Quilting During A Pandemic

There are already thousands of stories, memes, posts, Tweets, "Top 200 Movies To See" lists, musical parodies, etc., about how people are finding their way through this never-ending Spring of 2020. Even in this very dark time, it is amazing how much incredible creativity is coming forth.

So what is a quilter to do?

I was about 1/3 the way through a quilt for our den, and had one more baby quilt (for a friend's granddaughter) in the queue when things began to get worrisome. We were very early adopters of the stay-at-home policy (easy for introverts like me!). And it looked like the hunker time would last quite a while. So I mentally began to suss out how much time to spend each day working on them to make them last as long as possible, or at least until we were paroled.

Sure, I can order patterns and fabs on-line and have them delivered, but one needs to have a project in waiting to do so.

Then, the word began to spread that there was a serious mask shortage for the medical community. Suddenly, the interwebs were filled with all kinds of DIY masks: with elastic, one-piece, with ties, sewn, glued, even from old bras!

Perfect!!! I have lots of time and a huge stash of fabrics!

I contacted our local hospital and offered to make some for them. They requested that I make a prototype and send it to them and they would let me know; so I did. That was two weeks ago and I have not heard back.

Time went (slowly) on, and then the conversation changed to everyone wearing masks when they go outside. Boom! Just like that I had a dozen orders from family and friends. But, just as with my morsbags, I make and distribute these for free. Oddly, the masks take just about as long to make (40 minutes) as the bags!

Here are some of the ones I have made so far:

Let me know if you would like one. I will try to turn them around as quickly as possible (via mail or no contact delivery).

And...one day....I'll be able to get back to finishing those other quilts.