Totalling or Totaling Teal

Just FYI, I learned that “totaling” is American and “totalling” is British.  And while we’re on the subject (and completely apropos to nothing), “selvage” is American and “selvedge” is British. You’re welcome.... That annoying little person on my shoulder (not sure if it’s the devilCathy or the angelCathy) is such a nag sometimes.... May I start my post now? Thank you.

OK, so the solitary confinement is getting to me, I admit it. Well, I guess it’s not solitary, but you know what I mean. This social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic is getting old. And we’ve just barely started. We’ve got a minimum of another 6-8 weeks of this, and more likely closer to 3 months. But I’d rather be alive and stir crazy than be a dead believer of the talking heads who are more interested in the economy than our lives. But I digress...

This week, despite my continuing inability to stop worrying and start focusing, I did get some sewing done.  I basted two quilts and finished one. Here is the Creature from the Aqua Lab...

I quilted it with just a simple stipple using a variegated teal/aqua cotton thread. The finished quilt measures 40” wide by 51” long. It will go to Quilts for Kids. Sometime. I also basted, but haven’t yet quilted, On Ringo Pond (see last post).  I will have that done before month-end. On Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll do a post to round up all my March quilts finished; there will be either 4 or 5 of them.

If the quilt above looks a bit bumpy, it’s because I have it pinned over the WIP on my design board. That project is another Harambe Sisters quilt. The sisters blocks and background setting triangles are mostly pinned in this picture, but they have been sewn. And in turn, they are pinned over the African panel I will be using as the backing. You can see that poking out around the edges. I’m just trying to make sure these finish roughly the same size (after trimming) as it will be a 2-sided wall hanging, like the one I did last fall.

Mostly this week I cut out and sewed some medical ma*ks (no picture - and I’m spelling out the word with an asterisk to defeat the bots that are deleting blog pix randomly when that word is spelled out). I was going gangbusters trying to organize a few groups in the county, along with the county health department, when I realized that everyone was already 14 steps ahead of me. But that’s a good thing. So, I won’t be doing anything but sewing and waiting for someone to tell me where to take them.

Anyway, I made a photo collage of my Teal/Aqua sewing for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for March. I sewed a total of 59 blocks this month. Not shown in the collage are the teal scrap bucket I made (and counted as one block) and the single aqua International Sister Block I made. But that will show up in a quilt top down the road. Here’s the roundup for Scrappy Saturday.

Of the 18 string blocks, five were used in my Aqua Creature quilt; the rest will go into the string block pile for a rainbow quilt at year-end.

Highlights of our week included lots of talking and face-timing with family, a Zoom video conference with my Weight Watchers group and leader on Tuesday, TP delivery (12 gifted rolls!) from our next-door neighbors, a trip in the car yesterday to get curbside pickup at the pharmacy and the bird food store (a shout-out to Wild Birds Unlimited! Their staff is so wonderful), and a quick trip to a local grocery store where we got some milk, strawberries and an onion, but no distilled water for my CPAP. But we’ll find some, I’m sure, within the next couple weeks. The lowlight (and I’m inserting this here at the end because a lot of people probably won’t read this far) is that Bruce’s cancer is back in 2 places on his arm. Surgery will be next Wednesday at IMC (Intermountain Medical Center) here in Murray. His oncology surgeon and a new, more specialized orthopedic plastic surgeon will operate together. Bruce will be losing one of the 2 arteries that feed his right hand, but still gets to keep it this time around. I’ll drop him off on surgery day, go home and wait, then pick him up when they call me to. These are strange and trying times....