WIP or Will

No WIP progress during the 2020 winter quarter, but I did finish another set of masks.

These masks have non--woven interfacing; I couldn't believe I actually had some in my stash from probably more than a decade ago. These latest masks, which go to a home health nurse who had no masks at all, have blue pillowcase fabric on one side and maroon pillowcase fabric on the other side.

Pillowcase and T-shirt fabric have been shown to be the most effective, although the weave is not tight enough to block this year's ugly germ. Interfacing, however, will do the job. Nurses who have been working non-stop have begun to request different fabrics on the front and back of handmade masks so they know which side goes toward their mouths when they need to temporarily remove the masks during a shift.

I've been making two masks for each nurse who requests a mask so one may be worn while the other is being washed.


Although I didn't work on any of my WIPs last quarter, I did get some piecing and machine embroidery done on the green batik leftovers dress.


Perhaps I should join or start a WIP challenge group for dresses. I think I have about 10 in progress now, plus about six more I hope to make one day (fabric in stash, and stash pattern chosen).

And then there are the shorts projects. It's almost time to wear shorts again, too, so that would be pretty timely.

I'd be in serious trouble if anyone ever counted my mending WIPs.

I probably need a crochet WIP challenge group, too. While working from home, I've been able to do a little bit of closet organizing, and it's sometimes embarrassing to see how many crochet (and even a few knit) projects I started and did not finish.

The only thing I've crocheted (so far) since our Shelter in Place began is a toilet tissue cover instead of my weekly snowflake pattern. I thought that would be humorous for those of us old enough to remember when dolls on the tank and TP in a host of colors were all the rage. I intended to stitch some thread-crocheted snowflakes on Elsa Blue's dress, but that hasn't happened yet.


I remembered a bag of doll heads and hands I bought during a shopping trip to Juarez with a European master knitter back in the early '80s. I thought I remembered the name of the shop being The Cat, or something like that. Finding the still unopened bag of doll heads proved my memory isn't all that bad, and my heavens... look at the prices on those heads!!!




El Gato was my first-ever all yarn store, and the addiction has lasted a lifetime. Finding the bag from the south-of-the-border store reminded me of Super Yarn Mart outside Salt Lake City, which I would make annual runs to with my Utah fiber nut aunt. Aisles and aisles of every kind of yarn I could possibly imagine, and in colors far beyond my imagination. I would spend hours in there every single time I went. How could that store possibly have closed!?!


I've sold a very small few TP cozies over the years, and there's one in the basement still waiting to be finished. Best part of this particular WIP was it still had the toilet paper inside, which came in so handy last week!!!


While joking with my mom on the phone last weekend about TP Cover Days, she asked if I would make one for her. I'd made a hat TP cover for her for Christmas when I was about 10 or 11 years old with my first ever variegated yarn. Her favorite color was blue, and when I spied that blue-to-white skein in our TG&Y store wall of yarn (which was the closest I could get to heaven back in those days), I thought surely an angel must have spun that bundle of loveliness, and I've never grown tired of gradient or variegated yarn since! It was the beginning of a beautiful love story!!!






I made a hat with a curly rim for my mom to put on the extra TP roll she always kept atop the toilet tank so we seven kids wouldn't constantly be screaming we were out, especially during summer when we were all home. I imagine the giant TP packages they have now would have been a godsend for my mom back then!

My mom loved her TP cover so much, I decided that would be the perfect Christmas gift for others the following year. I saved up my babysitting money and made more TP hats with curly brims in a rainbow of variegated colors. As I recall, there were a couple of pastel solids, too, one blue, and one lavender. I had so much fun wrapping and delivering them. My mom didn't remember me coming home in tears because some of the recipients were so offended by a roll of toilet paper in what they called "a total waste of perfectly good yarn."

I wonder if crochet-covered toilet paper rolls would be considered a waste of yarn now??? But then again, do I really need to start yet another project?!? Perhaps I should just finish the TP cover in the basement and send that one to my mom. With a roll of TP, of course!

For now, however, perhaps it's best to keep my WIP challenge simple and just try to finish whatever I can finish when I can, and not worry about too many groups to keep my head above water. I can't even keep up with my blog sometimes!!!

Here's my still-too-long and unchanged quilt WIP list for the new quarter:


1. Hawaiian Punch


2. Lizard Toes


3. Hexie Booboo


4. Tickled Pink, the Sequel


5. Teal Shadows


6. Goodbye Hollyhock Road


7. Snowflake Strip Bar


8. Green Floral Batik Postage Stamps


9. Lavender Sunrise


10. Giant Dahlia


11. Showcase


12. Snowbike II


13. Autumn Splendor


14. Time for Me to Fly


15. Venetian Squiggles


16. Moda Blockheads


17. Tiny Triangle Leftovers


18. Matthew's Quilt


19. My Little Angel Owls

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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