Mask Making Time

With the scourge of this awful virus and as a senior I’m hunkered down at home with my senior other half but thinking of ways to still be in the world. I’m so appreciative of the work the frontline workers are doing and also the mail person, grocery clerks, cleaners, delivery truck drivers and all the folk who keep my lights on and water hot and flowing, garbage collected and a myriad of others. I want to do what I can so I’ve been making some masks (as have countless others who can sew).

Late one night while checking my email I found one from Stitch by Stitch our local quilting store here in Kingston. They are closed but you can shop online and pick up your purchases outside the shop. I saw they had ‘mask supplies’ and ordered 10. I picked up my fabric a day or so later. You get yardage enough to make the required masks according to the instructions online but if you know your way around sewing you can lay our the pattern and cut in all sorts of efficient ways…I got 12. The cost is $2 per ‘mask kit’ so it’s great if you can get more out of your fabric. The thing I have enjoyed since starting doing this is that instead of taking them back to Stitch by Stitch I mentioned, on a Zoom conducted weekly by our local councillor Bridget Doherty, that I had masks…several folk asked if they could get one and they would give me money and perhaps I could donate to the Partners in Mission Food Bank.

So I put them on my front porch…as has another local sewer Annette Willis of Chasing Lightning Bugs Studio around the corner from me. Very soon folk were walking by and picking up masks. I had made a sign saying that I didn’t have plastic bags but to take the make home, wash their hands and the masks before wearing. They to please make a donation to the Food Bank.

When my Mum died and I needed something to do with all her quilting fabric I gave it to Annette….I know she’s used it all up…but I think I might have a few bits left…Mum would be pleased.

I tend to work in my dining room when I’m working on web sites on my computer so I get to see who is walking past the house and who is coming to get a mask…that’s so rewarding and I pop open my front door and have a bit of a chat. I’ve met new neighbours and been thanked which is so nice and have found money in the box that I will forward to the Food Bank. I even got a thank you card to The Mask Lady in the Yellow House!

This morning I watched a couple wander up to my house (an old house just feet from the road) and I opened the door in my Stay Home Clobber (PJ’s!) and the lady asked if I needed fabric and handed me a bag of some lovely stuff. We chatted…she’s a quilter and she’ll see what else she has…maybe elastic which is in short supply for another style of mask.