makelifesweet

This Month's Inspiration

for the label crew club came from my mom's recipe binder

Now for the side view

One of my mom's favorite activities is finding new recipes on the internet and printing them out.  She had good intentions to keep all of her recipes organized in this 3 ring binder.  I was looking for a recipe in her binder and I got to thinking - "This recipe binder needs a makeover!!!"  (and yes she is thrilled beyond belief that I am showing you her binder).

Which then led to this - 

our project for the May Label Crew Club.  I think she has enough recipes to fill up all 4 binders!  Inside the binder you will find these cute tabs to seperate all of the different sections

Patterns and labels will ship out the first part of May and the kits for the binders will be available on our Etsy shop the first of May.  

Next Up for us - Clean out my mom's old recipe binder and fill up these new ones!!

Enjoy your day!  I hope spring has arrived at your house, today I can finally say it has here!!!

One More

We have one more idea for Mother's Day.  Whatever you end up giving her, it would look adorable in this.

We have kits for the baskets available in green (as shown), blue and pink:

They are available now in our store.  You will be able to purchase the Mother's Day labels separately:

Have a great Wednesday!

Chalkboard Art and Mother's Day!

If you are like me, it is hard to know what to get your mom for Mother's Day.  I ponder and ponder over what to get her and I usually end up getting her flowers because I have ran out of time thinking of the perfect gift and hurriedly go into the flower shop to buy flowers.  To help you out we have come up with some fun gifts and there is still even time to make them!  We are in love with Chalkboard Art and have used that idea for our newest labels - 

We created these 4 new iron on labels 

and placed them on hotpads and ruffle kitchen towels

So, on our etsy shop we have the iron on labels listed separately, so that you can purchase them and apply them to anything you want. The labels used on the towels and hot pads measure 4" x 5"  Then we have some hotpad kits listed that includes the fabric and canvas.  And then, we have the towels listed one for the yellow towel and one for the blue towel.  Just remeber the labels are not included in the towel or hot pad kits they need to be purchased separately. 

Next, we thought wouldn't it be fun to do a little bit bigger label to make these pictures - 

The labels used for these pictures are 7"x9".  We purchased a 11"x14" frame , found a 11"x14" piece of fabric and sewed the iron on label to it to create these wallhangings.  A 8"x10" frame would work as well!

Then we got the idea to use the larger 7"x9" labels for pillows - 

The 7"x9" iron on labels used for these projects can be found on our etsy shop.

The last thing we used these designs for are our canvas prints - 

This last print would be great for an upcoming summer wedding or anniversary gift!

All of these items are on our etsy shop.

Have a great evening!!

Big Excitement

Just have a couple of pictures from this weekend to share (nothing quilt related).  First of all, the story.

My husband called me about 10 a.m. on Saturday morning and wanted to know if I wanted to see something exciting that day.  My mind quickly raced to 1.  we were going to the Colorado Rockies baseball game (which I had been bugging him about) and 2.  we were going to the Denver Nuggets basketball game (which I had also been bugging him about).  I knew that was too good to be true. Sometimes what I consider exciting and what he considers exciting are two very different things.

What he meant was, "Do I want to see a silo come down?"  Oh I couldn't contain my excitement (I'm being sarcastic).  

Here was the situation.  This perfectly good, 1970ish grain silo needed to come down.  

This silo, used to store grain, is kind of a landmark out where we live.  There isn't a whole lot of landmarks out in the middle of no where, but this is one of them.  Problem is, it hasn't been in use for the last 40 years, is outdated, and was in the way.  So it needed to come down.  

I had no idea how he was going to accomplish this, but he always has a plan.  And at 10:00 on Saturday, he said I had 20 minutes to get there or I would miss it all.  Of course I had to go see.  Mostly because I had my 5 year old mini-farmer with me and he would think this was major excitement, just like his dad.

So we hurried to get to the field.  When we got there, this is what we saw:

At about that time, I wasn't too convinced of his plan.  No way that loader was going to pull down that huge silo.  But I was willing to stay and watch.  After all, he said it was coming down in 5 minutes.

So me and my little boy waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Sometimes my husband is just a little off on how long it takes to do something.  In this case, about 5 hours off.   So we watched him get everything just perfect before the big event started.  And then:

Don't worry.  I know it looks like that guy and those pickups are going to get smashed.  But everything was safe.

Wow.  That took a whole 8 seconds.  But my husband was jumping around like a two year old on Christmas morning.  He really was excited.  He loves those types of things- must be a guy thing.  In fact, he wants these pictures hung in his office.  Not his college diploma.  Not a family picture, or a photo of him and I.  He wants the falling down silo.  Okay.  If that makes him happy.  I was happy I made it home in time to watch the Rockies and the Nuggets on TV (at the same time).  That was exciting for me!

Speaking of basketball, we want to thank everyone who voted for us in fatquarterly's, Modern Madness. Noteworthy has made it to the Sweet 16!  If you want to check it out, click here.

Come back later this week.  We have a few ideas for Mother's Day.  Yep, only about a month until Mother's Day.

Easter Eggs

I'm sure many of you just did this.

We did ours last Saturday night- just a few short hours before the Easter Bunny came to visit.  When I say a few short hours, I mean we started this at about 10:00 pm.  That, of course, wasn't the plan.  But at least we got it done.  And my little boy loves this project, so he didn't mind staying up late.  

I remember when I was a little girl, I loved it too.  There is just one difference.  There were 3 kids in our family, and we shared one dozen eggs.  Which meant I got 4 eggs to dye.  If I was lucky. Of course one or two would always crack so we were left with about 10 to share.   I didn't think anythiing of it.  I just grew up thinking that eggs were really expensive.  By the way, my mom isn't going to think this post is too funny.  She wasn't stingy on most things, but for some reason, we never got many eggs on Easter.  

Fast forward a whole lot of years.  I boiled 36 eggs for one kid.  One.  And when he was about done, my husband said, "Didn't you cook any more eggs than that?" .  

Are you kidding me?   36 eggs for one child.  And closing in on midnight, I wasn't cooking any more.  Eggs may not be as expensive as I thought when I was growing up, but 36 is kind of overkill.  

So that is my Easter Egg story.  I was just curious if anybody else grew up thinking eggs were more valuable than gold.

On to some Sweetwater stuff.  The fabric kits for this month's label crew are in our Etsy store now.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!  And happy Tuesday!

April...

I can't believe it is almost April!  It just seems like yesterday we were sending out the March Label Crew projects and here it is, time for another one!  You may wish you had this one in time for your Easter table, but I'm sure you will find another special occasion this spring or summer.  Our April Label Crew project features a round, scalloped place mat with coordinating napkins.

The labels can be placed either on the napkins or place mats.  We chose the napkins for the sample:

The fabric kit (available next week) will include enough fabric to make 4 placemats:

You will also be able to purchase the fabric for the napkins separately:

For more information about our Label Crew, click here.

We wish you a blessed and happy Easter!  See you next week.

The Winners...

We have our winners!  The three of you who won the Road 15 fabric are:

1.  Jenni who wrote:

My favorite, the turquiose, no the green, oh but the gray! Love it all! You have outdone yourselves again! Beautiful!

2.  Katie who wrote:

This is such a hard decision as each and every colorway are beautiful! I was torn between the aqua and the black and white colorways, but in the end I have to choose the black and white. They make such stunning quilts, especially if you add in one pop of color to the quilt you make. Any of these colorways would be a joy to have in my collection! Thanks for sharing your beautiful work!!

3.  Stephanie who wrote:

Ohhhhhh.... I love all the colors and I love this line of fabric. Each line of fabric you come up with is my new favorite... I think my favorite is the blue... the grid pattern really pops in the blue.

If you are one of the three winners, just send us an e-mail at info@sweetwaterscrapbook.com and a box full of Road 15 will be on its way!

We have a couple of other things to share with you.  Last weekend, my mom had the great opportunity to visit a wonderful quilt shop in West Jordan, Utah called Pine Needles.  She taught a class and can't quit talking about how great the shop and the people were- she had a great time!  I tried to upload some of her photos, but for some reason it isn't working.  If I get that figured out, I will share them.

Next, we are excited to be included in a fun event.  For the past couple of years, fatquarterly.com hosts a fabric inspired version of March Madness.  I get so into this- if I could find a way to make a living being a sports fan, I would!  So this is the next best thing- a combination of sports and fabric.

If you aren't familair with their March Madness, here is a little rundown:

• They start with 64 different fabric lines.  Each line is first paired up with another and the public votes on which is their favorite.
• After the first vote, there is, of course 32 lines left.  Voting continues until there is one winner.

We were lucky enough to make it to the final four once (can't really remember which fabric collection that was) but it was fun to participate.

If you would like to fill out a bracket and vote, just visit their site.  We were thrilled to learn we have 3 collections that made the 64 this year- Noteworthy, Mama Said Sew and Lucy's Crab Shack.  That works best for us, because my favorite is Noteworthy, my mom's is Mama and my sister loves Lucy.

 I'm sure you will find one of your favorites, too.  Here is the link to check it out.

Now for a little fabric fun - our Spring Sale!!!

We are offering 5 fat quarters of Noteworthy for $10.  In the bundle you will receive 1 pink, 1 gray, 1 green, 1 blue, and 1 yellow. Check it out here!

 

Hot off the presses!

We just got this pattern finished up - 

 We used our newest fabric Noteworthy to create this charming 20 1/2" x 27" quilt.  We had so much fun creating this one.  Create your own with our pattern and fabric kit found here!

Don't forget to check out our newest newest fabric on the previous post (there is a contest too!)

Road 15

Finally!  Today we are showing you our new fabric for the first time.  But before we do, here is what inspired the collection.

If you regularly read our blog, you know that my mom and dad recently moved.  What you might not know that they moved from the house my family has called home since my dad was little.  More than 60 years ago.  The whole thing has been bittersweet for me- happy my mom finally got a new house that she loves, but sad to leave "home".  

So we decided to dedicate this fabric line to that place we love- on Road 15.  That address will always hold a place in my heart- it will always be "home".

About a year ago (which seems like a long time), we asked you to provide us with your address.  Of course, there is one print in the line that has all those addresses.  Well, at least I hope it has all the addresses.  You never know in the printing process where things have to be cut, but we really tried to include them all.  

Here it is, Road 15.

I have a few personal favorite prints.  First, of course, the addresses:

Hope some of you find yours in that picture. You can click on the photo to make it larger.  Next, I love the houses:

I really love the houses in black and white:

Actually, I love all the prints in black and white:

The white on white print will be perfect for backgrounds:

I love the squares with the arrows and text:

Then I love combining those squares with the trees:

Those are my personal favorites.  If you would like to win some Road 15, let us know what print or colorway you like best.  We actually got a huge box of scraps (I hate to call them scraps because some pieces are very large) so we will have 3 winners.  We will stuff 3 Priority Mail boxes full of Road 15 fabric for the lucky winners.  We will announce the results later this week.  Good Luck!

Summer. Almost.

This is one of my most favorite times of year.  It isn't quite my favorite because it isn't summer yet.  And the wind blows 3000 miles per hour.  But every once in a while, we get a perfect day- 70 degrees and just a teeny, tiny breeze.  It reminds me that summer is almost here.  Which reminded my of this:

I was moving some things around last week and came across this table runner that we had last summer.  I love this table runner.  And it got me thinking how cute it would be in Noteworthy.  So we decided to make one.  Here it is:

Now I can't decide which one I like best.  But if you would like to make the Noteworthy one, you can get a kit here.

By the way, we have new fabric.  Remember a long, long time ago when I asked for your addresses?  Well, that collection is finally here.  We are working on photographing it and we will have it posted next week.  And you will be able to win some!  See you then.