Because 2 days is never enough.

Since I finished Felix’s quilt last fall, I’ve perfected my binding technique and switched to machine quilting to produce two cute quilts for two very cute babies. I had a fun time traveling to Boston and Portland to hand deliver them.
First up, Vivian’s quilt:

This was a mostly stash based quilt. I’ve had the yellow bird fabric for a really long time, and aside from a few ipod cases, I really haven’t bee sure what to do with it. I was struggling with how to bring it all together and had laid it out on my turquoise table to think about it. The table color make the whole thing pop. Delivered the whole thing to the Herricks in Boston before Vivian was even born (very impressed with myself!).
Second, Isabella’s quilt:

Isabella was the first baby in a while that I knew was going to be a girl, and while I wasn’t really trying to get all pink and girly, it just sort of happened. I was really excited about using the pink and orange sea horse fabric from Heather Ross’ Mendocino line and a lot of the other stuff came from my stash.  Also, please note, ugly carpet in photo is decidedly not mine. Finished the quilt in a Hilton in Portland, just in time to deliver it to the Moran Chigos residence for Izzy.

When Karl and I got engaged in over our holiday in Eastern Europe, we weren’t sure exactly what kind of wedding we wanted, if we even wanted a wedding. In fact, when the security agent asked Karl his relationship to me and he awkwardly mumbled the word fiance, we both let out a shutter. Not because we weren’t thrilled about the commitment we were ready to make; I know I felt my cup runneth over.   It’s just that the whole idea of being affianced, talking about engagments and weddings, all sounded so… not us.
But we were sure about one thing. Inspired by Mindy and Erik, we knew we wanted to make our own wedding rings. We couldn’t think of a more fitting and exciting way to begin our wedding planning.  We loved the idea of making something so important, lasting, and meaningful ourselves. We loved the idea of doing it together. And we loved the idea of learning something new.

So, we followed Mindy and Erik’s lead and made an appointment with Sam of New York Wedding Ring.  We celebrated our fourth anniversay by spending a day in Sam’s studio making a set of rings. Sam was really helpful and overall, the process of making my two gold rings and Karl’s palladium band was really gratifying.  The end result was so simple and beautiful (yes, I made myself two).

Best of all making our rings together, with our own hands, helped us realize what mattered to us when it came to a celebration of our marriage. The values of handmade, local simplicity became really clear to us and the kind of wedding we wanted came together really directly from there.

Not bad for a days work.

Check out more photos here.