Valerean

Looks like the first storm of the season will arrive tonight (I'm actually writing this post on Thursday, so if that changes I'll correct or delete this. which you'll never know unless I don't. Blogging paradox!) Whoever names these hurricanes needs to be locked in a room and forced to recite tongue-twisters for a week as punishment for this almost unpronounceable tag. Eee-sah-eee-ahs? Hell with it. I'm calling it Izzy. We're ready as ever, and plan to have Oliver and his parents come and stay with us if Izzy arrives with 50mph or higher winds. If we are knocked offline by the storm the blog will roll on; I've already worked up and pre-scheduled posts to publish daily through the first week of September. Writing and taking pictures for the blog has helped me work through a lot of my issues this summer, plus it gives me something positive to focus on every day. Friday update: On the plus side, as of Friday morning it looks like the storm has jo...

I'm in the process of cleaning out four bins of old paperwork, mostly related to my rookie year in Publishing. While sorting through the manuscripts and proofs I found these in a folder: Mom gave me the magazine, and I bought the newspaper myself the day it happened. I probably kept them thinking the kids might want to read them someday (at the time my two were nine and seven respectively.) Now I'm wondering if I should just toss them out. What would you do with these unhappy relics?

Very surprised to hear that Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) has decided to call it quits, according to CEO John Levisay . Now that everyone is sewing at home I thought they'd survive the pandemic. Since being sold to NBCUniversal the online craft supply and class source has consistently jacked up prices and reduced the quality and quantity of their video offerings, which may have factored in. I was never much tempted to subscribe to their online class service, as they only allowed you to keep a minimal amount "forever" -- which now obviously is in jeopardy for everyone who did. I did watch one class during one of their free-video weekend promotions, but it wasn't any better than the free quilting videos you can find on YouTube. I did buy a couple of quilt kits on sale from the company back when it was still Craftsy, and made one of them into the quilt you see here , but the fabric was very thin, and some of the colors were quite different from what they advertise...

It's going to be one of those days when I need to write something about the pandemic. I checked the current population of the US this morning, which the internet says is 327,700,000. Three percent (the mostly frequently touted mortality rate of Covid-19) of that is 9,831,000, but it's possible that it's as low as 1%, which would be 3,277,000. I think it's safe to say that if this highly infectious virus spreads unchecked, somewhere between three and ten million people in this country will die. About three million people die every year in the US anyway, so the best case scenario is that we'll double the average annual death rate -- if nothing else factors in. If the virus doesn't mutate. If our healthcare system is not overwhelmed by the number of cases and more people die because they couldn't get care. If the people who initially survive the virus don't relapse or experience complications that shorten their lives. In other words, if we're ve...

There is a lot of buzz going around about making masks to help during the pandemic, especially from the fashion industry, which I think is amazing, frankly. This is a way those of us who sew can really help. I just have to see if I have interfacing and elastic (cotton fabric isn't a problem), and then I'll start making them. Important note: cloth face masks are not protective enough for medical staff to use alone against the virus, but they can be used with face shields to help get them by during critical shortages. They can also be used by support staff that don't have close contact with patients to free up the more protective masks for medical staff. If you are in a position to make cloth face masks, have the materials and a sewing machine, check in your community to see if you have a mask-making effort going on. I know JoAnn stores are accepting donations of finished masks; here's the page with all the details.

Library Thing is now free for everyone , which I must say is pretty cool. I've been a lifetime member since LT's early days, and while my catalog there is sadly out of date, it's nice to see them do this in response to the pandemic. Now book lovers all over the world can use the service and keep track of their books. Image by jarmoluk on Pixabay