Once upon a time we were thinking that the 1999 transition to 2000 was going to be the biggest happening in our lives and we would be saying , “remember the year 2000?”. We now probably remember it most for not crashing the whole computer system and the world did not come near enough to the end that we would need all those generators and boxes of dried food to be re-hydrated when needed. The generators probably have been used off and on for lots of other things and once in awhile I see the dried food boxes come up on estate auctions. (And they still should be usable if they were the 25 year variety.) The one thing I did not see mentioned in the supposed time of great changes was the the notice to stock up on toilet paper. Was all that dried food going to eliminate the need for toilet paper?

Maybe, we will be earning the right to call 2020 the “YEAR TO REMEMBER”. With all the ups and downs on numerous factors and learning new words like, distance learning and social distancing we have lots of things to remember. We will not need to remember many events since almost everything was canceled. Our hands are the cleanest they have ever been and we learned that masks are not just for Halloween. Some of us began to show our true roots and a lot of us turned into shaggy dogs in the hair department.

The 2020 year is being documented in art in many ways and a strong trend is to do it in quilt form. The shortages of toilet paper, flour, yeast and hand sanitizer are being depicted in fiber. It would take a large number of quilts to show what events did not take place. I can see a whole quilt with things like baseballs, footballs, and soccer balls with X’s over them. There may be future quilt shows just for this time period.

I can see a quilt made with just face masks for the design feature. That is really an opening to a whole new world with all the different kinds and types of face masks that have been made. Just think of the miles of fabric that made it into face masks. I have been seeing a few fashion statements around town with matching everything including masks. Did they go through their wardrobe and then plan to make a mask to go with each outfit? Did they shop for masks? Are some things not being worn because a matching mask can’t be found. That is something to think of when you can’t go to sleep and the sheep are all counted.

The above mentioned quilts will not be made by me. I am in the process of trying to do my first ever full quilt. It always amazes people when I tell them I have never done one and they say, “but you do everything else”. In January I started doing organic wool applique. This was new to me and I almost walked out of the class because it was not like anything I had ever done. I did not want to make the teacher feel bad so I stayed. The end story is that it totally took me over and I had “applique fever” during the covid times and it probably saved me from insanity.

I had all 9 pieces finished and was working on sashing and then putting it all together. I had a panel of 3 that I made a mistake on so I took it along to rip out while I waited for the dog at the Town and Country Vet appointment. We did a few stops before we got home and it was later that I discovered I must have kicked the panel out at one of the stops. PANIC! TEARS! NO SLEEP! I am losing hope that someone found it and would get it back to me. All kinds of emotions worked through me on this including do I try to remake the 3 panels. I have placed an ad with a reward of $50 for its return in today’s paper. If you hear of anyone finding it, let them know I am offering the reward.