Goodbye March

What a strange month this has been. And from the looks of things, the strangeness will be continuing into April.

I always create a 9-picture collage of highlights as I close out each month. I knew I wanted that image of the coronavirus in the center of this month's collage. So I found the picture above in an internet search, and proceeded with my collage.

I thought about just stopping here. Ha! It seems as though everyone, everything is consumed by this little germ, so that is THE highlight of the month, right?

But we had life before "shelter in place" and life continues now while we "shelter in place." This, then is my actual March 2020 collage.

I left "the germ" in the center of my collage, as it divided the month pretty much in half - prior to halting everything, and "lockdown" mode.

Before corona (BC?), we were training for the Columbus Cap City Half Marathon - well, my husband was. I was training for the 5K walk/run. We had some great spring days out on the bike trail.  The Cap City has been postponed until late August, so training has been slowed. Our grand-cat Rocky came to stay for a week while daughter and son-in-law were at Disney. I did some fabric shopping in Columbus with dear friends Dee and Sharon, and the Frienzies had a wonderful dinner get-together at Hettie's.

Then, Covid-19. Oh, my, did things change.

My one-week spring break was stretched to a two-week spring break. Then we were given the news that the entire remainder of the semester would be done through remote means: no more face-to-face classes! I endured a week or so in panic mode (as did many students, I'm sure), but have finally arrived at a comfortable alternate.

My collage shows a picture of my longarm room, which I finally decorated. (I did not quilt the 4 quilts draped over the bar, however. Bummer.) The bottom row shows the only true finish of the month, my Peachy Surprise, made simply because I found a stack of random 4-patch blocks. The Ohio Star illustrates a tutorial I put together for a reader, and the final picture is of some protective masks I made to donate to local facilities.

I am not beating myself up too harshly for failing to quilt those quilts. Covid-19 forced me to spend way more time on schoolwork than I normally would have. I fully expect that I will far surpass my 2-quilt goal in the coming months, so it will all even out.

I also have worked pretty exclusively on sew-along projects which don't lend themselves to finishes. I am thinking that I will start something in April that will also be finished in April.

Yeah, I need some finishes.

One nice thing about all this staying home - DH and I commented the other evening that it hasn't been so bad. We are lucky in that we don't need much; we aren't lacking for activities; we have our hobbies and phones and internet and television and books. We are doing okay.

I hope you are, too.

Happy Quilting, Friends!