Quilt Project Progress

I saw this quilt awhile back and fell madly in love.

  Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman

 My pal Debbie is teaching it in a block-a-month format and so far we've done the fox

  The fox on the left looks like he has eyebrows. Love!

a cat (Debbie's riff on the fox pattern)

 

and today's bunny.

 

Good thing Mr Bunny is cute 'cause he was a PITA to make. (Too many small pieces for me). Next month - the owl!

I Can Do It

Leanne decided she wanted to do a little weaving before she went home today. I asked if she needed help - nope, except to move her chair closer to the table and fix one crossed thread about halfway through her session. Be sure to watch her feet when she beats. So funny! 

Jac's First Easter

Mary 

 

and Marie 

 

were both scheduled to work today so we had an early, quick Easter celebration

 

with an egg hunt, 

 

board games,

 

and several rounds of pass-the-baby

 

 

and walking-with-Jac

 

before everyone headed off to jobs or other celebrations.

 

So happy we were able to get holiday pics with Naia before she went back to her mom's last night. 

 

She and Leia opened their Easter baskets yesterday at Matt's 

 

before joining one of the local community celebrations. 

 

Bouncy, bouncy Easter and Passover, y'all!

 

Zoo-Bee-Do and Naia Too

Look who joined us for zoo day! Naia is 16 now and has the drivers license to prove it. (Scary thought, right??)

  Jacklyn's first photobombing.

The line for zoo parking was blocks long and not moving when we arrived in Santa Barbara this morning. We figured that meant it was already over-crowded and we almost turned around and left.

 

So glad we didn't! Not sure what the gate snafu was about, but the crowds were minimal inside the park and the weather was spectacular. 

 

We checked out all our favorite things -

 

 

Giraffe feeding. Check.

 

Gorilla viewing? Check - and he was viewing them right back, having walked over and seated himself right in front of the viewing window just after the girls got there. Needless to say, they were thrilled. (Leanne kept saying she saw gorilla butt! Lol)

 

Goat and sheep feeding? 

 

Yep, we did that.

 

We watched baby flamingoes 

 

do their daily walk-about;

 

compared wingspans with a California condor;

 

checked out the sleepy fox;

 

and generally had a super good time.

 

But the number one, hands down, favorite thing for this crew to do?

 

Nothing else is even close.

 

 

 These girls *love* the hill slide.

 

 

 If there was nothing else here, they'd still want to go to the zoo.

 

 And that, folks,

 

is the end of our tail. 

 

Weaving Continues

Leanne and I picked up weaving where we left off on Tuesday and started threading the "holes" in the reed. 

 

Leanne is a fast learner and was soon inserting the heddle tool (her original job)

 

and placing the thread so it could be pulled through to the correct place (my original task.) We only made one mistake in the threading and it was, ahem, my fault. Oopsie.

 

Leanne also learned the proper way to load a stick shuttle. 

 

It took a couple of tries to remember the figure-8 path 

 

 but she was a pro by the time we were done. 

I tied the warp to the front beam while Leanne took a break for reading, gummies

 

and a bike ride to the park 

 

 

with Hoppy and Pop. 

 

Just before bedtime we started the fun part. I showed Leanne the process twice, then let her take over.

 

 I know I sound like a ridiculously biased Grandma, but she caught on super quick.

 From inserting the shuttle,

 

to placing the weft thread at an angle,

 

then firmly beating

 

before moving the reed up or down. She can do it all.

 

I'm so d*mn proud, I could spit.

Such a Big Girl

Jac's 9-month check-up was today -
 
17 pounds (30th percentile for her age) and 29" long (90th percentile).
 
She's going to be long and skinny, 
 
just like her big sissy and her cousins. 
 
Way to go, JacJac!