Quaran"stitching" and other Stay at Home Activities

No matter where we are in the world, "Stay at Home" has become the new normal. Six months ago, we had no idea that this pandemic would change our lives so dramatically. Many of us are making the best of it, with activities that we might not have had time for before. Teri and I (Kara) thought we would share some of the things we are doing to stay at home and out of trouble.

My quilt guild, The Black Forest Quilters, began a mystery quilt a few months ago. I decided that I would take a break from hand-stitching and make friends with my machine again. I was a few clues behind, but was determined to finish. Mystery quilts are a little bit of a risk when you begin, because it is a lot of work for something you may not like but I trusted the organizer to pick a good pattern. I was very happy with the quilt, and it used up a lot of brights that I had languishing in my stash. Mysteries can be fun!

Charm Shuffle, by Gudrun Erla
Stripology Mixology

The finished quilt top

After vacationing at my machine, it was time to get to work on some upcoming deadlines. One of those deadlines was to get started on a new set of blocks for our Village Wanderings Series. 

Picking ribbon colors

It's always fun to create, and these blocks were no exception. I even decided to play around with some miniature elements for a few of them.

Prepped to be stitched down.

Ready to be appliquéd.

Another miniature for one of the blocks.

While we are working on new projects, we are continuing to make progress on our Woodland Reverie quilt. Teri and I each pick a block, finish it, and then the other person makes that block in her colorway. It is fun to see how the same block looks different with another background and appliqué palette.

My version

Teri's version

When I made it home from the US about three weeks ago, I had no idea that things would escalate as quickly as they did. I went to the grocery store, stocked up on some things, and began stitching. Who knew that my next stitching project would be masks to wear in public places here in Germany.

When this is over maybe these will work as a bikini top!

The first ones cut out and ready to stitch.

The internet is full of wonderful free patterns right now, and I found this one and fell in love with it. It is called Plaid-ish, by Kitchen Table Quilting. I have been wanting to organize and use my scraps, and this seemed like a good project to motivate me to do so.

Yikes!

Organized by color and value. Next step is to trim them into manageable pieces.

This quilt takes a lot of time to cut, but the sewing is simple.

That has been the stitching done over here on this side of the pond, but as much as I would like to stitch all day, other things must be done–like grocery shopping. My wonderful husband did most of the shopping while I was quarantined. I gave him a list but was not as specific as I should have been, so when I wrote "smoked sausage", this is what came home:

We  are now well-stocked with smoked sausage.
It was a great choice because the sausage is quite tasty!

My wonderful daughter-in-law inspired me to try my hand at sourdough bread. I have never been successful at creating a perfect loaf, so that was my quest. Two days after starting, I achieved sourdough nirvana (slight over-exaggeration).

It's not perfect, but I'll take it.

That has been what has going on over here. Teri will share her "quaranstitching" adventures with you next week. In the meantime, we are working on a special mystery project that we will be offering to you all in the coming weeks. 

Stay healthy, stay home, and stay stitching!