Lisa Burnett

Sweetwater is a family-run business consisting of a mom and her two daughters. However, the company didn't actually begin as "Sweetwater." In 1985 Karla Eisenach went into a fabric shop carrying a handmade fabric basket and the instructions to mke it. The store owner loved it, and a pattern company was launched. Because Karla lived in rural Colorado on a farm, she named the company Farmyard Creations. For more than 20 years, she has designed hundreds of patterns, including patterns for quilts, bags, and table runners. In 2001, her daughters, Susan and Lisa, decided to take on a big challenge and start a scrapbook business called Sweetwater. They began designing, marketing, and selling patterned paper and scrapbook embellishments to hundreds of stores across the United States and abroad. The demands of the scrapbook industry were great, and Karla took a break from the quilting business to focus on the new venture. Seven years later, the three women were given the opportunity to design a fabric collection for Moda. Karla was more than happy to get back to sewing, and Lisa and Susan needed a break from designing hundreds of scrapbooking products. Because the fabric designing is a joint venture, they kept the name Sweetwater and currently sell quilt patterns under that name.