A Year Like No Other-Quilting the Pandemic Way

 A friend asked how many quilts I have made during 2020. I responded that I was not sure but probably a dozen. In the quilting process there are several "finish" spots  such as: when a top is pieced, when hand quilting is complete, and when the binding is on. When I started counting I found I have 20 or so such "finishes". Many quilters keep journals of their projects I have never been one to do that. Here is a stack of my completions from this year that I still have on hand, at least 3 have already gone away and one is with my friend who machine quilts for me. 

I don't remember the order I finished or worked on projects. I will write about each here to record for myself and any who are interested my accomplishments of the year. 

FROLIC 

This quilt design was Bonnie Hunter's 2019/2020 mystery quilt. It was started Thanksgiving weekend of 2019. Quilting was done by Tracey Mertes

FUSED GLASS PILLOW 

I made this small project at a class in February with my quilt guild, taught by Martha Saunders. 

ELVIRA

From GE Designs I made this top during an all day quilt-along with Gudrun Elra. It was quilted by Joyce Andrew. Elvira and another Fat Quarter quilt (no photo) I made with our community quilts group have already been donated. 

B.O.B. (bias on bottom) 

Made as a graduation gift for my niece. The lower photo was taken at the cabin in McCall, Idaho where I was when I finished the binding. Machine quilting by Tracy Mertes. I started piecing blocks in February after my brother Bob's birthday celebration. The quilt was left at McCall for my niece, Emma, she had asked for a teal colored quilt. Teal is the constant in the quilt but as you can see it also has many other colors. I am not sure if she likes it as I received no acknowledgment. This quilt is my own design, it is the second I have made based on this block. Each full sized block has 52 pieces. 

UNITY 

Design by Bonnie Hunter. Bonnie offered weekly clues for this mystery/quilt-along. At this point I have Unity back from my quilter and will soon be adding a blue binding. It dawned on me last week when I got it back from Joyce that I barely remember working on it last spring during quarantine. It was such a stressful time I think I just stitched and stitched and stitched like the old knitting lady in "A Tale of Two Cities"

CHURNING THE STASH

Early in the year I decided to see how many of the little "churn-dash blocks" I could make using triangles I already had cut in my "bits and pieces" box...it turned out quite a few! This is another of my own designs. Quilted by Tracy Mertes.

FOUR PATCH PANDEMIC

Another original design. Quilted by Joyce Andrew.

SUGARLOAF

I finished this top in early March. I have been hand quilting it for the past couple months. The red fabrics are Christmasy so it should be ready to use next holiday season. Cinders (Buns), the kid's cat who is staying with us, seems to think it is her own cozy place to hang out.

Staying with the Christmas theme:

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

I have not made many holiday quilts, but in the uncertain summer of Covid-19 I decided working on this quilt for Finn was good therapy for my mental health. I didn't know what the situation would be by December, but I knew for sure we would have Christmas. This quilt has components from many sources. It was quilted by Kim McCray. Finn had it on his bed at the "Bendgalow" where the kids stayed through December while their new home is being remodeled.

NEARLY LEMOYNE, NEARLY CHRISTMAS

I completed this top in early December. The design is a digital pattern from Bonnie Hunter.

RETURN TO TEMECULA

Holiday decorations in our laundry room with this quilt based on a book published by the Temecula Quilt Company. It was an online quilt along with hints for the blocks from different quilts in their Return to Temecula book. Quilted by Kim McCray

DOUBLE WEDDING RING

I started this traditional quilt several years ago. It has been a "closet dweller" for many long time periods. The colored arcs were hand pieced while we were traveling the country in the RV. I worked on the melon sections while we visited the Griswolds in Mehama during our between houses phase of 2018. It took a worldwide pandemic to get me to complete it to this point. After I am able get out to a quilt shop to select the right color for the backing I plan to hand quilt it. 

OCEAN WAVE

This is another traditional block that I spotted on Pintrest and decided I wanted to try. The colored triangles are blue prints although they appear gray in this photo. I have ordered some blue flannel for the backing and I will have it machine quilted. Martha has actually said she wants it, not something that happens too often! 

GRANDMOTHERS GARDEN STAR VARIATION

I completed the hand quilting and binding of this quilt in April. This pattern was inspired by a photo of a quilt at the National Quilt Museum in Nebraska. This hexagon quilt is made using English Paper Piecing, all by hand. I started it in 2011 and worked on it a lot while we traveled in the RV. I think I started hand quilting it in about '14 or '15. In early January I realized I really didn't have too far to go...actually it was about 2/3 quilted. I don't know the exact size but it is an oversized King sized quilt. I set the goal for myself to finish it in 2020. Then the pandemic hit and I was done by April!

GYPSY WIFE 2

This is my second Gypsy wife quilt. The design is by Jen Kingwell of Australia. I completed this top in December of 2019 and got it back from Kim McCray who quilted it in January. The first one I made in '19 I made exactly as designed. On this one I switched several blocks and used slightly softer colors than the first.

GYPSY FARMERS WIFE

My third Gypsy Wife quilt I used blocks from Laurie Aaron Hurd's book Farmer's Wife Quilt. Almost all of the fabrics are from one collection called Arcadian Dusk from Connecting Threads. This photo is from before it was quilted in June. It was quilted by Kim McCray. It is complete with binding now.

BRAMBLY PRIMROSE LANE

I made two quilts from this pattern by Marti Michell in about 2001. They were donated to an auction fund raiser in Salem at that time. I came across the pattern in my sewing room in August and decided to give it another go. Joyce Andrew machine quilted it for me and it awaits a binding. I made it from "on hand" fabric except for the blue triangles in the border. 

 

EASY BREEZY CHECKERS

This is another of my designs based on blocks called Easy Breezy by Bonnie Hunter. The blocks are her 2020 Leaders and Enders challenge. I made half of mine with black background. The top is finished and with Joyce for quilting.

NO NAME COMMUNITY QUILT

This top is complete. It is made from Fat Quarters from the quilt guild community quilts supply. 

HOUSES WITH TREES

This quilt has been waiting several years for a border. My intention was to make a companion quilt called TREES WITH HOUSES. I never seemed to get very inspired to make that second quilt so I decided I wanted one more "finish" in 2020 and today I put the final border on so it is now ready for quilting.

Last Texas Days and Westward Ho!

 Do you see anything ominous about the sky in the above photos? We were camped at the Fritch Fortress campground in the Lake Meredith Nat'l Recreation Area. It was a free night in a lovely setting. About four the next morning we were awakened by the loudest most fierce storm of our trip. The weather service radar showed us to be in the path of hazardous hail. It was too dark to see but it was crazy loud. The storm ended by 5:30 and we went on with our day and travels. Fast forward five days... while we were at Organ Pipe Nat'l Monument in Arizona, Dan went up to inspect our roof and here is what he found.

A hole in our bathroom vent about 1.25"! Good old duct tape is the temporary fix that will get us home.

It is always something!

Meanwhile, back to the chronology of our travels. Lake Meredith is on the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle area. Nearby is the Alibates Flint Quarries Nat'l Monument. Flint has been quarried and gathered here for over 13,000 years. The flint was used and traded all over the west. The quarries can only be visited by guided tour. We arrived too late on Wednesday for that days tour but a volunteer flint knapper was there talking and demonstrating his art. It was an interesting and informative time. After he finished the volunteer gave me the product of his afternoon's labors.

The next day, after the early morning hail storm, we were able to go on a tour to the quarry area.

The flint is found on hilltops within a few square miles area of the monument. It is not found anywhere else on this continent. The most similar stone to this is only found in Italy.

This is some of the exposed dolomite.
Our tour guide/ranger shared information about various interesting plants along the trail. The lemon sumac was tasty.

 This plant is Loco Weed... I have heard of it before, it is the real deal. If other food is not available horses will eat it, it will make them crazy and they don't recover. Bad stuff, but a pretty little flower.

Besides our visit to the Alibates Quarries, our other purpose in traveling to the panhandle and Amarillo was a music performance sponsored by my favorite PBS station, High Plains Public Radio, (HPPR). They periodically have what they call living room concerts featuring local Texas talent. We enjoyed an evening of music by Terri Hendrix accompanied by Lloyd Maines. We came to Amarillo back in October of 2013 and attended one of these little performances and it was fun to revisit them. We parked at a Walmart that night, our final night in Texas, after a 7 week visit. It was time to head west.

 Our first night in New Mexico was at a quiet Bosque Redondo Lake near the Pecos River and Fort Sumner.

In Fort Sumner is the grave of Billy the Kid. His gravestone is shackled in place behind locked gates because it has been stolen several times over the years.

Our 2nd of two nights in New Mexico was at Datil Well BLM campground in the mountains of central NM west of the Rio Grande. We traveled US Hwy 60 all of the way across New Mexico and part way across Arizona. We stopped for pie in Pie Town, I had New Mexico apple, it has hatch chilis and pine nuts in traditional apple pie.

The route took us through Show Low, AZ and down through/across the Salt River canyon.

And talk about contrasts here is our next camp spot...

We had the entire Pinal County Fairgrounds all to ourselves. Twenty dollars bought us electricity and hot showers. Life is good, especially when you keep your expectations simple.

Long ago when this blog began back in the fall of 2011, we visited Organ Pipe Nat'l Monument. The desert plants here are fantastic. We decided to visit again in hopes of seeing some blooms. The saguaro were crowned beautifully. The Organ Pipes don't usually bloom until May. Additionally, the flowers are pollenated by bats so the blossoms are only open at night and close by mid morning.

I purchased a new hiking hat to try to do better at protecting my face from the sun. This pic was taken before 8 am so the sun angle was still pretty low.

Saguaro in bloom, this was a short one only about 10' tall.

Cholla heavy with fruit.

Blooming teddy bear cholla.

An early blooming organ pipe cactus.


The weather was too hot to stay more than one night. We only took a short 1.5 mile hike and finished that by 8:30

 Even in the heat we had a nice big shade over our table so I could set up my machine for some stitching. The nearby Indian reservation had a fun radio station. We listened to everything from Hawaiian, to reggae, to western oldies and old rock and roll.

We enjoyed a beautiful Arizona desert sunset.

 Last night was spent along the Colorado River on the California side 20 miles south of Blythe. It was hot and if we turned lights on the bugs came right through the screens! UGH! Today we drove on to Julian, California in the mountains above San Diego. It is cool and pleasant here at 4500' elevation, we will stay here over the weekend then go up the coast to see Dan's mom and he will go to his 50yr class reunion.

Happy trails.