Jennie's Threads

I have two WIP projects to share with you today! Steph's quilt - anyone who reads my blog knows that this has been a bit of a long project. It's for my sister-in-law's 21st birthday. She will be 23 in October..... I got bored of piecing straight lines all the same, so I really had to make myself finish this one. Mum and I basted it at Easter and this weekend my husband was away so I could free motion to my hearts content (he gets grumpy with the constant whirr of the machine). It took forever. Or it seemed to. It seemed much more hard work than Daniela's quilt, even though hers is quite a bit bigger - maybe it was the batik: it ate needles and it ate cotton. I got a break when I had to go to my LQS to buy a second reel of Aurifil.... Every second Tuesday I go to craft club at the local church. I have to confess, I started going mostly to gain some mother-in-law points, but I actually really enjoy it (I'm the youngest there buy at least 30 years!). And they...

More blocks to share today! I started by trying to catch up on the Skill Builder BOM . Last month's blocks aren't quite finished yet - they are both EPP blocks so taking a bit longer. This month's blocks are Foundation Piecing - my current favourite! I changed the colour placement a bit so there was more colour and less grey. I finished this block and thought I've browse through Bloglovin while I had some lunch. And right at the top of the list was a post from Sara at Sew Sweetness - the first three blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler. I've had the book a few weeks and even when Sharon started hers I resisted temptation. But today resistance was futile... These 6" blocks are unnamed so you can name them yourself, so that's what I have done... Block 1: Temptation (because that's what I gave into to make this block!) Block 2: Ellie-Jo (because I should have been finishing her quilt instead of making these blocks). Block 3: Whit...

I spent all day yesterday quilting. Lots of quilting. But it's too big to photograph at home without my hubby. So you'll have to wait till later in the week to see that! But once I was finished I am setting aside the rest of this wonderful long weekend to make blocks, blocks and more blocks. This week in between things I should be doing I've been playing with foundation pieced stars in various sizes. All are from Carol Doak's 50 Paper Pieced Stars Kentucky (8"); Rhode Island (6"); and Wisconsin (4"). These were going to be part of an item for a swap, as we needed an Angel in one I was taking part in. Then at the last minute I wasn't needed any more. I'm not sad, because I really love these blocks and I'm sure I'll find a home for them! This is my favourite (yep - Architextures)! I topped these off with the April block in the Lucky Stars BOM - I'm a little behind, but not as much as I was! Oh yes - more Architextures! ...

For the first time we get to enter two quilts in the Bloggers Quilt Festival! So I'm going to. This is my entry for the Baby Quilt category. But that means making a decision between two baby quilts. Had I written this post at the start of the week it would have been an easy decision as only one of them was finished. But yesterday I finished the second one and now I have to decide. Apologies to anyone who is seeing the quilt for the second time in two days! Because of the quilting on it I've gone for the quilt I only finished yesterday - Bubbles. This was my first ever attempt at pebble quilting and although it isn't perfect it's turned out so much better than I expected. I just love the texture that pebble quilting gives and I will definitely be doing more of this. The circles are Baltimore applique using a blanket stitch on my machine. This isn't my favourite colour combo, but I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone and I actually really like it...

Not fully unexpected, as this was a quilt on my Finish Along list for this quarter. But really I hadn't planned on finishing it this week, or quite this quickly. It's for a friend from work who has just had a little boy called Caleb. Most people from work come in with their baby after a few weeks/months for everyone to ooo and aaahhh. But she has decided to come in just a week and a half after he was born. Tomorrow.... I started this quilt back in March and got as far as cutting out the circles. I drew round a selection of common household objects: plates and mugs mostly. In order to avoid raw edges I used a light weight fusible interfacing and placed the fabric and the interfacing right sides together, stitched round on the line I had drawn, trimmed, clipped, slit and turned through. I then finger pressed round the edges, positioned them on the background and then ironed them in place before using a blanket stitch on my machine to applique them. That was last night....

Pembrokeshire is my favourite place in the whole wide world. As kids we would spend summer holidays in Tenby. When I was eighteen I spent a great week-long holiday with school friends camping in Manorbier - we had such a great time we went back the next year and I took my boyfriend with me too. Just a few weeks later I went back with my parents to Saundersfoot and just last year I finally got my now husband back again for a week back in Tenby. I have so so many happy memories of this beautiful area. Tenby Harbour I love the castles, the towns, the cathedral at St. Davids, but most of all I love the coast line. The sea is a magical colour blue and sparkles in the sunlight, and the grass is a luscious green - all framed by the grey of the cliffs and the pale blue sky (most of the time!). And it was that colour palette that inspired the quilt I'm going to share with you for my fourth Blogger's Quilt Festival. Lydstep Head - my favourite bit of coastline - but to...

It's been a long time since I was so glad it was the weekend. In some respects this week has gone by very quickly. But I am super tired. Tomorrow is the wedding where I hand over two sets of place mats. So tired or not, tonight I had to finish the second set. And I have. Four place mats with a 6" foundation pieced star on each surrounded by Art Gallery Floral Elements. I wanted to keep the quilting simple, clean and away from the piecing, to let the stars shine, so I did a grid of organic lines, randomly spaced but similar across all four place mats, using my walking foot and Aurifil thread. So the final stats: each place mat is approx 15" x 11". The star blocks are from Don't Call Me Betsy and are 6" finished. The fabrics are all Art Gallery: Floral Elements for the background, Pure Elements for the solids and Oval Elements for the final fabric in he stars, the backing and the binding. I think this may be the first time I've actually boun...

I'm making really good progress on the two sets of place mats this week. The set of six triangular place mats for friends who are getting married on Saturday are finished. I planned that they can be put together in the centre of a table as a hexie table centre. I cut equilateral triangles from 3.5" strips of fabric and each place mat is made up of 25 of them. I layered up the backing and the wadding and then put on the front face down, stitched round the edge, leaving a small hole for turned, turned through, top stitched round the edge and then added some hand stitching to properly close up the gap. I then quilted 1/4" each side of every seam line using my walking foot. All of the fabrics, including the backings are from my stash. I love Architextures....(nearly as much as Art Gallery) The second set of place mats are more traditional - rectangular. These are for friends who got married in March, but will be at the wedding on Saturday so I'm hoping to hand...

This time in grey, white, black and red. And triangles. Six of them. All of the fabrics are from my stash: Architextures, Art Gallery Urban Mod and Textures, Mama Said Sew, Noteworthy, Comma, Pearl Bracelets, Robert Kaufmann...... One of the six is totally finished. The other five aren't... The wedding is next weekend!