WIP Wednesday and the Women's March

A couple WIP's to share today. And in honor of International Women's Day, I'm finally sharing pictures from the Women's March in January. 

Last Thursday I started the Branching Out shawl by Tin Can Knits. I was on row 33 when I realized my stitch count was wrong because I forgot to knit row 15. Time for a little frogging. I was able to pick the stitches back up at row 14 and didn't have to start from the beginning, which was nice.

It is kind of addictive. You can see with the lace design why I didn't notice until row 33 that I was missing a row. 

Slightly closer look. 

I'm still a little stuffed up from the cold I had last week, but I had a burst of energy Friday and sewed up this little pile. Part of some Scrappy Bento Box blocks. Aiming to make 2 twin size quilts. I need 280 block pieces to be combined into 70 blocks. I counted after sewing the above and realized I needed to cut a lot more pieces. This weekend I cut over 200 more squares and rectangles.

Yesterday, I was able to sew together some more. All 280 three piece blocks have been sewn together (on the right) and I started adding the next size (sewing on 3.5 inch squares, on the left). After the kids went to bed last night, the iron and I enjoyed some tv and the blocks were ironed. I admit, I don't often iron quilt blocks until they are complete, but I think it's easier with scrap quilts to iron each step so I can see what fabrics I've used at a glance.

Spent some time at my sewing machine this morning. This is how I left it when I went to pick the youngest up from preschool. Hoping to get some more piecing done this afternoon/evening.

And FINALLY, some pictures from the Women's March on January 21st. Not sure how I didn't post these earlier but today seems like a good day to post them. 

One of four hats done.

All four.

Ready to March. (Complete sidenote - It was so hot for a January day!)

Meeting up with the group. There were over 11,000 of us. Some Marchers were already at the University (the end point) before some even started marching. Great turn out. I know several people who attended but didn't see any of them, there was just so many.

Man in a pussyhat serving free hotdogs and water. 

I loved this sign - especially since it was the day after the inauguration.

On campus.

Walking towards the Diag, where the speeches were. 

It was really amazing to March that day with my daughter. We aren't American and he truly isn't our president, but we felt it was necessary to March. Maybe I didn't post the pictures before because I have struggled to find the words to describe that day and what it meant. Like many, it was my first real protest, and after, I struggled to return to normal life, to just make, blog, write. It all seemed incredibly pointless. Some days, I still feel that way. What is the point of blogging? knitting? quilting? writing? when there is a much bigger need to fight in this country. To stand up against what some of those in power are trying to do or have done. For a while, I felt sad. But I have come to a sort of balance. I can only do so much. I have a family that needs me to be get off the couch and cook dinner, but also to talk at the dinner table about what is going on and why it's wrong. Or where there is hope. Because there is hope. There will always be hope. Which is why we will win. Eventually. Persist. Resist.