These Corona Days

We're engaging with grandchildren whenever possible, and recently it was my turn to cook with Tay. He wanted to make Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, but after discussing it with him, we agreed it would be easier to bake the dough as bars, in a jelly roll pan. He's serious about learning to cook, and has expressed that it's a lot of work! Following our successful baking effort, he made guacamole that was a hit with his family too. We followed the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook recipe for that one. This afternoon Tay and I are making Apple Spice Cake 

Quilt-y Activities

Early in the new year, anticipating a year's worth of monthly opportunities to attend Sew-Ins with modern quilty-friends, I prepped pieces to make "Village," a pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilts. Moda Fabrics made the "Village" pattern available for free when self-isolation began.

Expecting that I wouldn't be with quilty friends any time soon, I went ahead and pieced the 132 houses I'd planned for my quilt. I'm not exactly following the pattern that calls for borders; no borders for me. 

I added a row of houses, so the top is 78" long. However, this is only 55" wide, so I'll be adding spacers between some of the houses - present-day social distancing - to make the quilt wider. 

Needing my design wall for something else, I took all the houses down, pinning each column, marked with an alphabet letter, to maintain the layout. This is my favorite piecing system called "the web." It's a method that follows the layout of an Excel spreadsheet, and is a technique I teach in my beginner quiltmaking classes. See my blog tutorial here. 

I feel comfortable knowing that the blocks will remain in the arrangement I had on the design wall, and are ready for piecing into a quilt top whenever the urge strikes. 

Are your making urges all over the map right now? Are you feeling as distracted as I am?

It seems I cannot focus for long on one project. Well, I couldn't do that before Coronavirus either, but it's worse now. And I'm more frequently making mistakes! I swear that everything I touch has to be redone - the Kit Supply Tote because of the wrong type of zipper; house blocks with scant quarter-inch seam allowances; labels not sewn-in straight and needing resewing... Please tell me I'm not alone in having that "mistakes issue" either! 

The time has been right to dig into the latest box of vintage fabrics that were found last September at our grandparent's empty farmhouse. My sister saved this boxful for me, and I received it in November. Fabrics are more of the same era of fabrics as found in June... and blogged about here.

Thanks to guidance from Monica @buttoncounter, a friend in Austin, Texas, I know what to do first. That's handwash fabric with the powdered Oxi Clean Versatile, Odor and Stain Remover.  As before, after soaking fabrics the water looked like coffee. I rinsed and soaked them two more times.

Then, hung them out to dry. The fabric pieces dry as stiff as board. At first I thought that was because I'd left soap in the fabric, but I realized it's just the nature of these old fibers. 

All these pieces, and more, have been washed, pressed, and cut into usable pieces for special projects. 

The 67" X 88" vintage quilt top I kept, to finish into a quilt for our granddaughter is done being quilted! I'm thrilled about that, and the binding is ready to go. 

I spent dozens of hours in my aqua chair under my Slimline floor lamp, stitching these small, practically invisible X's across the quilt. With the wool batt, the texture is just what I hoped it would be. Can't wait to call this quilt done!

This is my next small handwork project. Fabric on the right was given to me by a friend. I'm using size 8 DMC pearl cotton to randomly stitch across a piece of linen. The two pieces will join to make one side of a pencil pouch. I'll repeat the design for the opposite side.

The free Noodlehead pencil pouch pattern is here.

I'm continuing to keep up with the Boulder MQG's improv challenge. On Instagram, it's #bouldermqgathome A different improv prompt is given each Sunday. I shared the first two weeks here.

Week 3: the April 5 prompt was log cabins. Ugh. I don't like - never have - log cabin blocks, so it felt good to cut up a few of them.

Week 4: the April 12 prompt was squares.

I couldn't resist seeing what they all look like together. 

I'm still using only scrap bin pieces, and cutting only with scissors. Even the trimmed-down edges of these approximately 9-1/2" X 9-1/2" squares are scissor-cut. At times it's a little frustrating to work this way, but it's a good exercise. 

Non-Quilt-y Activities

Speaking of exercise... are you getting out for yours? Or staying inside to do it? I am keeping up regularly with outdoor and indoor exercise. One day it's power-walking three to four miles (at about a 16 minute per mile pace), and another day it's using weights and following a 45-50 minute Leslie Sansone video like this one on YouTube or DailyMotion. I love a good, sweaty workout that makes me feel like I've earned every bit of my she-cave time. 💪 

Daily I'm spending time memorizing Psalm 91 and am up to verse 11. Are you memorizing it? Here's the link to the Living Proof Ministries print-out that looks nice hanging on a wall. 

Did you watch any of the BluPrint online classes during their free viewing days? After viewing Jacqui Gering walking foot classes, I watched Rigid Heddle Loom Weaving with Deborah Jarchow. I thought it would satisfy my curiosity about weaving, but instead it gave me an avid interest in doing it! I've been Googling where to buy a loom and started following #rigidheddleloom on Instagram. Oh dear! 😧 I don't have space or time for another hobby! And what in the world would I do with scarves or wraps?! Stop me!

Oh, and in between times, I'm trying to learn WordPress. My thinking is to move our Central Florida MQG blog (I'm responsible for it) from Blogger to WordPress. Then, when I felt comfortable with the platform, I'll move my blog from Blogger to WordPress too. For a long time I've thought that Blogger (owned by Google) isn't being support by Google, as I've experienced several unresolved problems with Blogger. The worst is being unable to write comments from my MacBook computer to a Blogger blog. Many of us are experiencing that unresolved problem. Blogger has even locked questions and discussions about it!

I'm concerned that one day Blogger will be so inoperable that those of us using Blogger will be forced to move to WordPress. So, I'm trying to be proactive. But am finding it very challenging to learn WordPress which isn't intuitive to me. 

A few Netflix programs have caught my attention: the series Virgin River; and the movie Faith, Hope, and Love. I'm still listening to books too. Recently that was A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. I've read a couple of her books in the past - I liked Zorro - so I know she's Chilean and her books are translated into English. 

It was difficult to engage in this book because it's about an unfamiliar (to me) war - the 1930's civil war in Spain; the flight of refugees from Spain to France, and France to Chile; and subsequent civil war and oppression in Chile. Certainly, exposure to the history in these countries was educational for me.

The story follows army doctor Victor Dalmau who helps his brother's pregnant friend to flee from war-torn Spain into France where they're each detained in a camp. They later board the SS Winnipeg with 2200 emigrants sailing to Chile to begin a new life. Politics, military coups, and unrest follow the couple throughout the story. No doubt the historical perspective is factual - good information for readers who like that sort of thing.  

Linda's score: 3.0/5.0

The three counties in our area are seeing a good slow in new cases of COVID-19, causing our counties to drop lower on the list of Florida counties with cases. We're speculating that it's because seniors are following stay-at-home orders. Counties with younger adults may not be as diligent about that. In any case, we're anticipating more stay-at-home weeks. I continue to be grateful that I have a stay-at-home hobby that keeps me engaged.  Linda