Christmas Keepsakes Blog Tour & Giveaway with Shabby Fabrics!

Hi all, and welcome to the next stop on the Christmas Keepsakes Blog Tour hosted by Shabby Fabrics! Links to the other bloggers participating in the tour's sites from October 6 - 10 are listed below - make sure to head over there once you've read my post to share the love with them, and see which blocks they've created!

Today (Tuesday, October 7):
Me! Woot!
Paula @ The Sassy Quilter
Karin @ Leigh Laurel Studios

Wednesday, October 8:
Melissa @ Happy Quilting
Kristyne @ Pretty by Hand

Thursday, October 9:
Erin @ Why Not Sew?
Caroline @ SewCanShe







I recently welcomed Shabby Fabrics as a sponsor here on Sew at Home Mummy, and I'm so happy that we've partnered together - their store is fantastic!

Shabby Fabrics is an online fabric store, specializing in "shabby" prints; what is "shabby", you say?

shab·by: adjective \ˈsha-bē\
A style of design where fabrics are chosen for their appearance of age and signs of wear. They are typically floral with a very feminine, soft, romantic feel.

Shabby Fabrics is an online quilt shop specializing in floral quilt fabrics and unique quilt kits made from the best manufacturers of today’s popular quilting fabrics, and free shipping with purchases over $75. They provide great prices on fabric and precuts from all of the major fabric companies, including an extensive collection of Christmas, batik, patchwork, floral and cotton quilting fabrics.

Shabby Fabrics offers over 1000 unique quilting patterns and quilting books to keep you inspired including several applique quilt titles. You will be sure to find something new to quilt or sew every day.

Shabby Fabrics also has Block of the Month quilts and programs that are affordable and fun. They also offer pre-fused and laser cut quilt kits that are quick and easy to complete.
Their newest Block of the Month, just released at Shabby, is the Christmas Keepsakes BOM -

Christmas Keepsakes is a 10-month Block of the Month quilt designed by Jennifer Bosworth exclusively for Shabby Fabrics. This darling 36" x 36" quilt was sewn with Maywood Studio fabrics and features appliqued blocks in classic Christmas shapes and colors. The pretty scalloped inner border and embellishments add the perfect finishing touch to this adorable holiday wall hanging.

The lovely ladies at Shabby Fabrics sent along a block from the Christmas Keepsakes quilt for me to complete and show off to you all - and I'm so glad they did. I had a lot of fun!
The block came in a zip bag, with full instructions, a block diagram, all of the fabrics and trims (buttons and embroidery floss in the case of my block):

I love that the instructions spelled out exactly what to do, especially for this block of the month newbie.
This is the prefused laser cut block option (the BOM also comes in the more traditional BOM option if that's something you'd prefer) - you pop out all of your pieces, peel the paper backing off of the back of the pieces (these are pre-fused with Heat n Bond for you!):

Then, according to the block instructions and diagram supplied, fuse your pieces on the supplied fabric background, and using your favorite applique stitch (I used a zig zag stitch, shown below up close in another photo), sew the pieces to the background. Then, add your embellishments. It was really easy!
More importantly: it was FAST. It took less than 5 minutes to fuse the pieces, another 10 minutes to applique them in place, and then I sat and stitched the vines and buttons while partaking in a little Grey's Anatomy one night. Super easy - and really, really cute!
Anyone who may read my blog regularly or whom follows along on Instagram knows that I have 2 (very) little kids and a really busy life. Once I was finished this block I honestly thought to myself that this is the type of project that I could find the time to do, and given the fact that your blocks come one at a time, once a month, would be a lot less overwhelming for me. It's something I could plug away at - and I really like that!
(Hey, and listen, anything that I can do while sitting in front of my trash tv shows is right up my alley (okay, so I may have fibbed a wee bit when I said I had been watching Grey's. I lied. I was watching The Real Housewives of Melbourne. Yes. I said it. Melbourne - because I've watched all of my stockpiled-TiVo'd Orange County episodes. I had already watched Grey's....heheheh))
I decided to make my little block into a mug-rug for my mom - she's always eyeing my mug rugs around the house when she's staying with us and she's absolutely Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs about Christmas, so I thought I'd share the love with her.
She's nuts for polka dots, so I used Moda's Basic Dots in red for the backing and binding:

I cheated and used some scraps of batting - do you do this? I sew them, butting flat edges together, using a zig-zag with a fine thread, like Aurifil 50wt. I then press the seam nice and flat so the seam doesn't show
once the item is quilted.
Using my ThermOWeb Spray Bond, I spray baste my three quilty layers together (I highly suggest using an adhesive spray like this - it's fantastic, especially for these small projects - really quick and easy to use and so much easier to quilt vs. having to place and then remove pins!). You can see here below, I've drawn a circle around the toe of the stocking using a Frixon pen - I'll use this as a guide for my quilting later:

I decided to quilt the stocking with a pretty cream Aurifil 50wt:

I centered the concentric circles around the holly and toe of the sock:

And that pretty polka dot Moda print binding looks awesome with the background of the block:

You can see here below that I used a variegated red/black 12wt to zig-zag applique the stocking pieces to the background fabric:

Tip: when using a 12wt thread in your machine, use a Topstitich 90/14 needle to avoid breakage and tension issues. A 12wt thread is heavier than regular quilting thread, which is usually a 40-60wt. 12wt will give you a more pronounced stitch.
Here's a close up of the embellishments included with the block pattern - I used the included embroidery floss to stitch the green vines, and a 12wt Aurifil to attach the (included) cute little buttons:

...and the backside of the mug rug, concentric circles centered over the toe and the holly:

...and just for the camera, of course, I had to try the rug out!

now I don't want to give it away...hmm...Mum - are you reading this?
About the Christmas Keepsakes Block of the Month: The first shipment will include the Christmas Keepsakes book and fabrics to complete block one. Shipments 2-9 will include the fabrics to complete one additional block each month. The final shipment will include the borders, binding, backing and embellishments. Fabrics will be exactly as shown as on their site.
All applique fabrics will be backed with Heat n Bond Lite and laser cut to size. All you need to do is peel off the paper backing, iron in place and stitch around the edge to secure! (If you'd rather the Traditional, non-pre-fused option, see below)
This 10 month Program begins in January 2015 and runs through October 2015. Enrollment fee is just $10 to reserve your spot, and then $17 per month. Shipping is $3 to the USA and $7 Internationally each month.
Interested in Traditional Applique instead? Check out the Christmas Keepsakes Traditional BOM. Enrollment is $10, then $14 per month - and the pieces are not pre-fused.
More information about the Christmas Keepsakes Block of the Month, and to sign up for the program, click {here}.

Make sure to head over and visit The Shabby, Shabby Fabric's blog {here}, and to stay up to date with all of the happenings over at Shabby, you can sign up for the Shabby Fabrics Newsletter {here}.


Giveaway!
The awesome people at Shabby Fabrics have offered up a giveaway for one of my lucky readers - a $25 gift certificate to their site! WAHOO! Thanks Shabby!

So! Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment on this post telling me: if you were to sign up for and make this super cute 10-block quilt, who would you gift it to? Or would you keep it for yourself?
• Open to international residents.
• Winner chosen by random number generator on October 15, 2014. Winner announced shortly after.
• Make sure to leave your email address if you're not sure whether you're a no-reply blogger or not, so that I can contact you if you win!

Thanks so much for entering, and good luck everyone!
With that, go forth and start your Holiday projects! (eep!)
This post contains sponsored items, giveaways and/or affiliate links.