Mask Making Weekend

Over the weekend I reached out to neighbors and friends to see if anyone needed some cloth masks. As it's very hard to buy them right now almost everyone said yes, including our next-door neighbors. So I went into production.

Along with five plain elastic masks I customized this pair with pocketing for one pal:

For the pocket I did a lengthwise split along the inside center, which should allow the most room for filtering materials.

These are tie-on masks (my first, too) made of cotton chambray for a pal's doctor husband, who is working on the front lines in the city. These will be for when he's not working. Chambray is a little denser than my quilting cottons, and the denim look of it should go with anything:

For the ties I cut 1" X 17" strips of broadcloth, ran them through my bias tape maker, and then folded the two folds over and sewed a single row of stitching down the center.

I was also finally able to order some 1/4" white elastic from an Etsy seller, which should arrive by the end of the week.

Comments

nightsmusic said…

You're a good person, Charlie Brown ;) They are awesome! Hubs has to wear the 'made by your fellow GM employee' masks at work, not allowed to wear anything else. Thing 1 gave me a couple N95 masks out of her stash because of my lung issue, but I'm wearing a cloth mask over that to make it last longer.

May 12, 2020 at 7:56 AM

Maria Zannini said…

I'm so excited (and relieved).

The order I placed at Amazon has now been delayed another month. Expected delivery late July. :(

Thank you so much! You're a true friend.

May 12, 2020 at 9:40 AM

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Valerean

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