Comfort and Blessing Quilt and 2020 Year End Posting

 This was the last custom quilt of the year.  I love working on sampler quilts.  This is Comfort and Blessing by Piecing The Past Quilts.

Lots of s.i.d. with some common elements throughout the blocks.

It's a little easier to see the quilting on the back.

Here's a shot of the borders.

This is such a pretty pic of a sunset on December 10th.

Hmm.  What else?... Christmas was quiet with just DH, Sadie and me.  I had to cook a turkey, which I'd almost forgotten how to do.  Normally 1-800-LUKE takes pity on us and invites us for dinner but this year we all stayed safe in our cocoons.  Although we did have a nice driveway visit with Luke and his wife a few days beforehand.  Oh, I miss hugging people. 😢  New Years Eve tonight will be the same thing - two people and one furbaby.  To celebrate kicking 2020 to the curb we're eating junk - frozen appetizers (along with some veggies - I do have some standards).

New Years Day is normally spent in person with a friend who comes over and sews with me, and then she stays for supper.  This year of course, no go.  We'll stay in our own messy sewing rooms and keep in touch with messenger video chats.  The two of us are always part of a bunch of quilters from Ontario having our New Years Day Sewing Marathons, so lots of emails and photos will be flying back and forth.  I am putting DH in charge of supper.  It will be pork tenderloin in the crockpot, with some kind of veggies and some kind of potatoes - I'm leaving that all up to him.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  83 million cases, 1.8 million deaths, 444,400 new cases yesterday

USA:   19.8 million cases, 343,000 deaths, 229,300 new yesterday

CANADA: 579,000 cases, 15,600 deaths, 7,476 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 182,000 cases, 4,500 deaths, 3,328 new yesterday **record numbers, AGAIN!

HAMILTON:  6,057 cases, 168 deaths, 156 new yesterday

The provincial lockdown didn't happen on Dec. 24th as anticipated.  The Province delayed it until Dec. 26th.  Stupid, stupid, stupid, not that anybody asked my opinion.  The Premier decided to let people "shop" and get together for dinner.  I think he also wanted to let religious people have their church services, since they are a big part of his electoral base, but he didn't say that - that's just my thoughts.

Besides that, the latest asinine behaviour was the Minister of Finance for Ontario.  

Keep in mind that the government of Canada AND Ontario have instructed all of us to stay home and travel ONLY FOR ESSENTIAL REASONS.  So, what does idiot Mr. Phillips do?  He goes on a two week vacation to St. Barts.  AND posts fake videos on his twitter feed to make it look like he's enjoying Christmas at home.  Dickhead.

His boss, Doug Ford, the Premier of the Province, tried to tell us that he didn't know his minister was down there. Huh. But as soon as he found out he told him to come home.  Huh.  However, the next day, Ford has to backtrack and admit that well, yes, he DID know,  but not until after Phillips had already arrived there in St. Barts.  So he was going to give Phillips "what for" and wouldn't tolerate that kind of thing "any more".  So...clearly not firing the idiot.  

THEN... we find out that this same idiot had gone to Switzerland for a vacation in August.  WTF?

OMG.  I need the head exploding emoji here. 

To recap:

• the Minister of Finance took a trip out of the country but pretended he was still in Canada, all while the REST of us have been told to stay home and stick to ONLY OUR HOUSEHOLDS.
• his boss, the Premier, pretends he didn't know.
• then his boss, the Premier, confesses that he lied - he DID know.  (my word not his - he would not be honest enough to say that he lied to us)

The final note to this story is that Mr. Phillips has resigned his position as the Minister of Finance.  Probably as soon as he got off the plane in Toronto.  I figure Doug Ford threw him under the bus and made him resign.  Doug has already had so much bad press over the Covid  response that he really cannot afford any more shit going down.

Dear Universe, 

Could you please have a cannabis cookie?  

We really need 2021 to be a bit more reasonable. 

Thanks, xxoo, Helen

Using Beautiful Focus Prints, and a Covid Update

Remember back in the old days before covid when you could have company?  And occasionally someone would have "one too many" and need a nap?  These are perfect.  Pick a great print and add some borders.     

These quilts make a nice throw for the couch.

They would also make a nice quick gift.

If you can't get in to your longarm quilter in time you can easily do straight line stitching on these with your domestic sewing machine.

I've finished up my 2020 customer quilts and am taking a couple weeks off.  Yesterday the fur-baby got a bath, so she's nice and clean for Christmas.  And I started the Christmas baking.  I also have a couple little things I want to sew for small gifts.  I'll take care of those projects in between listening for the dinging of the oven timer.

I DID have some big excitement, which let me tell you - has been pretty scarce these last many many many months.  I have a friend who is distantly acquainted with a painter I have loved for a long time.  She discovered this painter had donated a piece of art to a fundraising silent auction.  Super!!  I checked out the bids - there were a couple on there already, so I threw my hat in the ring too.  Well, of course I got bidded up.  So I stealthily waited until the last 30 seconds and placed one more bid and yee-hah!  Success!  Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I was VERY EXCITED!

Here she is, Catching Fish by Sandee Ewasiuk.  

COVID-19 UPDATE

Worldwide:  76,912,000.  Wow.  Almost 77 million cases, 1.7 million deaths, 700,000 daily new cases.  

USA: 17.8 million cases, 317,700 deaths, 189,000 new yesterday.  

Canada:  511,000 cases, 14,200 deaths, 6,000 new yesterday.

Ontario:  155,900 cases, 4,150 deaths, 2,300 new yesterday.

Hamilton:  4,885 cases, 136 deaths, 98 new yesterday.

• The U.K. has locked down the south of England due to a variant of the virus, which apparently spreads much faster.  I thought it was spreading plenty fast as it was, but I guess I was wrong.  Several countries, including Canada, have stopped incoming flights from there until something (?) happens with this issue.
• Hamilton, which is the city next door to my small town, is in lockdown effective today.  Numbers have been escalating and the hospitals are on alert to cancel surgeries, along with whatever other measures they take when they're worried about incoming patients and lack of patient beds and staffing levels.
• The whole province of Ontario will be going into lockdown, apparently, effective December 24th.  The official announcement will be made later today, so at the moment I don't know if the timing is 24th morning, or 24th midnight.  
• Vaccinations have started in much of the world but it's going to take a long time for that to get us out of the mess we're in.  I understand that politicians want to save the economy by keeping everything open, but money doesn't help you when you're dead.