Monday Mystery Solo Robin
November 23, 2020Argh, my helper is helping by hiding the screen. Let’s see how well I can do blind. Ahh I have some screen, excellent. After a weekend of house chores I am quite relieved to have some nice calm quilt related work to do. I have a monster stitch in the ditch job loaded that I really must have finished before Christmas. Sounds a long way off? Not with this much stitch in the ditch and on curves. Still it beats cleaning the path 
Now after a somewhat delayed start to the day, my bathroom party had to move to Monday this week, let’s see what we are designing this week. Ooooh, our technique this week is,
Symmetry
I like this. I have waited so long for this one to come up. Excited, why yes I am thank you. How much space do we have to play?
Add 6″ to at least 2 adjacent sides of your quilt.
Oh the cards love me this week. With multiple sides that opens up the chance to mirror around corners which could be a lot of fun, and 6″ is a decent amount of space to play in too. lots of ways to play with this one. I think this is the perfect distraction, probably for more than one week truth be told. Now I can head to work with a skip in my step. No actual skipping as my ankle is still healing but metaphorical.
Monday Mystery Solo Robin
November 16, 2020Here we are again. It is Monday and we need our thought for the week. Well our design challenge I suppose, but for quilters one is much like the other. This week our technique/design prompt is,
2.5″
Yup that’s it, the whole thing. 2.5″ has always been important in quilting but since the arrival of pre-cuts even more so. I know a lot of quilters also save their scraps in strips, usually including some 2.5″. I also use this size for my binding strips, maybe some leftover binding can go into this one. Our border size this week is,
Add 4″ to at least 2 adjacent sides of your quilt.
Hmm, well I guess anything dividing by 2 is pretty good for this one. I would have liked wider but hey these are supposed to challenge us to think so maybe I should be pleased it is trickier. I will need to do some serious thinking before the group tomorrow afternoon.
Another small milestone
November 12, 2020Fenrir is sure he is now a professional dog. I am sure it is somewhat like a teenager getting a provisional driving license for their birthday and being sure they are now a professional driver. Both are on the right road, neither are there yet. However we have now installed a stairgate (with cat flap) so Fenrir can have a little more freedom downstairs. We do still have to keep a pretty close eye on him, empty cat food packets apparently have some kind of magnetic attraction to his mouth, he doesn’t take them out of the bin, on no never. So we have to rescue him from those if they attack. Mostly though he is getting the hang of things and is finally almost like owning a dog.
Being floors day today he had a chance to help me clean. He has decided the vacuum cleaner is OK but he needs to be behind it just in case, he saw it eat spilled dog biscuits once and has been careful since. He never leaves unattended food where the vacuum cleaner might get it. I like that he is not too scared of the vacuum cleaner and that he thinks behind me is a safe place to be. I was less thrilled when he offered to eat the dirt out of the cleaner to help, but I think we have resolved that. I am certain he enjoyed being with me a bit longer. I know I did. It is very slow progress but it is progress and I can see that he will work out to a nice civilised member of the family.
Getting ready for the Christmas Party
November 11, 2020Over the weekend I did manage one fun job. I got started on the Christmas party cocktail recipe. Last year I designed a cocktail for one of my classes and it was a success. This year as my students will be at home and don’t need to worry about driving I decided it made sense to extend it to all of them. I will actually be making two recipes this year. One with and one without alcohol. Both will have a cranberry theme (chosen by a student). If you would like to play along with the alcoholic version you will need to make the cranberry liqueur in advance. I am basing mine on this recipe, http://www.guntheranderson.com/liqueurs/cranberr.htm . I say basing because I am just infusing the alcohol with the flavours. I will add the sugar syrup at bottling stage. I do this method for other flavours and I think it works quicker for me that way. It also lets me use a slightly smaller container. I plan on giving the alcohol at least a week to work its magic and suck up all the flavour it can. I have made the spiced version, after all this is a Midwinter/Christmas cocktail. You don’t need to make a full batch of this liqueur unless you want to, and it may make good Christmas presents. So do feel free to reduce the quantities. Other than this I am trying to restrict myself to things that are readily available or people may already have. It does make this a bit trickier but I think I will cope. The non alcoholic version will need cranberry juice and yes I suspect if you don’t want to make you own alcohol that may work in the cocktail, but I am not promising. I would suggest freezing the orange and lemon that you have used the peel of, I am expecting to use one or the other sliced with the cocktail. All going well both drinks will be spiced cranberry and orange themed.
Why we won’t be back to normal by spring.
November 10, 2020I am really sorry to have to be saying this, but we won’t be back to normal by spring. We may be on the way but we wont be there. Let me try to explain why. Please remember I am an astrophysicist not a biologist, I have done my best to check the biology parts of this but mostly this is logic, production and logistics.
Yesterday a vaccine announced it was effective. So far so good, but, this vaccine and several others that look equally promising are still in testing. This article has a nice illustration of the stages of testing and how long they would usually take.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51665497
As you can see from that article 11 vaccines are at the same stage of testing. Usually only a very small percentage of vaccines that go into phase 3 testing actually make it into production. The sources I have seen say less than 20% make it, that would be 2 or 3 of those 11. However let us say that this time will be different and these will make it. The companies making the vaccines are taking exactly that gamble and already producing some vaccines to be shipped as soon as they are licensed.
If they are given their license in this country our government has a pre-order in with many companies so should get deliveries pretty soon after approval. At the moment no results have been reviewed and no one is close to a license. The vaccines have to be kept at -70C throughout the shipping and distribution process, so there may be some issues moving them. Hoping some centers will have them ready to use a week after licensing is possible, if a little optimistic, and that won’t be every doctor having some, that will likely be some sort hub with them. Once we reach this stage teams can start to vaccinate people. This will need 2 doses a month apart and immunity takes 2 weeks from the second dose. The first batch will cover 10 million to 30million people depending on which vaccine gets licensed first as we have different size orders with different companies. Assuming of course the immediately supply our full order (if we can store and move the whole order too).
So in theory our first batch of people might have immunity about 8 weeks after the first vaccine has been licensed, 2 weeks to get set and then 6 weeks to have completed the course and gained immunity. Current gossip is suggesting first vaccinations around Christmas so that would give immunity around the middle of February. These people are likely to be the most vulnerable. They are likely to get the vaccine first as there is no evidence the vaccine stops the spread of the disease only the manifestation of it. It can stop people getting sick but not stop them spreading it. This is not ideal, we would usually want to stop the people most likely to spread the virus from spreading it but as this vaccine may not do that we have to take the slower approach of reducing how many it kills or leaves with long term health problems. Unfortunately we can’t predict which young healthy people will get long covid so initially they will be unprotected and will need to maintain all precautions.
During the weeks our first batch of vaccinated people are developing immunity hopefully more vaccines will be being delivered. The companies are talking about producing billions of doses a year. That sounds great but even with every company in the running producing a billion doses (which is unlikely remember most vaccines fail final trials) the world population is 7.8billion, to cover everyone would need about 16billion doses. That is flat out for all 11 vaccines. It will take time to get enough doses to have a significant impact on case numbers. Realistically I can’t see most of us getting our first dose before March or April. I think that may be wildly optimistic even allowing for the probability that the wealthier countries will get them first (the ethics of that may be another discussion). If we did all get a first dose in March we would not be safe until May at the earliest. When I say safe, I mean we would know Covid wouldn’t kill us, it doesn’t mean we couldn’t spread Covid to someone who hadn’t been vaccinated yet, or for medical reasons can’t be. The fact we can still spread it may mean we will still need masks and distancing by the summer.
I really don’t want to depress people. These vaccines are amazing. The work that has gone into getting them so soon is incredible. Really a lot of people have worked their socks off to make this happen. It is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not there yet. Things will not magically be all fixed in the next few weeks.
Here is another article which might give you some more information on what this does and doesn’t mean for us now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/health/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine.html
Please do celebrate the progress, celebrate the doctors, the scientists, the lab workers, the data analysts and the people who have risked their bodies to test these vaccines. They are doing amazing work. Please also stay aware of the real timelines here. Don’t assume it will all be over by Christmas, especially not this Christmas. Please also remember time never goes back, we are going forward to normal, it may always be a little different but different can be good. If you know me, you know how much I hate change but even I can see some good things have come from this pandemic and I am still hopeful there is more good to come.
So why are weekends so hard
Well not all are, and usually I have a lot of fun things I plan for the weekend. Then it happens. I am pretty sure this happens to a lot of people, especially those who work for a living. Yet somehow the common view is weekends are restful. Before we even get to what happens to mine, there are a LOT of people who work weekends and see no difference between the days of the week, and I appreciate that they do it makes our lives a lot easier and safer. My weekends are where optimism and reality meet. I had planned to make rosemary salted caramel and finish my quilt. However, I had a mission on the back burner, when the weather allows clear the leaves in the garden. Yup you guessed it, the weather allowed.
I love where I live, and I am very very glad we moved before covid. However, we have LEAVES. Yup in capitals. This weekend we cleared (ish) the front garden. I thought last year ti was about 6 man hours. I was wrong, or there were more leaves this year. We spent all of Saturday clearing and then another couple of hours on Sunday. We still have the back garden to deal with too, that is a lot smaller at least. I am hoping the leaves will eventually break down and become compost. We didn’t want to burn them as even waiting for a break in the weather the leaves were very wet. Yes we could have piled them up to dry, but wind. Instead we went for the leaf sucker which chews them up to little pieces and hopefully breaks them down faster. While sucking up leaves I also managed to get bitten on my finger. What sort of insect bites a finger, its just not professional. My fingers is very angry with this lack of professionalism, or of course whatever got in my finger from the bite. I am just please it is my left hand and much less critical for quilting.
Couple this mission with a very early shopping delivery and a nice sensible work week looks fantastic. I have plenty of quilting to do (some urgent) I have classes and discussion groups, lunch is on a schedule all nice simple and planned. With that I really should stop playing here and get quilting.
Monday Mystery Solo Robin
November 9, 2020Another Monday and another step in our quilts. I would love to say after a relaxing weekend back to work, but I am thinking thank goodness I am back to work weekends are too tiring I may be doing it wrong. Still that is a story for another day. Now we want to know what we are planning this week. This weeks technique is,
Nine patch
Now, I suspect most of you have a very specific block in mind, but do bear in mind this is also a family of blocks. Not that the specific block isn’t a lot of fun in its own right. Ooooh and lots of ways to fiddle with it. Oh dear I think I may have fallen down another rabbit hole. I suppose the border size my constrain said rabbit hole a little,
Add 6″ to one side of your quilt.
Yup that does probably blow one of the ideas I was having of a slightly fractal block, it is doable but that would be awfully fiddly. Which I admit wouldn’t always stop me but this will be a large border so I should probably be sensible. maybe some sort of on point chain, because 1″ square pieces are perfectly sensible.
Here we go again
November 5, 2020Well we are locked down again. I can’t honestly say it makes much difference to me. My work schedule is the same as I now only work from home. It is Thursday so I am just waiting for my students to arrive in class. It was a bit busier this week as people got quilts to me and picked up supplies but really its business as usual. Some things are better this time around, other than I know what to expect and I feel a but better prepared, I love that Royal Mail will collect parcels from my house. It means I can ship things reasonably which will be great if people run out of supplies to quilt. It also means I can return completed quilts no matter what, and as some are needed for Christmas that is a very big deal.
As with the last round it looks as though supermarket slots will be tricky but I have one booked for midwinter and an a couple more this month so one way or another it will work out. It is harder when the supermarkets ration how much you can buy, which I understand but when I can get a slot for a month I need to buy a months worth not a weeks worth. As I say, one way or another I will make it work and none of the animals will go hungry as their food is on subscription and appears like magic.
I am really encouraged to hear more people are taking up crafts. I am hoping it may also encourage more people to have a go at the Monday quilt, if only as a design challenge. I am also getting excited about the next mystery project. As it seems Covid wants to hang about I have something planned for the 52 weeks after the mystery solo robin. Not bad for oh I will do this for a few months I guess 24 is a few on some scales. I am also giving more thought to some day classes, but between now and the end of the year I think I have too much quilting on. This is always a busy time and I think more so than usual as people have made more over the summer and now want to send them for Christmas. Which is a great idea in my opinion but will keep me very busy for now. In the new year I am thinking maybe a quilting day, a patchwork from clothes day and maybe if there is interest something art quilty. That may need to be over several days one way or another.
Anyway I have students now so this is all for now.
Monday Mystery Solo Robin
November 2, 2020Monday seems to come around faster every week. I suppose this year that might be seen as a good thing, but I really could do with more time to get everything done. This morning we have already had the chimney sweep in ( apparently I have been rotoswept). Yes I am very glad to have got that done just before we get locked down again, although as a key worker (providing heating services) he will keep working anyway. I am just happier not to have people in the house. Today I need to play with the new Royal Mail collection service and see if I can work it out. I think it will be very useful if I can and it does what was suggested on the news.
For now though we need to continue with our mystery quilt I am very pleased I have just kept it running and I do encourage folks to at least think about the design challenge each week. I am sure it is one of the healthier ways to keep your brain busy. I am still running the Tuesday discussion group for the design of the week and yes it is still free. Comment if you would like to join the group and I will make sure you get an invitation to google meet.
This week our technique card says,
Bigger and smaller
Hmm, this one will be guided a lot for me by the border size. For me that feels like it will determine what axis I can play with. Better find out what borders we have got then,
Increase the size of your quilt by 8″
Well that’s nice and vague, thank you cards. I suppose it does open up some options though. Like having part of the 8″ on one side and part on another. Maybe the same border in two block sizes. Or perhaps 8″ in one place with a range of block sizes. Oh or maybe applique in different sizes. Does increase the size of your quilt mean one axis or 2? Yup absolutely vague but perfect brain food. This will be something to distract me all week I think.
Monday Mystery Solo Robin
October 26, 2020No, I hadn’t forgotten. It has just been one of those mornings. I thought I had a couple of things to do and that rapidly multiplied. However I am here now and it is still before noon so I will argue not technically late. Just later than I wanted it to be. If I want this posted before noon I had better get right on with it rather than blather. This weeks technique is,
Diamonds
Oh wow that is so unfair, I could talk for ages about the options for this one but I know I need to get a wiggle on. So harsh. The border size for our diamonds is,
Add 7″ to one side of your quilt.
Nice, not too crazy but enough space to play in. OK a quick bit of formatting and this goes up. See you tomorrow I hope.