See What Quilt Dad has for us today...

If you are looking for the Hometown giveaway click here.

Today John Adams is back to show us some of his Sweetwater projects! He has a wonderful blog called Quilt Dad and is also involved in FatQuarterly. Please be sure to visit his blogs and tell him Sha sent you!

Thanks, Sharon, for hosting me here on your blog during Sweetwater month! When Sharon put out a call for guest bloggers over on Twitter a few weeks back, as soon as I heard the posts would be about Sweetwater I just had jump in. After spending the past few months moving, working, and otherwise busy with life stuff in general, this was the perfect excuse to get me back into the sewing room so that I’d have something to show. Plus, the timing worked out perfectly -- my Sweetwater creation turned out to be the perfect gift for a swap recipient.

But more on that in a minute.

First, let me talk a little bit about my introduction to the design team known as Sweetwater. As soon as I caught sight of their debut line for Moda, Authentic, in early 2010, I was hooked. The colors were amazing, especially the careful use of black. The designs were highly appealing -- casual and accessible without being novelty, and sophisticated in a way that didn’t take itself too seriously. A difficult balance to achieve, actually. And that newsprint. Oh, after seeing that text print there was no turning back.

I actually made a pillow tutorial for the Moda Bake Shop using pre-cuts of Authentic.

Let’s fast forward just a little bit to my first-ever Quilt Market in the spring of 2010. My first purchase at my first sample spree at my first ever quilt market was a fat quarter bundle of Sweetwater’s second line, Pure. I love that line. I hoarded that pack for almost a year before I (reluctantly) sent it across the pond to my friend Katy. I’d be bitter about it if what she made with it wasn’t so freakin’ amazing.

I also had the great fortune to get to meet Karla, Susan, and Lisa -- the names and faces behind Sweetwater -- at market. They are three of the nicest, sweetest, most genuine and down-to-earth people that you could ever hope to meet. Meeting them actually added a whole new level of appeal to their products for me.

I say “products” because this talented team produces way more than fabric. Just check out their fun shop to see what else they’ve cooked up -- prints, labels, scrapbooking supplies, and quilt patterns. GREAT quilt patterns, in fact. I’m using one right now to make a quilt using my friend Thomas Knauer’s new fabric line, Pear Tree.

Anyhow, back to Sweetwater. Next came Make Life, and then Sunkissed. Sunkissed inspired me to start the popular Bloggers’ Block-a-Palooza quilt-along that featured the line. I also made a really great quilt for my mother with Sunkissed, though I don’t have any good pictures of it to share yet.

It was also about this time that the Sweetwater team and I were both contributors to the super fun Moda Bake Shop Fresh Fabric Treats book. Here’s a picture (courtesy of Kim Walus) of a book signing that we did together at Spring Quilt Market earlier this year in Salt Lake City. Lisa from Sweetwater is 4th from the left. I’m ... well, I’m pretty sure you can figure out which one is me.

Thanks to Kim Walus of bitty bits & pieces for the great pic.

Which brings us to their newest line, Hometown. Yep, you’d better believe I’ve stocked up on a little bit of this line. No immediate plans for it yet, but I want to be ready when inspiration strikes.

But I am excited perhaps most of all about Sweetwater’s next line, Reunion. Why? It’s all about those navy and grey prints. Navy + grey is my favorite color combination, but you don’t see it appear very often in quilting fabrics. Oh yeah, and the bunting. I’m super stoked about that bunting print.




OK, let’s show the project I created for today’s post. When I was faced with creating a little something to feature Sweetwater’s fabrics, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to pull out my precious Authentic scraps left over from my pillow projects. Inspiration struck when I remembered a mini quilt that I had made once before using a pattern called Bay Breeze by Monica Solorio-Snow (the Happy Zombie) and featured in an older issue of Quilts and More magazine (Summer ’08). I knew the two would be a great match.



As luck would have it, I had also signed up for a mini quilt swap in my local guild, the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild, and I thought my swap partner (Kait) would really like this quilt. So, as much as I was in love with the finished product, I gifted it to another talented quilter. Don’t worry about me, though -- I received a fantastic quilt in its place!




Thanks John for sharing all that Sweetwater goodness with us!

Come back tomorrow for more Sweetwater fun!

Sha :)