Jennie's Threads

Back in October I made a hoop for a swap using quarter-inch hexies. It started as a bit of a joke, but I found they weren't as fiddly or horrid as I had kind of assumed. So when I joined the Get Your Hex on Bee I knew I wanted to introduce more people to the joys - obviously not the whole block - but just a flavour. And if I was asking people to play with quarter-inch hexies for the first time, it was only fair to give them some tips! I start off with pieces of fabric 1" x 1" (though this is quite generous), paper hexies, an applique needle, quilting cotton and scissors. I always use quilting cotton because it's a bit more flexible for the basting, and fine for the whip stitching. Use a matching thread throughout, because the basting stitches remain in the  hexies once you've finished. Basting I stopped chewing my finger nails especially for the next pictures.... unfortunately the size of the hexie makes my thumb look even fatter than it is :)

I spent this weekend with my parents and without my machine. I had Friday off work so took some hand sewing with me. I managed to finish a couple of things that I can't really show you yet - here is a sneak peek of one of them! We went to this month's Unicorn Ceilidh on Friday night and caught up with loads of friends, then on Saturday Mum and I went shopping (new shoes and jeans), had dinner (yummy Italian) and then went to the theater - Starlight Express is possibly my favourite musical! And today... you may or may not know that my Dad is a Morris Dancer - he has been for over 30 years - I have never known life without Morris Dancing and we had a Morris Guard of Honour at our wedding. I've just noticed they aren't actually wearing bells in the photo! For the first time in about 30 years, Letchworth Morris Men have decided to update their kit (if you follow the link you can see the old kit - May Day is Wednesday and they will be dancing out for the first

You know how as soon as you have a project you must do, you see loads of other projects you want to do?  Well, I've have been very controlled this week! I picked up the yellow fabric for the quilt for my Dad (you can read the whys and hows right here ) on Saturday and knew I had to make a good start to I had something to show Mum and Dad when I visit them this weekend. So I haven't made an Aeroplane bag. And I haven't made a case for my laptop. And I haven't made one of my bee blocks. And I haven't finished my swap item. No. I have made 6 blocks. I've just noticed what a scruffy photo this is - I'll try and get a better picture over the weekend! The background fabric is Art Gallery Floral Elements in Custard and the other fabrics are all batiks. I think you should expect to see plenty more posts about this little project over the coming months. The deadline for the completed quilt is 26th June! Two months! Of course, this isn't to say that I

Just one week after I posted my goals for Quarter 2 of the Finish Along I have my first finish! Over Easter I pieced a quilt for a little baby boy using blues and oranges. If you've read this blog for a while, you will know that blue and orange is a colour combination I generally struggle with, but for a little baby boy it just felt right. The biggest job in this quilt was cutting the fabric - it took just a few hours to piece, about an hour to quilt and a final hour to bind. The fabrics are a real mixture from my stash: Pearl Bracelets, Architextures, Summersville, Art Gallery Oval Elements, Nature Elements and Floral Elements, Comma, Tilda, Cuzco, Benartex, Kona Solids, Urban Chiks, Red Rooster and a couple of fabrics whose origin is lost in the mists of piles of fabric! The quilting is a 50wt bright orange aurifil - it's nearly the same colour thread as the plastic bobbin! I did wavy lines irregularly spaced both horizontally and vertically. The backing is

I;ve got a bit behind on the BOMs I'm following along with.  On the Skill Builder BOM I'd made four and quilted two - quite a way behind the four made and three quilted which there are now instructions for. So last night and this morning I started catching up with two more blocks. Woven star Woven Chevron And here they are all together I've also basted some of the baby quilts I need to finish off, so maybe there will be finishes this week. Or maybe not, because I've also picked up the yellow fabric I needed !

Since last Wednesday I posted my goals for the 2nd Quarter Finish Along - you can peruse them here - totally unrealistic and incredibly over optimistic! But I made a good start - I've played with five of them in the last week: Daniela's quilt is quilted - all 116" x 116". Now I need to bring myself to do the binding. I think it will be done by machine, not hand! I played with my Double Wedding Ring Quilt - 7 blocks done. 23 to go. I finished piecing my cushion cover for the Modern She Made Swap and order more fabric for binding (which arrived today). If my partner doesn't like it I'm fine to keep it! I did some of the hand stitching on my Rhubarb and Custard quilt at Craft Club last night. And tonight I mad a second star for the place mats. Not a bad week really! I anyone else noticing a theme in the colours I'm choosing at the moment? Linking up with WIP Wednesday!  

Can you hear anything? My Swap cushion cover is pieced! And more of that delicious pink is ordered to bind it! Lots of my favourite fabrics in here, and if my partner doesn't like it, I'm quite happy to just keep this one! The third star is just 3" x 3"!

The monster has been tamed! All 13,000 square inches have succumbed to a free motion stipple. My machine behaved herself beautifully. She had one little hiccup but that was entirely down to the fact she had been quilting for several hours and wanted some of the fluff cleaned out of her.... But you don't really want to see pictures of the inside of my machine - you want to see pictures of the quilt: eight hours and 21 bobbins of thread (I think I've used about 1500 meters). Problem is I don't have any where big enough to show it. Here it is on our spare bed - there is a bed under there - honest. What you can't see clearly in these pictures is that the quilt is hanging right down to the floor on both sides of the bed! And one I'd finished this, and the machine was still set on FMQ mode, I decided it was about time I finished the quilting on the first two blocks from the S kill Builder BOM - I started quilting these the day I quilted the Pac Mania quilt ,

I can quilt a 116" x 116" quilt top on my machine... ... and I am over half way through quilting it, which is just as well because I have finished up the first reel of thread... Pretty excellent photo, if I do say so myself! Colours are close to reality and you can see the texture from the quilting. Back to the machine....

I think you might all laugh at me.... but here's the plan - some things I have to finish, others that are so close to finished that it would be silly to leave them, and then things that I want to finish but which seem unlikely. So, in no particular order, here we go! Daniela's Quilt: Fourth time lucky for this quilt. It has already been on my list last year in Q3 and Q4 and in Q1 this year. Q2 2013 is the quarter and this quilt WILL be finished. It is pieced, and basted and ready to quilt - the machine is set up and as soon as this is posted, I'm making a start - 13,000 square inches of quilting! Of course, if it doesn't fit in my machine I may have more of an issue :) Steph's Quilt: Fourth time lucky for this one too. It's also pieced and basted and ready for quilting, and is second in the pile underneath Daniela's quilt! Debs's Quilt: This is the quilt I introduced you to yesterday. I don't have the background fabric yet, but the who