Quarantine sewing
It’s kind of hard to have a compelling blog post during a quarantine. It’s not like I went to a fabulous quilt show this week or had a super fun gig at a fabulous location. But I have been productive in a very different way this week. I find it very hard to sit still and hang out. I have so many things I want to work on – this is my chance! Here we go:
I did have a finish this week, kinda sorta:
I am going to let this marinate for a bit, thinking I want to add a tiny 1/8″ darker gray ribbon right along the binding to crisp up that edge. I had a circuitous path to get to this point.
This accidentally became my piece to experiment upon. There were several smudged areas, plus I did not like that blue stitching for the inner border. It was going to be a bear to rip that out anyway. I experimented with various thread colors here as well as whether to have under-stitching or not. To the right is the border without the underlying piano key stitching, definitely did not like that. I did like the black stitching. I stitched the piano keys in a metallic and that was over-the-top. I kind of liked the variegated stitching on the left but not the variegated metallic on the top and left. But none of it was quite right.
This is the “new” piece with a better center. I tried out two options and decided I liked the black best. Still not sure though…
I then decided I did not like the starkness of the inner border so I added some hand stitching, which I liked:
This will probably be my donation to the SAQA Auction fundraiser in the fall. But then again, a better option may emerge.
Hubby’s cousin (nurse) put out the call for face masks. They had a shortage of n95’s and requested DIY fabric masks to extend the life of their medical grade masks. He specifically called for ties, not elastic, as they would need to be sterilized many times and the elastic would not handle that well.
I sent off 14 in total:
The whole time I kept on thinking how much nicer it would have been to sew them with a group, sigh.
I had to chuckle – good thing I have a mature supply of notions to make the job easier:
This mask was considerably more involved than the 3-pleat one and I needed every one of those tools!
As of this writing, I am on the fence about making more. The jury is still out…. My son works the ER at Stanford Medical in the Bay Area. These people are on the front lines of this war and I am so grateful. And who knew, the grocery store workers are also on the front lines.
Here in California we have been shelter-in-place for over a week. The day before SIP went into effect I went to the mall for one specific thing and this is what I saw:
It was sooooo eerie. There were no cars in the lot, no one in the mall.
So like many of you, my life changed overnight. This is how we party now:
Kids in my neighborhood have been busy with chalk:
And Mother Nature has no idea this is happening:
I decided, this is the time to play with all the things I’ve been wanting to try! First up, free motion couching:
This is a play piece. I have a very limited amount of yarn in my stash – inexplicably I gave away my huge stash of yarn during the remodel, forehead slap! I had a blast playing with this pre-printed panel and couching. I really want to do a jean jacket next. I played a little more:
I was going to couch the phrase “This too shall pass” but I really only needed to do the first word to get the gist of this. Yup, like it. It needs refinement but this is my first try.
I figured out how to make the needle catch those curves, that was fun. I didn’t bother to change to clear thread here; I would in a real piece.
Next up, playing with my Brother Scan ‘n Cut! Um, no photos. I couldn’t even get the mat to load…#feelingstupid
Onward. I have a whole list of stuff I want to try. It looks like I’ll have a month to play. I do have a for-real project I’m dying to start:
I want to whole cloth this vintage table cloth into a quilt. I love that graphic design! I am a little disappointed in how much time I have had to play. This week I checked in with all of my friends and family and that takes a lot of time, time well spent! I have been cooking more and shopping takes exponentially more time as I need to go to several places to get all that’s on my list. We have been eating very well!
The things I miss: my sons, church, the health club, friends, my guild, my gigs, my students. This is a bit of a death for all of us. It really is the death of a way of life. But it’s also the birth of a new life. Onward.
“. . . mature supply of notions.” Made me laugh!
Yeah, but I’ll bet you knew what I meant, giggle!
Your experiments look great, Jenni. Can’t wait to see what you do with the vintage tablecloth. Yes, the social isolation is difficult, but what I’m reading about some of the COVID-19 cases is frightening. Staying at home seems like a far better alternative.
Oh yes, staying at home! I am flummoxed at the moment as to h ow to quilt my tablecloth, but it will come. Be well!
Agreed. I’m have some vintage table cloths just waiting for the creative spirit !
Please show me! I’d love to see what you’ve got and what you do with it.
On the top quilt: I love the quilting around the tree! So different from anything I’d have come up with and such a wonderful sense of breeze blowing by. As to the frame/border. The dark thread curlycues give me the feeling of an old painting in a very ornate frame. The light thread makes it more modern. So it depends which you are going for.
Like you, my days are well filled. Like you, there are things canceled that I miss .
Thank you Claire! I appreciate your detailed comments, it’s always good to know how others perceive your work.
Very interesting and exciting work!
Glad you enjoyed it Carol!
Jenni, can you show me how you made the masks?
Oh I am so sorry. I lost that link and it had a weird title. I won’t make ones like those again anyway – each one took 25 min and I don’t think it’s any better than the 3 pleat ones that take like 10 – 15 min each. There are so many links for masks now, I can’t even tell you the best one. Sorry Arleen!
There is a facebook group just for masks out of Eureka, CA they have many references.
Thank you Robin. There is no shortage of sites with references! I have the tutorial for the kind I’m making and have a place with needs for them. BUt all that could change in an instant.
Can you tell us how you made the center of your quilt? It is simple, clean and very striking.
I did the echo quilting thing first, then laid down the black stitching, all free motion quilting. I painted in the black areas with textile medium (forget which one) and let dry, then colored with Inktense pencils. I then painted over that with water to activate the Inktense, quilted border. I hope that makes sense Phyllis!
I feel like I’m on vacation, have been stay at home for 2 weeks now and only ran out to get sewers aid or I couldn’t quilt my NYB. When this is finished it’s going to be play time for me too. Unless I start an online course, so much fun stuff to do with this timeout from regular life commitments. Be well and Quilt On
Yes, this really is an opportunity for some of us who aren’t loaded up with other obligations like young children, etc. I hope you totally take advantage of this time!
I have been busy making masks for my daughter who works in a mental health hospital. They are very short of supplies, but not patients. The masks used over the other masks help them be able to use the masks longer. I have been using my batik scraps and use two different fabrics for each mask so they can tell which side they have on the outside if they take them off. The masks are colorful and hopefully help the workers feel a bit better in all of this time of worry.
A friend sent me this – “If a microscopic virus can do this much damage, imagine what mustard seed sized faith can do.”
I did sew a bunch and sent them off, having a breather at the moment. I love that quote, so true.
Very nice finished product!
Thank you!