Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Applique? or not!

Look at that pretty applique!  I must confess...it is a printed block.  But I thought it was pretty enough to be the beginnings of quilt!!


What are you working on today???

Julie

Monday, July 20, 2020

Caps for Caregivers!!!!

 I have been making caps today!!  I made these four, above, from this pattern: 

http://theboltquiltshop.com/


If you click on the link, it takes you to the main page for the quilt shop, and the video tutorial is there.  The tutorial is done well, by a very nice, great seamstress, and makes a very nice finished cap, that can be laundered often and hold up. 


http://theboltquiltshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-BOLT-Quilt-Shop-Lined-Tieback-Scrub-Cap-Supplement-to-our-Tutorial-Pattern-Templates.pdf


This link is for the cap templates.






 Loris sent caps!!!  and more and more caps!  So very pretty....
 and masks, too!!  I cannot tell you how thrilled the nurses were to receive these...thank you!
 And Debbie!  OH my goodness, wow!  Aren't these so, so pretty?!  All these are now being used by nurses.  Thank you, thank you!!  THANK YOU!  Debbie, I have sent you several emails, but no response...hope you are OK?  Let me know please!!
 And Lori!!  OH wow!  How very, very pretty!  I must tell you there was a bit of a tiffle about the yellow strawberry cap...everyone loved it a lot! THANK YOU!!
 Cherylle also sent caps!  She has been making them for a while, helping nurses!  Aren't they pretty!!!  Perfect..THANK YOU!!!
 Dotti sent caps, in the style that I gave you the link today. SO CUTE!! 
 Again, those kitty caps were big favorites.  Some of the nurses are putting headbands over the caps, with buttons on the headbands, in coordinating or contrasting colors, and putting buttons on the headbands, because 12 hours of wearing the mask loops behind the ear hurts.

THANK YOU, Dotti!!!!!  and she also made the black mask for me, in the top picture.  So appreciated!!
And ANNIE!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh my goodness, lookie!  Aren't these just so pretty?  I love them so, so much!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  Gorgeous, perfect caps!!  Did you know Annie is coordinating healthcare for her entire island, trying to find docs to care for their aging population? She is a dynamo!






To everyone who is helping, sent caps, used their time, talent, energy, materials and love to make these, to you, I am so truly grateful.  The nurses send their sincerest thanks, via me!!!  THANK YOU!!!






I know others are sending them too, and if it is OK, I will picture them as well, before I package them in plastic bags and take them to work to distribute. Except one person who would like to be anonymous.   Congratulations!  We got the entire day shift covered, ladies!  I am working on night shift too!!






In tearful gratitude of your generous hearts,

Julie

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Time to make some progress!

I have progressed from the dark blues, to the medium and light blues.  I sorted through charm squares and scraps to make this quilt.  It is a free Pat Sloan pattern, found on her website. 

Pat recently broke both of her wrists and had to have surgery, bless her heart, so it it tough for a person who makes their living sewing to be out of commission like that, not to mention so painful!


https://www.ilovetomakequilts.com/oh-my-stars-free-quilt-pattern-by-pat-sloan.html


The little pieces of paper on the right side of the quilt are to keep my rows straight so the stars would align!  And the stars DID align.  LOL!
Lori D. of Humble Quilts, I used a piece of your fabric to make the border for this quilt!  Thank you!





Have a great day, everyone! I am off to work...I wish you a blessed day, full of fun and good food and exercise and relaxing and sewing!  I love those kind of days!


Julie

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Applique update! and an oopsie!

 Karen and I have been working on these large blocks, for our Farmhouse Sampler,  posting on the 15th of every month.  Here is our current block, number 4.  I think I will add yellow circles in the center of the pink flowers, as I have done with two other blocks shown.
The oopsie is...I cut this block one inch too short on one side, but stopped abut half way through when I realized my error!  Drats!!  I kind of knew I was going to do that, and darn if I DID IT!  So I carefully put steam a seam on it, and I will decide if I have the gumption to do another complete block, or repair it better.   I just growled when I saw what I did! It is a small thing, given the stuff we have going on in our world, so it is not worrying me too much.




Please see Karen's block, here!

https://karen-logcabinquilter.blogspot.com/2020/07/july-farm-house-sampler-update-and-more.html


Have a super day!

Julie

Monday, July 13, 2020

Even ugly quilt blocks have feelings, after all! LOL!


 I have been arranging these blocks and sewing them together.  They are still available, free of charge, at Lori Holt's blog ( Bee in my Bonnet).    https://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2019/12/vintage-block-along-checkers-block.html   If you scroll down to the bottom of the post, you can find links to all the blocks.  Lori has many quilt alongs, and writes great patterns!!
 So here is my ugly block.  Don't you just feel so sorry for it?  I do...so I am using in my quilt anyway! 
Tomatoes are on the vine!!!




Stay tuned for a post about Caps for Caregivers!


Julie

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Another example of log cabin lunacy!

 Well, here is how it goes.  I had my blue fabrics pulled out to make my small log cabin/embroidery piece in my last post, and I thought...what if I made those log cabin blocks bigger?  So I ended up slicing ALL my dark blue fabrics up into 1.5 inch side strips and I was off to the races.  I have not ONE dark blue fabric left, LOL!
I sewed an hour each night...I mean the middle of the night!  LOL!  I go to bed at the usual time, but always end up waking up at about 3 AM and sewing...it is quiet thing to do and so I get a lot done then.  I ended up with 89 blocks, and they are 8 inch, 7.5 inch finished. 

In the days when I am off, I run around and clean house and intermittently make nursing caps. I am getting faster at that! 

Dotti was kind enough to share this pattern too.  I have some cut out with this pattern as well. Big thanks for the Bolt Quilt Shop, and to Dotti, too!


http://theboltquiltshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-BOLT-Quilt-Shop-Lined-Tieback-Scrub-Cap-Supplement-to-our-Tutorial-Pattern-Templates.pdf



Today, I am mowing the lawn and baking a little after that. Seven layer bars!  I have been making my own bread, but I cannot find yeast locally...I will look on Amazon.



Have a great day, all!!!


Julie

Monday, July 6, 2020

Happy fourth, on the sixth!!

 I sewed the borders on this little embroidery quilt!  So Happy Fourth!!  a little late...I was at work on the fourth. 
I decided to make the "North, South, East,West, Home is best" quilt a little differently. I putting the letters in the center of the border pieces.  Also, I will be making this the center of a medallion quilt.  That will be fun!


I am sewing caps.  Caps, caps!  They are fun and easy to make.  I know my nurses will love them!  Also masks.




****************************Nurse's Notes***************************


There are now nine positive cases among the nurses and staff of my floor, of covid virus.  One girl is gravely ill, only in her 30's.   Quite, quite sick.  The others are in various stages of sickness.  The last shift I worked, we learned that a patient who had heart bypass, emergently, was positive for the virus.  We have all been running around in the room without protection, no M-95, because we did not know.  So we wait and see which of us will get it next.   The reason we re-tested him is that the ER called and said his wife was in the ER being emergently intubated and did we have any more contact numbers for family.  They are each other's contact people!  She was up here earlier in the day.  I was in charge that day, and had to make decisions of where to put the patients, who to assign them to, etc.  STRESSFUL. 

Also, we got an emergent heart attack in...a hospice worker.  She had an acute heart attack, so it was all hands on deck to speed her quickly to the cath lab and save her life.  She also turned out to have the virus, which probably caused her heart attack (from inflammation).  Again, all of us exposed, because we did not know.  We all had our little masks on, but not shields and m-95's. 

I feel fine.  I feel scared, though.  It is horrible to be frightened to go to work.  Many of us pray in our cars before going in, including docs.  One doc that I know has it, quite ill.  I am resolute to continue to work, but many nurses are quitting abruptly or retiring and suddenly just not coming in.  It is just awful...I think the charge nurses and the managers will soon be taking patients.  We cannot get help.  All of us are working overtime each week.  We are down about 40% on our staff.


Thanks for letting me tell you the straight skinny! 




Julie



Sunday, July 5, 2020

Just playing among making nursing caps!

These house blocks are some fun orphan blocks that I was blessed with, so I am making a quilt from them.  Not sure where this is going, but it is my slow stitching of the week!



Liking to Kathy, here:  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2020/07/slow-sunday-stitching.html




Hope everyone is doing great!


Julie

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

May I ask a favor of you??

 I guess I am just kind of an action girl.  I see my co-workers needing hats, for nursing!  Our doctors, especially our pulmonologists, are recommending that we all cover our hair, when at work, and wash our hair coverings each night, to help the virus not sticking into our long hair and then getting into our mouths or face.  I made the above hat, from a simple you tube video.  It consists of a circle, and a band.  It is pretty easy, with good instructions. The nurses seem to like this style.
 Here is the back, so the ladies can gather up their long hair in a pony tail and contain it in the cap.

Another view of the finished cap.


 I cut out this many caps in about 15 minutes.



 Below is the you-tube video that I used to make the scrub caps.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=NDgLEUfJ2f0






I am trying to make caps for all of the nurses I work with.  It takes very little fabric, really.


I am using my scarves, made by my friend Annie, to cover my hair.  But...there is a real need for these caps for those who have nothing to cover their heads.  Some ladies are using bandanas, some have purchased hair covers, (by the way?  Some of these are 30 dollars!)  and some just don't have anything.



Would you be willing to help make some scrub caps?  A fat quarter and a scrap of fabric is all it takes to make one, and about 30 minutes of time.  And a wee bit of interfacing, for the brim.




I would very much appreciate it if you possibly could donate this...it would make a HUGE difference to our nurses, and be very much appreciated!!!!



If you can make one, or some, please contact me at rn9999@gmail.com



Thanks!  Quilters are the most giving people around, and always seem to want to help, and here is a much needed way to help!!!



Julie





Hexies, rainbow quilts and plaids!

Good morning to all!!!  Above is a hexagon, for English paper piecing.  My kitten Lucky has discovered them, and decided that they are great...