I love Spring.

Not as much as Fall (my favorite season) but Spring is pretty darned fabulous. The snow is melting, I can finally see my grass (although this year in Chicago we had an unseasonably green winter (ssssshhhhh - do NOT tip off the snow gods...)) birds start chirping, my yard starts to look fabulous again, the view from my basement sewing area window is much prettier and more enticing than the season before.

I feel like it's a great time to start something new. Something I've always wanted to do...I have more time now (or I will - my tenure on the Chicago MQG board as their Social Media and Communications Chair is coming to an end, which theoretically should free up some time, right??)

I pulled fabric from my stash this week for my latest project; I'll be sticking to solids and near solids for this one, and I'm not wanting to buy anything for this project but some yardage for the backing. I'm going to try to make do with what I've got on the shelves here at home:



and at night I started pressing in front of the t.v. after the kids went to bed. Any ideas on what I might be making? It's a quilt for our masterbed, and it's relatively simple. That's all I'm gonna give ya. Any guesses?

And, I'll link this up with Sunday Stash Share over at Molli Sparkle's blog on Sunday when he goes live to show off my new Bella Solids card. I'm really stoked about this one; I've owned a Kona card for years and have bought several bolts of Kona (especially Snow), but, *cough*, I have to say - I'm kinda upset with Kona's lack of color continuity.

Like, really upset.

And I really, really like Kona's hand and drape (I like a stiffer cotton. What can I say.) especially because I tend to use a lot more whites and creams for my negative space. I'm bailing on Kona. I'm jumping ship to Bella. They've been much more consistent over the years for me, and, after a fantastic lecture given by one of my fellow Chicago Modern Quilt Guild board members at the last Guild meeting (which was all about solids), we all learned why: Kona dyes in multiple plant locations in two different countries, Bella, only one. So, off I go. Harder to get, especially locally for me, so I'm forced to buy online, but I don't care at this point. For my bolts for backgrounds I'm going to make the switch and I'm super stoked about this color card! WOOT!!

  

I'll stick with Konas for the smaller projects and because I love their multi pack color bundles, but for backgrounds and negative spaces that need to be consistent, I've taken the plunge. Bella it is.

What is your go-to for solid quilting cotton? Do you have a manufacturer you love? Hate? Why? Leave us all a comment! Or just leave me a comment. I always love to hear what people have to say about their favorite brands of solids.

Everyone who reads my blog knows I'm always up for a good deal and that I try never to pay full price for anything, waiting for everything to go on sale before scooping it for myself.

This usually results in missing out on a lot of great stuff, I'm not going to lie, ha ha ha. It's kind of one of those c'est la vie type of things, really! 

I had been watching this Christmas line of JOL by Wenche Wolff Hatling for some time - since it's release - I love the Scandinavian feel of it, the color focus, - but needed it to go on sale before I could scoop it up. 

Well. Post Christmas sales happened on Christmas-themed fabrics and bam! I was there laying in wait.



I also may have acquired this past week a thread box of Fat Quarter Shop's "Tart" colorway of Aurifil 12wts for a project I'm working on, and to note that the entire box of colors matches perfectly with anything Bonnie and Camille!

Linking up today with the wonderful Molli Sparkles for his fabulous stash share - head on over there to see what he's cooking up and to see what others are sharing today!

Whenever I’ve had a spare moment over the last few days I’ve stolen a minute or two in
the basement at my old Singer 201-2 with some gorgeous Bonnie and Camille out of print fabrics I’ve been hoarding for years -

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hopefully the weather is nicer where you are. I'm so done with winter. My lawn is an absolute mud pit. Snow, melt, rain, ice rain, melt, snow, melt. MUD.

I keep telling myself it's good for my grass/bushes/soil/whatever to try and put a positive spin on it.

So how 'bout some brightness to cheer myself up? Don't mind if I do. Hahah!

Sharing some goodies today:

First up:
Pepper Cory's new "Brushstrokes" line from Studio E. YUM. I love love LOVE her peppered cottons - I really like the texture they give, and the weight of them. They're not really light weight like shot cottons are. So you can imagine my excitement when these Brushstrokes arrived on the scene.

I managed to get them for a pretty great deal on Massdrop. I almost picked some up in the Fall and am glad I didn't - I saved a chunk of change by waiting. Plus I didn't have a project to use them for, so I could wait.

Next up:
Vintage Picnic mini charm pack. This was a surprise package from a CMQG friend that just magically arrived in my mailbox this week! What a wonderful little treat - she knows me so well - I do love me some Bonnie and Camille. Thank you SO much, Sally. You really, really cheered me up and the absolute perfect time. Mwah!

And lastly...
I may have hit the Spot dollar section at Target again - these little ceramic jars with the chalkboard labels are so perfect for all sorts of things - binding clips, curved pins, D-rings, my quilt and business labels, etc. I had picked up 4 on a previous shopping trip and saw these on Wednesday, the last 2 on the shelf, and scooped them. They look great on my stash shelf!

Today I'm linking up to Molli Sparkles' Sunday Stash Share!

Things have been a little rough in the Sew at Home Mummy household as of late.

img courtesy of Massdrop.com

Black Friday in our house wasn't overly exciting this year.

I usually stalk my favorite online haunts in my pjs, enjoying my coffee, while the kids play with Daddy.

This year was a bit different; I managed to save enough money from my little Etsy shop business and from my online survey shenanigans to buy a new laptop - which is huge for me - my old one is, well, old, and quite literally falling apart. There is actual duct tape on it.

So once I had dropped that kind of coin, I was

A) pretty much out of money, and
B) pretty flipping stoked about the computer and had very little attention span with regards to any other shopping tee hee

Did I mention - the computer is PINK? Because I was overly enthusiastic about said purchase, I dedicated a post to it, (here).


I *did* however pick up two other quilty things -

A new large cutting mat, 23x35, double sided - $27!

and a few Chicago Modern Quilt Guild friends and I went in on an awesome sale at Craftsy and managed to pick up Aurifil at $6.50/spool:

All in all, a great shopping excursion after a long drought. Not bad, right?

What did YOU pick up on Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

Linking up to Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash Share!


*affiliate link to Craftsy

I was a lucky girl this week!

I won this lovely bundle from Stitch Stash Diva, a giveaway hosted by The Hive Handmade! Thank you so much, ladies!

I am so happy with this bundle, it's absolutely gorgeous. My mom is visiting and when she saw the bundle she decided I should make her a quilt from it, heheh.

Linking up today with Molli Sparkle's stash share!

So, I seem to be slowly but surely adding to my stash, bit by bit.

But never sewing any of it.

Does this happen to anyone else?! Please tell me I'm not alone!

I can't seem to find the time to sew! I'm either chasing around my littles, working on Chicago Modern Quilt Guild tech/social media stuff, or trying to fix something around the house.

As for the latter, I'm starting to feel like we may have purchased a lemon. Oi.

Last week, our main sewer pipe and clean-out needed to be fixed, because, oh yes, lucky us, it was leaking. Profusely. Into my laundry room.

Ugh. Ka-CHING!!!

The cast-iron pipe had corroded at the base where it met the flange entering the concrete. We had it repaired, but essentially, a huge section will need to be replaced at some point in the near future, and that will require a jackhammer to get through the footing and concrete floor.

And most likely a total gut of the bathroom we just reno'd as it shares a wall with said pipe.

Easily $2,000-3,000.

Gasp.

So far this year, since our possession date of January 30, 2015, we've had to:

- re-mediate our entire attic from black mold infestation - this was not pleasant, or cheap
- seal foundation cracks on exterior foundation walls (water was pouring in)
- replace the electrical box (it was SPARKING!)
- install a fence (keep my cray-cray lab and even more cray-cray kids in, haha)
- bring electrical up to code in basement
- gut and rebuild a moldy, leaky, health-hazard bathroom
- regrade areas of the front of the house (water was pouring in)
- replace upstairs windows (sash fell out of one, and a bird was living *in* the frame of another)
- fix main sewer line

...and this is only the big stuff. We've done a whole 'lot more than this, most of the smaller stuff ourselves.

Man! On a single income it's amazing we got any of this done. Gar!!

Anywho. C'est la vie?

But, I was feeling a wee bit down, and thought hey, what the heck, I'll add a bit of seasoning to my stash with a peppered cotton bundle from Massdrop:



YUM YUM YUM.

I love peppered cottons. I love their colors, I love the weight, love working with them. My new obsession!

I'm super excited about this bundle!! Adding it to my growing peppered cottons stash :)

Officially cheered up. Hahah.

Linking up today with the super fantastically talented Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash Share! Make sure to head on over there and see what he's up to!

Quick post!

image courtesy of peasinourpod.com

Oh, man.

If you're on Instagram, and you're a fabric-holic, you'll probably know what I'm talking about -

it's #thegreatfabricdestash

(The Great Fabric Destash)

and it's bad.

Very, very bad. Especially when you're on a tight budget.

So let's say - hypothetically speaking - a certain Canadian Expat, perhaps a little homesick and maybe a little down - spent an evening drowning her woes in gorgeous pictures of wonderful fabrics all over Instagram.

And maybe she realized that it had been forever since she really bought any fabric that was for herself.

And maybe, she went a little nutbar. About Denyse Schmidt.

OOPS.

Here's how it works if you're not on Instagram:

When you post a photo, you can add a hashtag and a search term immediately following it, like this:

#diy

...that hashtag term is clickable, searchable link, and will pull up every Instagram post of every person who ever used that #diy in their post.

So!

Let's say you need to destash a bit of your fabric. And you want to sell it quickly, and not muck around with an online site.

You can post your destash item with the hashtag #thegreatfabricdestash and people (like the crazy Expat mentioned above) can search that term and see what people are selling.

I may have relieved one IG user of some of her Denyse Schmidt stash:

Denyse Schmidt, Freespirit Fabrics, "Franklin"

Denyse Schmidt for Freespirit Fabrics, "Chicopee"

I also may have added some of Bonnie and Camille's gorgeousness to my stash this week - come on, Vintage Modern? On a bolt? In 2015?! I had to - see the post and pictures {here}...

I'm cutting myself off now.

Jeepers.

Talk about falling hard off the wagon.

Linking up to the fabric-stashing, textile-hoarding enabler, Molli Sparkles for his Sunday Stash Share!

I broke down and splurged on a fat eighth bundle of Bonnie & Camille's "Daysail" line.

To be honest, I wasn't totally in love with all of the prints in the line, but the completionist in me demanded I buy the line in its' entirety. And I love Bonnie & Camille.

I've started to collect more fat eighth bundles vs. the fat quarter bundles I was inclined to purchase in the past. I would prefer a FQ bundle, but let's face it, they are freakin' expensive. So expensive that I'm basically priced out of buying any of the lines that I love.

Enter the fat eighth bundle.

Yes, you don't get as much fabric to play with. Yes, you have to think a little more outside the box with respect to using it in blocks and patterns, but it can be done. I think that the 9" width you get is enough to work with/around, whilst still being able to use an entire line of fabrics.

To be honest I wish more companies would do a pre-pack fat eighth bundle so that I could afford to use their fabric lines; charm packs and jelly rolls are not the easiest for me to work with (although I do try...).

And fat eighth bundles look good on the shelf. Heheh.

Linking up today with Molli Sparkles' Sunday Stash Share! Share on everyone!!

Super quick post today since I don't really have much of anything in the way of sewing shenanigans to share...

But, I did manage to find a pretty good sale this past week on charm square packs, and found and purchased my very first triangle pack (turnover?) in the discount bin of this little online store:
It has been a long, long time since I bought any fabric and I'm super excited to put these to good use. Eventually.  When I find any time...

And I am pretty sure that I am the last person on the planet to own a Swoon pattern, but I treated myself to the Mini version. I'll scale it myself accordingly, but now I have the pattern!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles today for Sunday Stash Share!

Well, as per usual, the summer has been busy for me.

My mum was here visiting from Vancouver for almost a month, and as such, I've found it difficult to keep up with my Quilterly and Bloggerly duties (yes, I just made up two words) whilst busy with my Daughterly and Motherly ones.

C'est la vie, mes amies!


I've been busy, though, planning and organizing a Cotton + Steel swap - by designer, in separate rounds - so you can participate in as many or as little as you like - with of course a separate round for their Basics line. We're in the midst of the Melody Miller round, but sign ups for the next round will be coming up soon (see below). Hang tight. Also working on a schedule for you all so that you know when to sign up for which Designers. (and we're swapping charms OR fat eighths, two separate sign ups for each Designer, your choice which [or both!] you'd like to sign up for). Next sign up starts Monday, August 4 at 0700am CST for Rashida Coleman-Hale's MOONLIT fabrics. This swap (in its entirety) is open to International residents - to save on postage you're encouraged to ship your orders to me, and I'll cut them for you. I'm nice like that.

Boo-ya!! My cut is a little wavy on the straights, but it was my first time using a jig. YIPPEE for ME! I'm no longer a jig-virgin. WOOT!

If you've been following along for the last month on Instagram, you know that I've been up to all sorts of craziness - among other things, I have a 'new' 1937 Singer 201-2, for which I 'hacked' a Craigslist-find Ikea dining room table... yes. That's right. I cut a hole in it. Myself. And I'm gonna write a tut on how to do it since so many of you were interested about it! More on that, soon. I swear. When I get 30 minutes to write.

Anywho!

On to the stash share for this week!

1. Oliso Pro itouch Iron

just LOOK at that sexy iron! (yes. I said 'sexy'. yes. an iron can be sexy. hehehe)

 Now, in case you think I'm some rich Diva quilter sitting around whippin' up quilts all day, spending lots of moola on super-fantastical irons, boy, am I not.

I spent every penny I've made in my Etsy shop this year on this iron. (insert awkward grin here). I'm still hoping it's a tax write-off.

Let's just say I had some 'splainin' to do, Lucy, when I opened the box and my husband saw it.

"Wait. Isn't that the iron from that show you watch? The quilting show? Fons and something?"

"Ya! Isn't it great?!"

"Doesn't it have some sort of computer in it?"

"Ya, isn't it great?!"

"Uh, isn't anything with a computer in it really expensive? Like, too expensive?"

"Ya! Isn't it great?!"

>>holy mother of irons Erin, think fast!!<<

Once I explained that it was 'company' money that purchased the iron, and how my old one wouldn't even press a yard without dying, he was a little more conducive to the new-iron notion. But what truly impressed me was that

a) he knew the name of the show I watch (close enough)
b) he actually was paying attention to the show whilst supposedly 'reading' a book - enough to notice the 'iron with a computer in it'.

I digress! Back to the iron.

Holy frickadoodles Batman. I love it.

I'm going to write a review on it at some point, hopefully before Massdrop ends up running another drop on it so that if you're thinking of buying one, maybe I can help you out if you have any questions, etc. I really want to use the iron for at least a month, though, before writing the (unsolicited!) review.

So far, so good. I really like it. It was kind of tough to get used to not having to flip it up, but it only took one sewing session to get it down pat.

Totally worth the $119 Massdrop was selling it for (normally runs anywhere from $169-$210). I'll try and keep you posted on when they're dropping the next Oliso, if they do. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and I am a (bit of a) Diva, just not a rich one. And I wish I could quilt all day. Too busy changing bumbums and singing "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!" though. (which I wouldn't change for the world. I sure do love my kiddies!)

2. Lulu Magnolia by the Quilted Fish for RBD
A little while ago, I was lucky enough to win 4th place in the Blogger's Quilt Festival through Amy's Creative Side for my pixelated sewing machine quilt ("my first {pixelated}"). My gorgeous, gorgeous prize was a full FQB of Lulu Magnolia by the Quilted Fish! I received this line from the designer herself (Amanda, you rock!) before it was even in stores. How awesome is that??!!

What I love most about it is the pairing of navy and orange. I first saw this color combo on the cover of HGTV mag in the winter, and loved it. And the line just makes me want to be on vacation somewhere. It's really quite gorgeous.

3. Bobbin Thread
You'll also notice in the pic to the right a spool of thread. That would be Superior Threads® - The Bottom Line Polyester Thread #655 Off White 1,420 Yds.It's meant for bobbin, applique and quilting work. Mostly, I just want to try it for the bobbin. I'm really intrigued to see how much less often I will have to change my bobbin when quilting with this stuff. I had heard some good things about it, so I thought I'd throw one in the cart the last time we had to place an Amazon order. I'll also write a review on this, as well. I've heard poly can be a bit more slippery, and conducive to opened stitches at seam ends when piecing... we will see.

Okay. That's all I have to share for this week. That's enough, me thinks!

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, and by FTC regulatory laws I must disclose this. If you make a purchase on Amazon after clicking my link I'll make a small commission on the sale, if it qualifies in their affiliate program. And by small, I mean, a few pennies :)

...I spy me some gorgeous Joel Dewberry's in there!! I love this bundle. I tore it out of the wrapping and snapped a photo ASAP, couldn't wait to capture the yummy-ness of this one.

2) A Hex n' More ruler. I have always wanted one of these, and I had some points at MarmaladeFabrics.com to spend, so I thought I'd treat myself and add it to my order this month. I love the Jewel shape of this one, and I'm excited to try it out.


3) And...for the last 2 years, I have been saving for what initially was supposed to be a Singer 15-91. But after a lot of research, I decided late last year that I would start looking more seriously for a Singer 201-2 (a larger version of the 15-91, with a bigger harp space).

My CMQG friend Erika at Miss Sews-it-all found this beauty, fixed her up, and then contacted me last week to let me know she had it and was wanting to sell it - and I took it!!
It's a Singer 201-2 from 1937. And she's beautiful!

The harp space measures 8" long by 5.5" high. Pretty significant. For comparisons sake, the Brother PQ1500s's (similar to the Juki 98 & 2010/2000) harp space is 8.6" x 5.7". Pretty darned good!
 I'm really excited to use it - you can drop the feed dogs easily with this machine, and apparently the FMQ on it is amazing.

It needs to be in a table - which I don't have - so I'm working on picking up a dining table on Craigslist and I'll "hack" it - cut my own hole, set in my own machine hinges, and maybe paint it. Yippee!!
In the meantime, she's sitting on the dining room table, and I've been looking at her admiring her every second I get. I'm super excited. Erika sewed on it for a few days to make sure everything was working well after being rewired, and she loved it, says it's really smooth.

Linking up to MolliSparkles.com today for Sunday Stash Share! Make sure to head over there and check out his blog, and all of the other stash shares today!

On another note, if you're interested, I've created a couple of new polls on Massdrop for some notions which I thought some of you may be interested in - you can vote on your favorites, if you'd like!
Solids Swatch Cards
Thread Rack/Thread Storage Solutions
Quilting Thread Cone
and this one is a great one - it's an Aurifil Collections poll!
Aurifil Thread Collections

Have a great Sunday everyone!