Random Acts of Mail Delivery Kindness!

This arrived yesterday, with no return address.

When I picked up the box, along with all of the other routine package deliveries I knew I didn’t order this -

No return address other than the company that shipped it.  Little note on the enclosed invoice, but no name as to who sent it – in fact, I think they ran out of the alloted number of letters they could use because the message was cut off. 

Maybe there was a name – but it got cut off too by the limited number of characters?

This beautiful color – and the words on the front.  it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Thank you so much for thinking of me and sending me this bit of cheer right when I needed it.  All of these words are reminders of things that keep us putting one foot in front of the other, day by day by day.

These are the things that will see us through.

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Unity Quilt Along, Part 2!

How much fun is this!

When you look at this round do you see stars?

It’s a BIG WEEK as we will be adding this next installment as 3-rounds-around.

Let me explain – It originally WAS going to be 20 6'' star blocks around our Unity center, but that really made some bulky business as the square-in-a-square units were interrupted by seams that ran through every-other blue square, and then those seams created bulk and points were harder to match and….

Whose big idea was it to run an impromptu sort of mystery sew-along on the fly without it being tried and tested first?

Yep. That would be me!  And I am learning things as I go too, so it’s all good.

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Scraps are a Thing of Beauty!

Red, Glorious Red!

Back in January over my birthday week, the quilters of Ashe County came to Quiltville Inn for a Sew Day.

This was just after I had scrounged for red scraps during some very snowy weather to finish up a holiday table runner.  (Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is much pattern writing to be done in due time!)

As I work to get this next round on our Unity Quilt Along, I have dug into this treasure trove of pieces, thanking each quilter within my heart for the gift of friendship and fabric.  Little did we know how much this red bag would be needed, and how quickly it would find its way into a quilt.

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Quilt Tools to the Rescue!

You never know when your quilting tools are going to come in handy for other things!

This is one of my favorites.  I keep one by the sewing machine.  I keep one here by my comfy hand stitching chair.

It’s a 4-in-one goodie from Alex Anderson (Some still in the Quiltville Store, need to order more) and It is one tool that does not get lost in my sewing area.

With the wooden caps on the ends – I can use the angled wood end for finger pressing, the pointed wood end (seen by my pliers in the background on the table) to poke out corners when turning things right side out (as in all of this mask making type activity) and the seam ripper itself needs no explanation.

I’m not one who usually sews with a stiletto – but you know where it came in handy this morning?

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Your Efforts MATTER!

Thanks from the nurses & health care workers in Winston Salem, NC!

Our plea for help a week ago was answered by so many of our local NC quilters and beyond!

I received these photos from Martha yesterday (Her sister is a nurse in the ER at Forsythe Medical Center in Winston Salem) and holding back tears I was told that they had received enough home made masks for every member of staff to have one as supplies run out.

You have done phenomenal work, and I know many of you are reeling and feeling mask burn out.

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Securely Venturing -

Some things are necessary.

Someone had surgery yesterday. We were considering putting it off, but it needed to be done within 30 days of adoption, and at a year old we really didn't want her going into heat. So many folks HAD already rescheduled with the vet that their calendar down the line is already a mess many months out.

She had to be spayed within the same county we adopted her from as the county vets and the county shelter work together. which meant an hour drive off mountain to Wilkesboro, NC.

Nails also trimmed, shots updated, and chipped. Zoey Jo is now officially official.

It was very weird being off mountain. The hospital is under protocol to retrieve your pet from your car, all transactions and paperwork are either done ahead of time by sign, scan and email or over the phone for info and payment.

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The Mess of Creativity -

Some days there isn’t a lot to share!

By the time I got back to the house from filling book/ruler orders at the QPO it was 4pm, with just a couple of hours before dinner to deal with what was in the above photo.

My plan?  To cut pieces to sew into units in that 2 hour span – making daily progress on our next round for the Unity Quilt Along.

Well, remember that thing called PUPPY!?

And while we were in a break between bouts of rain, we rain Zoey out hoping that she would settle into the evening hours.

Only, by 9:00 p.m. she was still so wound up we had to do it again.  In the dark.  With an umbrella. 

SO. MUCH. PUPPY!

And she has seriously been the best thing one could acquire when pandemicking from home.  Never a dull moment.

Zoey, come!  Zoey, Stay.  ZOEY!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!

It’s like having a toddler.

Some piles are here to the side of my cutting table.

I’m going to need to spend some time reorganizing because this quilt has turned into a frenzy of HURRY SEWING.  And we all know what happens with hurry sewing.

Mis-cuts, wrong fabrics, loads of seam ripping. And where is that rotary cutter?  There have to be at least THREE on this table, but can I find them?

Not here, but I found that bag of neutral strips!

AHA!

It’s a good thing that the aqua rotary cutter is the one at the QPO or it’s likely it would still be hidden under this pile of strips I’d been cutting from.

That little blue bin?  It is holding all of the trimmed off corners from Monday’s center.  I want to do something with those.  Even if I just border the label or something.

What did I get accomplished while potatoes were baking? (We did stuffed baked potatoes and salad for dinner – yummy! I baked a couple of extra potatoes with the batch and will do pan friend potatoes from those with another meal this week.)

CUTTING.  NO SEWING. Pieces laid out by the machine.  But no sewing.

Because???

This.

This 35 lb girl thinks she is still a lap puppy.

And I’m not going to make her realize otherwise.

This is comfort.

This is bonding.

This is love.

And it will all be okay.

I laughed about this all day long.

My little sister Mary (She’s 37 with 4 kids, but she will always be the baby sister!) sent a message saying the kids were singing “Bring back Aunt Bonnie to me, to me….”  I miss these kids!

I also really appreciate the busy moms who in the midst of all of this have taken on homeschooling (harder than raising a puppy!) their children to keep them current with the school year until school resumes after Summer break. 

What a job.  These moms are heros!

Other unsung heros:

From the Charlotte Observer:

Amid warnings of an impending shortage of protective equipment for medical staff, a Gastonia NC based textile company is organizing a national effort to ramp up production of face masks for healthcare workers.

Parkdale Mills Inc., one of the country’s largest yarn spinners, is working with companies like Hanesbrand, Fruit of the Loom, and six others to build a manufacturing supply chain for the masks, the National Council of Textile Organizations said in a press release.

The decision, according to NCTO, “heeds call of nation” to help. [source]

This makes me SO HAPPY.  I know it will take some time to get them into the places where they are needed most – but it’s a start.

And I hope it will continue.  Living in the south, it’s been really sad realizing that most of our once abundant and thriving textile industry has been moved overseas.  Where once many mills stood creating product and providing jobs and livelihoods – it’s been reduced to minimal over the past several decades.

I would love to see industry come back to our country so that we don’t find ourselves cut off from places that are unable to provide what we need.

Maybe it’s naïve of me to think this way – but putting all of our eggs in someone else’s basket gives the power to the basket holders. 

This is a wonderful thing.

Once at full capacity (in about four to five weeks) the coalition expects to produce up to 10 million face masks per week.

And the call for home made masks continues in the mean time, and I love the stories from around the country of quilters and sewists banding together to make colorful cheerful masks that although do not protect against Covid-19, are helpful and useful in many ways.

So please keep it up – we are in this for the long haul!

And next – it’s time to draw for the winner of the March 2020 Quilty Box!

This was a lovely box, and the projects are great!  For the more info, click to the original post.

Who is 621 of 4535 entries?

LeAnn Ryan!

Congrats, LeAnn – I have sent you an email to the address you provided with your entry.  Please reply with your mailing address so I can have the folks at Quilty Box get your prize off to you.  I hope this helps brighten your shelter-at-home time!

There will be more goodies coming soon so stay tuned.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Miracles are everywhere.

You just have to stop, pay attention and appreciate the little things.

Or the puppy things.

Will I get to sewing today? (It may be a miracle in itself!)

Enjoy your Wednesday, everyone!

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Breathers.

This was Friday.  Or maybe it was Saturday -

Or could it have been Sunday?

I know many of us are feeling like the days are running together.

Yesterday afternoon news came down that the governor of Virginia:

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has issued a “stay at home” order, directing Virginians to stay home except for getting food, supplies, medical care, to go to work and to get fresh air and exercise. Northam’s order follows a similar directive from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

The governor’s order goes into effect immediately and lasts until JUNE 10, although the governor could cancel it earlier. Violation of the order is a Class I misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. [source]

The way things were worded sent me unto a bit of an emotional tail spin. I won’t ie.

JUNE 10th?!

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Sew-in-Place Unity Quilt Along, Part 1!

It’s Unity Part One time – are you ready?

Did you dig through your shelves and drawers, bins and boxes to find just the right 3 colors that you like and want to play with?

Because of this Social Distancing thing – And because we really want to see what everyone is up to while we sew, I want to encourage everyone to use the following hash tags if you are posting to any social media:  #quiltvillemystery (Because it really is kind of a mystery, even if you know SOME of what’s going on.) #sewinplace and finally #unityquiltalong.

You can also add #unityquilt if you want to cover ALL of the bases, but I think it would really help get the word out there if you used as many related tags as possible so we can get more people to follow along, encouraging them to jump in and join us.

And please tag me @quiltville_bonnie so I can follow along with your progress as well!

After all – this is going to be a really long haul.  The Shelter in Place thing has just been extended to April 30th as of yesterday.

It’s a good thing we’ve got loads of sewing to do!

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