Bona Fide Quilting!

Happy Good Friday greetings to you all!

After a couple of weeks of masks and scrappy quilt sewing, last evening I loaded a baby quilt into the frame and quilted it up!

First, new needle and a bit of lint cleaning - I still need to figure out oiling. But I had no issues, and was done in a flash.

Loaded and basted across the top.

All systems GO!

Finished without incident. Baby quilts are fast.

I say I had no problems while stitching, but there was one stoppage - I ran out of my bobbin thread. I have quilted enough quilts already that I'd emptied my first spool. A milestone!

So today, I will finish the binding then hand this off (at a safe social distance!) to grandma-in-waiting Cheryl, who will deliver it to her son and daughter-in-law. Baby boy is due in just over a month.

Yesterday, I told you about giving all those masks to DDEmma. Well, she posted them on her company's FB page, and here are some of her co-workers modeling a few of them!

Also in that post, I said I was done making masks for awhile. Well, I was wrong. One of my nieces saw the FB post and she asked for masks. As a Vet Tech, she has a need, as well. So back to the sewing machine to make 8 more masks for Lyndsie. They were finished in no time and in the mail by afternoon. She will get them Saturday.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Something Other Than Masks

I have been rather quiet around here lately because all I've been sewing is masks. That only has so much appeal for content, you know what I mean?

This picture was taken a couple of days ago when our temperatures were in the 70s. Just look at that sky! Our magnolia was just beginning to open its blooms.

So I finished the last of the masks yesterday, and we took a drive to a halfway point between here and Columbus where we met Emma and Geoffrey to hand off all the masks - 50 of them! Whew. I am glad to have them done. I may make more, especially if the need continues. For now, though, I am taking a long break.

We have had a beautiful spring here in Ross County, Ohio. I love walking out to the woods to take pictures of wildflowers. It's just so exciting to see the changes that occur from day to day. Since this is really the only other thing I've been photographing, I figured I'd bring you along for a little explore. Let's go!

Spring Beauty

Bloodroot

Purple Trilliums

Bluebells

Trout Lily (aka Dogtooth Violet)

Cutleaf Toothwort

Now for further exciting news from our house - we have a new garden feature! This pergola was installed yesterday, and we are so eager to finish the gardens and landscaping around this space.

It leads from our backyard into what once was a pretty thickly wooded area. However, the trees were mostly ash, and those are all dying (emerald ash borer); DH has been cutting the dead trees and now enough space has been opened up that it can't really be considered wooded any longer. He is trying to establish some gardens in there.

We envision some wisteria or clematis trailing over this structure. Maybe a hanging flower basket or two. I think there will be some bricks installed underneath to create a path.

I hope you are making the most of your "shelter at home" time. We seem to be doing okay here.
Happy Quilting, Friends!

More Mask Making

DD Emma emailed me late last week with a request for masks. She works in a care facility in Columbus, and both her building and others in her corporate group face a shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment).

Get this: the subject line of the email said "In Need Of Fabric" - Emma knows. Believe me, she knows!

Then in the email: "If you have or know others that have fabric that can be donated please bring it to the corporate office." 

She and I both had a good chuckle. I mean, really. She is well aware of how much fabric resides in this house!

I told her I was perfectly capable of making masks for her and her co-workers. No need for shipping it elsewhere.

Guess how I spent my weekend? Yep! A batch of 30 masks! Add these new ones to the 14 I had last week and I'm up to 44. (Sometimes I can do math!)

I was stopped in my production last week  due to a lack of elastic. After issuing a request to my various groups of girlfriends, I am now fully stocked and back in business. One friend, Rhonda, brought me pony tail elastic - 9 packages with 75 in a package - good grief! I will be making masks into the next decade!! That is 675 ties or 337 masks using 2 per mask. (Ack! More math!) However, I am going to have to reconfigure my design, as the ponytail elastic is short. A design upgrade is in the works. I won't be letting these go to waste, that's for sure.

I watched a few video tutorials on making masks. This method was one of the simplest. Cut two pieces of fabric at 9" x 7". Add one piece of interfacing of the same size. The elastic is cut at 7" - two per mask. Attach the ends of the elastic in the corners.

The stack shown here is sewn together and ready to be turned right side out. I have left a 2-3-inch gap in one edge for turning.

These are turned and ready to be pressed. Then I pin three pleats on each side and top stitch all around which closes the opening and hold the pleats in place. Do a final press and it's finished.

I delivered 10 to my neighbor and good friend Dorothy. She is food service director at our local school district and is out in the community delivering meals to students 2 or 3 days each week. Lots of exposure in this endeavor.

A second delivery of 10 went to a young couple - the husband is doing his medical residency and even though they know these are not medical grade masks, they are useful as barriers to airborne droplets. They have a toddler and one on the way, so you can imagine their need for caution.

And all the rest will go to Emma. I will have over 50 to take to her. My assembly line currently  needs more interfacing to be cut, and then I will be back at the sewing machine.

Through all of this I am doing a good bit of scrap removal. I am pulling fabric out of the drawers which would have taken a long, long time for me to ever get around to using. This has been good for me.

And I hope I am doing some good for others.

Stay safe, dear readers!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Doing My Bit

Have you seen all the quilters and seamstresses who have been making masks? Patterns are being shared everywhere for these, and I have made a few to donate to the cause.

This little batch of 14 masks took me no time at all to whip out. The stitching is basic from start to finish. These are lined with interfacing.

I used up my original package of elastic, so I dug around in some old stuff from Grandma's sewing kit. I found some treasures.

The pink elastic has a price tag of ten cents for the 2-yard package. The other package is newer, and it was opened. Three yards for .75 - a bargain rate! It was pretty cool finding these in her sewing supplies.

This close-up of the pink elastic gives you more detail, if it isn't too blurry to see. The company is Cameo out of Massachusetts. I did a brief search, but didn't find anything about it; perhaps it no longer exists.

So this little bit will go to serve the greater good. I was reluctant to climb on board this mask-making bandwagon, as I was skeptical about the level of safety they provide. After speaking with my sister-in-law, a dentist, I decided to move forward with these. Her comment that any barrier is better than no barrier makes sense. These aren't going to be used in surgeries or the like. But if a hospital worker of some sort will be safer, then wonderful. I am not sure where I will take these masks. I have several options.

One nice side benefit of doing this is that I was able to use up scrap fabric that had no usefulness to me any longer. Additionally, I used some sew-in interfacing that never gets used. I am paring down, if only in small increments.

Happy Quilting, Friends!