Black & White

I keep telling people that I love the combination of Black & White, and that I love checkerboards. For example, did you know that every cat I have ever had has been black and white? (This photo of Millie was taken back in 2009.) But I digress...

You should go back and read this post about the bathrooms in my house from last Christmas. In that post I showed you the tiny shower in my main bathroom. It and the toilet live in a small L shaped room. One leg of the room is the shower and the toilet, and the other is a sort of closet of shelves that hides behind the bathroom door.

So now that you have "the lay of the land" as they say, this is what you see when you enter that little room. The shower is on the left, the toilet is on the right. This is the curtain I made. Look closely.

Yes, these are black and white bras and panties. What else is more perfect for a lady's bathroom?

This is an African mask I bought at Pier One a million years ago. I got it for my son's room back when he was in his last year of high school. He went to work with my brother in Colorado for the summer and asked me to spruce up his room when I was gone. So I did. When he moved out, he left the mask. Thank you son. Now it hangs in my bathroom.

You've seen this before. It's Seminole Patchwork and for the life of me I don't understand why it isn't more popular than it is because I think it is absolutely spectacular. Then again we all know I love the graphic (abstract) quality of quilts. The black and white are solids and the turquoise is like a batik. The color combination was inspired by the colors Danika Patrick wore one Indianapolis 500 race way back when. There are some very good books on Seminole Patchwork out there (I know, I own most of them), but they are likely out of print. Still you ought to be able to Google something if you want to know more.

This is a woodcut by Barry Moser. Go ahead, look him up. He's awesome and his work is fabulous. You can see more images here. This print is the Mad Hatter from his illustrated version of Alice.

I was cleaning out my closet to get to the Fontaine Sisters when I found the print. I had forgotten I owned the books. 

 

I thought the Mad Hatter's delightfully horrified expression would be perfect for the bathroom wall. I'd have placed him directly ABOVE the toilet if the quilt fit on the wall on the right, because I thought it would be hilarious to have him looking down at a man urinating in the toilet, except that there are no men living in this house and male visitors tend to use the guest bathroom. And besides, there is a nice symmetry to having the quilt in the middle.

I do plan to revamp this bathroom, but with the spa tub taking up so much space, and the skylight directly above it, I have some major rearranging and work, to do it. Since I am a big believer of not getting started until you know where you are going, this bathroom will wait. I will, however, be giving the guest bathroom a total revamp that should be done by summer. Part of that was replacing the toilets in both bathrooms. 

Honestly, never in a thousand years did I expect a post about TOILETS would generate more comments than a post about a quilt, but there you go. Proves once again the world is indeed a funny place.

I'll show you something EVEN MORE SPECTACULAR that I found that I didn't even know I had later.

Pandemic Fashion!

A week or so ago I made masks for my son and his family, and sent them to the City of Angels. Yesterday they sent me this picture.

"They are so comfy," my DIL wrote. "Little Miss loves hers and does not want to take it off. They fit perfectly, nice and snug around the nose."

Now, they live in California, and that means they can't even leave their own property, so they can't take a walk down the street. We all know my granddaughter probably won't go out at all, but there was no way I was NOT going to make her a mask. And OF COURSE it had to have dinosaurs!

This is me with one of the masks I made for myself. I have a pair, so I can always have a clean one if I need to go out.

Although I'm not going out. The only time I go out is to go down to the mail house to collect my mail, and whether I walk or drive, I wear a mask.

One of my coworkers saw the masks I had made for the production workers and asked if I could make some masks for her and her family. She had tried to buy some, but had no luck.

Tell me how much and I will pay you, she texted.

Well, gee, I wrote back, if you're still going to the grocery store, here is what I would like as payment:

1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of cilantro
2 or 3 avocados
1 bag of spinach
1 bunch of asparagus
1 box of linguine

A few hours later, my grateful friend delivered two grocery bags of green stuff for me.

The masks for the rest of her family are almost ready!

Solo

Millie checks out her domain every day now. I am able to keep the window open for longer periods and she spends as much time as she can out there.

Everybody's baking. Me too, but I don't need a regular batch of anything. This is a five by three inch brownie. The book is "Small Batch Baking" for one or two people. This is enough for me to satisfy my sweet tooth.

This is a batch of 20 masks I made for my company. We are classified as "Essential." Our facility supplies many of the essential infrastructure markets defined by the Department of Homeland Security and with my masks and those made by other volunteers, every member of our company now has at least one. All of the admin staff are working remotely and the support/engineering staff work at home on alternate days. The company instituted staggered shifts so workers in the production areas can stay six feet apart and our sick leave policy has been expanded to include workers affected by Covid-19. We've also developed a 3D printed face shield that has been approved by the NIH and are now being used in two local hospitals.

I've now completed my second week working from home. On Thursday the printer sounded an alarm. It needed a new drum unit. I contacted our purchasing agent and gave her the appropriate part number. She asked for my street address. A short while later she sent me an email telling me that the drum unit and a toner cartridge would be delivered to my house the next day. And the next day, it was. I am sure my neighbors in this over-55 community were very surprised to see the delivery truck for a big box office supply company driving through.

 In the next day or two, I will resume the story of my friendship with Julie. This is a photo I took of the quilts hanging in her foyer when I visited in 2013.

Mask Making...

Like many quilters, I am making masks. Yes, this one is for my granddaughter.

All masks, no matter what style, need ties. I make mine with this Clover binding tool. I cut a 2" strip, feed it through one end, and then press it, like so. Each mask needs about 60" of ties. So I started out by cutting strips of leftover backing.

Then I got smart, and pulled this bin down from where it lives on top of the bookcase that houses my stash. Long time readers know I made 200 kitty quilts many years ago. I needed binding for them, and kept all the leftover bits. (Because, I'm a quilter, and we save our bits.)

I pressed the ones that were very wrinkly.

Then fed them through the sewing machine, to sew the edges together. I power sewed them all, one after the other.

How much do I have? I dunno, but I used an entire bobbin sewing these.

 And I only used half of what was in the box. I still have all these left to sew.


Here's the mask instructions I use.

Masks

This mask was made by my dear friend Mary, whose son-in-law is a surgeon in Ohio.

We quilters can help with the cause to keep everyone safe. We can make masks.

Here is an article from this week's New York Times about how sewers everywhere are contributing to the cause.

And this one is from yesterday's New York Times that says we should probably all wear masks when we go out.

Here is a study about what kinds of fabrics are best and why. Very illuminating! 

Here is an excellent link from eQuilter about all things masks.

Finally, here is a link from the Deaconess Hospital with instructions to make masks. I am sure there are dozens of instructions out on the internet.

Be safe everybody.