Quilting is sure different during a pandemic, sometimes in unexpected ways. For example, I’m embarrassed that I can’t remember what day I finished this block. I’m pretty sure it was a Tuesday (though I couldn’t tell you why I’m sure of this), and it was definitely after the 8th, but that still leaves me with three possible Tuesdays in August. I’m going with the middle one and putting on the Progress page that I completed the block on August 18th, but it’s really only a guess. I’m quite bothered by my shoddy recordkeeping, but what can you do?

Since this is one of those triangle blocks that has some non-uniform piece shapes, I decided to use the Avery Label technique. The pandemic twist is that the labels are printed with an old Physics assignment about galaxy formation. On my last triangle block back in May, I’d accidentally left an extra sheet of label paper in the printer, so when my kid printed out her school assignment, it came out on the label paper. I wasn’t about to waste one of those expensive label sheets, so now the labels on the back of the block contain random physics phrases (my favorite is “primordial density fluctuations”). Waste not, want not, right?

I prepped a few pieces for this block to work on in the waiting room at a doctor visit, but I was nervous about getting germs on my favorite (not easily washable) travel kit, so I made a makeshift kit with “disposable” items. Okay, the scissors aren’t actually disposable, but at least they’re washable.

After all that effort to prepare a pandemic-friendly travel kit, I only got one measly seam sewn at the doctor’s office. I might as well have just waited till I got home to work on it.

Then I was busy with making masks for two weeks. I was reminded that I don’t much enjoy garment sewing, but in this case, having the finished product is vitally important. Here are ten masks cut out and ready for sewing … so glad these are done now!

When I finally got back to the block, it was still in the makeshift travel kit with one pathetic little seam sewn.

With all that’s going on in the world, I’ve really been trying to make time for some fun things like quilting the last couple of months. I made some good progress on this block during my hand quilting group’s August virtual meeting, cutting out the rest of the pieces and sewing together a decent amount of them.

I worked hard to make sure all the pieces of vine fabric were facing right side up – which was more challenging since I was using the last little scraps of this fabric donated to me by my friend Pat. Waste not, want not – again. And I’m certainly not having any serendipitous scraps finds while hibernating at home, so it’s wise to make use of what I have on hand.

It definitely felt important to me to have the fabric “uplift” the block, so I’m glad I had just enough of this vine fabric left to cut out all those pieces facing the right direction.

While wrapping up this triangle, I was humming “Rise Up” and other inspirational songs. I’m just trying to keep the pandemic life from getting me down.