Final Pieced Frolic Border in Progress (post 8)

Working out the zig zag design

 Over the last couple of weeks, I've been stitching a few half square triangles together in to a zig zag design. It took me a little bit to figure out the orientation of the HSTs to equate to the zigzag shape. 

It also took some time for me to figure out the pressing so the seams would nest. I repressed some HSTs which helped. I pressed some seams open. Slowly my pile of HSTs became chunks of Zigs and Zags!

My plan is to piece a section of 12 HSTs together into three Zig Zags until I have pieced all the HSTs together that I originally stitched in November of 2019! At that time, I had no idea the journey that this project would take me. It's grown bigger. I've scrounged scrap bags for more variety and to get "enough" pieces to make the various parts. I even colored outside the lines a bit stretching the colonial blue color since I had so little of that color in my stash.

A blue and a red component

When I've stitched the HSTs together, I plan to lay them out next to the quilt edge to determine how many more I need. I'm sure that I'll need more! Adding the additional HSTs between the pieced ZigZags should maintain the scrappy look as well as sprinkle the newly made HSTs more evenly in the mix.

Once I had stitched several sets of four HSTs together, I played with different orientations. In the end, I decided that alternating a blue zig with a red zag was most pleasing to me. I also decided that I preferred the zig zag pattern over points and slashes which are my terms for different layouts of the HSTs!

Sections stitched together

This was goal number four on my July goal list. If I stitch more before the end of the month. . .great! I think that I could leader/ender a few of these while I'm stitching other projects. Then again, I might like to have a stitching day of not having to think much about what I'm piecing!

I'm linking to Oh Scrap/Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Regarding COVID:

Worldwide:190M cases; 4.08M deaths

United States: 34M cases; 608K deaths

Oregon: 212K cases; 2,848 deaths

Auditioning a section

The number of people vaccinated in Oregon is slowly increase: 59.7% have had at least one shot and 55.1% are fully vaccinated. Since the number of vaccinations is barely increasing, researchers wanted to find out what was holding people back from becoming vaccinated. Since the state is polarized politically and since the majority of those not vaccinated do not approve of Governor Kate Brown, University of Oregon researchers stated that she should no longer be the primary messenger regarding becoming vaccinated. The nearly 700 people surveyed stated they had more trust in health care providers and doctors. They also stated a $100 incentive might sway them to change their mind.

At work, I had the opportunity to chat with a doctor about the disconnect with the unvaccinated people. He told me that he had retired once. He came back because those infected with COVID had strained medical resources and he said he wanted to help share the load. He contracted COVID early in the pandemic. When the vaccine was available to him, he took the vaccinations.

He said he originally tried to educate those unvaccinated with the science and the studies behind the vaccines. He said the attempts failed miserably which surprised him. He tried telling those people about his COVID experience which he said was "like talking to a tree in the forest." He has had marginal success with the fact that the Delta variant creates much more serious health issues including death in unvaccinated people. He anticipates the infection rate to rise this fall. He hopes that hospitals aren't pushed to capacity levels and that the mask restrictions and meeting restrictions are not reinstated.

He said one of his patients was a COVID long hauler. He said that the patient's lungs were so damaged that he was on oxygen and confined to a wheelchair. Unfortunately, this patient's lungs had showed no improvement in months. The doctor suspects that the patient will not regain his former health. The doctor shook his head and said, the vaccine could have prevented this patient's situation.