A friend called to remind me that I had not yet written about my journal quilt from my time at home during Covid. She’s right – so here it is.
I’ve kept a daily journal for years. And I’ve always loved to start an entry with “home all day”. But with dashing here and there running errands, going to meetings, and just out and about, those at-home days were sometimes hard to find.
In the Spring of 2020, things changed. Every day was “home all day”.
Soon I decided a visual record of these days should be part of a Covid journal quilt. It was easy to review my journal entries and tabulate things. The legend is included on the quilt…a yellow (his favorite color) backslash for Jim, blue forward slash for me…to clarify our days at home. I included January and February of 2020 for comparison of our normal days before the pandemic.
My beginning plan was to document the days we were spending at home. An old linen calendar provided the perfect stitching background. ( I just happened to have a calendar from 1986 – a year in which the days of the week and dates were the same as 2020 – in my stash. And later, a 1971 tea towel provided the right day/date combination for 2021.)
As time went on, I continued to think of other things to include in this journal quilt. Our time spent working in the yard, playing chess, binge watching tv…all were candidates that made it into the quilt.
I made the blocks not knowing how I would put them together. I ended up attaching them to a bit of a vintage quilt remnant 10 ½” wide and rolling it up on a stick. It measures 64” long when stretched out.
The title came from our daughter’s remark when I told her we didn’t mind being at home. I was feeling guilty that we were actually enjoying the solitude while so many people were frantic that their schedules were disrupted. She replied “not everyone can be quarantined in Eden.”
I included our days at home through April 2021…past our vaccinations and including many days of “out and about” again. Since then, the Delta variant has added more days at home. Maybe I need to find more calendar tea towels…
Wonderous and magical, thank you for sharing. Keep sending notes from Eden.
Will do.
Love this so much Sandy! It’s a wonderful record…all rolled up on a stick! Grand.
Thank you. I like sticks!
Nancy – thank you for letting me know about Sandy’s blog
Sandy – this is a wonderful story cloth … I’m looking forward to exploring your blog and reading future posts …
Welcome!
I love how you found and continue to find such immense beauty in days that many found numbing. Like you, I found some peace in the solitude, allowing me to better process all that happened in 2020.
Oh, you express this so eloquently!