makelifesweet

More Love...

We have more love for the Fourth of July.  We created this cute table runner for our favorite holiday.

 

My favorite part about this runner is that it is super long- 58".  My second favorite thing about this project is that we had enough extra fabric left over to create this:

I think that bunting will do double duty- first above the dessert table on the 4th, then I think I will steal it and hang it in my little boy's room.  He loves anything with a star on it.  

You can get the pattern, fabric kit and iron-on labels in our shop now.  By the way, if you purchase the fabric kit, you get enough to create both projects!

I'm in love

with the 4th of July.  It happens to be my most favorite holiday.  I love what it stands for and it also helps that it is in the summer (my most favorite season of all!) We have decided to have a few fun projects to help us all celebrate.  Today we are featuring a new chalkboard print on canvas.  This print comes in 3 different sizes:  8x10, 11x14, and 16x20.  All prints are available on our Etsy shop.

Keep checking back this week for more fun projects and a free tutorial as well!

The Summer Blahs

I've got them.  The blahs.  Which is strange because it is summer, which is by far my favorite time of the year.  I'm kind of blah about everything, including, unfortunately work.  For about a week, I don't feel as if I have one creative bone in my body.  Yesterday we kind of looked at each other and thought, what are we doing, anyway?  Generally, we have about 10 projects going on at one time, thinking about our next fabric collection and trying to get around to about 100 different ideas that we have in our head.  But right at this moment, I've got nothing.  

Don't get me wrong.  We do have projects that we are working on.  Some really good things I'm totally excited about (can't tell you yet!).  I'm just having a little motivation problem.  I've decided it is because, even though we got back from our Disney vacation a couple of weeks ago, I still wish we were there.  And knowing that it was soooooooooooo expensive, it will be a very long time before we go back!  So because I'm missing my vacation, I thought I would show you a few pictures.

Before we even got to Disneyland, we spend a couple of days at Huntington Beach.  Knowing that my husband and son usually spend their summers in a corn field, this was a refreshing change.  My son even forgot all about tractors once he saw the ocean for the first time.

One of my biggest goals was to have a photo session at the beach right before sunset.  I drug my huge expensive camera and lenses along just for this purpose.  

Ok, so there is one photo.  That was about it.  My little boy wasn't very cooperative.  This is what I get:

Or this:

If he knows I'm taking pictures, he can't just act natural.  I don't want a cheesy smile or something posed, I just want him to do what he usually does.  But he won't.  He just stands around making silly faces.  Until I put the camera away and then he's fine.  So I decided not to fight it and just have fun instead of worrying about the photos.  From that time on, I only used my iPhone camera.  By the way, I wasn't in the pictures because my husband couldn't quite figure out my camera.  I set it all up for him, all he had to do was push the button, but for some reason everything he took was about a 100 different shades of fuzzy.

So here are just some random iPhone shots from our trip:

Ok- that should about do it.  I'm officially not on vacation anymore.  Which means it's back to Sweetwater. In fact, we have a summer project series that we will start in a few days.  And a contest.  Just need to figure out what to give away!  See you soon!

The Kits...

are ready to ship for the June Label Crew project!

To get yours, click here.

We also thought it would be fun to offer a personalized label for this project.  Many of you have told us you are making this for a shower, graduation or wedding.  

So if you would like to purchase a label that has a name(s) or word instead of the "friends and family", you can do that.  Those are also available in our store.  

By the way, this is the first project we are shipping from our Road 15 collection!  Have a great Monday!

All Things Lucy

As many of you know, our favorite summertime fabric collection, Lucy's Crab Shack:

is also featured in a scrapbook line by Bazzill Basics:

I know that it may be hard to find the fabric collection (it was released last year), but the paper collection is brand new!  Better yet, the store ETC is having a fun summer event this weekend and you can get Lucy on sale (but just till the end of May)!  Of course, the store is in Arizona, but you can order it online here.

Also, Bazzill will participate in a great event in honor of Memorial Day.

Check out their blog Saturday and see what they have done with Lucy's Crab Shack!

Have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend!   Oh, and for you Instagram followerers, I might overload you this weekend.  My little boy's first trip to Disneyland.  And his first trip on an airplane.  He's just worried about missing his tractors. I'm thinking he will forget all about his tractors when he gets on the plane.  I could be wrong!  I'll let you know- see you next week!

For June...

Yes I said June.  Yikes.  I'm worried summer will be over before I even realize it began.  Anyway, we have a peek at our June label club.  We were inspired by the table runner we had at Quilt Market- the one everyone signed.  We thought it would be fun to do the same idea in a pillow.  Only when you had guests at your house, you could have them sign it, kind of like a guest book.  Or even better, you could use it at a party, graduation or house warming event as a special memory.  

For more information on the label crew, click here.

Just wanted to clear something up about Monday's post.  We won't actually be blogging less (well, we will try really hard not to blog less).  Some of you have expressed concern that you may miss out on something because we are now on Instagram.  Don't worry.  We aren't abandoning our blog.  But if you want to find out more of what we do, what inspires us, see where we live and catch a few pictures of the most adorable kids in the world (ok- I am a little biased), you can follow us on Instagram.  For those of you who aren't on Instagram (because those of you who are on Instagram already know this), I will give you a quick explanation why.

It is sooooooooooooooo easy.  

That's it.  It is quick, easy and to the point.  Blogs are great for telling a story, showcasing fabric and patterns and highlighting the big stuff.  And even though I love doing it, you still have to get out that big expensive camera, search for the best light, download the photos, select the best ones, put them in photoshop, edit them, save them to the computer, upload them to the blog and write a story.  It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

With instagram, I can post 5 photos in the time I wrote that last paragraph. Which also means, we can't really go into depth about anything- just a quick photo.  Which is why we will continue to blog.  So don't worry.  

Ok.  I'm done with raving about Instagram for awhile.  But if you try it, you will love it.  Trust me!

p.s.  our user name on Instagram is @sweetwaterfabric

Quilt Market and I am SOOO excited!

Quilt Market was so much fun!  We just arrived home and can't wait to share.  Before I show you the photos from quilt market I will go ahead and give this disclaimer:  I didn't bring my nice camera with me and didn't realize that the photos that I took on my phone were the ones I would have to use on the blog. Duh! I'm not sure what else I thought I was going to use.  So needless to say they are not the best quality!  That being said,  we arrived in Portland on Wednesday afternoon and had the rest of the day to just do nothing!  We did have a wonderful meal, went shopping, and saw the movie Safe Haven.  

The next morning we woke up STRESS FREE!  You see this year we didn't have our own booth. We were included in MODA's Designers Studio with other fellow designers.  MODA put up the walls, installed our floors, and also brought our props.  All we had to do was hang up a few quilts and put a few little things on the shelving they provided and we were done! A little embarrising to say put it took us only 10-15 minutes to have our "booth" ready.  THANK YOU TO MODA FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART!!!!! (I would have inserted a photo of the Designers Studio but my photo was soooo blurry it was too embarrasing to post). Since there wasn't much prep work to be done we got to enjoy some time with Me&My Sister, Bunny Hill, and American Jane at a pie shop.  On our walk back to the convention store I spotted my new favorite store, Rejuvenation

I have found out that Pottery Barn owns this store which explains a whole lot! I am in the process of remodeling my house and would love to have this store close by ( I am sure my husband is counting his blessings it is so far away).

They have old doors, old plumbing, old hardware ( I suppose I should be saying vintage it makes is sound better!).  Everything I would love to have!

When we arrived back at Market it was time for School House.  Here is Barb of Me&My Sister getting ready to speak with all of her bling. 

If you missed Schoolhouse you are in luck.  You can view the Moda Designers Schoolhouse here thanks to Fat Quarter Shop.

Throughout Quilt Market we saw so many amazing things and talked to so many amazing people I know I should have taken more photos but here are a few highlights - 

Amazing booth and lovely bike by Zen Chic

I fell in love with Moda's display of leaves

I also fell in love with Camille's (Thimbleblossoms) quilt.

I learned that Anne Sutton of Bunnyhill is one smart chick.  She carries a comfortable pair of shoes with her for walking and changes into her "wedding shoes" at the booth.

Mary from Me&My Sister was our official map girl.  She always knew how to get us somewhere!

There are so many more people I should have taken a photo of.  Note to self:  Do better next time!

I do have a couple pictures of our quilts we showed 

and we also made a table runner for people to sign to use as a giveaway

We selected the winner this morning and congratulations goes to La Petite Vache.  We will be sending this your way.

Note to self again:  Do better taking photos of our quilts in the booth next year.

Now for the exciting part - WE ARE NOW DOING INSTAGRAM thanks to this lovely lady

Vanessa Christenson you rock!  Thanks for all of your help.  She may have started a bad addiction but I can think of a few things that are worse to be addicted to.  So, we will still be posting on our blog but we will also be using instagram to keep in touch.  I will let you in on a little secret we will be using instagram more than the blog.  Why you may ask?  Its simpler! Follow us on instagram @sweetwaterfabric

Last week we promised that we would give a pack of our new patterns away.  We have randomly seleted

Paige who wrote - I love Sunnybrook Lane! It's nice to see something different like that!  Great Job!

Paige please email us at info@sweetwaterscrapbook.com with your address and we will get your patterns to you.

Have a great day!!

New Patterns!

We are busy getting ready to go to Quilt Market in Portland this week.  We are so excited to get there and take in all the new products, fabric and patterns.  We have 3 new patterns for our Road 15 collection that we will debut.  Here is a sneak peek- plus we are offering kits!

The first one is called Circle Drive:

We are offering this quilt kit in red and black.  Here is the digital version of the black:

Next is my favorite pattern this time.  It is named Sunnybrook Lane.  That name came from someone's address they submited.  We were having a hard time with names for this quilt and decided to just check the address fabric and see if we found anything that inspired us.  Well, it took about 5 seconds to find "Sunnybrook Lane".  Perfect.  Wish that was my street name!

The third one was designed to resemble the house print in the fabric collection.  

This one is called Main Street:

The patterns will be finished and ready to purchase in a couple of weeks.  However, if you would like to pre-order a kit (the fabric won't be available until August), here is how it works:

• You will have a week to pre-order kits- until next Monday, May 20th.  We need to know if you want a kit by that date because we will place our fabric order then and want to make sure we have enough for everyone that wants one.
• You will be able to order the quilt kit and the backing separately.
• You will be charged for only 1/2 the kit now.  We will send you an invoice for the remaining balance as soon as we get the fabric.
• Each kit includes the pattern.
• A downloadable version of the pattern will be available separately in a few weeks.

If you would like a kit, just visit our store.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Also, if you would like to win the entire set of patterns, just leave us a note and let us know which is your favorite.  Have a great Monday!

My Mom's Favorite Blog...

My mom is into blogs.  Like really into them.  I'm not sure what she did before computers, the internet and blogs.  She did have a lot of magazines.  But blogs are free.  And they don't clutter up the house.  There are 3 she visits nearly everyday:  The Pioneer Woman, The Lettered Cottage, and her absolute favorite:  My Sweet Savannah.  Oh how she loves My Sweet Savannah.  Whenever she tells me about something she found on the internet, there is a 90% chance it was from Savannah.   So today is a very exciting day.

A few weeks ago, my mom took a chance and contacted Melaine from her favorite blog and asked if she would like to give away one of our chalkboard prints on her site.

So we were thrilled when she said yes- and today is the day!  If you would like to win one of our prints, just visit My Sweet Savannah- you may also become an addict like my mom!

Have a great Monday!

 

May Day ?!?!?!?!

This is what our May Day looks like - 

Now I usually dont just like to take photos of the roof but that is the only place where the snow is sticking due to our warm ground from our 80 degree weather 2 days ago.  I do love the moisture, but really it is May 1st!!! I remember as a child making cute little may day baskets and filling them with peanuts, popcorn, and mints (quite the combination) and delivering them to our neighbors.  I think this year I would have to send my children out with mugs of chilli and a side of cornbread to deliver.  Speaking of cooking we have our fabric kits, labels, and patterns available for the recipe notebook available on our etsy site - 

 

Enjoy your May Day no matter the weather!