The Women's March

Last Thursday, 2 of MY women went to our state capital, Olympia, on a class field trip. They got to meet 2 Women Elected last Nov., 

who represent the local areas.

This is my daughter, her daughter, and Senator Emily Randall. She heard there were some Kitsap Kids in the house, so she went out to greet them!

The other representative they met was Michelle Caldier, the Republican member of the house, but no picture with her, darn it, because we can be bi-partisan too!

I figure this is a good day to update my Women's March 2017 WIP 

[work-in-progress]  I am not done, but the Marches March on today!!

I crocheted teeny tiny PussyHats! 

Working with the 'yarn-strips-cut-from-leggin's' was so much fun!!  They aren't stitched down yet, just basted. But I am sooooo glad I took this pic, because I can now see my M is not quite right.

The 'bird's eye view of the Marching Women.

The whole piece. And yes it is wobbly, and will probably not lose that charming feature. The round blueish part?  Why that's our Big Blue Marble.

And because this little guy could not have been born without a Woman, my other daughter Steph.  He is really here to show him playing with the toy his Other Mother made for him. 

Other Mother?  All the eggs a woman has are made while in the womb of HER mother, so in essence, we are carrying our future grandchildren.

Six, Wallies and Whales

Quilt top #6 is assembled!  It happens to be the top for this guy, who is now a whopping one month.  

Recently, like this last week, Dan suggested I move the sewing room into the dryer room. This used to be the 'playroom'.  We didn't heat this room, so we really didn't use it to hang laundry, nothing would dry. 

[except for July and August]

It's nice being in this bigger room.

the 7 for 7 grandchildren quilt tops are stacked on the left, under the table

the stack of blocks for #7 are on the left side of the machine

Look at all that wall space~!  I didn't put things on the walls in the other room, because Stephanie had painted them, so I just enjoyed her art. 

Guess I will need another foam board, like the one behind the iron board in the next pic.

Dan doesn't want to deal with millions of holes from pins, someday.

the stuff to the right is the laundry...oh and the basket.

I have a new view, of the garden.  

I will miss the other view of the birds in the hedgerow. 

But, there will be birds out there also, and the deer, Jane Doe, was out there as I stitched up the stack of #7's blocks.  

{It was the first stage, 

block 1 to block 2 X a bunch.}

Wallie 1 is cats. In the middle stage of completion 

I am also working on more Wallies, in case the grandgirls need fundraiser items.

We have 3 in Scouts [at the moment] and 1 earning for 5th grade Camp, not to mention any possible PTA doings. So far, 1 troop is brand new, so they are selling chocolates and nuts to earn.  And the 5th graders are selling donuts!

Grandma, she gives cash. OR....maybe these will sell. When they are done. I am hoping to involve the girls in the sales, learn to earn it yourself!

Wallie 2 is the yellow backed one, all kinds of things wondering "which way did they go?" Only basted down.

Wallie 3 is the top, smaller, bright bright one. Only basted too.

I was going through albums, looking for Steph's baby one, and found these pix.

My mom had put them together.  Click to enlarge. These were from the 1987 to 1989 album.  I posted the pix on FB, hoping the Orca Network will be able to ID these. My niece chimed in and said, "I remember going on that trip!"

These are phone pictures of the photos, since we can't take them out of the sticky pages without damaging them. 

I think these are from one of the Southern Resident Orca pods. The salmon eaters. The Transient Orcas usually have pointier dorsal fins. The T's, as they are known here in Puget Sound, are the big game hunters. They eat seals, dolphins, sea lions.  

So now you know, not all Orca's, or Killer Whales, are the same.

8/28/18

Maxwell was born this day!

Us parents, sister and 2 of her girls took off for Tacoma. 

We hadn't heard anything new for a couple of hours, so we just went.

Perfect timing, as it turned out. 

I insisted we go up to the Birthing floor of the hospital. 

And though we weren't supposed to go into the room, I did anyway.

That was MY daughter in there and I wanted to see how she was!

That is the 'before' picture, hours before.

And this is Daddy finally getting to hold his son.  New to us, when 'they' can, the baby spends time on mom's chest, skin to skin. Before they weight them, before anyone else holds the babe. Then the feeding begins.

I would have gone cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs, had it been me, waiting to hold him. 

{Bobby was being patient.} 

{Max has Dad's beard...on his head.}

So when I slipped into the room, Max still had wet hair under his hat. 

Mama looked pretty good, though she has an infection, having to do with her water breakage. 

Yes, that is me standing there. And you can see the other grandmother in the mirror. Cool. 

The Six Pack as of Today.

Last night, after the visit, we went to Denny's....or Lenny's, 

if you remember those ad's.  Ashley, our middle daughter, and me.

I always seem to have a puzzled look on my face, according to Dan. 

Penny Is Waiting Too

We are ALL waiting for this boy to be born!  

I wonder if Penny, the dog, can hear Max in there?

He was due on the 23rd. 

Doctor will induce on the 29th, if need be. 

Party Time

Bobby and Stephanie [and Max]

That young man is soooooo happy about this baby!

Steph is happy too, of course, but he doesn't have swollen feet....

I was happy to finally meet 'the other grandmother'!

Steph's MIL and I have not met....until today.

Stephanie and Indra

Max will be her first, our 7th, but our first boy!

{Stephanie's brother Ben, gave them the 'boy' things he didn't get to use. Like pictures of bulldozers and firetrucks.}

Ashley and Stephanie

Grandpa Dan wanted a 'belly' pic of his daughters.  We have one...somewhere...of the girls in reverse.  Ashley with belly, Steph without.

If no one knew Bobby liked elephants....they would have figured it out today.  Almost every gift had that image on it, over it, under it, etc. it.

But...Ashley did slip in a SQUIRREL for her sister on the growth chart she made for them.

Put it 6 inches above the floor, where ever you live.

Ashley has gotten so good at the string art! 

And her painting skills aren't to shabby either!

Grandpa was able to get a pic of 3 of the girls, #1 holding #6, and #4.

 I love it that they get to grow up together! 

[not in the same house, but same town]

Girls #'s 2, 3 and 5 were off running around.

 It was a wonderful party, Indra!

Picking Patch..es

Yesterday was a family day. Girls everywhere. 

Sisters

Sisters + niece 

Sisters! (+Maxwell)

The girls got to go through the piles of cut quilt squares/fabrics, one for each of them.  There was harmony and quiet talk. There were trades and "here's another cat fabric for D."  There were groans when I mentioned them needing 65 squares each, but they set to counting.  There was bird whistling from #2, story reading from #1 to #6, and careful folding by #5.  There was tummy rubbing [on CollegeGirl+Max], and burnt popcorn which meant making another batch, "but YOU make it this time grandma!!"

It was a perfect day for the last day of Spring.

Photos and video by Grandpa. 

Cutting and Sewing

I have finally plunged into the buckets of novelty fabrics. 

Seven piles. Seven grandchildren. 

I cut up as much in 10 inch squares. Then I cut more in 10 inch widths, to be stitched to other ones, to make up the 10 inch square. There will be many 'patchwork' squares for the girls to choose from. 

Stephanie will have to pick for #7, since she is still carrying him. 

The sun Steph painted on her wall, sure does brighten up the cutting table!

I also stitched together a quilt back.  The center is all large scale prints, which I didn't want to cut down to 10". 

[tho they would make fabulous stack n whack blocks] 

The quilt front is the Tropical-Ocean  circle top I started about 5 years ago????

I finished this wallie, Animal House, and since it's going to a granddaughter, I decided to add some shiny stuff. I had saved a bunch of jewelry cast offs of the girls [daughters, this time]  So the raccoons got 'headlight' eyes, sock monkeys got buttons, one dog has his tail pierced...

Imagine the Robin posing on this rock....

Yeah..that.

And the cutting...??  Not nearly done, I can't see the bottom of the bucket yet.

I Spy...A Quilt? And A BOY

CollegeGirl and her BobbyMan are having a BOY

So the score will be 6-1

AND....he looks healthy!  Priceless.

Oh yea...the quilt.

I started this one over 10 years ago.  

The center area is a Stack n' Whack pattern, the rest is all Vicky.

This space needed some stitches to anchor it, 

so I made my siggy symbol extra large!

[Capricorn/my initials, initially, VJ] 

click to enlarge

Stitchy Stitchy

Animal House. ⏫Added a few more bits to this, this week.

⏫More progress on Circles. Even a non-circular shape. ▲

△Found on my camera's memory..gasp...from 2013!!  # 4 and CollegeGirl Steph.

Dimensional crochet on Circles.

⏬A new one. The top one of the picture collage.

Digging through my footstool, looking for something else, I came across a bundle of scraps. I do that, as I go through my bits and bits. Get sidetracked by bits that want to be with other bits. So I bundle up those bits for another day, like this day. Took about 10 minutes to pair up these bits. 

The left bottom stitchy is being grounded to more fabric on the back. It got put to the side by the top pic, and the NEED to work on it, NOW.

The right one got new bits added. It is back on the wall for future stitchy stuff.

I love that I don't have to finish something right away. That it can be put on the wall to be looked at, thought about, un finished. 

There are stitchy things going on with the sewing machine too.  

Spring has sprung for sure,  inside my brain!!