The Days are Long But the Years are Short

I keep saying to myself that I am going to be better at keeping up with the blog. Sigh. 

This has been a very long month. Living in a pandemic is weird. 

I am fortunate. I know this. I have so much, however I am still in mourning for what was. This is my busy season and I had a lot of plans. Plans which had to be postponed or cancelled all together. These plans have been mourned. 

And despite these losses, I am so fortunate. My husband still has his job, and although he goes in to work everyday he does not come in to contact with the public. I know others do not have these privileges. I have a home, food, bed, and a pesky cat. I recognize these privileges, and am working each day to be busy and happy. Some days I am successful, and some days, well, not so much.

But that is okay. The 100 Day Project was starting at the beginning of the Stay at Home orders,  and I felt extremely stressed trying to come up with a project. I had several ideas, but couldn't pick which I wanted to do. In the end, I set the bar low, and I am glad to say, I have been 100% successful so far.

I've managed to sew some masks for family and friends. 

At first, mask making was very depressing. I had to put it aside for a bit. 

Once I did a little hand carving I felt better and was able to sew more masks.

 I carved a brood of chickens, as well as a duck and a sparrow. The duck and sparrow were supposed to be baby chickens but they had minds of their own and turned out to be a duck and a sparrow. Hahaha

Clucky on the left, and Chicky on the right.

While my daughter was searching for a project to keep herself busy, she found a couple of my UFO's, which I finished. Well one of them is finished, the other just needs a binding now.

Two years ago, I helped Ruth Chandler, in her Modern Hand Stitching class at Art and Soul Portland. In exchange for my help she gave me a kit for her class. I had finished all the pages of sample stitches, but needed to couch threads and ribbons between each page, add some dangly bits and stitch it all in to a book. 

 Finishing this project brought me a lot of joy.

Back of Star Quilt

The other UFO which is almost finished is a quilt I started at Craft Napa a couple of years ago. I will post more about it once I get the binding on. It was wonderful to finish the quilting on this piece.

Taking the time to blog about these projects makes me look like I accomplished a lot, especially when I consider I have other projects I did in addition to these projects. But the idealist in me says, "oh, but, what about all those hours you sat streaming shows, or going through social media. That is time you could have been doing so much more."

Those are moments when the realist in me says, 

"SHUT UP! Someone get the popcorn. You are awesome and we deserve a break."

I hope you all are staying well! Hang in there.