the jelly bean quilt

A friend of mine is having her third baby in just a couple months and I am so excited for her. They will be welcoming their third girl into the world and I knew right away that I wanted to make her a quilt. I have never actually gifted any of my quilts though and was a little nervous about quality control for a gift. I chose a rainbow design, heavy on the pinks and bound in that great seed fabric from the Flea Market Fancy line by Denyse Schmidt. The back is all grey solid.

The quilt is only about 40"x50" so it came together in just a few short hours. The next day I got it all ready to quilt and totally forgot to tape the back down when I pinned it! Didn't even cross my mind for some reason. Probably because I quilt pillows a lot and I don't have to worry about that. So as could be expected there was some shifting, not a ton but some on the back where the fabric just didn't lay perfectly flat as I was quilting. I turned it over to check about 1/2 way through and was not happy!! It was too far along to rip all those stitches out, I don't have the patience for that. I finished the quilt anyway to see how it would turn out and threw it in the wash so it could get nice and soft and fluffy. That really hid a lot of the mistakes thankfully. I decided it was gift worthy. The funny part is that when I was wrapping the quilt, my 4 year old was with me and I said, "Well, it's not perfect but I think it looks nice and hope she will like it. Besides nothing in life is perfect anyway." She looks at me and replied, "that's true Mom, except for jelly beans because they are pretty much perfect!"

So this is the jelly bean quilt for a sweet little baby soon to greet us all :)

pink quilt: all done!

The pink plus quilt top is back from the long arm quilter and I have gotten the binding on! My little girl got to sleep under it for the first time the other night. No coming into my room in the middle of the night saying she is cold, so I would say that's a good start! I love the bubble pattern I chose for this quilt and once it was all washed and dried, it got so soft and just perfect!

Now everyone has a mama made quilt and I can move on to plans for a throw quilt for the couch. I have been spying this pattern from Amy Butler to try next. The backing of this quilt was made with Amy's new line Soul Blossoms.

Hope your weekend gets off to a great start. We are celebrating my oldest's birthday. Makes a mama feel old watching her boy turn 11. So proud of the young man he is becoming!

back to school dress

A poolside sewing tutorial from my dear friend Heather taught me how to make this oh so sweet and simple pillow case style dress. I used the unicorn print from Heather Ross's Far Far Away line and the coordinating orange floral for the bow. I sewed this for Kate before her first day of preschool this week. Got to go back to school in style, right? I just wish I had tried this pattern at the beginning of summer. Hope your end of summer or back to school season is going well.

Happy Weekend!

works in progress

I have been sewing a bit the past few days after I bought some really nice linen from Sew Mama Sew. It is a nice heavy weight that would be good for home dec. projects. I have been wanting a new bag for a while and decided to use the linen to make a patchwork tote with some of my favorite fabrics. It is still in progress b/c the handles are too long and the whole bag is kind of huge so I am not totally done...yet. But on to the linen, which I love the look of in sewing projects. I practiced some sketching with thread (for lack of a better name) on linen with fabric scraps. It is fun to do and the possibilities are endless. Simply, iron on your fabric that is backed with fusible interfacing to the linen in the shape you want. Using your darning foot, you stitch the outline of the shape as you would with a marker or pen. I like the whimsical look of going around a few times and using a dark brown or black thread looks best. Now these are just rough examples but I have a fabric canvas idea brewing in my head that could look pretty cool. Here are some more ideas from flickr of what you could dream up: here and here.My 3 year old is sick today so sewing will slow a bit! She is listening to a book on tape right now which has been one of my best parenting finds since my oldest was little. Great in the car or in the house, they love it! Have a great day!

::weekend in pictures::

decisions

inspiration

stumbled upon

entrepreneurs

Hope your weekend was wonderful too!

:over the weekend:

photo from Heather Ross blog

Happy Monday! We had an enormously busy weekend! My oldest turned 10 on Saturday, I can hardly believe it. He celebrated with going to the movies and we had 5 boys sleep over. It was fun and wild and "sleep" was not a big part of the night! And Sunday was a mother blessing for my good friend who is about to welcome her second little boy into the world. So wonderful to be a part of all these boy celebrations and have some mama time too!

And I spent just a few moments loving these new fabrics from Heather Ross. You can purchase them over at Spoonflower. They are so darn cute!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

lovely fabrics and a giveaway too!

(Playground Palette)

Recently I bought a little bit of Anna Maria Horner's new line called Little Folks. It is made out of voile which is just so lovely and light weight. Kind of like the lawn cotton from Liberty of London. When you are lying around healing from back surgery, it can be very dangerous not to buy a ton of fabric while surfing the web! There is not much else to do! But I was good and just got 3 fat quarters thinking I would make a scarf. Has not happened yet, but it will!

I ordered from Harts Fabric and was very pleased with their prices, customer service and fast shipping. Today they are having a giveaway on their blog for a free yard from the Little Folks line! So go check it out here and sign up to win!

As for me, I am s.l.o.w.l.y healing from surgery and getting better each day. I am dying to be able to sew again and have stashed a million new project ideas in my head! The body knows what it is doing but sometimes the mind gets impatient waiting! See you soon. Hope you have a great day!

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??

and the winner is...

Thank you all for entering my 1 year blogging giveaway! I loved reading all your comments and hope you will stay in touch and visit again.

The winner of the 3 fat quarter set is:

Nicole from Frontier Dreams

and be sure to check out her lovely blog here, it is beautiful!

So Nicole send me your info and I will get your prize right out to you.

And this must have been a bit of karma because in my inbox yesterday I received this sale notice from Quilting As You Wish. And they have the pink and aqua birds on sale right now for $6/yd so if you are still wanting some hop over there quick!

Hope your week gets off to a great start!

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!

let's do a giveaway

Let's do a giveaway, what do you say? Want to? It has been a year since I started this blog. At first it was an idea for the etsy business Olliekate that I run with my friend Rebecca. But I strayed from just etsy stuff and it became a family blog, a sewing blog, a creative outlet and connection to the online world of other women just like myself who are trying to mother and lead their lives the best they know how. I have truly enjoyed posting here and exploring my life through these pages as well. I love the comments I receive and always check back with people who have taken the time to reach out through the blog world. So thank you for making me comfortable, for stopping by and saying hello. I am always inspired!

As a big thanks I want to do a year anniversary giveaway. Since I love fabric so very much, I thought it would be a great thing to share with you. And if you don't sew, well you may just be inspired to start with this great design. It is the birdseed fabric by Alexander Henry. Comes in these great colors, very vibrant and fun. I will be giving away a fat quarter (18"x22") of each color to the lucky winner.

Leave me a comment be sure your contact info is there too and I will randomly pick a winner. You can leave any kind of comment but I would love to hear about what you like to sew or what you would use these birdies for. We can inspire each other that way.

I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday night at 9:00 pm. August 9th, and announce the winner on Monday morning. Thanks for stopping by!

The giveaway is closed and I will announce the winner on Monday morning, thanks!!