86'n It

All the amazing women in my life got together,  taking time out of their very busy schedules and made Frita this quilt. (Heck some learned to sew for it!)

Get your tissues.

Heck, I just got choked up posting that photo.

I'd like to go square by square and tell you who did them and what they all mean.

My Mom's Square

This is a heart-shaped portion of a pillowcase hand embroidered by my late Grandmother.

My Sister Heather's Square

Heather knows we love our cat! Funny thing is, when we were doing this photoshoot, Tuna kept sniffing and then sitting on this square! See:

My Mother-in-Law's Square

This is a doily handmade by Marc's Grandmother.

My friend Michelle's Square

Marc and I met Michelle 10 years (!) ago in Tucson. We now all live happily in Asheville!

My friend Calder's Square

A paper (felt) doll and outfits! Calder told me she got the idea because she thinks Frita will have a great sense of style. I can only hope she takes after Calder's daughter, Louisa.

My friend Robin's Square

This one is hilarious. Robin is part of a group of ladies that I watch the tv show The Bachelor with.  (Don't judge us!) I'd love to know where she got a stamp that says "For the right reasons"!

My friend Lindsey's Square

Lindsey and I work next to each other, and funny enough, Marc works right next to her husband. She has heard all of our house renovation highs and lows. She had this idea because now with Frita, we are making it a Home. (Pass the tissues, right? So sweet.)

 

My friend Maria's Square

Maria and I also work together and like to give each other a hard time. That is why I feel free to divulge that the cat's eye buttons are from an old pair of Maria's underwear. Hey, she grew up in communist Bulgaria after all!

My Sister-in-law Steph's Square

This moose represents that this past October I became Canadian-in-law. Pretty cool, eh?

My Sister-in-Law Julie's Square

This is a childhood photo of Marc's Brother, sister Julie and Marc all holding the puppies of Marc's first dog, Trixie. The puppies name's were, Little Trixie, Stosh Junior & Reggie Jackson.

My Cousin Lindsey's Square

Lindsey made this square so that I'd have to reveal that my childhood nickname was Piggy. Which is actually much better than the name Lindsey called me because she couldn't pronounce "Nikki" ...and that name would have been "Geeky". Nice.

My Sister-in-Law Anna & Niece Cecilia's Square

This square has so many layers. Cecilia did a drawing of her idea for the quilt that Anna then embrodiered (a lot of work!) onto a baby blanket that she used with both Cecilia and her brother Michael. Cecilia's drawing:

My friend Lara's Square

Lara and I have known each other for about 20 years which means she has a lot of dirt on me! :) She hand-painted this four seasons square.  It is just like what we have been through together - everything!

My Sister Missy's Square

This is a piece of fabric from a big rocking chair from our childhood. It was the first thing I saw when I opened the gift box ...and it opened the flood gates! Funny thing is, we were just talking (read: arguing) at Christmas over who gets the rocker! Now no matter what, I have a piece of it.

My friend Sumaya's Square

This one is really intricate, much like Sumaya herself.  She lives her life with passion and happiness and seal, which is really all I could ever hope for Frita.

My Aunt Terri's Square

I love the colors in this one, but the story is even more hilarious. The ice cream cone is a reminder of one summer day when I was young. Terri's husband Bob took me, my siblings and his kids (6 total) to the lake to tube and ski. Well, his son Brian cracked his head open on a ski. On the way home to get stitches, an hour drive, Bob decided to stop for ice cream. While in the drive-thru, he hit the ice cream building with the boat and trailer causing everyone to run out of the building screaming. The boat had damage and I'm pretty sure Brian has a scar! Good times.

There were two more squares that couldn't fit on the quilt, so my friend Stacey handmade a very cool pillow with those two:

My friend Stacey's Square

Stacey is one of the funniest people I've ever met in my whole life.  I love the eyes-wide-open expression on the big owl. I feel like that is me the second after Stacey hits a punchline. Mouth gapping open and eyes wide. And there is little blue Frita, trying to sleep and thinking: "Mom! Aunt Stacey! Put away the wine and quiet down! It's a school night!"

And last, but not least, the organizer of the whole quilt operation:

My friend Maggie's Square

Maggie is also known to my coworker's as "My Friend Maggie" because I talk about her so much. Maggie and I met in architecture school in Tucson, AZ. I take credit for introducing her to her husband and I give her credit for luring Marc and I to live in beautiful Asheville.  

I also need to give her credit for this whole pregnancy-parenthood trip that Marc and I are on.  Maggie's daughter, Eloise, will be almost exactly one year older than Frita. I will never forget going to the hospital after Ellie's birth. Maggie looked radiant (sorry, Brent, you were still looking rough). I held Ellie in my arms, looked at her sweet little face and told Marc: 

"I want one."

And so here we are. 28 days to go.

I'll admit that I'm scared. Not so much of the birth, but of being a Mom. To a daughter. Daughters are hard. I know, I was one. I am one. 

But I just thought of this: My plan for whenever it gets difficult. I'll wrap Frita in this blanket and know that even if she only gets one little bit of beauty from each of the women who helped make it she will not only be alright, she'll be amazing.

Thanks Ladies.

This weekend was the last of my baby showers. Marc and I realize how truly lucky we are to have such great family and friends! Frita is completely set and the days of my showers have been some of the best of the whole pregnancy.

Here's a little round up in photos:

Detroit

Ohio

Asheville

We received some really amazing handmade gifts too. I'm going to dedicate a whole post to them later this week!

I am the daughter of a man who owns 7 cars.

And I just heard about the new Mini Countryman. (Funny enough, it was emailed to me by another one of my sisters! Hey, cars are in our blood!) Check it out. So awesome.

It will come out in the US January 2011 and then I will buy it.

It is not my fault. I am my father's daughter after all.

We might have to start on this garage building sooner than we thought.

(and the 7 are: silverado, grand am, terrain, nova, mustang, 442, monte carlo, & cavalier)

I was just going to link to these when talking about our Thank You cards, but realized, I have never posted about them. So here goes:

For our wedding, in true 86'n it style, we decided to DIY the invitations and make them WAY more complicated then need-be. I must say that there is hope for our house because the invitations turned out fabulous!

We decided to do a booklet style, because we wanted to include a map with directions, hotel info, etc. Marc carved 3 linoleum blocks. Two from photos of our hands (reaching on the cover and clasped on the back) and the third block contains one big and one detailed "3d" map.

We had the black printing made professionally on a plastic block for "stamp-style"printing by us. (The lettering and detail was just too much to carve.) The jumping people stamp on the RSVP card I bought online. I ended up stitching them together by hand with a needle and thread.

Here they are:

Cover:

Inside invitation:

This whole thing was WAY complicated, but I do recommend carving linoleum blocks and custom stamping. It is easy and really fun. We used speedball blocks, inks and tools. 

The other great thing is, that the blocks themselves are really amazing pieces of art after too.

Here are the two hand blocks. I need to find a place to hang them in the house.

Now that it is 6:00pm on Sunday evening, I'm happy to report that we worked on 3 of our 4 goals for the weekend. The first of these were to finish the nursery projects (covering ottoman & making wall hangings). Check!  Marc is diligently still working on the linoleum block carving for our Thank You cards -------------> , and I cleaned the bathroom including snaking the tubdrain which was running slow. I did not get to putting my clothes away. You know, those clothes that Marc washed 2 weeks ago and are still on top of the dresser?... But I did clean the nursery and our bedroom. :)

34 weeks! It is getting really close and I'm starting to feel exhausted again. I am feeling pretty good, but the list of things I can't do just keeps growing. Here are some things:

-Put on my socks without grunting and getting winded.

-Sleep for more than 4 hours without having to pee.

-Stay up past midnight. (Did this last night; not a good idea.)

-Take good photographs.

-Walk to work without Marc pushing me uphill. (We have a 0.8 mile walk w/ a 12oft rise in elevation!)

-Eat without fear of acid reflux.

We bought the raw metal stock and wood at Menards, went home and I squeezed my big belly into a pair of my dad's carharts. :) Then it was off to the barn to weld the steel and miter the wood.  While my dad did most of the work, I  helped out by doing some metal filing and setting up of tools. I did make the mounting, and stain, finish and assemble it on my own when I got back to Asheville.

Here's the finished product: 

Not bad for $17 of materials right? I was actually able to locate 2 studs in the wall by only drilling 8 or so exploratory holes (not bad really). I mounted it so that is sits 3/4" off the wall on stained wood blocking that you really can't see. This way there was more room behind the "hooks" and it looks like it "floats" more instead of just being a 1" board hung on the wall.

Thanks so much for all your hard work dad! Marc really appreciates it!

Here are some of the crafty things that my sisters, mom and I whipped up for one of my three baby showers! This was part of the bird theme: