My Cotton Way Tablerunners

If you are looking for the Ruby giveaway click here.

Last year I was in the Cotton Way Fresh and Fancy Table Runner Club from The Fat Quarter Shop. I was still so new to quilting and sewing that I had no idea who the designers were. I was pleasantly surprised that these patterns all were by Bonnie of Bonnie and Camille. I definitely had a favorite pattern among the tablerunner patterns. It was the August Table Runner and is still available!

I made 2 of these tablerunners so far. The kit came with Sweetwater's Make Life fabric and was the first tablerunner I ever made. It was also the first time I ever did any quilting other than in the ditch so I was really proud of my diagonal lines, wonky and all.

At this point in my quilting life I had no idea that there were actual fabric lines that went together and were made by the same designer. I probably should have put 2 and 2 together since they were all in the same area at the quilt store. But I knew that I was in love with writing on fabric so here's what I chose for the next one.

Of course I chose Pure. The funny thing is that I didn't realize they were from the same designer until Sunkissed came out. I guess I was a very naive quilter at first.

There were other Fresh and Fancy Cotton Way table runner kits I got. I made a few tablerunners, but gave them away and wasn't smart enough to take a pic.

Have you ever seen a Cotton Way pattern? My current favorites are the Christmas Stars Quilt Pattern and the Cuddle Me Cozy Quilt Pattern. Both can be found at the Fat Quarter Shop on the Bonnie and Camille Page.

Come back tomorrow to see a great tablerunner made with Ruby from Tracey at Peony Teacup.

Saturday at Quilt Market

Yesterday you saw how busy Friday was at Quilt Market, Saturday was just as craizee. I did want to mention for those of you thinking about going to Market next year that on Friday the floor with all the booths and vendors was not open. I had no idea and if I didn't have schoolhouse to go to it would have been a wasted day, well except for spree.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with the 4 great gals I was sharing a room with, well the word room might be a tad bit underestimating what it was. It was more like a mansion in the hotel. We had 2 bedrooms with 4 beds altogether (1 was in the living room so that was kinda 3 rooms to sleep in), 3 bathrooms, a living room and big conference table that would have fit 10 people around it and 2 bar areas. So rooming with Laine, Jacqueline, Tiffany and Cara was very enjoyable. We all got along great!

After breakfast I had a few meetings. I had a wonderful meeting with Kerri from Brewer Sewing. I can't wait to share the news with you, but I have to get all my ducks in a row first. Then I met with Thomas about this upcoming fabric line Flock. I love Flock, it spoke to me.

After those meetings we walked around the floor and met some great people. I learned a lot about thread and pearl cotton from the folks at Precencia. For instance did you know that the size 16 will fit in your machine with a 50 wt bobbin? The gals at Precencia sent us home with 5 different weights of pearl cotton to try. And I picked up the Precencia thread for the thread-off I will be having soon. I'm just waiting to get the other thread and then I will be asking for volunteers, but more on that later.

At another booth I saw the cutest baby diapers. They are made with very soft fabric and are completely washable. I can see every parent and grandparent who sews making these for the little ones. I can't remember the name of it but I will find out and post it when I do.

Another fun part was chatting with some of the fabric designers. The Moda area was huge and so much fun! I meet so many designers...Kate Spain, Aneela Hoey, Betz White, Lucie Summers, The Sweetwater gals, the Blackbird Gals, Ann Sutton, and my all time favorite designers Barb and Mary from Me and My Sisters. I spent quite a bit of time chatting with the Me and My Sister gals and even showed them a pattern I have been working on specifically for their fabric. Then they totally surprised me with a set of their yet to be released patterns! I can't wait to make that bag from the pattern. The gals that were staying with me already have put in orders so I had better get going on them lol.

The Andover, Hoffman, Island Batiks, Canvas (a part of Benartex), Riley Blake and Robert Kaufman booths were also great! I was glad that Jacqueline was there with me because I only got her 1 of the Lorax kits at Spree and she was able to pick up the rest. I also was able to pick up a FQ set for Laine that I knew she really had wanted. Thats how the weekend was for us. When we saw something that we knew someone else wanted we weren't shy about picking it up. When I got back to the room Laine had a suitcase of Aurifil thread waiting for me, which was so sweet of her.

I have to admit some of the fabric took my breath away. I am especially looking forward to seeing Summersville in person, it's so different and so me! And the swag we got from Moda was great. They had mini charm packs of a lot of their upcoming lines. Here's a pic of all the ones I got.

They are Tend the Earth by Deb Strain, Stitch by Betz White, California Girl by Fig Tree, A Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey, Meadow by Blackbird Designs, Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket, Reunion by Hometown and A Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky.

I spent the rest of the afternoon meeting other fabric designers, manufacturers and distributors about my patterns. Several agreed to send me fabric to make a quilt from one of my patterns for them. So I would say the trip was a success! I got a lot more feedback, and positive feedback at that than I thought I would have gotten. The hard part for me is going to be keeping my mouth closed until the pattern is done, but I do wish I could show you all the patterns right now :)

The only bad part of Saturday was that Tiffany lost her wallet, but we tried to keep her busy to take her mind off of it. And guess what, she got a call yesterday that the cab driver found it!

By Saturday night I was exhausted so I hung out with some of the gals I was staying with. So that's was my Saturday.

As for Sunday, that was kinda uneventful. I was leaving at 11:30 for the airport, which didn't give me much time. I did go to 1 book signing, which was fun. Next time I will plan on staying until Monday so that I can check out all the book signings. If you get on line early enough you can get a coupon for a free book at the book signing. Then it was off to the airport and home. While I was ready to come home, I feel like there was so much I missed. But there's always next time. That is if Hubs lets me go again after how much this trip cost him in fabric :)

Getting Ready For Quilt Market

In less than 3 days I will be in Houston for the International Quilt Market and I am so excited! I have been working on a few quilt patterns and am looking forward to talking to some people about them. For some reason I have been 'in the zone' as far as ideas, now if I had time to start and finish all my pattern ideas by Thursday that would be great. But alas that will not be happening.

So to get ready for the weekend I decided to make a purse. I have only made little zipper pouches for makeup before (pictured right) so this was my first real bag. I was looking thru Moda Bake Shop (one of my favorite things to do, along with spending hours on the Fat Quarter Shop site planning) and found the Mill House Inn Tote Bag Pattern and knew at once that was MY bag.

Pattern picked out, now for the fabric. I love Hometown and thought the combination of the bright red and soft colors would look great with the scrappiness of the strips. I have come to realize that I am not a scrappy kind of gal, I am much too symmetrical to make many things scrappy. I even drive my quilting friends 'craizee' (pun intended) with trying to plan quilts. So this bag is about as scrappy as it gets for me. I am very proud of myself because I didn't make each side from the center match the other. Don't laugh...it was a big step for me...OK you can laugh a little.

I am not afraid to admit that I was petrified of making a bag. I just couldn't visualize how it would come out...especially the part where you put the inside of the bag on the outside of the bag and flip it thru a seam left open. But I was pleasantly surprise when it worked! So what do you think? I can't wait to walk around Market with this bag!

Then after I finished the bag I had a burst of energy, probably from the endorphins from being so darn excited about the bag :). I knew I needed to make a bag for my IPad while on the trip. I was going to just make a simple zipper pouch like the one I made for my first IPad that now resides with my daughter. Here's a pic of that one. You'll notice I made it from Sunkissed, another Sweetwater line.

But then I thought I would up my game and try to make a matching case. It was easy once I figured out the dimensions. I ended up starting with a 9x11 piece for the bag body and went from there. I used 2" strips instead of the 1.5" strips called for in the bag pattern. I followed the same pattern, except didn't put the shoulder straps on. Here's what I came up with. What do you think?

I am thinking of making a little pouch to put my IPod in. And maybe a wallet too, but we'll see how much time I have. For now I am happy with the pieces I have so far.

Blog Hop Day 1...Here's Tiffany!

Welcome to day 1 of the Friendship Blog Hop! I have been waiting for this day for 2 whole weeks, which in my world is a long time to keep a secret  :)

As I said yesterday, Tiffany from Another Pie in the Sky is up first.

Just a side note...Do you remember seeing this exact button yesterday? Think hard and if you need to check scroll down a bit to yesterdays post. Do you see the difference. Overnight Tiffany decided to change her blog look! She is amazing at how she can come up with a new design that quickly. If you are looking for someone to help you with your blog or even a blog button check with her...OK back to our regularly scheduled program.

I am not going to show you the whole front of the Hometown quilt Tiff made, but I will give you a hint...

You can see the whole quilt at Another Pie in The Sky. While your there please leave Tiff a comment about how awesome you think her quilt is :) and tell her Sha sent you! If you like what you see please consider following her blog too.

Come back tomorrow to see Carolyn of ...Just One More Stitch share her quilt!

Sha :)

It's Good to be Home Sweet Home!

When Kimberly from The Fat Quarter Shop sent me the Home Sweet Home quilt kit and backing set for Sweetwater month, I was overwhelmed by how pretty the kit looked in its packaging. This pattern is by It's Sew Emma, Debbie Taylor. You can find the pattern here. This quilt would look great in just about any fabric, but I must say Hometown would still be my first choice even if I didn't have a kit.

The first thing I did was take the pattern out, but I wasn't ready touch the fabric yet. On Friday I finally had a good block of time to start on the quilt. I am a very careful quilter, I have to really envision how all the pieces will go together in the end before I do any cutting. This pattern had something I had never seen before, which I am not afraid to say scared me. But I got the courage up to start cutting. The directions were very clear, which made following the pattern easy. So I cut all the squares and rectangle. then came the part where you cut part of the triangle off. I am not going to go into the pattern, but suffice it to say I successfully managed to do all the cutting.

Last weekend was spent piecing the arrows. It was so cool to see the arrows take form.  It really was not hard, nor terribly time consuming. The hardest part for me was deciding on a layout. Here's 2 that I was working with. The funny thing is that neither of these are the exact way that I ended up with.

And when all was said and done this is what I ended up with. I so very happy with the outcome! This quilt is definitely going to the longarm quilters. So it might be a while before you see it again, but I promise to show you the finished quilt ASAP.

So what do you think? I am going to show it tomorrow at the Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild meeting and can't wait!

A special thanks to The Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring the Designer Select Series here at Craizee Corners!

Sha :)

Welcome Guest Blogger #5 Jacqueline

Today Jacqueline from Handmade With Love is my guest. She has made some amazing quilts with Sweetwater lines.

My love affair with Sweetwater started about a year ago... 

Maybe a year and a half. 

I had stumbled across a wonderful online fabric shop - Above All Fabric  - 

and saw this thing called a layer cake. 

Yes, I really was that clueless about pre-cuts.

This showed up in the mail just a few days after that glorious discovery. 

About the same time I found this blog called the bake shop something or another. 

I could NEVER remember what it was called. 

I had to Google search it five or six times before I remembered to bookmark it. 

By that time, I had it firmly in my head that it was the Moda Bake Shop. 

It was there that I found what this beautiful layer cake would be made into. 

Boxed In 

My faithful Helper - Panzie

Pre-Borders

My dear wee sister took this one to college with her! =) 

The other quilt from Pure: 

And a bonus quilt - this one was made from scraps from the other two from the Get Framed  tutorial by Crystal Hendrix of Hendrixville

This little guy has a new home with a good friend's new baby boy! 

I now have a stash of Sunkissed. 

I still don't have any idea what I want to do with it. 

I have made this cute little skirt for my wee one from an Oliver & S tutorial 

Now to decide what to do with the rest of my stash... 

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Sweetwater??? 

I CANNOT wait to get my hands on some Hometown. 

Time to budget... ;-)

Or expand on the budget! 

A HUGE THANK YOU to Sha for letting me share my love!

xoxo

Jacqueline

Have I ever mentioned where I have found all my guest bloggers? I tweet, almost as much as I sew, which keeps me very busy, lol. Everyone one of the guest bloggers I have ever had on this blog answered my call for help with this series. You can find me on twitter from the twitter button on the right hand side bar.

The Designer Select series for October will either be Me and My Sister or Kate Spain. If you would like to guest blog and show us what you have made with fabric from either of these designers lines let me know. I would love love love you to join me!

Sha :) 

Sweetwater Winners!

Good morning!

It's time to pick the winners of the Home Sweet Home Quilt Kit and backing set and the Simple Home book. **Note the pic of the winners shows I only picked 1 - 100, but when I did it on random.com it was 159, not sure why it copied with 100, but the winning number was the same.**

The winner of the Home Sweet Home Quilt kit and backing set by The Fat Quarter Shop is:

Congrats Colleen!








The winner of the Simple Home Book by Sweetwater is:

Congrats Debra!








Thanks to everyone who entered and especially to Fat Quarter Shop and Sweetwater who sponsored this month's series. There's still more Sweetwater fun coming up this month so check back often.

Sha :)

My Sweetwater Goodness

If you are looking for the Fat Quarter Shop Hometown giveaway click here. The winner will be picked tomorrow when I wake up so get your entries in today.

Dont you just love all the great projects that my guest bloggers shared with you this week? I know I am even more inspired now...my to do list has grown this week.

I thought that I would share some of my Sweetwater projects too.

Did I mention that I absolutely love table runners? Did I mention that I absolutely love any fabric with words on it?

These projects meet both of those loves, so it was a win/win all around for me. Here's 2 table runners that are made with the same pattern but with 2 different lines. I used Make Life and Pure for these. The pattern is The August Fresh and Fancy Table Runner pattern by Cotton Way. I got this as a kit from last years table runner club at The Fat Quarter Shop. The Make Life one was the first thing I ever made with Sweetwater fabric and I was hooked after this project. I hadn't been quilting for too long at this point. Then I decided to do the same one in Pure. My living/dining room is blue and brown so this matched perfectly. I think I am going to give my oldest son, Bryan the Pure one, he needs something for his new apartment and these are his colors too.

Make Life...

Pure

I also decked out my living room in Pure...I just love the colors and all the writing of course. Here the pillows I made.I finished these pillow in less than 30 minutes.

And here's the quilt made with Pure. This one my son Bryan stole for his apartment, but I made a new quilt for him so I am taking it back next time I see him :)

Then I got my hands on some Sunkissed. I did the Spring Quilt Along with Above All Fabric. I love how this came out. You can't tell but the center square is fussy cut to say life.

That's all I have finished so far. I am hard at work on the Home Sweet Home quilt right now. * arrow pieces done and 40 to go, which I will finish today. Here's a peak at what I have done so far...

I hope you have been enjoying Sweetwater Month here at Craizee Corners. I'd love to know which is your favorite projects from the week. Here's a link to all the guest blogger posts...

Monday - All Things Belle
Tuesday - Cara Quilts
Wednesday - Little Treasurers by Amanda
Friday - Quilt Dad

A special thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for making this series even more special! Be sure to visit them. It's a great way to do some retail therapy in your PJs!

Sha :)

Home Sweet(water) Home Quilt

A few days ago I got a surprise from Kimberly at the Fat Quarter Shop. She sent this to me to help celebrate Sweetwater month. Does it look familiar? Is should because its the same things she's letting me give away to one of my lucky readers. The link to the giveaway post is here.

So after a few hours hugging it in the package and studying the pattern I opened it up. This was the most excited I have been about a quilt in a while. I thought the blocks would be kinda difficult because of the cutting, but it was soooooo simple! Who knew that cutting 1 5/8" off of the point of a triangle would be so easy. I learned my lesson...I will no longer be afraid of the rotary cutter :)

It didn't take too long to iron the fabric and cut all the pieces, except for the sashing, I always so that when it's time to use it. I learned a great way to measure the rows to make sure they are all the same size (more on that system later in the week). Once I got it all cut it was time to start sewing. Like always I made 1 block to see how it comes out. Plus it helps me gauge how long it will take me to sew them all together. I have to say that it went so fast. I will definitely be able to chain piece them which will make it go even faster. I figure 2 hours tops for the squares to be made, that's with the pressing.

Here's my first finished block. I almost used the Half Square triangle ruler to cut the print arrow points, but wasn't sure about it. Now I wish I did because of the flat notch there would be no guessing and the side would have come out even every time. But live and learn I guess. Cutting the arrow points was still very easy.

I am done sewing for today (I think) and am looking forward to working on this again tomorrow. My plan is to have the quilt top done by Monday or Tuesday and have it quilted by the end of Sweetwater Month.

Remember if you want to win one of these wonderful quilt kits and backing you have till Monday morning to enter.

If you like this quilt hurry and get your kit today. Here's the link straight to the kit.

See ya tomorrow!

Sha :)

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 :)