Color Box Complete

 Another finish for the first quarter, from my finish-a-long list is Color Box. Hard to believe it's finally finally done.

I had to square it up and then bind it.

And adding on a hanging sleeve and label of course.


Here's a clothesline full quilt picture, not an official one yet because I have something on my design wall at the moment.

 And the obligatory bonus Meg picture. Sorry, buddy this one's going on the wall, you don't get to sit on it.

So Purple

 Here's one of the finishes I have for the first quarter of the Finish-A-Long. Made from the Park Bench Pattern Griffith Park skirt. **No longer for sale from the company, that's an etsy link.

I was sewing the hem by folding up and ironing it at the CQFA retreat in January, until friend, Jaye said why aren't you using a hemmer foot? Duh! I had to look up a how-to video, and then I used mine. It did a bang-up job, very easy once I remembered how to work the thing. And now my skirt is done and hanging in my closet ready for a nice day.

Another Day Another Mask

Another try at this mask making thing. 

Thanks to friend Sonja for her advice on trying out this pattern which was designed by a nurse for other nurses. It's mostly a video tutorial along with lots of helpful notes. The pattern itself is very well done with useful and clear markings. 

This one fits much better and the integrated ties really made the mask fit well.  I used the same aluminum pieces as the masks from yesterday. 

By the way, I got the real story on where exactly my DH sourced his aluminum for the nose bridges. It is not 1/4" aluminum flashing, it is a 1/4" strip that my DH cut off of a roll of normal sized roof flashing which is 12" wide. Nice to know where my supplies are really coming from.

My DH really likes this one the best and has claimed it as his own, so I'm off to make a few more of these babies. Nieces have asked for black & white or blue/green, BIL wants pink, and my SIL said anything is fine as long as it has elastic loops because she has a broken shoulder and can't tie the straps behind her head herself.

Things we really like about this mask:

1. The pleating which will accommodate all sorts of face shapes and feels roomy when you're wearing it. (It can actually be worn over an N95 mask.)
2. The clever nose dart that helps the nose-bridge piece work so well to hold the mask to your face and come closer to making an actual seal.
3. The under-chin folds which help shape the mask around the jaw.
4. A pocket for an added filter if you want.
5. The ties are really sturdy and make the mask fit very well.

It's a little fussier of a pattern compared to the one from yesterday's post, but I think it's overall a better mask. This is the one  I'll be making from here on out.

Masks On

I've been sitting out all the face mask making drives so far. There was so much confusing information and so many medical professionals pooh-poohing home-sewn masks as being at all helpful. There are a lot of different types of patterns out there, and so many requests for one or another for different applications. Before I put in the time and effort, I wanted to make sure that the masks I made would actually be used.

From what I've gathered, having something on the bridge of the nose that will conform to the shape is most helpful. And elastic loops over the ears are easy to make but wear out quickly when the masks get frequently washed, so cloth ties are better as well as being more adjustable.

So now that the guidelines have been changed to recommend everyone wear a mask when going out, I'm going to practice and make some for our own use. My sister-in-law has asked for some. I think I'll also make some for my mom and dad as well.

According to the latest information, two layers of quilter's cotton, especially those very tightly woven batiks works the best to filter particles as small as the virus.

After our experience living in China, we got used to seeing a lot of people regularly wearing masks. Their society's experience with SARS and MERS made it essential for it to become the every day custom. So now when we go out here for our once weekly trip to the grocery store, it is good thing to finally see some people wearing masks.

* Wearing a mask tells other people that you are taking this whole Covid-19 thing seriously.

* You are wearing one not to keep yourself healthy but instead to keep others healthy.

* It also might help protect you, but it isn't a guarantee. At the very least it will help you remember not to touch your face.

Remember the whole thing with this particular virus is that if you have caught it, you may have no symptoms at all for up to two weeks! But during those two weeks, every time you are out and about, any cough, laugh or even talking can result in teeny droplets of saliva in which the virus is riding along going out into other people's noses, mouths or eyes. Then they have it, and you have no idea at all that you've been spreading it to others.

So wear a mask if you have to go out, keep other people safe from you, just in case.

Of course the key is to still stay home, ie, don't go out more often now, just because you have a mask.
There are no guarantees with this thing, it's an invisible enemy that we're all up against, and the more our fellow humans stay home or stay away away from each other, the faster we can go back to "normal".

Okay, so onto the mask making!

My super helpful husband made me the metal bits for the bridge of the nose shaper out of 1/4" aluminum flashing that we happened to have around  (?!?!? don't ask me I just live here).
We discussed how to not have the ends be sharp which would cut through fabric, thread or people's faces. At first we were going to go with duct tape, but I thought it might get messed up when getting washed over and over. He figured out how to round off the edges with some cutting and sanding. These feel just like the store-bought surgical mask nose bridges when they're sewn in, very flexible but still sturdy. Really makes the mask fit well.

Here's the first mask I tried making. Very easy directions and the pattern is well done. If you want a video tutorial, this is the one that goes with this pattern.

I thought it worked out pretty well, the curve in the center works well for the three nose/chin combinations in our household. I found that the elastic over the ears was irritating to my skin, but that might be just me and my sensitive skin.  I also think the length the pattern suggested for the elastic wasn't quite long enough.

So I tried making another one, this time with ties instead, and it was much more comfortable for me. Not as easy to put on, but not that much harder if you can tie a bow.

I liked the adjustable-ness of the ties instead of the fixed length elastic.

Also, this pattern has a bonus in that there is an opening to slip a filter inside, like a piece of vacuum cleaner bag, or a coffee filter for extra protection.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try out another pattern that is is a pleated rectangle instead of a curved center seam.

My Home Office

When it's not raining, I'm lucky enough to be able to say that this is my home office:

1. Comfy cushions - ✅
2. Charged up laptop (that is gets a better wifi connection outside than in for some reason?)✅
3. Cut up Cara Cara Orange- ✅
4. Nail Polish because I need some color on my toenails -✅
5. A beautiful day ✅✅✅✅✅✅

Will I get anything done? Well...that's a topic for another blog post I suppose.

No Wandering Allowed Wednesday

Sigh. Feeling like the skeleton of this once productive and useful leaf.

So no wandering about for a while now. We've been pretty locked down in the house since the second week of March. And it's looking like we'll maybe be allowed out and about by the end of May...maybe? But, hey the lilacs are blooming like crazy:

Getting pretty bored in a house full of stuff to do, along with two of the people I love most in the world here with me safe (and also quite bored). Lucky lucky lucky we are. Oh the privilege to be bored, right? The orchids keep on blooming, because that's what they do, even in a pandemic.

So back to blogging, why not?
 Forget-me-not?:

More Slow Stitching

Slowly but surely I'm filling up this panel with stitches for the 25,000,000 Stitches exhibit. It's taking a while, but I'm very slow at hand-stitching. Let's call it Unintentional Slow Stitching.

I've been listening to an audiobook version of the new Stephen King book, The Institute which is very entertaining. And it's on CD's! So old-school that I had to dig out my boom box to be able to listen to it.

2020 Finish a Long Quarter One List

 The Finish a Long is now completely Instagram based, but I'm posting my list for quarter one here also, mostly for myself. I kept all the unfinished projects from last year, because they're out in my workspace and I want/need to get them done.

1. City Sampler - All 100 blocks are done, I have the background fabric ready to go. What's been stopping me is that they all need to be squared up. I just have to get in the mood to cut and maybe re-do some of them. 

2. Living Room cushions- the fabric is collected, the zippers and threads and pillow forms are all there.

 3. Color Box - This ones fairly big and needs to be squared up, the binding is made and needs to be sewn on. Then a hanging sleeve and label.

4. May You Ever Return -  The top is half sewn, half pinned, then quilting, binding or facing, sleeve and label.

 5. Stripes -  I have a plan, the "blocks" are mostly done and I have a plan for the setting. It's small enough for me to quilt and then binding, sleeve and label.

6. Celestial Round Robin - the top and the back are ready, the batting is pieced, it needs to be basted. I'm planning to quilt this one myself since it's small enough for me to manage. Then a binding and a label.

 7. Kaffe Blue Squares - The top and backing are done, the binding is almost ready. I just have to get it to a long-armer and then get the binding sewn down and a label added.

8. Griffith Park Skirt - needs to be hemmed and the waistband needs to be done. Just in time for spring a swirly purple skirt.

Getting the Words Down on the Surface

I really wanted to make a quilt to enter in the Century of Women's Progress exhibit, but I couldn't decide on one woman to focus on, so I went wide with the subject...very very wide.

I started out by making a rough sketch on my iPad in SketchesPro.

And since I had my new toy out and all ready to go I decided to try and use it to get words on the quilt surface that I wanted. I loaded up the Cricut with a sheet of Lutradur. 

I used Lutradur instead of fusible backed fabric because I was initially thinking of painting the letters.

 The Lutradur cut very well on the machine and mostly came off the mat easily. There was one font that I chose that made some of the letter sections too small and the Lutradur separated into layers.

Here's all the words before I peeled them off. How do you like all those fonts? The Cricut software has quite a lot to choose from which was a nice thing to discover.

My quilt subject is all about the roles that women can have and how they've changed since we got the vote in this country. 

I used Fabri-Tac glue to stick the letters to tulle netting which worked really well.

 I really loved the shadow in this picture so I enhanced it to post on Instagram. And isn't this font killer?

Here's how one of the words looks on the finished quilt. Once I find out whether the quilt is accepted I'll post more about it (sometime next week).

A New Tool

Hey, so now I have a Cricut Maker, it was a total surprise gift from my DH this Christmas. I know I know you're supposed to say "cricket" but I have a thing about purposely misspelled words so I say "Cry-Cut".  The thing came with a ton of accessories and tools and materials which have been so fun to play with.

 The first project they have you use to figure out the machine and software is this cute card. I guess I didn't take a picture of it with the kite shape replaced with a fabric piece. It's all cut and drawn on the machine. Super easy to use, and I like how well the software works with my iPad.

Here's what the leftovers look like on the sort of sticky mat you use with the machine. It anchors the materials down so that the precise cutting can happen. I have to use a little spatula thingie to scrape them off. It's a whole new thing. I need more paper now....I wonder if that fabric paper I made would work, hmmm.
I've cut some fabric with the teeny tiny rotary cutter already and it works very very well, more on that later.

Wandering Wednesday: Santa Clara

 Last weekend we got to go see one of my nieces competing in a gymnastics tournament. It was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center and I was marveling at how different the room looks filled with young gymnasts and equipment instead of quilts and quilters.

 The light in the parking garage was really striking.

 Maybe these would work for my shadow series.

 I think I like this one best because of the strip of light at the bottom.

 Or maybe this one.

 There are a lot of palm trees in Santa Clara for some reason, not sure why, the really tall ones look like phone polls to me. But the bark of the trees is always so striking. This would make an awesome texture stamp...makes note in file of ideas.

The blossom way up there is pretty though, but it's a second story kind of thing.

Wide Back

I haven't used 108" wide backing fabric before, but I'm going to give it a go on the next two big quilts that I make. The main reason for using this is for convenience and speed, piecing the back for a large quilt takes me quite a long time. I suppose that it'll also make it a bit smoother on the back of the quilt, because it won't have all those seam lines from piecing the back?

MassDrop switched away from carrying quilting stuff and they had these for a good price in their warehouse. I bought two and one of them is a much lighter grey than the other. The fabric feels like its good quality. Studio E has a whole line of 108"wide fabric.

The Simplest Runner

 I forgot to post about this last month. I made the world's simplest table runner by hemming up this holiday striped toweling. I guessed at how much I needed in the store, so I ended up with a napkin-sized piece.

Our tabletop conglomeration of holiday cuties. Yes, they are still out. Our tree got put up a little late this year, and it has to stay up at least one month, those are the rules.