We have made it through the first half of 2020 - and an interesting first half it has been! When the whole pandemic thing began in March I remember thinking that it would last for about two weeks - four at the most - and we would be back to our normal lives. As we all know that has not been the case so we are left to find as many positives in each day as we can.
One positive is that I have had lots of time to spend in my sewing room. It has become my escape from all of the craziness and I am so thankful to have that space. All of that extra time has given me a chance to make some significant progress on my UFO list that I assembled at the beginning of 2020 as well as tackle a few new projects.
I have continued making masks - 87 the last three months for a total now of 100. My sister-in-law had some 1/8” elastic that she gave me so I was able to make some without ties. And those were SO much quicker to make. I donated some to Bryan Hospital in Lincoln and to ATI Physical Therapy in Elkhorn as well as to family and friends.
In preparation for May Day I decided to make some springy postcards to send to my PEO sisters. I made these in a similar fashion to those that I send to my quilting customers at Christmas. I had plenty of pastel-colored fabric in my stash and was also happy to find several colors of coordinating rick-rack to use for embellishments. I sent out 30 in all and it was so fun to think of each of my sisters as I made them.
One new project that I added to my list was two Nebraska quilts. I was shopping at JoAnn Fabrics in February and found several bolts of Cornhusker fabric on sale that I knew would work well with the Limelight pattern that I have used several times. It is a quick and easy pattern that highlights fabric with large prints. I could think of a couple of graduating seniors that I knew were considering UNL as one of their college choices and a Cornhusker quilt would make a wonderful graduation gift. So I purchased the fabric and made these fun quilts only to then discover that these graduates had chosen other schools. Ugh!! Oh well! Now I have two Husker quilts to use for other events - maybe the PEO auction in October or the Hottovy Chinese gift exchange at Christmas.
Another project that I finished was a fun cross-stitching Christmas ornament designed by Jim Shore that I purchased from Herrschner’s. I am a huge fan of his designs as they usually include quilt patterns in some form or other. This project is stitched on paper instead of Aida cloth and also includes seed beads which gives it a fun texture. I have previously completed his designs of a penguin and a dancing snowman. They look really cool on my small Christmas tree that I put up in my sewing every year. I started working on this angel when our isolation began and still have a snowman kit yet to complete.
Check back in two weeks to see what else I have been stitching because there has been a lot more!!