Jennie's Threads

Two weeks ago my friend, Nastasja, gave birth to a little boy called Noah. Since I found out she was pregnant I've been intending to make a quilt, and once I found out she was expecting a boy, I was able to buy the fabrics. I went for some Robert Kaufmann Flannels and a pattern from a   Fast and Furious quilt-as-you-go book. Except I didn't quilt as I went. I pieced, layered, stippled and bound (in that order). I wasn't sure about the fabrics for a while, and it wasn't until I heard he had been born, that I felt the urge to cut up the fabrics. And yesterday evening I finally  finished stitching down the binding. I haven't always liked this quilt, but now that it's finished, I happy enough with it. Now I need to package it up and send it off. Oh - and after another 6 Raspberry and white chocolate cakes, 6 gingerbread loaves and 6 lemon drizzle cakes, my baking mojo, rare at the best of times, has deserted me. Mum is still at it - she has made 8 c...

I'm staying with my Mum and Dad this week, and Saturday is the annual Church Fete (St. Nicholas's in Barton-le-Clay if anyone fancies coming along). Mum and I run the cake stall. We also bake at least half of the cakes on it! The fete is Saturday, yesterday I stocked up at the supermarket and today I made a start: 48 jumbo cookies (6 batches) which we will sell individually 6 times the recipe for chocolate orange brownies - these are really delicious, but a bit of a pig to make: split the eggs, melt the chocolate, take the rind off the orange, juice the orange.... they take a while. 4 times the recipe for regular chocolate brownies (from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook) And four Polish cakes (not pictured), (as in  Polish from Poland, not polish as in furniture polish!) I don't think this cake has ever been near Poland! It's crushed digestive biscuits mixed with golden syrup, drinking chocolate and margarine, then topped with melted chocolate - mmmmmm In betw...

...and it's really starting to p*ss me off. I am sitting on the sofa sulking, whilst it thinks about what it has done!

I've finished my blocks for Stash Bee for June! I really love this month's colour combo - chartreuse, teal, white and grey. The idea of the blocks is that we use our stash. Unfortunately I don't actually have any grey in my stash. Or at least I didn't. A bit of internet shopping cured me of this. Don't get me wrong - I love buying fabric at my LQS and actually seeing the fabrics, but I've been buying some randome fabric online recently - just browsing and picking things that look nice. So instead of using up my stash, I am using this bee as an excuse to stash build! This was this month's purchases from Backstitch (the fabrics came beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and tied up with ribbon!). (I bought some Flea Market Fancy! I've joined that club. And I like it a lot more now I've seen it in the flesh) As you can see, I have cured my lack of grey! (I didn't think I liked grey - I think I'm changing my mind!) I also made my next ...

Perfect for a wet June day! Every day seems to be wet at the moment! Weeks ago Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts announced a Summer Sewing Contest. I thought I might make a bag for my summer holidays. My "summer" holiday was last week. No bag. A brolly would have been more useful. At the beginning of the year Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap announced a 2012 Finish Along. Last Summer I chose to make a quilt with Ambrosia fabrics. Last night was Friday Night Sew In. Today all those fourthings come together! I signed up to the Finish Along at the start of the second quarter (for the first quarter I was having my own personal start-along!), and I picked three quilts I wanted finished. At that time my sewing machine was misbehaving when I was free motion quilting, so I picked three quilts that I planned to straight line quilt. This was one of them. This is how far I'd got at the start of April April passed May passed June started passing very quickly. I ha...

After Monday the weather went downhill. Tuesday was a total washout, but every other day seemed to be wet/murky in the morning then improving in the afternoon. On Tuesday we went to Carew and wandered round the ruined castle. This is a beautiful medieval castle that was altered in the Elizabethan period with the addition of huge windows looking over the millpond (the Mill is one of the few remaining working tidal mills in the country) - this view is one of my favourites (though it's better without the rain). On Wedneday we went to one of the best ruined castles in the country: Pembroke. As kids growing up this was our favouritest castle ever. There's loads to explore, spiral staircases to climb and, battlements to walk along. The castle originates from the Norman period, but in 1457 Henry Tudor was born in the castle. In 1485 he beat Richard III at the Battle fo Bosworth and became King Henry VII. The Dungeon Tower The Gatehouse Courtyard with keep in the b...

I took the opportunity offered by AWFUL weather and a large carpeted area without helpful paws (the dogs are back at home and Grandma has moved in to look after them!) to decide on a final layout for my Farmers Wife blocks! This is the final layout - it took a while to lay it out, then Mum and I swapped blocks around to get a good balance of colour - we could have kept doing it forever. Then we laid out the little cornerstones, again to get a good balance of colour. Then I drew out the quilt and numbered the blocks. All ready for when I get home and get my sewing machine out! ps. if you don't already know, the sashing is a golden yellow colour (not batik)

Last Saturday we drove from Blyth in Northumberland to Tenby in South West Wales - 9 hours in the car, and the M5 was like a giant car park from Tewkesbury to Exeter. Luckily we came off and took a detour via Ross-on-Wye, otherwise we may still be sat on the motorway! Here are the first few days of our holiday: Tenby Harbour with the castle behind South Beach looking over to Caldey Island St Davids Cathedral St Justinians looking out to Ramsey Island: Mum and I went out on a rigid inflatable round the island and saw loads of seals, cormorants, guillemots, razorbills, choughs (v. rare), kittiwakes and other seagulls! Razorbills From St. Davids we went to Porthgain, an unusually industrial landscape in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It had slate quarries nearby in the 19th century. The Road to Jerusalem looking out over the sea with ruined quarry buildings in the background (the slate quarry was called Jerusalem). ...