Not Suitable for Masks

We are in for a string of nice days and periodic rain showers—perfect spring weather, as far as I am concerned. I planted the rest of the corn yesterday and have a few seedlings left over to share with friends. I’ve put in four 25’ rows of corn, so if we don’t get corn this year, it won’t be for lack of trying. The cowpeas need to go out soon. Cathy said she would take some, too, so we’ll see how they do in her garden versus mine.

The husband burned several of the slash piles we stacked from the windstorm in March, including two in the pig pasture. They had dried out enough that they burned hot and fast. The pile in the herb garden was still too wet to burn well, so that will have to wait a few days.

Most of the masks I’ve made have gone to my neighbor, Theresa, who lives across the road. Her daughter is a nurse in California. Theresa sends the masks to her daughter who shares them with the other nurses in her unit. They have been so appreciative. I worked on another batch of masks for them last night and then went stash diving to see what other fun prints I had. I found this:

I stared at it for a few seconds and then it dawned on me that this looks just like all the illustrations of the coronavirus that I’ve seen. I have no idea where it came from. The selvedge says only “An original screenprint by Richloom Designs.”

I am not going to use this for masks. This virus doesn’t need any more notoriety.

I also played around a bit with the large Drunkard’s Path die. I was pleased to find out that a fat quarter is perfect for cutting two layers with just a narrow strip left over. I have lots of fat quarters and I think this will be a good way to use them. Also, sewing the larger circles together is much easier than sewing the smaller version of this block.

I really need to get off this quilt-making kick. I need to make some bags. And T-shirts.

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Last fall, I splurged and bought a new down comforter and duvet cover for our bed from Nordstrom. The comforter we had on the bed was 25 years old and really needed to be replaced. The new one is so thick, though, that it’s too hot to sleep under now. I took it off and replaced it with a quilt—one I bought from Lands’ End many years ago—but the quilt slides off the bed every night.

Arrrggghh.

I ordered a lightweight down “blanket” and duvet cover and we’ll try that instead of the quilt.

When I was growing up, I slept on feather pillows every night. I am pretty sure the feathers came from my Grandma Gargus’s geese. I still have those pillows, and now I have two more that my mother found and sent to me when she was cleaning her house. I miss sleeping on feather pillows. I’ve never been able to find any that I liked as much as the ones I had when I was a kid. I’m kicking around the idea of cleaning the four pillows that I have and consolidating them into two pillows (I like very firm pillows).

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Montana is “open for business” again as of today. I plan to continue my social distancing, however, at least for a few more weeks. I only need to visit the feed store and the grocery store every so often. I could stand to make a Costco run, but I am trying to wait as long as possible to do that.