I'd like you to

Be my guest!

As part of the Designer Select Fat Quarter Club series I have several guest bloggers. I'd love for you to share you projects with my other followers here at Craizee Corner.

These are the designers who will be coming up soon. If you have made anything with something from these designers current or past lines please consider guest blogging.





Kate Spain - Terrain, Flurry, Central Park, Fandango, 12 Days of Christmas, Verna

Bunny Hill Designs - Puttin on the Ritz, Lily and Will

Fig Tree Quilts - Butterscotch & Roses, Buttercup, Strawberry Fields, Whimsy and more

Bonnie and Camille - Ruby, Bliss, Simple Abundance, Cotton Blossoms

Please email me if you would like to take part in any of these up coming series.

Sha :)

A giveaway a day late

Yesterday I showed you my Fall themed project made with my Accuquilt Go! If you missed it here's a pic of the finished project. To see the whole post just scroll down.

I got so many great comments about the mini quilt that I decided to do a little giveaway. I will send the winner 4 fat quarters of breast cancer awareness fabric and 4 appliqued ribbons cut with the Accuquilt die. this will be enough for you to make something special too.

To enter first of all you MUST be a follower.
For your entry please tell me what breast cancer awareness means to you.
There you have it 1 entry per person only.
Mr. Random will pick a winner on Saturday, October 1st.

Today the blog hop is at Sunshower Quilts. She has made a adorable table runner that you won't want to miss!

Sha :)

Here's my Fall Project...

I'm super excited today to be part of the Accuquilt Fall Blog Hop! I'm part of the Quilters With Modern Tools group and guess what? As of yesterday I became a quilter with 2 modern tools! You'll have to wait and see which one I just got :)

The theme for this blog hop is Fall and the only specific instruction we received was that it had to be made with something cut with our Accuquilt Go! or Baby Go! You know me I have to be different so I started thinking. I didn't have to think to much because I know October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and since October is in the Fall and I had just gotten the Accuquilt Go! Ribbon die it was a perfect fit.

I was lucky enough to find some great Breast Cancer fabric for this project, even though I had no idea what this project was until this past Sunday. I was very torn about what to make. First I was going to make a zipper bag, but I didn't have enough fusible fleece and didn't want to go to any store so scratch that idea. Then I decided on a mug rug.

Since I knew I needed a few applique ribbons cut out with my Go! I started there. I used Steam-A-Seam 2 on the back of the ribbon fabric. Its so easy to use, just place the part without the paper on the back of your fabric and press for 10 seconds. Then I simply used the Go! the same way as I usually would and it came out perfect.

That's when inspiration hit me. I decided to make a frame out of fabric and put the ribons in the center. Here's what I came up with for the ribbon layout. Actually I had wanted to use 3 ribbons to signify Mind, Body and Spirit, but that didn't work.

The frame part of the mug rug came together in my mind pretty easy. I fussy cut the words used for the inside frame. Here's a word at the top that has significant meaning to me. My Mother-in-law had breast cancer 9 years ago and was in remission for 8 years before she was diagnosed with lung cancer. We lost her 3 months ago tomorrow (June 28, 2011). Here's one of my favorite pics from June 2010 of my Hub's and his Mom.

Here's my finished project. You can't tell from this pic but I used a curly stitch along the inside of the frame. It was fun doing something different than a straight stitch.It's a bit big to be a mug rug so it ended up being a mini quilt.

Here's a close look at the center of the ribbons. I'm not sure if you can tell but theres a butterfly stitched by machine in the center and the center of the 2 ribbons too. My Mother-in-law loved butterflies.

I hope you like my Fall project. I havent decided what to do with this mini quilt yet, for now its staying with me, but I might donate it at some point to help raise funds for the Susan G Komen Association.

Here's the full list for the blog hop. Be sure to visit everyones blog and tell them Sha sent you!

Monday Sept 26th
Darlene (SewCalGal) - www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 27th

Terrie (Bits & Pieces) www.terriesandelin.blogspot.com
Sharon (Craizee Corners) www.craizeecorner.blogspot.com

Wednesday, September 28th
Katrina (Sunshower Quilts) www.sunshowerquilts.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 29th
Connie (Quilting by the River) www.conniekresin.blogspot.com
Mary (the Tulip Patch) http://www.tulip-patch.blogspot.com/

Friday, September 30th
Polly (Polly's Porch) www.auntpollysporch.blogspot.com

Sha :)

My Plans For The Week.....

Happy Monday everyone! I have plans, lots of plans for the week. The beginning is busy, but the second half is almost empty (so far) which will leave me plenty of time to play! I have  surprise for you and me coming (do I hear the G word again?) so stay tuned!

I am so excited about Tuesday, I am part of the Accuquilt Fall Blog Hop! All week long we will be hopping from one blog to another to share Fall ideas. Today Darlene of SewCalGal starts the hop with an adorable quilt made from tumblers (and I heard the G word on her blog today too!). I hope you join me for this fun hop and make sure to check here tomorrow for my special Fall project. If you can't wait that long here's a hint...It has to do with the color pink. Those of you that know me might be able to guess it, but please don't tell anyone.



As for today, I am guest blogging at Sally's Quilting Corner. She has a series on how to organize your sewing/quilting space, no matter how big or small. Go to her blog to see how I fold and store yardage and while your there it would be great if you left her a comment with your organizing hints :)...oh and don't forget to tell her hi for me.




Have you been to Talkin Tuesday's (#Talknt) yet? It's a tweetchat room hosted by the awesome Cara of Cara Quilts. From 9 - 11 EST we all get together and answer questions about quilting. It's a great way to learn new things about your favorite addiction. Tomorrows (September 27, 2011) Talkin' Tuesday is being sponsored by my friend Sally of Sally's Quilting Corner...yup that's the same Sally that I am guest blogging on. I hope you join us, but here's a hint...don't access it thru twitter search, use tweetchat instead. It will make it so much easier. And if you are not on twitter yet, there's still time to join. Once you get on twitter you can find me at @shapernes. 

And to make my life even busier I have 2 classes at The Berry Patch planned, 1 on Tuesday and 1 on Wednesday.

Plus I have to make 2 blocks for 2 special friends of mine that I have to get in the mail by Wednesday morning.

And to end the week I want to finish the quilt I am making for my oldest son by Friday. He's coming to visit this weekend and I want to give it to him.

I'd love to hear what you are up to this week...are you as busy as me? Are you busier than me? If you let me know I will be your biggest cheerleader!

Sha :)

Key to Friendship Quilt

I hope you have enjoyed the Friendship Blog Hop this weekend. Don't you just love the quilts Tiffany and Carolyn made?

Today it's my day to show your the quilt I made with that same pattern. Originally Tiffany and I were both going to use the same FQ kit, we both had the Sweetwater Designer Select Fat Quarter kit from The Fat Quarter Shop. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but these kits are a Fat Quarter Shop exclusive. The plan was to make use of the same fabric for the same quilt and see how different they came out. Then Carolyn joined and decided she was going to use her Pips jelly roll. That's what I remembered a jelly roll I had and we changed to format to showcase 3 different fabrics for the same pattern.

Here's my quilt. I call it Keys to Friendship.

I used Deb Strains Meadow Friends in the boy color way. I really struggled on the layout for this one. It happened to have about 16 brown strips. Being a very 'symetrical' quilter made deciding on a layout even more challenging...I know I need to loosen up, but that's another post lol. This was my first layout, but I wasn't happy with it. so I decided to make the outside and inside of each key piece match and was much happier then.

If you notice in Tiffany's and Carolyn's quilts they did more of a layout like I show above, more random. It's funny because Tiff originally had hers like mine and we both decided that it didn't work as well as the random way she ended up with. Isn't it funny how different fabric work differently?

I hope you enjoyed our Friendship blog hop! We plan on doing it again sometime and I hope you will consider joining us :)

Tomorrow I will be guest blogging at Sally's Quiting Corner, showing how I fold and organize my yardage fabric.

Sha :)

Blog Hop Day 2...Carolyn

Welcome to day 2 of our Friendship Blog Hop! Wasn't Tiffany's quilt great? I hope you checked it out and left her some comment love! I can not say enough how much I love this pattern. It was so easy and can be made with either jelly roll strips or fat quarters. And there's directions for both in the pattern.


Today it is Carolyn's turn to show you her awesome quilt! Carolyn's blog is ...Just One More Stitch. She used Sherbert Pips to make hers. Make sure to read her post...she will share with you how we met and why the pips are important to our friendship. She named her quilt Make New Friends. Which is a perfect name for this quilt. While you are at her blog tell her that Sha said hi!

I'm going to keep this short today, I am off to the first Saturday Sew for the Fort Worth MQG!

Come back tomorrow to see my quilt!

Sha :)

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 :)

Key to my Heart Blog Hop

Tomorrow the Friendship Key Quilt Blog Hop begins! About 2 weeks ago me, Tiffany from Another Pie in the Sky and Carolyn from ...Just One More Stitch decided to make the same quilt but with different fabric, hence the blog hop was born.

The pattern is Key to my Heart by Sarah Jane's Quilting and Designs.

I hope you join me tomorrow for this fun blog hop!

Sha :)

ps do you notice anything different on my blog? It's a hint of some things to come!

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 :)