Of Blizzards, Blursdays, and Borrowing

Yesterday the late afternoon weather bulletin indicated snow was heading our way, and indeed this morning we awoke to about 3 inches of fluffy white, and 15 degrees!!  The daffodils that had already opened looked very sad, and I fear for everything else that is just beginning to leaf out. 

Cynthia at Wabi-Sabi Quilts nailed it yesterday when she called those nondescript days between Sunday and Saturday "Blursdays."  Seems we don't know the date, the day of the week, or even month of the year if looking out the window at the continuing snow is any indication.  I made a solo trip to the church to layer and pin the grandson's quilt top late this morning, and the visibility on the way home was less than a quarter mile with the heavy blowing snow.  The temperature had moderated to a balmy 28 degrees however.

Inside the sewing room this week, I've been rummaging through all the bits and bobs stashed in every corner and at the bottom of the closet.  Found a bag with several saved pieces of old FMQ practice pieces, nothing special but a bit too nice to be thrown away.  So, those have been trimmed down to eliminate the worst parts and into roughly rectangular or square shape, scrappy binding found and they're ready for finishing off.  Photos to come.

Then Grace at Citymousequilter posted earlier this week an intriguing way to set HST's, and heaven knows I have a ton of those stored in swiffer boxes around here.  It took an entire afternoon and beginning to stitch them together before I totally had the hang of which way each one should be turned, but here is the first iteration on the design wall, awaiting stitching.

Fun, yes?  Since taking the photo I've added a couple more rows at the bottom so the resulting little quilt will be a bit longer than wide.  I commented on Grace's blog post that I wanted to "borrow" the design, and she replied that she herself had borrowed it, so I'm not sure who may have originally designed this layout.  I do like it though, and it could make some fairly quick and easy donation quilts with larger HSTs when we're finally able to restart our quilting ministry.  Our governor has just extended New York's stay-at-home order to May 15, so it won't be anytime soon, sadly. 

I hope you are all faring well as we continue along this bumpy road.  As I watched the poor woman in the grocery store this morning in her attempt to obey the latest mandate to wear masks in public places, I think I should try to resume making face coverings to pass out to those in need.  Hers was made of two layers of netting and held onto her face with strips cut from (now banned in our state) plastic grocery bags!  Two weeks ago I was the only person wearing a mask while grocery shopping, this morning nearly everyone in the store was wearing one. 

Stay safe, stay well, and above all stay positive!!