Take Precautions, Stay Home, Stay Safe.

I had hoped this would be farther along than it is.

Yesterday morning was a tear-filled experience of gathering facts and making decisions that not only would affect me, but also many others who had waited for 2 years for my Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar workshops.

Do I go? (People are counting on me said the voice in my head)  They are telling us not to travel. (But so much money has been laid out and the venue is still open.) But you will come in contact with others through not just one but THREE airports coming and going. (I can just wash my hands – a lot?) But they are counseling us to stay away from group gatherings. (But it is only quilters!)

And the conversations went back and forth in my head all morning until a call from my dad came in and talked me through things in a sensible manner, allowing me to make my own decisions, for MYSELF - not based on what anyone else would be feeling.

I had found out they were housing evacuees from the stranded cruise ship AT ASILOMAR where our conference was being held.  People who had been exposed to those testing positive.  It made me feel uncomfortable. 

Email responses from the heads of Empty Spools Seminars stated that as long as Asilomar remained open, they were going to continue with the event.

I then found out that 3 TSA agents had tested positive at the San Jose airport (Where I would be flying in and out of) and they had sent 40 other employees who had come in contact with these agents home to quarantine themselves.

The spokesperson said that these 3 infected agents had come in contact with thousands of travelers over the past many days…..and the dominoes fell.

This may be tongue in cheek, but this is what we are facing.

Further fact finding had me contacting my friend Sue who works for the Arlington County Department of Health and she took my dilemma up the chain.  I was then counseled by the infection prevention and communicable disease chief for Arlington County Public Health to not travel. 

There was the voice of reason.  There was nothing else I could do.

It was gut wrenching but I sent an email to the heads of Empty Spools Seminars that I was canceling my trip. 

I could not in good faith go forward with this event during the communal health crisis that is the Coronavirus (COVID-19) as the World Health Organization has officially declared it a Global Pandemic.

I want to do my part to protect the health of not only myself, but of those I would come in contact with.

I stated that I could not in good conscience attend this event knowing that Santa Clara County has also canceled mass gatherings for the next 3 weeks. I have a family I can not put at risk. I have elderly parents and a husband and sons to care about.

No one knows how this thing could spread during the time I was to be in California for nearly 2 weeks. What if I ended up in quarantine and couldn't come home. What if I contracted something not on my way to California, but on my way home?

I didn’t make this decision lightly, but I must do what is right for myself, for my community and follow the head of reason and avoid gatherings of this sort.

A couple of hours later – another phone call came telling me that Asilomar had also decided to close, which in effect canceled the Empty Spools Seminars in turn.

I am so glad.

I just can’t see hundreds of “women beyond median age” (As we all are!) traveling from near and far to gather when we are told NOT TO GATHER.  

It’s time to take this seriously. Not in panic-mode, but with sensibility and care for not only ourselves, but for others we may come in contact with.

When it gets right down to it –

Stay calm and BIND!

The webbing assembly of the Shoo Fly Shoo quilt top will continue today,  I was so discombobulated that I found it hard to sit at the machine and sew. It sits at half-way-webbed.

By last evening I felt such a sense of relief that all I could do was sit back in my comfy chair and stitch while knowing the right decisions were made. 

Close up of quilting.

This is a little ditty made out of OLD early 2000s Orphan blocks.  I had thought that I wanted to do an entire quilt from these blocks, but you know what?  The nesting of seams from block to block was a headache.  You had to press the seams in the blocks in opposite directions – and to do that you needed to know block placement so that they ended up where you wanted them to end up and would play nice with each other.  Who has time to do all of that thinking? (Not me evidently! LOL!)

I plan on using this on a patio table on the back porch at Quiltville Inn.

Today the sunrise promised a beautiful spring day.  The songbirds are BACK!  I heard a woodpecker join the chorus – and I am happy to be up on my mountain, though sad to be missing those I was looking forward to spending time with at Asilomar.

No, I don’t buy in to crazy panic-mongering. (I have enough toilet paper, thank you!) But I do listen to the voice of reason that tells me I am better off being overly cautious, than under prepared. 

I hope this may make others reexamine travel that they have put in motion even if it means losing money. (I am out 2 weeks income. It stings, but it is what it is.) 

It might mean that you don’t go visit your grandkids.  It might mean that you don’t take that cruise.

And it isn’t about YOU not getting sick – you may be perfectly fine.  But there are the more susceptible amongst us that you might come in contact with unawares.

It’s time to dig out those UFO projects and stay in and sew!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

So true!

Make a difference today by being yourself!

Your decisions might not be the most popular ones, but listen to your heart. It knows.

Take things seriously. Stay home, take precautions, stay safe.