"I'm Looking over......"

Recently when we were out walking, I happened to glance down and saw this beauty. By the time we got home, it was looking kind of wilted but I tried to press it anyhow. Well, the next time I looked, it was rolled into a ball! Ack! But one of my trusty sewing pins helped me to unroll it and press it properly. At any rate, we did have a lucky week!
Look what we found!

Yesterday was the first time since Daniel's arrival that we talked on the phone with David. He is so excited to have a little brother and just couldn't understand why Daniel couldn't spend the night in the spot he'd made for him at the foot of his bed. He told me, "We have 5 people in our family now."
A proud big brother

A package is winging its way to Chicago with a few goodies for the whole family. Very soon we'll be headed that way, too. I cannot wait!
Last minute inspection

Surprise!

Yesterday was an exciting day! Daniel Alexander arrived mid-afternoon about 2 weeks early. Thanks to Michael and modern technology, we got to see this picture when he was brand new.
Welcome, Daniel!
Isn't it great that hospitals now let everyone in the family rejoice together at a time like this?
And Daniel makes five!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Auntie Catherine was sound asleep when Opa forgot about the time difference and called her. She's in Africa again for her work with Unitus and had just returned from a weekend safari. Uncle Carl's back home from China, and we're having dinner with him tonight. We're a very happy family!
Look what Catherine saw!

Oops, a Day Late......

Thanks to a post by Dee on her blog, I remembered that I was supposed to show a photo of my ORT jar yesterday. "What does ORT stand for?" Dick asked when I asked him to take a picture. Since I didn't know, he's been calling it "a ship in a bottle." Oh well, here it is.
ORTs

In my jar are scraps from a couple of projects. First, I made a sachet and didn't even make a little dent in my pound of lavender. Luckily, Janet likes lavender, so I sent it to her for her birthday. This pattern by Eunny Jang and free on the Knitting Daily site, challenged me, especially the top part.
Peach Sachet

When we saw this pattern at The Yarn Garden in Gig Harbor, I knew it had Sophia's name on it. I can't wait to see how it looks on her. And then I realized I can't show up with a hat for her and not one for David. I just finished a different hat for him in his favorite color, green. (Picture another day.)
Hat for Sophia

Then my friend Tanya showed me a nifty nursing cover that she uses when feeding Chloe. Well, on the next trip to JoAnn's I got some fabric and learned that there are instructions online. What I was thinking when I bought such slippery fabric, I don't know. But it is finished and waiting....... Meanwhile, I'm off to the garden to pull some more weeds. The sun's out!
for Jill

A Blast from the Past~

About a week or so ago, Jill sent us a photo of Sophia wearing a coat that had been made by my mother for Jill many years ago. If Mom only knew how much her great-granddaughter loves it; she even woke up one night and asked for it! (Not only is she wearing the coat, she's also wearing slippers I made for her ages ago and holding Jill's heart sachet.)
Sophia
This is the only photo I could find of Jill wearing the same little coat. Do you think there's a resemblance?
Mama Jill
And here is Jill about two weeks ago with the Sophia and David on National Train Day. Can you believe she's due any time now?
Mama Jill some years later!

A Stitch in Time Can.....help someone!

In addition to volunteer work, I try to use my needlework to support various charity efforts, either as donations for fundraising efforts or actual completed projects like the quilts that some of our church choir members made to take to the children's hospice in Russia when they were on tour in 2007. Recently I read about a project on Larissa's website to make knit squares to be stitched together for quilts to support Doctor's without Borders. There's still time to participate as the squares aren't due until June 9th. You can read about the details here.
My Square
The women in my quilt group have completed many many quilts for our local Ronald MacDonald house. Some we have done as a joint effort with each of us doing a block or two. Currently we have three such quilts "in the works," and I turned in my square last Friday. "Dressed to the Nines"(McCalls?) is a fun pattern and allows for lots of creativity. I sure had fun making this one!
Quilt Block

Did You Guess?

I finished knitting this "thing" in March and had to wait till now to finish it and sew on the buttons because Baby S. remained a mystery until this past Sunday. Look at this! Can you even imagine what it will be? Anything useful?
Whatever is it?
It's amazing what a couple of seams and a few buttons can do! I didn't care for the look of the neck as finished, so I added an I-cord around it to soften the edge.
Surprise!
There was enough yarn left for a pair of matching booties using one of my favorite patterns. The sweater is Elizabeth Zimmerman's baby surprise sweater. It surely is surprising, isn't it? Hope they all fit you, Sophie!
A bonus

A Unique Mother's Day

Look who showed up on Mother's Day! Our nephew Jon sent us this photo yesterday, and I finally found some buttons for her sweater since I knew on what side to sew them. Look at all that hair! Wasn't her timing just perfect? Welcome Sophie Blair!

We had fun on Mother's Day in a totally different way, a boat ride on Lake Union. Ever since I first saw the duck boats meandering down the streets of Seattle, I've wanted to ride one because they reminded me of the ones I'd seen years ago at the Dells in Wisconsin. It was fun but a bit chilly. (Carl couldn't join us because he's in China.)
Ahoy!

I've been busily working on a variety of projects, including these booties which have been sent off and this hat which is the third thing I've made from one skein of yarn. I still have enough left to make a pair of preemie booties, too!
Baby Stuff

Isn't Mail Fun?

This week the mailman brought me a nice surprise from Pat Winter. Now I'm going to have to get busy and do some more Crazy Quilting. Thanks so much, Pat!
Ribbon and a lovely pin from Pat!
The online mailman brought us a picture of David and Sophia playing in a box. Dick cropped it because the photo of Sophia was a particularly good one and not so great of David, who looked so cute on my last post. I'm quite sure her pretty sweater was crocheted by Grandma T.
Guess Who?

Dino Boy

Jill and Michael sent this photo a while ago at David's request. He wanted Opa to see the train bridge that he'd made. And he just happened to be wearing his dinosaur sweater. The other day he told Jill, "I have lots of songs in my lungs." This was after he sang an original song about the worm he had just deposited in the compost pile.
Look at my train bridge!
No one, to my surprise, has mentioned anything about the raccoon in my recent "Natural Colors" post. This little critter has been visiting us over the past few months, and we think s/he might have an interesting story to tell.
Have you seen my tail?
Whatever happened to its tail? If only s/he could talk! I thought for sure someone might have noticed on the earlier photo........
Did you try fishing through the ice like the bear did? Or is someone wearing a new cap?

THE MOUNTAIN

Somewhere I read that you can tell a Seattle-ite when they say, "Is the mountain out?" Mount Rainier is what they mean, even though we have lots more mountains from which to choose.
Mount Rainier
Once you've lived here for a few years though you come to realize that this particular mountain dominates the landscape from many different places. I am always amazed to look up and see it on I-90 near Issaquah, on I-5 from Seattle, from the UW campus, from the air, from a variety of bike trails; it is just THERE....unless it's cloudy, and then it disappears.
from Gig Harbor
But I think I love it most at twilight.
Night is coming.