Thursday, March 26, 2020

All is well here. Pat went over to Texada this morning; he self-isolated in the truck, drove straight to the studio and self-isolated on the way home. He had some music equipment he wanted to have at home and he picked up my quilting machine for me so I can tackle some of the quilting I had packed when we intended to spend a week over there. I’m finishing up the piecing on the one project I’ve been wanting to get done, not including my UFOs, so it will be nice to move to something different.

I’m keeping up with my Block-A-Day for each of my days of self-isolation. The heartbeat fabric was used to make something for Kathryn and it was her I was thinking of today. No one deserves an Honor Badge more than the essential workers, and particularly those in health care.

I had a short chat from the balcony with one of our House Concert regulars. He works for the newspaper and they are considered an essential service – why I don’t know as there is never anything of note in the paper. He was actually delivering papers so I suspect that many of their local delivery people aren’t working; a lot of them are challenged so they may be staying home.

I have a few leaders and enders to deal with from my sewing today. Then I think I’d better start going through my half-square-triangle bin. I took a peak at the block for tomorrow and it has 36 HSTs and 12 Flying Geese (in a 12″ block).

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Two things caught my attention today in all the news about the pandemic. Prime Minister Trudeau, as he should, thanked all the front line workers for everything they are doing. I had to rant a little about how Kathryn is one of those front-line workers but has had steady increases to her licence fee, hasn’t had a wage increase in seven years, and is currently working without a contract. I suspect there are many more front-line workers who are in a similar position.

The second thing that caught my attention was a discussion on CBC about the stress that could be caused by feeling you need to do something productive during your self-isolation. I hadn’t thought about that but it is a little true for myself. I always have a plan for my day and it usually means I have one or two things that I hope to strike off my to-do list at the end of it. Now that a lot of my “outside” tasks are curtailed I still find myself saying to myself, “You should get this (or that) done”. I don’t think it is particularly stressing me out, but it is good to know that we shouldn’t be putting extra pressure on ourselves.

So that being said, here is my block for the day (I didn’t stress over getting it done), and now I’m going read my book.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

I looked at my calendar this morning and although there are no engagements on it for this week I realized I had two birthday cards that needed to get in the mail – today if I was going to allow ten delivery days to get them where they needed to be. The tops were done so I quickly sandwiched and quilted them, wrapped them up and walked up to the mailbox to get them out in today’s mail.

It was less busy at Seven-11 today than it was yesterday but I had to cross the street twice to avoid meeting people on sidewalk – once on my way and once on my way back.

It took me until almost supper time to get my block of the day finished. I’m finding these blocks very challenging and I don’t think I’ve managed any of them without ripping out a seam or two (or three and often four). And just in case you think I’ve put this one together wrong, I didn’t. It is what the picture says it should be.

It was lovely to have a video chat with family today. I’m not feeling particularly isolated but, as Jackie says, there’s nothing like hanging out with family.

I’m starting a new knitting project tonight because I’m bored with the one I’ve been working on. I’ll alternate between the two projects in the evenings.

Monday, March 23, 2020

My block today was very much like a Drunkard’s Path; when I saw it I remembered that Jessie (from Thursday sewing) had mentioned the way she did a Drunkard’s Path with no seams on the curve. I gave it a try and the block was done very quickly. Because I was translating the pattern from curved piecing to my own version the finished block came out a bit smaller than it should have. No problem though as these blocks vary in size from six to eighteen inches. And if you don’t recognize the pattern as a Drunkard’s Path the fabrics I picked will definitely make you feel slightly wobbly.

I also took out that seam on the block I did yesterday. It didn’t matter how many times I looked at the blocks on the design wall (actually on the floor of the spare bedroom) my mind saw the error.

I walked up to the mail box at Seven-11 this morning. I had to slow my pace so I didn’t overtake an elderly gentleman walking with a cane. There were a couple of kids walking a dog on the other side of the street but I was able to maintain my distance both ways.

Since I didn’t have a chance to cross stitch yesterday I decided that would be my afternoon’s “work”.

Pat and I have decided not to go to Texada tomorrow; the health authorities are advising against travel in the region. The ridership on the ferries is very low and sailings could be cancelled at any time and with short notice. Getting groceries is a bit safer here than in the little market on Texada; although we don’t need anything at the moment that will likely change as this isolation continues. We had the last flights in and out today until May 3rd.

So now I can start unpacking!