wonderful wednesday

Those were the words written on the board when I went in to do my weekly volunteering in the 2nd grade. I love it! When I dropped off my daughter at her preschool just before that, her teacher was lying under the table with a group of kids. I asked what in the world were they doing? "They are painting the bottom of the table and studying Michelangelo", she said!

Loving teachers and all they can bring to a child's life!

Also loving these new favorites on flickr. Inspired by the springy-ness of all the colors as I see blooms outside and birds at the feeder. Hope your day is wonderful too!

i heart valentines (and chocolate too!)

A little craft I saw online for this valentine's day. My 3 year old and I had fun making these for her class. And eating some m&m's along the way.

To make: buy matches at your local grocery store and empty them for a later time. Fill each with candy of your choice. We used m&m's but convo hearts would work good I bet.
Cut a piece of paper about 4"x2" to fit around your box and secure on the back with tape. I used 2 different paper strips ones so I could put a name on it. Another cute idea would be to tie ribbon around them but Kate did not want this, I lost that creative battle! Close the box and voila: instant cuteness.

Happy Valentine's Day! Remember those you love in your life!

:welcome 2010:

Hello and happy new year to you! I am dusting off my blog after quite a few busy and tossed up weeks around here. The holidays behind us and a new year is here. I hope that you all had a great one.
As I am facing a surgery next week for back problems I have been having over the past few months, I have resolved to get my health issues solved, my life back on track and enjoy what this coming year has to offer me and my family.
My creative life has been on a pause button and will be until I am feeling better. Here is a glimpse of some of my favorite projects from 2009. Lots of new ideas to come this year too. I look forward to highlighting other creative people out there that inspire me to try more and experiment with possibilities! The web has so many amazing artists, bloggers, etsy sellers and more to offer!
So here's to a new year of discovery, good health and lots of creativity! Thanks for visiting. I wish you the best!

handmade holidays show

Here is a sneak peek of some of the fun things Olliekate will be selling at our 2nd annual craft show. Along with many other talented women and crafters we will be hosting a handmade holidays show for our friends and community. I am really excited and looking forward to the start of the holiday season. Lots to do, lots to do! (can you see all the packing boxes in the background? We are moving right before the show!)
The monster hat is made by my olliekate partner Rebecca. This one is Kate's but you can get one for your little monster at the show and the key fobs were whipped up by me so you may never lose your keys again!

time is flying by

I'm still here, I swear and time is moving as quickly as the leaves are falling around here! The blog has taken a back seat as we are preparing to move in a couple weeks and busy with all that entails. A reminder though if you are in Asheville and interested in coming to our fall craft show~ send me an email and I will get the info out to you. It will be Nov. 15th.

Here are some shots for my sewing friends of a pillow I just finished out of the Anna Maria Horner good folks line for another flickr swap. Because I like a lot on my plate I guess! And our recent trip to the corn maze too. Hope your fall is off to a beautiful start...

embroidery

Recently I got an email from a sweet woman named Tasha who invited me to join a flickr group for embroidery. I wrote her back to say, that I didn't know how to embroider and had never really tried, so I didn't think I would be a good person for a hand stitched theme. Ever since I have been sewing, I have always said: I don't sew by hand. Truth is, I never really tried. When I put the binding on my first quilt, it felt so wonderful! Well anyway, Tasha was sweet enough to take my response as a chance to open me up to embroidery. She has the cutest little shop over at etsy that sells embroidery patterns. She sent me a pattern for a cute little dress along with some pointers and directions to get started. I like a good challenge and agreed to give it a go!And you know what? I really liked sewing by hand! It was relaxing and rewarding and a nice change from being on my machine. Now, I included my example below and I know it is full of mistakes: like stitch length for one! But remember I am a beginner but now I want to give her other patterns a try to make this cute dress series for my little girl's room!

So thank you Tasha for introducing me to a new hobby and your wonderful shop and blog. If you would like to check it out you can follow the links below. Here's to trying something new!

A Little Sweetness: find lots of sweet patterns and more
Tasha's Blog : for more embroidery inspiration

loving

Look how adorable this little burlap bucket is! I am loving it. Wondering what those initials stand for? Work In Progress, to hold all your unfinished projects and bring them along to work on. It is from this etsy seller: Maya*Made. And she sells her patterns here. May just have to be a little birthday present for myself coming up soon! So clever, love to see what others create, don't you? And that certainly reminds me of all the works in progress I have accumulating around here! Hope your week is off to a creative start!

And these adorable examples of what you can do with the pattern found over on flickr!

weekend sewing

I somehow managed to get a bit of sewing done this weekend. That is in between putting our house on the market, cleaning, and feeling kind of nuts..oh and 2 soccer games as well. I guess the motivation got to me or the stress and I escaped to my machine for a little while!
We are gearing up for our 2nd annual Handmade Holidays craft fair in November. I am planning on making several of these quilted pillows and here is number 1! I am really happy how it turned out and would love to keep it, but I guess I better try to sell it first! It measures 18"x18" and features lots of my favorite and several out of print fabrics in pinks and greens. I used the softest bamboo batting for the quilting. So I am started now on a boy version and will see what comes next. Hope your weekend was productive or ultimately lazy...whatever you needed!

work in progress

I am working on this little mini quilt for my very first swap. I am part of this really fun online group of crafty, fabric loving souls that love to swap fabric. It has been pretty fun to get some of the lines that are long out of print and be able to trade for fabric I have to spare. Everyone is so nice , but warning...it certainly feeds my fabric addiction! If you are interested in joining just folow the link

So one of the ladies came up with the idea to do a mini (20"x20") quilt swap with the theme being Heather Ross fabrics. Since she is one of my favorite designers, I signed up. I knew what I wanted to do pretty right off the bat. I am still finishing up and not sure if my partner will see this, but sneak peaks are fun too! Should be done soon and on it's way to her home. Then she will also make one for me, yay! I love surprises, how often do we get them really??

quilt show

Yesterday I made it over to the Quilt Show with my good friend Heather. It was so amazing to see the quilts that were there. You could hardly believe that some of them were made by human hands. I loved to think about each woman that created them and the process from the first dreams of what her quilt would be to the final finished product. All the mental hours alone are astounding. The talent in that building was just awesome. We enjoyed seeing the art quilts full of bold designs and ingenious use of color. The traditional quilts I can picture being handed down for generations to come. Each one holding its' own story. I was really inspired. Heather and I talked about how one day when we are old ladies, still walking around the show. Could we ever dream of having one of our own works there? I think she could, she is really talented already!

Also we visited a great vendor from Thimble Pleasures and picked up some yummy half yard cuts from the Katie Jump Rope line and one from Anna Maria Horner. Certainly an added bonus to the day's activities!

Hope your weekend is full of creativity and inspiration too! And remember to join my giveaway which ends tomorrow night!

hi, it's me in my new top

I always want to sew things for myself but I can count on one finger, just one, the item in my closet that I made and that I wear. I am really particular about what I like and what fits me right.
So this weekend I ventured to make myself something for this summer, and my goodness, I like it. I even wore it today out in public! Yeah! After seeing this shirt on A Stitch in Dye blog, I found out the pattern: Simplicity 4589. I skipped on over to Hancock's and used some Amy Butler fabric to make it. It took just a couple hours and the pattern was pretty straight forward. I will certainly make it again. Maybe trying out some of the other versions. And 2 warnings: the pictures on the cover of the pattern are pretty dated and ugly, it is cooler than that and second: make sure you check the size and measurements on the pattern before you buy it. I normally wear a size 6/8 and I was a 14 in this pattern.
Also got some more work on my quilt done and will share that this week. Last 3 days of school coming up so we are all busy and excited in this house right now! Yeah for summer!

the olliekate giveaway is here!

Hello and Welcome! The Sew Mama Sew giveaway event is here and I am so excited to be participating.

How it works: Leave a comment on this blog. Any comment will do, but I would love to hear what you think of the Olliekate shop or just be creative, say hello... whatever!

I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday May 31st at 9:00pm est. I will choose the winners by a random drawing. The winners will be announced on Monday morning! Yeah!

What is up for grabs, you ask?

Well...first is a fab Olliekate pillow! Measuring 14 x 14 inches, the pillow is crafted of 100% linen and appliqued with our 2 trees design. For all you fabric lovers out there, the trees are made of both Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt fabrics in beautiful oranges and pinks. The back of the pillow is also linen with a patchwork strip of the same fabrics and has an envelope closure. A 100% cotton pillow insert will be included with the pillow.

And since second place is fun too: the 2nd runner up will receive an Olliekate original key fob. I will pick your design, but promise it will be cute. A key fob is perfect for keeping your hands free while juggling groceries, little hands or anything else. It slips around your wrist, you will never lose your keys again! Honest.

Thanks for playing along, visiting the blog and our Olliekate site. You can also click here to see the list of other bloggers who are joining in on the giveaway madness. Have a great week!

Because of the bulkiness of the pillow, I can only ship within the USA. Unless you would like to enter and I can just send the cover (without the insert) internationally.

You can email me at ollie.kate@yahoo.com if you have any specific questions as well. Thanks!

The giveaway is done and all comments are closed. I will announce the winners tomorrow morning.

quilt along with me

Thanks to my quilting hero, Heather over at Brown Robin, I have signed up for a quilt along sponsored by Old Red Barn Co. The way it works is that over the next 6 weeks, she will walk you through a quilt and the process. This will be my first "real" quilt, and I have been wanting to tackle this for quite some time. Heather will be my go to for advice and oh yeah, a walking foot. I figure if I put it out here on the blog, I have to stick with it, right? So I have picked my fabrics, what do you think? This was harder than it should have been for me to decide. Blues, an obvious choice for this lover of all things blue and some greens, turquoise and greys. Lots of Amy Butler, which always seems to happen to me when I have to pick lots of fabric, love her! So I will be posting as my quilt progresses. And if anyone wants to join along, hop over to the site and join in. All the directions are there. It should be fun!

And I forgot to mention, that Dana at the Old Red Barn Co. site is having awesome giveaways each week of the quilt along, leading up to a brand new machine! This week it is a Rowenta iron. Is it so lame that I would love to win a new iron? Mine stinks. And there is also a flickr group where you can see pictures of the works in action from everyone as the quilts progress, and get lots of inspiration too.

Remember tomorrow is the start of our Olliekate Giveaway. Come back and check out what I will have up for grabs. hint: something for your sofa, maybe???

Have a great day!

next week:giveaway time

Next week we will be participating in a giveaway sponsored by Sew Mama Sew (one of my favorite places to get fabric, and a great sewing blog too!)

They are hosting a Giveaway on May 27th. There will be lots and lots of blogs with fun items to win all over the web, including us! Not sure what I will put up for grabs. Something fun from Olliekate for sure, so stop back by and enter to win. You will be able to click here on that day to see the other participants or get some more info. as well!

Happy Wednesday....

to be creative, to be a mom

This morning I read a great post on Design Mom's blog that I wanted to share because it really hit home with how I often feel about being a mom to little kids and the need to be creative. Click here to read her guest blogger Amy's post:

"The one thing I hope you remember".

photo from Diary of a Quilter blog

And also check out Amy's blog for a fun fabric giveaway. Ends on Wednesday so throw your name in the hat if you need, I mean want more fabric!
Diary of a Quilter

::etsy love::

looking around on etsy is a past time of mine, of course! There really are so many wonderful artists on there. But it is often hard to find them. I came upon this new seller today and wanted to share because I think it is worth checking out! Her knit creations are so adorable. They are calling my name for a little easter basket surprise or two! You can see more right here.

the little wren

Recently I finished some new pillows for our couch. (I got them done Heather!) But one pillow, I am especially happy with and I wanted to share how easy it was to make. I found this great tutorial off of the Anna Maria Horner blog a while back. She was on Martha and teaches how to make these fabric canvas pictures below:
And here is the one that I made using her Wren template. It now sits happily on our mantle.

Fast forward to the pillow frenzy...I decided to use this template just like we do our Olliekate appliques. I was so happy to have it all complete and I think it adds a nice touch! Simple to make, just involves some tracing, interfacing and some sewing. She has a few other animal designs you can use too or make your very own. Hopefully all these new pillows can buy us some time on our worn out couch that has lost the war with 3 kids using it!

how to...

Today I came across this great post on The Long Thread with The Top 100 Tutorials of 2008. I was pretty excited to see such a great list of projects from other online crafters. I love using tutorials because a) you can see lots of photos of finished projects and b)someone has usually worked out all the kinks. I am always googling for tutorials when I have new things I want to try and sew or crafts to make. I have made a few things and posted here that have been from tutorials. Like this skirt, this darling little tutu and my favorite twirly skirt. Having so many all in one place is a bonus!

Link to the Long Thread blog to see more. Happy creating!

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saturday , december 6th

Craft show season is just about over for us but we are excited for one more show tomorrow in Black Mountain. It is a fundraiser for my good friend Heather's Montessori school. The Holiday Parade is going on at the same time so the whole family can have a fun day in beautiful Black Mountain!

Rebecca and I are still busy sewing so we can have some fresh new designs for tomorrow's sale and fill up our inventory.
I laughed today when I told her over the phone that I just used my daughter's detangler to "style" my hair, my kids had 1/2 sandwich sent to school because we are out of everything in the kitchen and my 8 year old walked around this morning telling me he couldn't find any clothes to wear because they are all dirty!
When I get busy sewing , the house of cards that I keep balanced comes crumbling down! No worries, all that will still be waiting for me on Sunday...

we heart etsy

Have you shopped on etsy yet? Well, you should because they really do have such amazing handmade gifts. I am all about making this Christmas handmade. Not just things I make so I have turned to etsy to get my list done. I can't show you everything I have gotten since you might be receiving it!! But I want to showcase some sellers that I think are tops!

Some of Olliekate's favorites: (but there are loads more wonderful sellers so go check them out, I bet you can find what you are looking for! Use the search box on the home page of Etsy)

Chocolate and Steel: silver jewelry

Say Your Piece: personalized ornaments

Bailey Doesn't Bark : pottery

YeeHaw: letterpress, cool cards

JD Wolfe Pottery: gorgeous!

Joom: very cool pillows

Pretty In Posies:Felt flower hair clips for those little girls on your list