Ties That Bind

Last Saturday I put the final stitch into the binding of this,

Roughly 70" x 92"

wrote and ironed the label,

then flang it into the washer (hot water) then dryer (high heat) (I abuse the quilts before the owners get a chance, so I can assure them it's already gone through worse than they'll ever do to it). If I timed it right, I could get it delivered before my son went to bed (I had no idea what Jesse's schedule was, but I could see with my own eyes that Carl was still awake because he was streaming on Twitch).

Rather than try to fit everything into a label, I wrote my thoughts in a card. Lots more room to really describe what went into the decision to gift this.

Buried Treasures

(Trying the New! Improved! Blogger interface. At least it'll load pictures now.)

In the past couple of weeks I've been peeking into hidden corners of forgotten cupboards--organizing, clearing, and finding some surprises.

I've no idea when I bought the X-tra Large Lysol Wipes, but that container was a nice surprise to find under the kitchen sink. Despite suggestions from TIFI, these will be kept outside my body.

The anti-bacterial hand gel had to have been a gift, because there is no way on earth I would buy anything with this cloying combination of scents to put anywhere on my person. Of course, if I did use it, I'd certainly keep my hands as far from my face (nose) as physically possible! I won't, though. I just don't use anti-bacterial things, preferring to let my body build up natural resistances. This will be regifted to a friend stopping by this weekend.

The Mask Project

This used to be a post. An unintentional keystroke eliminated it forever, and I don't know that I can, or want, to recreate it.

So be it.

Still alive. Still well. Still dealing (with massive amounts of wine) with what has become of our country.

Still thinking of O. Henry as I sew, and sew, and sew countless masks.

5/11: I had been a month behind in reading Bonnie Hunter's daily blog, so it wasn't until I took some time to catch up with her this weekend that I learned what had happened with mine. Her second explanation: "And folks - just a note - Google is blocking images on several of my previous posts regarding mask making.  I'm not sure what the deal is, but at this time I can't go back and rewrite those posts or find the photos that were supposed to be inserted without it taking SO MUCH TIME.  So I'm sorry.  I'm going to see if I can resolve it.  It's a weird thing between Blogger (Google) and Google Photos."

I don't use Google Photos, but all my pictures on this original post (written on April 2nd) had been removed. I keep my photos in a dated folder on my laptop, but don't save the text of each blog post. In an attempt to reinsert each photo, I managed to erase everything I had written (no amount of Ctrl-Z made it all better), save for one caption I had Ctrl-C'ed:

"Masks ready to go. The 4 clips on the edge indicate 40 masks inside. This was a very stiff and heavy batik that I didn't want to use in a quilt after all. It never did wash up nice and soft as other batiks do." That caption went with this picture:

The photos had been removed from the post before this one too, but I managed to get everything replaced without incident. And so far they've stayed there. If this photo gets redacted, I'll start using "fabric face filter" as the synonym for mask. Even if this post remains untouched, it's still creepy wondering why this particular form of censorship is going on.

Today would've been Wednesday

... is what I found myself thinking this afternoon at "close of business", relaxing with a glass of wine in my front yard.

I've got a beautiful view from the shade. There's a park with a pond directly across the street, and families are enjoying it more and more these days, especially while the week of Texas Spring is in effect. Soon enough, temps will rise to their usual 90+ degrees.

This will be a disjointed post. In one of the many "laughs" emails sent by friends, this one stuck:

"I'm either coming out of this quarantine 20 lbs lighter, chakras balanced & a house full of completed craft projects, or...

20 lbs heavier with a drinking problem."

I'm choosing the latter.

We have a nest outside our front door. It was built last year and inhabited again this year. Imagine you've stepped outside and looked up:

The biggest dark blob is the barn swallow nest. The others are probably wasp nests, but I don't bother them if they don't bother me.

Sitting in the front yard puts me directly in the flight path of "our" barn swallows as they zoom from the pond to their nest, but they don't seem to mind. Of course, I've no idea what they're really saying about me behind my back.

"Close of business": I shall elucidate in tomorrow's post. Dinner's on.