The Pussy Hat Project and the Women's March in Washington #Iwasthere

This is my best friend from high school, Judy Ross, who lives outside Washington, DC, in rural Virginia.  When the Women's March was announced, she offered to put me up and made arrangements for her sisters, her cousin, and her cousin's daughter and me to take a bus into DC on the day of the March.  January 21, 2017  in Washington was an incredible day and the rest of the weekend was like an extended slumber party full of passionate conversation and food and fun. In the photo above, we are on the bus heading for the March wearing the pussy hats we both knitted for the occasion.

I knitted several hats using the Super Cat Hat pattern created by Destiny Meyer. It was linked from the Pussy Hat Project website along with several other patterns. I was very proud of myself for learning the Kitchener stitch using the excellent tutorial Destiny put on YouTube. Since I shopped early for yarn, I was not disappointed by empty shelves.

Jim snapped this photo of me modeling the first hat I made.

Hat number two comes off the needles.

Another modeling job.

I finished the last hat the night before I drove to Virginia.  

This is our merry band right before we boarded the bus to go back to Virginia  (except for young Emily who stayed in DC to visit with some Peace Corps friends). We were tired, but definitely elated to have been part of this remarkable experience.

When I got home, I used some of the left over yarn to make a pussy hat for my Lisa Simpson doll.  It only seemed right.

Additional note (2/22/2017):
Judy just emailed to let us know that one of the men on our bus had made a film about the March.  Our happy group is interviewed at 5:09. 

Baby quilt for Nomi, a new little woman child

I am not a big fan of pale, "pretty princess" pink as a color selection for items for babies and little girls.  I find it much too limiting.  After the new year, we will be welcoming a new grand niece to our family and, naturally, I wanted to make her a quilt.  When I found the flannel above, it spoke to me as a inspiration fabric and I began compiling a fabric palette of lavender and dark rose.  Since I am using the Bento box pattern, I also included tints and tones of these fabrics.

I alternated the colors as I constructed the blocks.  Above is a detail.

Borders follow the dark rose and lavender inspiration colors.

These great pink polka dots seemed like a natural choice for the bias binding.

Without my big design wall, photographing the entire quilt is really difficult.

Quilting is in progress using pin basting for the most part.