Jennie's Threads

Next week my Husband, Michael, and I will celebrate 7 years since he proposed to me in Sidmouth, Devon. And we will be back in Sidmouth again this coming Friday for the week long folk festival - we've been counting down for months. So what has this to do with a horrid hoodie, you may ask? Well, since before I met my Husband at university in September 2003 he has owned a bottle green hoodie with the words "St. Michael" across the front. Brits amongst you will recognise this as Marks and Spencers brand. And looking at the Wikipedia article for Marks and Spencers, this brand died a death in the early 2000s. This is how old the hoodie was. It was shapeless, as big as a tent (even before Michael had lost all his weight) had holes in it and was truly horrid. A couple of months ago he asked if I could include the hoodie in a quilt - a asked him whether he wanted a comfort blanket and that was the last I heard of the idea, until he bought himself a Kindle. As we are going on holi...

No - not custard! You know when you just see fabric and think " I just have to have that" and "I have to do something with that straight away". Well, it happened last weekend. I'm busy making my sewing machine cover, when Nicola goes "have you seen the new fabric round the back - I think you'll like it". The fatal mistake was going and having a look, cause she was right. I posted a photo of the fabric on my blog last week. It's Ambrosia from Westminster Fabrics in really summery reds and greens. I added in an extra green and bought six fat quarters. Already a project was in mind.... Linda bought a new book a few weeks back called "Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters" by Barbara Chainey. The idea of the book is that you cut each fat quarter to the same standard cutting pattern that is designed to get the greatest yield from one fat quarter. You then reorganise the pieces into blocks. The design I chose was the first one in the book. ...

I have now recovered from passing my driving test - it was very strange driving the car by myself for the first time. So far, that has only been to the chip shop and back and to Linda's and back - each drive lasting a good 5 minutes. But today I drove Linda over to our latest patchwork class at the Fat Quarters - it's about 40 minutes each way and involves the worst roundabout in the North East (Moor Farm) and the A1. I did ok, and also enjoyed it. Of course, the drive to the Fat Quarters was not without good reason! Linda and I went to a class to make a sewing machine cover. It's a design from the 1oth Birthday edition of Homespun magazine. The main body is made from Osnabruck Linen - it's a fairly large weave linen with all the inclusions. The fabrics are a bit of mixture, but definitely include some (one) Moda. The "stitch" is hand embroidered and I added buttons. And round the edges is my first ever attempt at piping, which is no where near as t...

Wohoooo - I passed my driving test yesterday - tomorrow I hope to go car shopping. Now I can get to the patchwork shop under my own steam. Maybe some more stitchy updates tomorrow! Watch this space

Not literally, obviously - anyone who knows Michael would struggle to picture that. But I have finally started my Farmer's Wife quilt. The background to the quilt is really interesting: in the 1920s, farmers' wives in America were asked if they would like their own daughters to marry a farmer. The book contains some of the responses to that question and 111 6inch patchwork blocks. Yesterday I completed block 9, "Box", and today I have completed block 26, "Cut Glass Dish". I am foundation piecing (on paper) using a black background and abtoks from my stash. As my stash is not very mature I am using this as an excuse to buy any pretty batiks I see and it will end up a scrappy batiky quilt. I went through my stash yesterda, knowing I had some batiks there, only to find that they are all blues and turquoises. This will keep me going for a few blocks, but I think I'll have to add to this colour palette fairly soon. So here is block 9, Box. T...

I have had a very unquilty week. And as I said in my very quick post on Thursday, I am getting withdrawal symptoms. I spent last weekend with my Mum and Dad. I took the train down on Wednesday after work and Mum and I spent Thursday and Friday baking cakes for the cake stall at the church fete: 48 jumbo cookies, 6 gingerbreads, 8 fruit cakes, 6 lemon drizzle cakes, a slab of chocolate sponge, 4 chcolocate sponges, 4 coffee sponges, 6 coffee and walnut sponges, 2 batches of chcolate brownie, 2 batches of chcolate orange brownies, 4 batches of Shortbread, 100 scones (half fruit and half cheese). In the end we bakes about half of the cake stall and the stall made more money this year than any other year, as did the fete as a whole, so it was all worth it! Needless to say, I didn't have much time to get any stitching in! I did manage to print off the paper piecing patterns for the Farmer's Wife Quilt, but that was all. I also spent a long time talking to my Aunt and Granny who bot...