Others have been making masks--three members of my quilt guild have made over 600 each--something I was somewhat dismissive of in a much earlier post. I apologize. There are still mask requests out there, meaning that the local world has needed and gotten at least 1,800.
One of the women with whom I once did karate works in the emergency room at the university's hospital. She said in an email that what they really needed was hats that they could tie over their hair, goggle straps, whatever was going around their heads. The brighter colors, the better. I looked online and found a scrub hat pattern that looked simple enough that even I could do it. (I think I mentioned in an earlier pandemic post that I am not at all an expert sewist.) I did manage to do it, though the first hat and several after vexed me more than a little. I made most of them from bright batik fabric. I also made one with goats on one side and cows on the other since it turned out that the hats are reversible.
Seven seemed like a good number, being the number of days in a week and a prime to boot, so I stopped at seven. I stuffed them all in a large envelope that I put in the mail addressed to friend's house. I know. It would have been cheaper to just drop them off, but again as noted in an earlier post, I'm engaged in serious self-quarantine. Friend loved them. Her colleagues in the ER loved them. She texted me a photo of her and six others wearing the hats. They noticed that the hats are reversible, with the goats and cows one being a big hit.
After that, I did a bit more sewing together of some random squares I made sometime in the forgettable past. Not finding the squares might have been better. They are more mismatched in precision than my work usually is. Not wanting to address that issue, I decided to make another hat or four. I texted friend and told her I was making a few more. She replied that colleagues had been asking her if I was making more because they really, really liked them. That settled it. I was making some more.
I had two fabrics I really, really liked but had never found a use for. They were the same loopy pattern--think the scribble pictures we did as children--but one was in black and white and shades of grey while the other was in colors. Recognizing that I had never found just the project for these fabrics, I decided they were clearly awaiting something special ... how about ER scrub hats? I cut the pieces for four hats from the two pieces of fabric.
I was going to make a couple of red and green batik hats, but the piece of red fabric turned out not to be long enough. Perusing my stash, I found a piece of gnome fabric left over from a quilt I made based on the letter "G." There was enough, when paired with the green batik, for two more hats. I cut pieces for four more hats from a blue batik print and a deep blue somewhat solid batik. I figured ten was plenty for now.
Because practice makes easier (perfection is for people who have more time than I), I got the four loopy ones done fairly quickly. They went into envelopes addressed to friend. I finished the two gnome ones in time for them to leave in today's mail pick-up as well. I'll do the four blues over the weekend. And maybe I'll make some more. The night is young! Well, to the extent the pandemic is similar to a period of darkness.
Why have I gotten a sense of fulfillment from the hats that I couldn't see connected to the masks? I really think it is that I know where the hats are going, and I know that they are appreciated. Seeing the smiling faces beneath the first seven hats was special. That more than anything else is the reason I did more. And I did not feel obligated to make them; I wanted to make them.
And so passes the end of two months hanging out in the hermitage. What the governor is calling Phase One of the reopening started today and will last two to four weeks or longer. I pray that those who, like me, think this is too soon will vote with their modes of transportation and continue to stay home. Should the husband and I ever release ourselves from the hermitage, I intend to make a point of patronizing the eateries that are continuing with takeout or delivery only as a means of keeping their staff safe. Be safe. Be sane.
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