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 :)