…and you mysteriously received this pretty blue box in the mail, opened it up to find a trunk full of quilty goodies (which at first you thought were sent to you by some serendipitous mistake, a fleeting thought running through your head: should you tell anyone???) as your hubby giggled in the background, giving it away. That was last month.

Then this month’s “Sew in Love” #sewsampler subscription box arrived from the Fat Quarter Shop, a Christmas present from my husband this year. He was sooo tricky, and very nice to me! Look what’s inside this month -

Look at all of the goodies in this month’s box! Love it. I am especially in love with the retractable double sided stitch ripper. You can never have to many stitch rippers. Or for that matter, clover clips!
Here’s a full listing of the contents of this month’s box:

Love it. Love the Jolly Bar, too. Really appreciating this monthly subscription, it was a really thoughtful gift from him! Thanks, hubs!

The Fat Quarter Shop has these monthly subscription boxes for $24.95 a month and you can sign up any time. It's like Christmas every month! I like it because it's an affordable option to all of the subscription boxes out there.

What is your take on the subscription box craze? Thoughts? Comments? Have you signed up for one somewhere? Leave me a comment!

Oh I have been having a bit of fun lately getting back into the swing of things again!

I always seem to have a bit of a tough time after the Christmas holidays finding my way back to my machine. It’s not that I’m not motivated – I think that it’s more so that I just don’t know where to start.

I think this year might be a bit easier as I aim to be a bit more organized with my life (which seems to be a much simpler task as the kiddos get a little older) – and I’m finding my way back to writing everything down.

I know. Archaic.

I’ve gone back to the ways of the “Planner”. “To-do” lists. Pencils. Pens. Highlighters. You name it. I’m writing. It. Down.

stock image. I wouldn't photograph (or own) something so pretty....

I feel like I’m in University again. ((((flashback)))) And – I’m honestly loving it. I feel more in control having stuff on paper rather than in my phone/computer/___electronic device___. Am I the only crazy person out there who might just be moving backwards in technology just a tiny wee bit?

Anyway! I digress! I’m excited for my first new project of 2017 - and I hope you'll join me!


As one of their Partners, I’m participating in The Fat Quarter Shop’s Moda Bella Skill Builder Quilt Along, and this first month’s block was a LOT of fun (and easy!). The pattern is free and is available on the Jolly Jabber today so make sure to head over there and check it out afterwards, and there’s a kit for the quilt along available here on the Fat Quarter Shop's site!

Fat Quarter Shop's Bella Skill Builder Quilt Kit! - Ooooo - preeetttty....

A little background on my fabric selections-

I decided to go with a color palette that I loved and that was a little wintery – something that would look good in our master bedroom. Here I’ll be 100% honest – I don’t have a color scheme in my main bed – we moved in 2 years ago and the walls were all cream when we moved in, and they haven’t changed.

I went with grey curtains (because I needed curtains right away and didn’t know how I was going to decorate the room in the future) and I’ve been working on any and every other room in the house since.

The master bed will be the last to be done. I’m wondering if this is the case in every person’s house… (readers: thoughts on this?)

Anywho! Here’s my color palette inspiration:


…and here’s what that looks like in Bella (from Moda) solids:


…I decided to add a pop of orange to the mix, just a little, to give a tiny bit of visual interest, so I added the Melon in. I may still add a darker red at some point, but I do love where this is going.

Without further adieu, my blocks for the month of February:


(Don’t look too closely at my centers. They are not the greatest. I quite honestly will most likely be ripping these apart and re-doing them as my Type-A sub-conscious is sitting in the corner twitching right now – but these were done before I figured out a little tricky-pooh which worked well for me, noted below, which made my life a little easier)

And if you decide that you’d like to participate in the quilt along, here are a few little tips and tricks I found really helped me in my process – but make sure to check out the Fat Quarter Shop’s You Tube Page (here) for their video tutorial on these blocks -

- instead of pressing your seams open, I pressed towards my darker fabric; you’ll find that your seams nest better when you go to join them, centers will match better and will tend to buckle less (a trick I only ended up experimenting with at the end with my last block – oops – I might end up ripping out my others so that seams all lay a little flatter)
- a note to above – I was using the paper template and I have to think that if I had invested in the actual plastic Creative Grids Spider Web template I may not have had as much trouble with my centers being perfect. Speculation, but something to be considered, for sure! Paper templates are not nearly as easily used as legit non-slip super-grip fantastical plexi ones are.
- make sure to chain piece/assembly line piece – it’ll speed the process, especially if you’re like me and you have to work in spurts. I would sew all of the first seams in one sitting, then that night in front of the tv do all of my pressing, then the next sitting sew all of the next seams, and ‘sew’ on.

This block was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see everyone else’s blocks and color palettes, and of course for March’s block! Thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop for such a fun quilt along. Stay tuned for more fun!

Good morning my Quilty friends!

Super excited to welcome the Fat Quarter Shop back as an advertiser here on Sew at Home Mummy for 2017!


If you've never heard of FQS, here's a bit about them -

The Fat Quarter Shop was founded in 2003 by Kimberly Jolly. An avid quilter, Kimberly began her shop as a side business while still working a corporate position, cutting, packing and shipping right out of her house during evenings and weekends. From the very beginning, she was committed to delivering top-notch service for every single order and customer. The Fat Quarter Shop continues to branch out with the best fabrics, exclusive kits, quilt clubs, BOMs, and more.

They offer same-day shipping, free YouTube video tutorials, the Jolly Jabber blog, all the newest collections and free shipping in the US on orders over $80. And they will always be driven by the passion that Kimberly founded the store upon, which is always giving you the best products and service!

The Fat Quarter Shop has their Designer Mystery Block of the Month starting up in January

- they have all of the key players in the fabric designing game playing along, including Bonnie and Camille and Kate Spain! Click {here} for more information on their BOM - it's sure to be a lot of fun.



I really like their Flash Sale section.

I've been known to pick up a thing or two there! It updates ever day at 10am, which is a great time for me to be checking (one kid is in school and the other is snacking at this time, so I'm a little less out numbered).

Make sure to check out their HUGE sale section (right now it's sitting at 59 pages long) as they celebrate their end of the year sales on fabrics, notions and threads.

Stay tuned for some fun featuring the Fat Quarter Shop and Sew at Home Mummy - there will be a sew along team up in the future!

Special thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for advertising with this quilter's site - I'm honored to be working with such a fantastic female-centered business!

To shop at the Fat Quarter Shop, click {here}! ✴

Welcome to the next stop in the Fat Quarter Shop's Top 10 Videos blog hop!

The Fat Quarter Shop is celebrating their top 10 You-Tube video tutorials of 2015 with a blog hop. Myself and some other super talented quilty bloggers are each featuring their take on the Fat Quarter Shop's "Fractal Quilt" pattern today! Make sure to visit the Jolly Jabber today and the hopping bloggers, too:

January will see my first finish of the year - I'm off to a good start. I have been sewing up a little somethin' somethin' for a Fat Quarter Shop Quilt-Along, celebrating their top tutorial videos for 2015!

I chose to play with their Fractal Quilt pattern, and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I decided to simplify the quilt and add more negative space. The quilt will be for my mom's living room and she wanted something simple, yet cool.


I've been using some Riley Blake polka dot basics paired with some Kona Iron.

The quilt features the Creative Grids non-slip Kites Plus ruler - and I can see myself getting a lot of use out of this ruler in the future. I cuts kites and the side and top triangles needed to square them up. Very cool.

I'm participating in their blog hop on January 15 - I hope you'll pop back to see what I've cooked up with this beautiful Fractal Quilt pattern from FQS!

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced today for Work in Progress Wednesday - head over there to see what others are up to with their WIPs, and, make sure to check back here next Friday to see my finished Fractal Quilt!

Get ready for some fantastic sales out there!

Here are the sales, specials, and links from my sponsors and affiliates - what are YOU shopping for this Black Friday??

I have officially saved up enough money from my Etsy store to purchase a new computer for business use. My current computer is, well, on its last legs, to say the very least. It's been glitchy to the max over the past several months. And, in computer years, and for a laptop, it's ancient at a whopping 8 years old. We had a good run. I won't miss it taking 10 minutes to start up and not being able to watch videos or taking forever to load webpages - I blogged about the beauty here - check it out!!).

(and, as an aside - if you'd like to learn more about how I saved for the computer as a stay at home mommy - here's a post I wrote recently on funding your hobby. I can now say that using the tips in that post I bought a Janome 6500MCP and a new computer this year! WOOT!)

 On to the sales!!

Havel's Sewing is having an awesome sale, and, I'm really excited to see that their cutting mat is one of the bundles on sale.

Oh my gosh, this is the best cutting mat I've ever used. It's double sided, imperial/metric, self-healing, and PINK. And heavy, heavy duty. Like at least double the thickness and weight of other name brand mats. I *highly* recommend it!

To check out this mat/ruler/cutter bundle (which is on right now for $22.99!!!) click {this link} to be redirected to their page.

You'll love this mat. I swear!





Mad About Patchwork is having an awesome sale - they have an entire page devoted to
their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, running from November 27-30.

They have over 200 items on sale for 40% off!

To see their sale items, and to browse their awesome store, {click here}.









The Fat Quarter Shop never fails to impress with their sales, and this one is no
exception.

From November 27 - Saturday, November 28 @ midnight CST, enjoy 25% off their entire site, no coupons necessary.

Visit {this link} to shop their thousands and thousands of products!








Shabby Fabrics is having a 5 day sale! They have

- $1 BOM/Club Sign Ups, 

- 20% OFF Patterns/Books, Remnants, Pre-Cuts, Thread, 

- up to 30% OFF Select Fabrics and Kits AND



Here are the sales from affiliates of this blog, with their affiliate links included!


Craftsy is having a HUGE online sale, with up to 75% off in their supplies store (they sell fabrics, precuts, and Aurifil!) - the last big supplies sale they had I went halfers on a thread
box of Aurifil with a friend, it was such a good deal!

They have Aurifil on for $6.50 a spool, $27.50 for a cone (!), and Hello Darling precuts for insanely low prices!

They're also having a massive sale on all of their courses, with over 900 courses on for $19.99 or less!

Their sale runs from November 26 - November 30. Happy shopping!





ThermoWeb is having a 30% off sale plus free shipping with orders over $30 with the
coupon code

FRIDAY15

Click {here} to head on over to their page and shop their sales!















...and, on Saturday and Sunday they're having another sale, with free shipping on $30 or more with the code

FREESHIP30


Here's the link to ThermoWeb!







If you end up spoiling yourself with something this Black Friday, I'd really love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments below what you bought yourself (and it doesn't have to be fabric or quilty related! I love to hear about your shopping excursions!)

A bolt has 15 yards on it, and if you buy 15 yards you automatically drop the price to $5.59 a yard, then apply the 15% off coupon below and with free shipping in the US the price of a bolt comes out to under $72 - that works out to $4.80/yard.

If you pick anything up, let me know! I splurged and bought a bolt of Kona Iron (I had troubles deciding between Snow and Iron...)

The summer seems to be getting away from us here in the Sew at Home Mummy household, as we try to make the best of the sporadically good weather and complete exterior home repairs as we can. We have truly become Weekend Warriors.

A few months back the awesome people from June Tailor sent me a bottle of their new spray starch product to try out and then in turn, give my honest opinion on.

I received the product just before the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild retreat, so of course, I brought it along to have a few of my fellow quilters give it a try as well. The reviews were really positive.

I have been using the product now for several months, as I like to do with all products I review (what's a true product review if the Honeymoon phase is still in full swing?), and here's what I have to say about June Tailor's Quilter's Starch Savvy.


About the Product:

This starch was made specifically with the Quilter in mind. It's a fragrance free, flake free formula in a 16oz bottle with a fine-mist trigger. The starch has been specially formulated specifically for quilting cottons to give increased stability and better control of pressed seams.

The starch is clear and does not settle; the user controls how stiff their fabrics are based on multiple applications of the starch.

June Tailor has created a video about their new product:


The Review:

Depending on the project, I have been known to be an avid starcher. I love how starch really makes the fabric do what you want - you can really beat some crazy seamage into submission with the right starch and a hot steamy iron. That said, I've used several brands of starch, both aerosol and trigger spray styles, so I'm pretty well versed with starches and what I've found both good and bad about brands I've used in the past.

Positives:
Well, there are many. Firstly, the bottle is not too large, not too small. Because you have more control over the quantity sprayed, it'll last you a long time without having to purchase a massive, heavy bottle that'll be sure to fatigue your hand and wrist. The trigger is nice and smooth, and fits nicely in my hand and is easily depressed.

This was important to me: the starch is released in a pretty even and fine stream, with very little to no big 'bloops' of liquid (this drives me crazy about other brands, the starch goes on too heavy or huge globby bits come out, not with this). I also like how fine the mist is, which allows me to control how much starch I use. Sometimes a seam just needs a little help, sometimes, it needs a lot.

It is truly scent free. Sometimes I like a scent, but most of the time, especially when I'm creating things for clients, I go out of my way to keep everything scent free. So I love this aspect of this starch.

I have had zero flaking. And I don't have any new scorch marks on the plate of my iron.

The clear plastic bottle means the rust you might incur with the metal aerosol tins is no longer an issue.

Negatives:

Honestly, I had to think really hard about this one. I guess for some who like to have a scented starch, having it unscented is a negative.

A quick Google search indicates that the starch goes for anywhere from $5 - $14 - so make sure you do your homework on where you buy.

Otherwise, I am really happy with this starch. Really. Like, a total convert.

If you have any questions, please, let me know in the comments below! I'd love to answer them for you (if I can, and if I can't, I know people who can!).

Available at:

I found some online retailers who carry the starch if you're interested in picking a bottle up! It'll be one of those great 'add-on' items for when you're trying to make up your free-shipping totals, he he.

June Tailor Online Store
Amazon.com
Joann.com
Fat Quarter Shop

If you have tried Starch Savvy, and would like to leave a comment below about it, please do!

Thanks for reading this review, happy starching!

I thought I'd share a fun contest the Fat Quarter Shop is running right now with you Cotton + Steel lovers:

Here's the link to their post with the instructions - it's a Pinterest-based contest, so if you don't have a Pinterest account, you'll have to sign up for one to participate. Warning: Pinterest is pretty addictive!

 The fabric in the center is a large panel with ABCs on it, which I have plans for one day creating a nice cozy blankie for the kids for the living room!

I had a lot of fun playing with these fabrics, and made a few (much needed) things for the kids, stuff I'd been meaning to do for quite some time!

First up was a little cover for a blank-page book for my 2-year old for coloring. I loved the multi-colored ABC fabric, and decided to quilt a cover for her book!

I used my ThermOWeb spray adhesive (I love this stuff. So much faster than pin basting!) which made the project go that much quicker. I quilted the blocks with a 40wt Aurifil to make them pop a bit more:
 ...and put a little polka-dot green button on the front with an elastic closure:
 ...it's hard to see, but I used the really pretty polka-dot print from the line for the lining:


Next up:
Well, now she had a skookum journal cover, she had to have an upgrade on the old Ziploc holding her (beat-up!) crayons to match!

Mum and Dr. Seuss to the rescue!

I used some left-over 20ga vinyl I had left over from another project and some of the awesome striped fabric in the line for a matching crayon bag:


Super cute, right? I think the yellow zipper looks great with the fabric :)

Next up:
Whenever I go out with the kids, I always make sure to have a bunch of snacks with us. My kids get SUPER cranky really quickly if I don't keep them fed. So I have this large, beat-up Ziploc bag which I put all of their pre-packaged snacks in when we go out. I'll also stick dry cloths, bibs, etc., in there for their snack time.

I decided we needed something a bit nicer than that - so I made a couple of 'wet' bags for taking their snacks out with us, and again, used some vinyl for it.

I made two, one for Audrey (in the white bear print) and one for Ewan (in the blue bear print):
So, now I can get rid of that gungy old Ziploc, and replace it with their own individual bags:

Quick FYI:

Fat Quarter Shop has all Kona on 20% off right now with the coupon code RK2014:


Massdrop currently has Aurifil 40wt 12 packs ($81.99), Quick Curve Rulers (with 2 patterns - $24.99) and Sew Steady Tables (custom cut to your machine's specifications - $119.99) on right now for some pretty good prices!

Does anyone out there have a Sew Steady table? Is it really as good as they say? I have an extension on my Singer 9960, and it seems big enough, and ultimately I'd love to have the machine in a table one day, but any critiques out there? Wanna share with those reading this?

Happy Friday, everyone.

I thought I'd pass on some super-skookum deals I've come across in my inbox this week, and I encourage you to leave a comment with any you may have found across the great World Wide Web for this week!

Here we go!

Rose Room Quilts.com
Labor Day Sale starting Friday August 29 through Monday September 1.  The sale is 10% off plus Free Shipping in the U.S. on all orders $35 or more and the code is:

LD14SALE

Fat Quarter Shop.com
The Fat Quarter Shop is now offering free US shipping with orders over $80, and decreased rates on international shipping - with international rates never exceeding $40! Yippee!
..also check out their "Precuts of the Week" where they feature a line of precuts on for discounted prices.

Mad About Patchwork.com
Pam is having a Labour Day weekend sale! Save 25% on selected fabrics using the coupon code

LABOUR25

..sale ends midnight on September 1.

Amazon.com:
Save up to 70% on sewing and quilting goodies - my wish list just keeps on growing.


SewingMachinesPlus.com
...with coupon code:

SUMMER2014

...sale ends September 1.

Massdrop.com
They have a Quilter's Dream batting sampler bundle on right now; choose from Twin or Queen size 3-packs. Have you tried the Orient?? I am in LOVE with that batting. It's so smooth and soft, and really easy to work with. I actually much prefer it to the cotton, when I can afford it! It washes well, too. I've actually started to use this more and more in baby quilts I make.







So! What other deals have you come across on the web? Make sure to leave a comment below!

This post contains affiliate links and if you click and buy, I may see a few more pennies in the kiddie. By FTC Law, I have to disclose this to you, but really, I would anyway. Honesty is the best policy.
psst...those jeans make your butt look a *little* big... in the interest of full disclosure....yes, I am that friend you want to take with you shopping. I'll tell ya what you need to hear, not what you wanna hear.