Quarantine Chronicles - Corona Style - Week 2

Welcome to another edition of Quarantine Chronicles!!  This is my response to our current global health crisis.  Life is scarier than (science) fiction!  I keep hoping that this is a bad dream and I'll wake up soon.  Alas, it's the blog series that I really, really wish didn't exist.  Knowing that I couldn't cope with a daily post...

Corona-cation.  Week Two.

This series began on as Thursday, March 19th.  It's hard to believe that another week has gone by.  Still another is hot on its heels!  Stay with me and I will reveal how this week unfolded.

On Day EIGHT, Thursday, March 26th...

I was busy starting this week's post and was late for the ZoomBEE  meeting of my Weekly Quilt Group!!!  :o((

It was SEW great to see these smiling faces:

Reading the news is no longer a priority.  The pandemic has made it too much for me to deal with first thing in the morning.  I simply can't stomach the thought of additional cases of corona virus being reported each day.  :o((  

Confirmed cases of COVID -19 in the US has grown 10,000/day for the last 3 days.  The majority of those who have died are elderly and/or had pre-existing conditions.

Stitched up the next set of blocks for my niece's wedding quilt:

Moved forward with pressing this week's quilting project, but that's not an exciting photo.  Look what DH (without them being on the list!) brought home from the grocery store:

It appears that we got a defective box.  Only five doughnuts!

The BEST part of the grocery run...

He scored a loaf of our regular bread for the first time in 2 weeks:

A portion of the afternoon was spent sorting through my supply of fusible interfacing.  This stack will be donated to my Quilt Bee for their homemade face mask production which has been requested by nurses at our local hospital and other medical facilities:

This  evening, I spent some time taking care of paperwork and getting ready for the new Spring 2020 UFO Club on Ravelry.  Let me know if YOU would like to join our group (and please make sure you aren't a No Reply blogger because I can't contact you, if your email address isn't attached to your comment!!)

All in all, it was a good day!

Day NINE, Friday, March 27th...

Spent some time working on the blog post for yesterday's ZoomBEE meeting.  The pictures are up, but it still needs words.

Prepared batting...

... And loaded my "Ella" Quilt:

Today's headlines were quite disturbing:

US has surpassed China in number of cases of corona virus.
There are now 100,000 known cases and more than 1000 deaths across the nation, with half of those being in NY, which has had more than 500 deaths.

NC has jumped by another 100 for the fourth consecutive day.
The state now has more than 800 known cases and reported its 4th coronavirus-related death.
North Carolina's governor has issued a statewide stay-at-home order, which goes into effect Monday at 5 PM.  In advance of the state's pending order, our county's stay-at-home order went into effect at 6 PM this evening.

Day TEN, Saturday, March 28th...

After checking in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I went up to sew the next batch of Magic Stars.  Here are the completed blocks:

Another task was checked off my list when I chose thread for quilting the project on the frame.  Next up, winding bobbins!

Day ELEVEN, Sunday, March 29th...

Last night I got a message from my friend Lisa.  Her daughter's boyfriend's mother is in the hospital in New Jersey.

And so it begins to creep into the realm of knowing someone who knows someone...

Diagnosis?  COVID -19

Currently, she is in the ICU not on a ventilator, but has been placed on pressurized oxygen.  My heart goes out to the family.

With that advent, it feel wrong to go on this my regular reporting.  Alas, time and life (not necessarily as we knew it) marches on...

This afternoon, I wound (more than enough) bobbins:

Then made a good start on the quilting of my Mercyful Quilt:

That was AFTER...

... I met up with Candy to drop off my contribution for our Weekly Quilt Group's homemade face mask brigade:

Lest you think there are Joyful-sewn face masks in the envelope, I will assure you that would be incorrect!  My contribution was donating a supply of fusible interfacing for the next batch of masks.

I also took a side trip to Dee Dee's to pick up the pattern for my next charity quilt.  She kindly offered a copy of Sarah's pattern from the Donation Bee:

It was SEW good to see a couple of my quilting buddies live and in-person!!  Please notice that we practiced our social distancing during each of the visits.  We remained 6 ft. away from one another (except for during the hand-off of items.)

News to note:  This evening, it was reported that GRAMMY winning country music legend Joe Diffie passed away today from complications of coronavirus (COVID -19.)  He had more than 20 Top 10 hits and had released 13 albums during his career.

Day TWELVE, Monday, March 30th...

Today is the beginning of UNITY: The Quiltville Sew-in-Place QAL and I am toying with the idea of participating.  You see, most of the required fabrics are already on the sewing table...

... IF you consider PINK a substitute for RED and LIGHT BLUE a substitute for AQUA.  I'm not quite sure what happened to all of the red scraps that were previously in that line-up!

Here I go kicking Kevin to the curb, again!  Sorry, but if my Sapphire Stars haven't shown by now, I'm thinking I just MIGHT need to come up with another plan.  (Please don't be upset with me, KTQ!!)

In the news today, the FDA has given emergency authorization of anti-malarial drugs in the treatment of COVID-19, as it has been found to be helpful (without the assistance of standard clinical trials) to some patients in other countries.  If it curbs the death rate, I'm all for it!  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

As my morning rolled along, I finally got around to checking my email.  I had missed Kim's notice that there would be a Project QUILTING Quarantine 2020 Limited Edition.  The first prompt Q1 was released yesterday.  You better BET that I'm going to participate!!  Those other QALs will have to wait, as my creative muse has ALREADY sparked an idea for my quilt.  :o))

This afternoon, I finished the quilting on my current donation quilt.  I even managed to "square it up" after dinner.  There may actually be a finish in my near future:

DH called his mother to discuss an unrelated issue and the conversation turned to the global pandemic.

And so it begins to creep into the realm of...  OMG!!!

Mom asked if he had heard from his brother.

The reason...  Our nephew has been diagnosed with coronavirus.  Thankfully, he is currently recuperating at home, with no need for hospitalization.

The daily US death toll exceeded 500 for the first time today.  This was up from the previous high of 446 on Saturday.  On Sunday, the President said that federal guidance urging social distancing will remain in place through April 30th.

Day THIRTEEN, Tuesday, March 31st...

Today's COVID-19 report is that the death toll in the U.S. has surpassed 3,000.  That is more than the number of people who died in the initial Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

On the quilting front, I cut and prepared binding for my latest donation quilt...

... And assembled the rows of my Magic Stars quilt:

Throughout the day, I was busy collection photos from members of my Evening Quilt Bee.  We're going virtual!!!  :o))

Day FOURTEEN, Wednesday, April 1st...

Our county is currently reporting 37 cases of COVID-19.  The World Health Organization is predicting that global infection will eclipse 1 million cases and 50,000 deaths within a few days.  We knew almost nothing about this virus three months ago and now it reached almost every country, territory, and area on the planet.  As of this afternoon, the coronavirus has infected more than 885,000 and has killed at least 44,000 people around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The big push for yesterday sewing efforts was finishing the donation quilt for Mercyful Quilts.  I finished it just before dinner.  Gathered the quilt (along with my quilt holder) and got photos of the completed and bound project as the raindrops began falling from the sky:

Most of today has been spent on the computer.  I have several events colliding and each of them require their own blog post.  However, I did trace out my quilt plan for the PQQ2020 BIG Challenge.  It's due this coming Sunday.  I better get busy!

I finished out the week with an hour-long phone call from DS1.  We haven't seen each other in a week and he had much to say over working from home. From what I gather, he is NOT a fan!

SEW...

There you have it.  Contrary to popular belief, I survived another week without appointments, shopping, or other galivanting.  I know some of my readers wonder if I'm pulling my hair out by now (Deb @ Happy to be Scrappy, I'm looking at you.)  Honestly, I'm still finding self-isolation to be a boon to my quilting progress.  The alarm clock's buzz missing from my mornings hasn't been missed AT ALL!

Instead of worrying about the threat from COVID-19, I'm trying to keep busy being thankful for the productivity these extra hours in the studio have allowed.  I am ROCKING self-isolation!

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