece's baby quilt this afternoon.  Here is a closer look at the Light/Bright BLUE which is well represented in the adorable rainbow kitty fabric:

Before dinner, I headed over to Needleb's for a brief (masked) socially distant visit.  I had a thread emergency and she had a potential solution in her newly acquired thread stash:

Notice, RSC Quilter friends, I'm wearing a LIGHT blue mask and a BRIGHT blue shirt.  I've got the Color of the Month well represented.  :o))

FRIDAY - This morning's activity was my ZoomKNIT meeting.  I stayed longer than I thought I would, but enjoyed every minute of it!  I was especially thrilled to hear that my friend had posted a photo (on Instagram) of (some of) the fabrics that I delivered and had already made masks from the some of them:

Design Floor Friday???  Yep!  I released a new post this evening. 

The time in between morning and night, I switch back and forth between longarm loading tasks and and working on that baby quilt.  All in all, it was a very good day.

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day over at So Scrappy!  Angela encouraged the Rainbow Scrap Challenge participants to use their Light/Bright BLUE scraps during April.  You are sure to see every tint and shade.  There may even be some finishes this late in the month!  I'm headed over now to find out.

Until next time...
SCRAP healthy!!!