Sign of the Times

You may have surmised that I have been in Florida. We (my sister and my good friend, Claire) went down to my Florida home in mid January and planned to stay until April 22. We were having a grand old time going to the beach, the pool, shopping, eating out and visiting friends, etc. The weather was glorious and I walked for at least an hour every morning. My son came for visit, followed by a good friend and then my niece. And then the s**t hit the fan. The virus! Bit by bit things closed down....the restaurants, the beaches, the pools, the stores. And then it started to get hot, 90's in the afternoon. So other than our morning walks we were mostly inside in the AC. We had done a few projects and they were finished. I do not have a studio there and there was nothing to do other than read and watch TV. I wanted to go home where I knew I would have so many things to do. I also was afraid that we would get stuck down there indefinitely.

We were able to change our flight to March 31 with no charge from Jet Blue. I had shipped my car down and I had to coordinate the car pick-up with the flight. We had flights cancelled three times and I was so afraid that we would have to drive home, a three day ordeal with stops for hotels, meals and restrooms. Jet Blue did come through and we had a 7:30 PM flight home.

The airport was empty and the plane left 1/2 hour early. There were only 22 people on the plane and everyone had on masks and gloves.

I had a message on my phone at home asking me to make masks for the local Hospice. These are not the easy-peasy ones that abound on YouTube, but ones meant to fit over N95 masks, so that they can be washed and make the N95s last longer. They are a little fiddly but not that bad and I plan to make a lot. You have to make binding and do some darts, but we sewers are used to that.

The pattern calls for an 8 inch by 44 inch fabric to make one mask, with a pocket inside for an added filter, if wanted. I heard that batiks are better because of the denser weave. I went thru my stash, which is large, and although I didn't think I had enough of that size, I had more than I thought.  I made my first two today.

I liked using coordinating fabrics for the masks and the ties and will do some more that way.

I am so glad that I can do a little bit to help in this horrible situation. I do not plan to go out of the house for the next month, other than a morning walk and maybe another grocery store run in a couple of weeks. I should be able to do a lot of sewing.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday. Go see what other artists are doing in this trying time.