Friday Finishes!

This has been a busy week, time seems to fly by which is good, maybe the bans will be lifted soon and we can all get back to a new normal. I am not making any big plans, I am happy to just be, to create and spend time with the boys when I can.

This week I finished a runner I made for the new trailer, which I am doubting will happen at this point. I have no idea what is going on and they don't answer my questions, so I may just take my money back and keep looking. I am not even sure if I can travel with the way things are, so not worth it if I cannot go camping and it just sits in the yard.

I wanted something prim and would work with brown shades, so I used blocks from two pre-cuts. I did the black blocks in the middle, since that is where I plan to put a basket to hold salt and table items. I did one design in the center, then butterflies at the end and outer corners and a floral design in the rest. Nothing fancy, but it will be used, so I want it to be easily washed.

Speaking of washing, the backing is a heavy black material and it did not shrink, so it has a big bulky puff underneath. I will take the binding apart and recut it, or I may replace it with something thinner, but not good as is, way too bulky.

As usual, a horrid photo, I love how it looks and it is longer than it seems.

Here is a close up to see a little stitching, I did this by hand with a tan floss.

And I made more masks. My DIL loved the ones I gave them and so did her sister. So, I made two each for her family, and Ivy will ship them to England. The dark reds and blue jean will be for the guys, Nick wanted the pretty colored one.

And for the girls I used an old print from Barbara Brackman, gifted by a friend. The pale yellow with blue feathers are for them. Then my son said he wanted a cat one, he wants to wear it for fun at a meeting, lol. One is upside down, I was trying to save material and forgot about direction.

I also tried a couple with a slot for a filter. It was a pain and I will stick to my two fabric masks. I heard that a good test is to try and blow a match out, with the mask on, and I could not blow it out, so I guess mine are nice and tight, but still comfortable and breathable.

I also need for ties and no old T's so I found some T-shirt yarn on eBay, I did make sure I got name brand instead of imported ones. Not the colors I wanted, but good enough for the masks and will be easier for me to make more. We have a few people in town who are charging for them, and a lot of people cannot afford them with loss of pay, so I will make some for those who need them.

We were able to get out for a nice hike last week, I got in 5 miles with lots of hills. It would have been shorter, but we took a wrong path and had to back track. There was a lot of downfall along the trails which made it hard to tell where the paths were so a few dead ends.

But it was all worth it when we got to the swamp and our reason for going. Can you see all the blobs in the furthest trees?

It was amazing to see the blue herons. There were at least 30 nests and some would come out and fly around but not close enough. It is also very swampy so no good places to stand along the shoreline, but I was able to get one decent photo. I will definitely go back to this place and take the easier path.

And a funny for today. Nick wanted to show me the new mask, I made. I keep thinking it looked big on him and something was not right, then it hit me. He has it on backwards, lol. Alex will not wear one, he is a fuss budget, so I may try making him a ninja mask and seeing if that works.

I hope you all have a good weekend. The weather is warming up and the sun is out again, so even if we have to take shorter walks and stay close to home, I appreciate every minute that we can.