Friday, March 13, 2020

Stitching out the stress

Hello all, and happy Friday the 13th!  Just what we need, right? Gosh, I hope you all are having a much better time than I am right now. I want to keep this light, so I'll just say that my university has shut down, like many many others, and we are moving all of our classes online. This is *much* harder than it sounds. It's Thursday night as I write this, and I've already put in about 55 hours this week, with more to come. Why cancel meetings when you can have them all online? Why not do some meetings on Friday since we won't have classes? No good reason!

Whew! Because of all the stress, I had a small "quilter's tantrum" where I took a bunch of stuff off the design wall (none too gently) because I'm tired of looking at it, then dumped out a project box and tried to find something to stress-sew that I wouldn't ruin if I didn't care too much about points, and straightness, and such. Lo and behold, look what happened:


Even I'm surprised by this finished top! Not at all what I started with! The squares are all 6 inches finished, so this top measures just about 48 by 60. Every bit is a scrap, too!


The pieces for this quilt top are the ones I made for Alycia's winter quilt along, which you can find HERE.  I had started to put things together but needed to make more pieces to get to the pattern Alycia had. Instead, I ripped (very therapeutic!) what I had and rearranged the pieces into something else.


Once I got into it, I challenged myself to use just the pieces I had and to make something that I would be proud to donate once I quilted it. I managed to use all the pieces and ended up cutting just six more yellow squares and making just two more blue and yellow hsts. For the pattern, I just played with things on the design wall until I had something I liked. If I thought about it some more I would have probably changed the direction of some of the hsts, but I'm happy enough with this. 


After a few hours in the sewing room, I felt much better! Its amazing what a little stitching can do for you. I really needed that mental break. Still stressed, but at least now I have something to show for it. This top will get quilted later this spring and be donated for Hands to Help, which certainly makes it worth the small fit I threw (in the privacy of the sewing room, of course!)


Sorry for all the whining today! I know a lot of you are having many of the same problems, and I know I'm lucky to have a job that I love and can still do even in the face of our current crisis. And I'm lucky not to be sick! The hubs and I are hunkering down and staying home for the duration.  We have food, tea, and Netflix, so I think we'll be fine.

I hope all of you are weathering this coronavirus situation well. Everyone take care of themselves and stay healthy, and I hope all your loved ones are healthy as well.  We're Americans-- we're strong, we're determined, we can do anything, and we'll get through this together.


Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or not Friday, and Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

16 comments:

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Oh my I so understand!! all 3 of mine are switching to online after spring break - which means 2 will come back home, ( which you know I am all for - they can live with me till I'm 100, but the reason why bothers me) so we have been rearranging... and totally understand your stress sewing. It turned out beautiful!! and I am SO with you... I stress quilted too!!! Hope all gets better/easier as you move in to uncharted waters!!

chrisknits said...

I stress sewed an ear bud case, a small zipper pouch, and started an appliqué mini wall hanging. Our guild cancelled all events, one which was a zipper pouch class I was to teach next week. I think it all is just hysteria, but understand that ill people need to proceed with caution, you know, just like with the FLU! Oh well, I will just sew on. Love the top you ended up with!!! It will make someone a wonderful snuggle quilt.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I think by next week we will be staying home too - no cases near our area but there are some on the other side of the state. I have been getting extra things for the last several weeks in preparation for staying home and after I go exercise today I will stop at the store to get last things and then I think I will be ready to stay home for awhile. I think a lot of people still do not realize that this virus is worse than the flu which is bad enough as it is

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Mari, I had been wondering what it is like for college professors to suddenly have to put all of their content online. Are you making videos that your students can watch to hear your lectures? Or podcasts? That has got to be a lot of work. I was an elementary teacher, and cannot imagine how I would do all that. Thinking of you! I think many of us are doing a lot of stress sewing right now. I love your yellow and blue top that came out of it!

ipatchandquilt said...

What a lovely quilt you made from all the scraps!
Our schools (The Netherlands, Europe) are not closing, excepts for colleges and universities, those are now shut. All the younger kids are still going to class. The reasoning being that the younger kids are not at risks as much as others.... they just seem to forget that us teachers can be infected by these little ones... also they want essential personal, like in the medical field to come to work instead of staying home with the kids... making teacher glorified baby sitters...
my exam students (17-18 years old) are stressing out as we still need to go through some topics before the middle of April. I may have to create online material for them just like you are doing.
Stay healthy!
Esther

Sara said...

I understand the stress of moving your courses to an online format - in a matter of days or hours. It's a LOT of work. My 3 online high school courses will probably see extra activity next week as most K-12 schools will be closed next week in South Dakota.

Hopefully all of the "shut down" steps will slow the spread of both Covid-19 and influenza A/B.

Love the results of the de-stress sewing. It turned out great.

Rose said...

The granddaughter that lives with us will be out of school for 2 1/2 weeks. I understand the frustration but I'm looking forward to the sewing room time while I take my turn out of work.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Love, love, LOVE what you came up with, Mari!! I keep thinking about doing the same thing with a (long ago) Mystery from Kevin the Quilter. I really liked the design, but one project or another kept getting in the way of my progress! Looking at your "Alycia" quilt makes me want to give Kevin's quilt another (different) go of it.

scraphappy said...

The stress of covid is finally hitting us all. Our schools have chosen to close for 2 weeks before deciding what is next. Since this week was already spring break, we can delay the moving of instruction to online. The only good thing about social distancing is that it means more time to sew. Love your stress relief pattern. Hopefully everything will settle down into a new routine soon.

Louise said...

I think you subconsciously designed your inner turmoil into a quilt top! Look at that center pinwheel, spinning around, your head full of classes and meetings and stress. But then the giant flying geese spread their wings and pull it all away. Fly, stress, fly! Out to the edges of the quilt and then away! Be sure you quilt it from the center outward, as well :)

Bernie Kringel said...

What a wonderful way to de-stress. this is a great use of your blocks and will make a wonderful quilt to donate. I am working on something similar - as in easy and mindless sewing. It feels good and comes together quickly. I love Louise's interpretation of your design. She is spot-on!

Kate said...

Hope the de-stress stitching helped some. That's my plan for today. We've spent most of the last week in meetings for business interruption planing.

Farm Quilter said...

This is definitely the most stressful time we have experienced in most of the world for quite a while. Your stress quilt turned out beautifully!! I am waiting on testing for COVID to come back on a friend of mine and making sure I am self-isolating as much as I can to protect my dad (he's 98 and I'm his sole care giver). Sewing is an excellent occupation for dealing with this current crisis!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

I'm sure Alycia has no problem if you change up her quilt along to fit your needs. Yes, everything has been cancelled here, and stupid people are buying everything off the shelves in the store (and not using protection while they are doing it). No panic in our house, just frustration at the idiots. I finally got some sewing done after 3pm yesterday. If my quilt show hadn't been cancelled, I'd have been stitching at 8am. Oh well. My hubby can work from home if he needs to, but I can't (I'm a caregiver for an elderly blind man). Thus, I have to take extra precautions to keep him (and me) safe.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Oh yes, ripping out is SO therapeutic for so many reasons. I feel for all of you who teach having to suddenly switch from class room to online, that cannot be an easy thing to pull off. Hard for students, too - but surely safer than coughing and sneezing in the classroom/halls/dorms/offices. Stitching will get us through - the hum of the machine has always soothed my soul (I started quilting during treatment for depression and it truly helped keep me sane).

piecefulwendy said...

I sure feel for you, having to make major adjustments in the blink of an eye. These are definitely strange times we are living in. I'm trying to recover from our road trip to Florida, which was really fun, but terribly surreal as things unfolded while we were there and on our way home. Hope things are falling into place for you and that the transition goes smoothly. That is one pretty stress quilt!