As the world knows… life has changed quite a bit lately. Here in Washington state and my home town of Everett… we had the first known Covid-19 case in January 2020. Since then things have become both  more interesting and of course more difficult and depressing. Luckily, my job is intact and since March 13th, I have been teaching middle school art online. An interesting challenge to say the least. The stay-at-home order that soon followed the school closures mean way more time at home and for me to keep my sanity, way more time making art. The timing of my online free-motion quilting class that began in February could not have been more perfect. The String and Story course with Hollyanne Knight has allowed me to keep busy learning new things, developing my craft and connecting me to a new community of artists. Project Quilting challenges with Kim Lapacek have given me inspiration for new projects. And the occasional porch pick up from Mindy at  Quilting Mayhem have kept me in materials. Today marks one month of “quarantine” and quite a number of projects have been started and finished in that time period.

Things I have done so far…

Two charity children’s quilts which allowed me to use up a lot of old novelty fabrics AND practice my free motion motifs for the class.

A set of 4 cool grocery tote bags made from scraps and free motion practice sandwiches. These were ‘auctioned’ off between my friends online for $150 in donations to  my local food bank . (I still have 2 left, so let me know if you are interested.)

I finished my brother’s T-shirt quilt, did some project quilting challenges, and a project for Contemporary Quilt Art‘s Little Big Show, made a Quirky Bird from the Sketchbook Revival class and made some Goldsworthy Styled yard art for the #artedportraitschallenge

Love Big NFS

Beholden 12 x 12 2020

I started a couple new projects… which are still incomplete… the PQQ2020 Floral challenge, A Sassier Llama quilt and my constantly morphing temperature quilt.

and last but certainly not least… masks! A lot of us have been alternating our personal joy projects with the monumental task of making masks for Essential Workers and now for our friends and families. I am over 50 masks made so far. I am “selling” them for a donation to a favorite charity and so far have raised over $1000 towards mostly Cocoon House (a homeless youth charity) and food banks.