3-24-13: Update that is Short and Sweet

Since Thursday night, I have been sidelined for a second time this winter season with some virus.  Today is my first day fever-free, but after spending a congested sleepless night, I still feel like crap.  To compound, Mr. Olive has been working all day, which is GREAT, but not so much when I'm not feeling 100%.  Little Olive is past her week-long fever.  I have been dying to make a black and white quilt top so the fastest I could do was the race quilt because I wasn't sure when I was going to hit-the-wall.  This is the fifteenth quilt top I've completed since the beginning of the year!  I'm so proud of myself!  :-)  I still have some fabric to sew-up, but I'm definitely past the half-way point.  This is Riley Blake's "Tuxedo" is the race quilt pattern:

Will be consulting with my partner as to border color - do we go with a pop of color? Red? Yellow? Green? Thoughts?  Happy Sunday!

3-17-13: Happy St. Patricks Day!

St. Patrick's Day!  I'm not Irish, but Mr. Olive's family is, so Little Olive is too.  I like to celebrate all holidays, but completely forgot to wear green today.  Sigh.  And I am too lazy to change.  For my weekend sewing accomplishments, I finished another lap quilt / throw quilt in Kate Spain's "Serenade" fabric line by MODA fabrics.  It is full of "woodsy" colors like burnt orange, slate blue, gray, browns, mustard yellow, but then has a twist of purple:

I am thinking to border it in an orange and then back and bind in a tan.  I'll have to see what my partner Mother Olive has to say on the subject!  Here is the beginning of the matching pillow sham, which will have borders and back to match the quilt:

Today, I put together a crib-quilt size top in Urban Chicks fabric line "Dream On" by MODA fabrics.  If this doesn't say "Spring Flowers" I don't know what does......such soft colors.  Here in Long Beach, March is still "like a lion" as we await "the lamb" and warmer temperatures:

I finished two medium sized handbags in fabrics I bought for my beach totes.  I usually like to get the beach totes and matching handbags done at the same time, but since I don't think I'm going to post these to Etsy, I thought I'd show them off here instead.  The outsides is this wild hot pink, brown, orange, blue funky paisley:

and the reverse with a pocket is a brown, pink, green, white stripe:

I think these will sell at the spring fairs we are doing, so I'm saving myself the listings by just holding onto them.  BUT, by all means, if YOU like and would want one, just let me know!  :-)  One of the beach totes will have this little lady acting as a guardian angel......Little Olive drew her on the inside of the paisley fabric and I had to spray ScotchGuard on her so she lasts:

On another note, as I've mentioned before, I've been bringing an extra grocery store plastic bag when I walk the dog to pick up garbage.  As long as I'm walking, and have to wait, I can clean up a small part of the neighborhood.  I've decided to add my garbage count to my list, the latest of which is:

Large Bottles: 7
Hotel bottles: 11
Samples:  4
Thread Spools: 1

Grocery Bag Garbage: 8

3-10-13: Sewing Progress

Mainly pictures this post since today will be a running-around day!  I did my first jelly roll "Race Quilt" in the "Loulouthi" fabrics (it was the only jelly roll I had on-hand).  I have seen entries of ladies finishing the quilt top in 35-40 minutes, so I timed myself.  I took 1 hour 15 minutes to finish this top, so I was happy with that time!  I first laid out all the strips in the end-to-end placement:

And the finished top ended up this way:

Mr. Olive really liked the result!  In addition, I bought borders and back fabric for a vintage feedsack quilt.  I wanted to finish it up, but my batting wasn't big enough.  I'm going to pick up batting today to get this one done next weekend:

I love love how it looks!  The back fabric is a bright orange, yellow, and cream floral.

I also got two new tote bags completed and posted to Etsy:

This is the first time I've used fabric with a black base.  I treated each side with Scotchguard.

I'm part-way through another quilt top, but not sure I'll get it done today...if so, I'll add pictures!

Happy Sunday!

Recycling Bottles and Fun Wine Cork Projects!

Over on "Sweet Greens" blog, author Jennie Lyon posted an entry with five fun things to do with wine corks.  Since my mom has a big jug of corks at her house, and I really liked her "monogram" idea, I'm linking to her post so I will always have it for reference!  Hope you go check it out too....


I haven't posted how I'm doing with using up my products and potions.....just so I don't loose track, here is where I'm at:

Large Bottles: 6
Hotel bottles: 9
Samples:  3
Thread Spools: 1

My cabinets and drawers in the bathroom are already feeling "lighter"!
(( I found the picture of the wine corks through Google search and link to Wikipedia))