The One with Ellie's First Birthday Party

Bear with me... this one has a lot of pictures.
This past week Michelle's daughter Ellie and Mallory celebrated their birthdays! The festivities began with brunch at the Original Pancake House in Portland.

And then we had a little party for Ellie on Saturday. She had a three-tiered, homemade, chocolate cake covered in colored melting wafers for the polka-dot effect.

And then there was a pink almond cake for Mallory who (gasp!) doesn't like chocolate cake.

Ellie didn't quite know how to approach her top tier of cake.


Which she also matched.
And here is the buffet table. We had bruschetta, a tortellini, bacon and broccoli salad, a chicken Caesar salad, a bacon, lettuce and tomato dip, turkey wraps and a raspberry lemonade punch. Everything was very, very delicious.

And here's a peak of the decorations. More about that later.


I put up all my favorite pictures from her first year using clothespins with pretty paper glued on top.


And then, of course, Ellie had to open her presents. She was very polite and read the cards first.

The One with Ellie's Memory Quilt

Well, Ellie is 5 years old now, and I have finally completed her memory quilt. It was actually completed for a time when she was only a year old. But then the binding was coming off and needed to be repaired and I got the opportunity to quilt the blanket on my grandmother's quilting machine. So I took off the binding and the backing and redid the whole assembly. Anyway, after quilting it and redoing the binding, it is complete again and I thought I'd update this post accordingly.

I began making this memory quilt for Ellie as gift her first birthday. The idea was to use some of her onesies and other clothes to make the quilt top as a way to commemorate her baby-hood. Originally, I thought it would have been cool to have what she was wearing when she first came home from the hospital (I did get that one), what she was wearing when she started crawling, walking, talking, etc. It turns out, however, that these grand moments in childhood are not so easily defined. So instead, I just took the onesies that I liked best, were special presents just for her and, when possible, commemorated special events.

The first step was the hardest for me: cutting up her clothes. Of course, I saved plenty of clothes for any future baby girls and I just couldn't bear to cut up anything too valuable. I had to constantly reassure myself that onesies are cheap and usually stained and it would be easy to replace them for another baby. I also had to convince myself that Ellie would enjoy them much more as a blanket than tucked away in storage for years on end until someday I pulled them out for her to look at or play with or (shuddering at the thought) dress her own baby in.

Having gotten over my fear of destroying onesies, I spent a good bit of time laying them out in the perfect pattern. And then of course I sewed them together in strips and then assembled the strips. I picked out a cute border fabric at Joann's and some pink minky fabric for the back. Originally, I just stitched along the border to "quilt" the pieces together, but eventually I was able to quilt it with my aunt and grandmother. My aunt got me started and even stitched Ellie's name in one of the squares, which I really love.

The exact dimensions of this quilt aren't really necessary, but some people have asked so here they are: 

Ellie loves it and I'm glad I did it. Olivia's is in the works and just waiting to be quilted. Should I make one for Henry? Would a little boy ever care about something like that?

P.S. Here are some things I learned making the first quilt that have come in helpful on the second:

• use an iron-on interfacing on the back of the squares of clothing to help them keep their shape and be more durable during the whole quilting process. I didn't do this for Ellie's and there are some wobbly lines that could have been avoided. Most baby clothing is stretchy, so it's important to have something that keeps it in its place.
• I originally used this tutorial to make the binding. In the second round I did a blind hem stitch. In general, if there is a part of quilting or blanket making that you don't know how to do, I would suggest looking it up on YouTube or searching tutorials via Pinterest. I could make a tutorial, but there are so many already out there, that I don't feel like it is necessary.
• This particular quilt ended up being about 40 inches by 51 inches. There are 35 squares made from 6-inch blocks of onesie material. I used quarter-inch seams, so the blocks end up being 5 1/5 inches each. You should be able to get two blocks from each onesie, though, so you don't necessary need 35 articles of clothing you are willing to destroy. Clothing that is stained or otherwise unusable is the best resource, since it can't be handed down to future children or donated. Be aware that especially if you are using newborn or 0-3 month sizes of clothing, you will likely need to take them apart at the seams in order to get enough fabric to make a 6 inch square. 
  The two borders are 2-inch border (1.5 inches after sewing 1/4 inch seams) and 4 1/2 inches. I bought 1/4 yard of the first and 1/2 yard of the second. The back, if you use these exact measurements, should be about 1 1/2 yards of fabric, at least 44 inches wide. If you aren't sure exactly how much you'll need, finish the quilt top and then buy the backing and quilting batting once you know the dimensions.
•  I am currently working on the second edition of this quilt for my second daughter and have done it a little differently. I am using 4 inch squares instead of 6 inch, and I have 88, but since you can get 3-4 out of each onesie, I still didn't need too many. 
• You can choose to cut the clothing however you like, but 6-inch squares are probably the biggest you will be able to get if you use teeny tiny baby clothing. It would also be fun to do long rectangular pieces, or smaller square, or maybe even triangles! I'd love to see the different things that could be done with this. (So if you make one, send me a picture!)

(And now you can see the original pictures from this post, which I won't remove so people can find this post via Pinterest pins of these photos.)

The One With the Modern Wedding Invitations

I've been thinking of modern wedding stationery lately... and just couldn't help but create some just for fun.

I love ampersands... I think a stationery suit using ampersands as a focal point would be so cool.



And who doesn't like vivid color? So sleek and organized.
Or maybe in just 2 colors for a good punch!


Thoughts?

The One With the Handmade Cards

I like making handmade cards. They are fun to make... and I feel that it's a good effort since I seem to become speechless when it comes to what is written on the inside. Therefore, I try making cute cards so maybe, just maybe, no one will even bother reading what is on the inside.


And this is my personal philosophy about cards: I like them sweet and simple. I'm not one of those people who adds a million doodads to things -although I do see some cute stuff featuring that look. I really go for adorable paper and pattern play with some cute fonts. I LOVE fonts. Seriously, I download them all the time. But, when it comes to cards I have being trying to stay more personal. Especially after running across this blog. Gina Sekelsky and her gorgeous handwriting inspire me... so I'm working on being just as cool. I've got a long way to go.




Sometimes, however, I am relieved of my duties to improve my penmanship and just find the perfect paper or stamps. That's always nice. It wastes much less paper - as I can usually get it right on the first try.

Carson General Store Branding

Branding of Carson General Store is finally complete!



T-shirts were printed at customink.com. I highly recommend them! Not only are their American Apparel t-shirts so soft and comfy, their customer service is A-MAZING. And their online chat tool is also great!

The One With Carson General's Sign

The Carson General Store sign is finally done! It was a very long project - but the result is pretty cool. And here's a little insight into the how-to.

Step 1: We mounted the plywood on a wall to make the painting easier. Painted the plywood white and used a projector and transparency to project the image onto the plywood. Next, we outlined the design on the plywood with a Sharpie. In retrospect, I would use something a little easier to paint over. It turns out that Sharpie is rather difficult to cover.


Step 2: Painting in the color. Since the sign is going to be outside, we used exterior paint. It was color matched at Home Depot. Exterior paint is difficult to work with - but worth it for the end result. This is me painting - one of the final steps was outlining the mountains with charcoal colored paint.

Getting all the long lines of the lettering straight proved to be quite a challenge. I ended up edging almost every part of every letter with painter's tape. It took a long time - but was well worth the ease of painting such long strokes against the grain of the wood.

A close up of the final product before we had dismounted the plywood. After it was dismounted, we used a skill saw to cut out the half-oval over the top of the mountains.

And this is what it currently looks like mounted above the store. I wish that the pulleys in the front weren't there... but apparently it was a necessity. In the Columbia River Gorge there are a lot of big wind gusts - gusts strong enough to take the sign off and into something valuable. So, until we figure out a new way of securing the sign, the pulleys stay.

The One With a Sneak Peak

I thought I'd explain why I haven't updated in a while: I've been really busy! I am in the process of painting a sign for an upcoming grocery store in Carson, Washington: Carson General Store. Basically, I am turning my logo design into a huge sign to go on the roof of the building. This a rendering of what the sign will look like.It is going very well and you can expect a full recap soon!

I have also been hard at work on two political campaigns for family friends. You'll get to see all the details soon, but for now, here's a sneak peak at one of the buttons.

More to come on all this later!