Day 57 - The Quilt Continues

I thought the hardest part of the “Timeless” quilt (AKA the Procrastination Quilt AKA the Fabric Headache Quilt) was behind me.

Over the last month I have:
Picked out all the fabrics.
Traced all the pattern pieces.
Ironed yards and yards and yards of fusible web onto the fabrics.
Cut out each individual fabric piece.
Ironed all the fabric pieces into their proper places.

It has been a huge undertaking and a very time consuming project. One requiring the utmost patience and persistence on my part. But now comes an even harder part - putting it together with a backing and some batting. Oh yeah, then there is the quilting that needs to be done.

Too bad I can’t just leave it as it is right now.  While not yet a true quilt it almost looks like one, doesn’t it?

Day 56 - Inconsistencies Will Be the Downfall

It was last week when I wanted to go back into hiding after one day's experience. I had been in the parking lot when Ed was in the medical clinic and watched an extraordinary number of people go in and out the doors with no face coverings and no observance of social distancing. That was followed up by a visit to the home improvement store to pick up some weed spray where, while waiting in line, I again watched and again saw numerous people ignoring social distancing recommendations. And very few masks. It was that day I was on the verge of wanting to stick my foot out as people walked by. I figured if someone was close enough to me to trip over my foot then they were too darn close and they deserved to fall. I came home never wanting to go into public again.

But then we did. We've been doing grocery pick-up since March but sometimes you want to be the one to pick out your own fruits and vegetables and not leave it to someone who doesn't care much about what your celery looks like. Having not been inside a grocery store since our weird visit day there back in March, it was time. So we headed to our local Winco grocery store this week and were pleasantly surprised. Most people with masks and plenty of social distancing. And even a group of young people without masks were being very considerate and moving their cart (and bodies) when around the rest of us older folks. Made me think maybe things will be okay.

Then came the doctor's appointment. They called us ahead of time, letting us know they aren't having patients wait inside the waiting room. Just call us when you arrive and we'll come and get you from your car when there is a room ready. Sounded like a great idea to us.

Until the receptionist came out to the car with the standard paperwork to fill out. On their clipboard with their pen. Did she drop off the paperwork and leave? Nope. She leaned into the car, talking us through it. With no mask on. Seriously, we are going to all this trouble and then someone working in a doctor's office isn't considerate enough to wear a mask when she's talking to us less than a foot from our faces? Grrr.

It's disheartening to see the inconsistencies happening around us. Yep, time to go back into hiding. With no more doctor appointments until next week, we'll stay right where we are. With us both being high risk we just can't, well, risk it with all these people and their behaviors.

The only good thing to come out of the appointment (other than Ed being good to go for two more years!) was the roses out in front of the car while I waited for him. I even captured the reflection in the car hood.

Make a Scrap Fabric Matching Game for Kids - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday and today I have a project to keep your kids busy during this no-school pandemic times. It's an easy sew project using some of your fabric scraps.

Looking for more quick and easy sewing projects?

Check out all the other free tutorials here at Deb's Days!

For this project you will need:

• fabric scraps. You'll want matching pairs, as many as you'd like.
• backing fabric
• pieces of batting scraps
• Pinking shears
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Iron
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat
• Pins or clips

 Now available in my Etsy store as a digital download with the written directions, step-by-step photos, and link to the tutorial video. Click to find out more!

Looking for more kid friendly ideas? Check out these projects!

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you sewing and crafting content.

You can find the step-by-step how to directions for this easy homemade scrap fabric matching game sewing project right here:

Day 54 - Mask Makin' Mama

Give this mama 30 minutes and she can pop out five face masks for her daughter who started back to work today.

For those interested in knowing which pattern I used, I went with my No Pleat Face Mask and added a nose wire like I did in the Pleated Face Mask with Nose Wire video.

Day 53 - On This Day

On this day last year I was on a cruise ship. The year before I was packing for a cruise. Heck, even on Mother's Day in 2014 I was on a cruise ship.

So today when no kids can hang out with their moms unless they are already quarantined together, I might as well pretend I’m on a cruise ship. Alcoholic drink in hand and flip flops off.

Happy Mother's Day to us all.

Day 52 - Saturday Smorgasbord

Today was a smorgasbord of a day. Not food wise, but to-do list wise. I jumped from one random task to another.

In the order of completion, today I:

• Unpacked the suitcase. When we came home from our February cruises we washed our clothes and proceeded to repack some of them. We even replenished our toiletry kit. We thought we would be heading right back out onto ships for several more weeks of warm weather cruises. That clearly didn't happen, and for some reason I just haven't been able to bring myself to unpack everything again. As we now have warm weather here some of the things in the suitcase were needed, and since there is no travel in the near future for us, it was time to empty it completely. Sad.
• Cleared my sewing workspace of the fabric headache quilt. I've made some great progress on it, but I need to set it aside for a few days before I finish all the iron-on applique. Ugh.
• Pulled multiple fabrics out of my baskets and texted photos back and forth to kiddo. Her store reopens on Monday and she needed some more face masks. She's been using the no-pleat one I made and likes it so much she wants more of the same style instead of using the store-provided masks. We now have five fabric choices, approved by her.
• Cut up the box from my new lounge chair and put it into the recycling bin. The box was huge and the cardboard sturdy. It was a tough job.
• Soaked up a generous amount of Vitamin D in said lounger.
• Did a load of laundry and hung it on the clothesline outside.
• Shaved both our heads again. Just like I did a couple weeks back, we went behind the shed and I used the clippers to cut our hair super short. No more waiting three months between haircuts in this house anymore.
• Showered to remove loose hair.
• Did another load of laundry to wash the hair out of the clothes and hung them on the clothesline, too.
• Had another pizza picnic, this time from Domino's. And this time Ed even let us use the card table instead of having to share our tiny picnic ant TV tray.
• Worked on figuring out some kind of flower decoration to go on the kitty cat wreath I made our daughter earlier this year. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with the flowers but I'm kind of liking the direction I'm heading with my practice pieces. 

A random but productive Saturday.

Day 51 - Chair Hog

If you’re a cruiser, you most likely know what a chair hog is.  For those who don’t, a chair hog is one of those people on a ship who scope out a lounge chair in the morning. Not only do they find the best one, they proceed to put things on the chair to hold it until later in the day. Sometimes they even pick out three or even five chairs to hold. You’ll see a flip flop going onto one chair and the matching flip flop onto another chair. A beach bag will go onto another lounge chair, a book on another, and a hat on another. And then the person disappears for hours and hours. I spend a lot of time at the pool when we’re on a ship so I get first-hand views of their work. I’m definitely not a fan of chair hogs.

But I am going to become a chair hog. At home, that is. With my new lounge chair in my backyard, I will be leaving my stuff and coming and going as I please. Now if I could just train someone to come around to take my drink order...

Day 50 - A New Evening Treat

We’ve survived the longest month ever, March. We’ve survived the second longest month ever, April. Now we’re onto May. Woo hoo! Warmer weather, flowers and trees a bloomin', birds chirping, and ice cream cones at night.

Ice cream cones? Yup. If you remember, in April I spiced things up by making these mystery treat bags for us to share every evening. Well, now we’re doing ice cream evenings.

Pre-pandemic if we wanted an ice cream cone we’d drive a couple blocks down to Burger King for their dollar vanilla cones. Once the stay at home orders began our ice cream cone trips ended. Since we never ever keep ice cream in our freezer we figured we’d just have to give it up.

Not so fast.

For the first time ever we have three different ice creams in our freezer and ice cream cones in our cabinet. (Thank you grocery pick up!) Instead of choosing a random treat bag during those between dinner and bedtime munchies cravings we will have an ice cream cone.

A fun way to spice up our evenings. (Yeah, we're kinda boring people.)

Day 49 - A Tree Transformation

As today was a stormy day and I had plenty of catching up to do on the fabric headache quilt, I wasn't much interested in going outside to take a picture of a tree. But you-know-who loves his tree and loves that the color isn't quite yet green and wanted a picture of it. So today's picture, taken through my sewing room window, is for my husband the tree man.

At least it looks better than it did 41 days ago.

How to Sew Face Mask Ear Savers - Tutorial Tuesday

If you are getting annoyed by the elastic on your face mask bugging your ears, I might have a solution for you. Today's Tutorial Tuesday uses one piece of fabric and a couple buttons to help relieve the ear irritation.

For this project you will need:

• 5" x 8" piece of fabric
• 2 buttons measuring 3/4" or larger
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Hand needle
• Matching thread
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat
• Scissors

Just like all my mask measurements, since we all have different head and face sizes be sure to check the size and fit out before making a ton of them!

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Looking for a different mask? I have several other tutorials to choose from:

Looking for other travel accessories ideas? Check out these projects!

Otherwise you watch the how-to tutorial for the face mask ear savers right here:

Need a mask? Check out my face mask tutorials here. If you are planning on using an ear saver with them, be sure to add and additional inch or two of elastic to these patterns or the mask might wind up being tighter than you'd like.

As usual, stay safe out there!

Day 47 - Back Into Hiding

It only took one day's short adventure to make the decision.

I sent Ed into the medical clinic by himself (with the mask he put on all by himself - hooray!) and sat in the car and waited for him. As I waited, I watched. Watched an extraordinary number of people go in and out the doors with no face coverings. With no attempted observance of any kind of social distancing.

After the appointment we headed to the home improvement store to pick up some weed spray. We used the garden entrance so we could breathe fresh air through our masks instead of stale store air. Waiting in the long garden checkout line, I again watched. And again saw numerous people ignoring social distancing recommendations. Masks? Very few. I told Ed I was on the verge of wanting to trip people to prove a point. If you are close enough to me that I can stick my foot out and you’d fall, then you’re too dang close. Of course, I didn’t trip anyone but I came away so very frustrated by people and their behaviors. Added to the drivers on the road today who obviously needed a safe/ anti-aggressive driving class, the decision was an easy one.

I’m not yet ready to join the world and am quite content to go right back into hiding. I’ll wait until people learn to care about the safety and well being of others before venturing out again. I think it could be a while.

Looks like I won’t be driving enough to
take advantage of cheap gas prices.

Day 46 - One Handed Masked Man

If you've been a reader of my blog for a while you know my husband has cerebral palsy. He's not wheelchair bound, but he does have physical limitations. If you were to watch him walk and interact you might think he was someone who had a stroke, with the right side of his body pretty much immobile.

His limitations have impacted our lives and we are pretty much glued at the hip. He doesn't drive and so every time he wants/needs to go somewhere - when he went to work, the doctor's office, the store - I have to drive him. He can't tie his own shoes or the ties he wore to work every single day. He has trouble using a can opener, putting on a belt, and can't cut his own steak. As he's gotten older he's had difficulty in processing what he's reading and hearing and gets easily frustrated so I need to be always available for him. Especially now.

And especially when it comes to wearing a face mask. We've avoided going into any public place so far, but tomorrow he has a put-off-too-long/rescheduled-too-many-times test at the medical center. Since it would make absolutely no sense for me to wait for him in the waiting room with all those germs swirling around, I'll have to send him in by himself.

Unfortunately this test will require him to get undressed, dressed into scrubs, and then back into his regular clothes. And the mask is still a sticking point. He's unable to get a mask on and off by himself with his one good hand. You know from all my tutorials that I've made mask after mask after mask. But none of those have worked for him. There really aren't such things as one-handed masks for older folks who have mobility and spatial issues, ya know? Well, my creativity is about drained out of my brain but we finally have one that works.

I followed my Pleated Face Mask Tutorial.

And added the wire from my Nose Wire Face Mask Tutorial.

Sort of used the tie portion of my Face Mask with Ties Tutorial.

Used elastic from my No Pleat Face Mask Tutorial behind the head instead of around the ears.

Throw all those nutty pieces together and we now have a face mask a one hand man can put on and take off independently. Woo hoo!

If you care for someone with a disability you know how important it is to find those things that can happen without you around. It's a good feeling for both of you. And one less worry for me tomorrow.

He was oh-so-happy to model his new mask...
the one he put on all by himself!

Day 45 - A Saturday Afternoon Mystery

As I was setting things up for another spontaneous backyard BBQ picnic I came across some type of seed pod or bloom or ???

Any ideas?

Day 44 - Peek a Boo Hearts

Since we don’t have any flowers growing outside, last month I took a photo of the neighbor's tulips through the fence. Yesterday I took a photo of their tree in bloom over the fence. Now today their Bleeding Heart decided to play peek a boo with me by popping through the fence.

Lucky me getting to see something pretty without having to do any of the work.

Day 43 - Ping Pong Ball Storm

On the first day of this month I discussed how the month of March was the longest ever. The uncertainty and the speed of which our lives were upended was exhausting. How, adding insult to injury, we had a 6.5 earthquake on that last day of March. Strong enough to require us to seek shelter under our doorways. April just had to be a better month, right?

Well, where things stand on this last day of April isn’t much different than where things stood on the last day of March. Still self-isolating, staying at home and away from others, and just like all of you, trying to make the best of it.  While there was no earthquake today (knock on wood!) we did get a warning about another potentially hazardous situation.

See that blue dot over Boise? That’s where we live. See the storm? It’s headed straight to us. We didn't hide under the doorways this time, but with a ping pong ball storm (guess it’s different than golf ball?) I did hide my car completely under the carport. 

Thankfully the damaging hail was nothing more than heavy downpours for us, and while we had strong winds, here at our house we avoided damage from the 60 mph winds. Now I can instead share a photo I took pre-storm of the neighbor's blooming tree instead of having to document some post-storm damage for the insurance company like some other Boise residents are having to do today.

Whew. So grateful to have dodged a bullet ping pong ball today.

Day 42 - Shoulda Been Panama

Spend three weeks on a cruise ship in February followed by one week in Arizona.
Return home the last day of February.
Spend the first week of March teaching a cruising class and the second week getting in some doctor appointments.
Head back out the third week of March for several more weeks of cruising.

As we know, the last one of those things didn't happen. If it had, we would be in Panama today. Hot, sticky, Panama. Checking the temperature there right now, we'd be at 87 degrees with 75% humidity. Feels like 97 degrees the Internet is telling me. But I'm not there.

I'm here in Idaho on a day that's 20 degrees above normal and the hottest day we've had in 227 days. Not since September of 2019 has the temperature reached 87 degrees. Thankfully while we're at the same temperature as Panama, our 20% humidity makes it feels like plain old 87 and not that steamy 97!

It's a good thing it doesn't feel like 97 because if it did, I wouldn't have been able to spend the day outside getting a good dose of Vitamin D. I also would have missed a good view of the sun halo.

It's not Panama but it'll have to do for my excitement of the day.

How to Sew Quick and Easy Cloth Napkins - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday and I have a new project for you. If you are having a hard time finding paper products in the store, you might find this project comes in handy when you're needing napkins. Today we're making reversible fabric napkins. They go together super fast and last for years.

Looking for more sewing and crafting projects? 
Click here to see all my tutorials!

For four napkins you will need 1 yard of each fabric.

For each napkin you will need:

• Main fabric 
• Reverse fabric
• Pins or Clover Wonder Clips
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Now available in my Etsy shop as a digital download

with the written directions and link to the tutorial video. 

Looking for something else? Check out some of my other kitchen sewing and crafting projects!

You can find the quick and easy directions for the homemade reversible cloth fabric napkins right here:

Day 40 - Deb's Burger Barn

The last time I referred to the quote from Pulp Fiction we were eating at Burger Queen in Ketchikan, Alaska. Which quote? This is a tasty burger. While Ed used those words today during our BBQ picnic in the backyard, I chose different ones. 

Welcome to Deb's Big A** Burger Barn.

While pretty darn tasty, it needs more work to taste like the burgers in Ketchikan. I’ve got plenty of time this summer to make it happen.

Day 39 - Pillowcase Turned Table Skirt

One of my favorite places to buy fabric is the thrift store. Not in their craft section, but in their bedding section. Sometimes I'll buy some bed sheets but the best score is when I find homemade pillowcases. They are usually made with some kind of bright fabric. These pillowcases are usually made with over a yard of fabric each so the fabric cost of my thrift store purchase usually winds up being about $1 a yard. Had I gone to a fabric store the same fabric would have cost me $5-$10 a yard.

So when I got tired of our table today I decided to do something about it. Yes, we've been using this as our end table in the living room.

Call me too cheap to buy anything new.

I cut up a couple of those cheap-o thrift store pillowcases for a skirt for the table. Not too bad for under $3. Not sure I love it, but at least I like it.

Oops, probably should have ironed it.

Day 38 - Fabric Headaches

I’ve prided myself on my plentiful fabric stash. On my ability to find any fabric I want, for any project I’m working on, within my fabric shelves.

Yeah, not so fast.

While my shelves are full, they aren’t nearly as varied as I need for this new quilt I’m making. (Note to self: don’t start a huge new project during a pandemic. If you don’t have the fabric you want, you can’t go and buy any more.)

I’ve been through all my fabrics and this is as close as I can get. (Another note to self: if you work too long during one day, take a break from your project. Your frustration just might give you a headache.)