Jennie's Threads

I'm still here... and still sewing. I've been doing a lot of hand sewing this last week and caught up on hexie bee blocks ad started some cross stitch. I haven't photographed it and I've sat down now so you'll just have to believe me. But today I've spent some time in front of my sewing machine for the first time in a few days and I've been working on the octagon quilt - the three birds with one stone quilt. And just 10 minutes ago I finished the quilt top. I had a real problem with the border. In the original quilt which inspired this one, the outer border was piano keys, but I just don't have enough of the fabrics in my stash to do the same without totally decimating my stash of purple and (nice) pink. In the end I went out and bought a half metre of the one fabric I knew I could still get. It also happens to be a very nice fabric - it's Beatrice Chain by Michael Miller - perfect for a little girl. So today I finished appliquing the petal...

It's really been a Dear Jane Week. I have another two blocks to share today. Block G2 - Rotary cut using a Robert Kaufmann fabric I picked up recently. I wasn't sure about this block to start with - I just couldn't see the pattern or the symmetry, but once I'd made it I like it a lot more. Block M4 - rotary cut (all 49 pieces). The fabric is Cambridge by Ro Gregg for Paintbrush Studios - I've never heard of this make of fabric before but I really like it (and the blue and pink versions which I've also picked up). Some of the lines are a bit wonky, but with that many pieces that small, I'm pretty pleased. I've also prepared a couple of blocks for hand piecing. I think this brings me to a total of 38 completed blocks of a total 225! You can see them all on my Dear Jane page. I'm starting to worry I might forget which fabrics I've already used - I don't want any repeats, so I'm thinking up ways of keeping a record that will doubl...

You have seen this quilt quite regularly on my WIP Wednesday posts but I finally get to share it as a finish. When I found out I was pregnant back in June, I always knew that Baby had to have a quilt of her own - a special one, made by Mummy, with love in every stitch. My initial plan did not meet with approval from her Grandmother so I went back to the drawing board. Lots of pinning ensued and eventually, in November, I came across this pin, and followed the link through to the free pattern, which you can find here . The pattern was not an EPP pattern, but had some funny odd angles (not quite Y-Seams). EPP was, for me, the logical plan. By then we also knew we were expecting a girl. If she surprises us when she arrives and is a boy (highly unlikely - fairly obvious body parts are not visible on any of my five scans) then a girly quilt will be the least of his problems! Though Daddy may not appreciate pink sleep-suits, baby-grows and cardigans! I used a palette I'd fallen...

I'm still here. Baby is quite comfy, thank you very much. So I've been using the time to sew: mostly I've been working on two projects the last couple of days. Baby's quilt may still get finished before she arrives. I decided to bind it yesterday, even though I hadn't finished the quilting. I attached the binding with machine to the front of the quilt and then by hand to the back - normally I attach binding entirely by machine, but with all the piecing and quilting already done by hand it didn't feel quite right. I still have some stars and the borders to quilt so this isn't finished yet... And my Dear Jane quilt - something you will note that wasn't on my list of things to do before Baby. Instead it is on the list of things I'm enjoying. I pieced four blocks over the weekend... ...and then spent over 3 hours yesterday working out how to piece, and piecing, this little monster. My mother-in-law did tell me to get a life when she came ...

When I'm worried about something, or something is nagging at me, I find that tackling it head on is the best solution - be it big or small! At the moment, motherhood is nagging at me.  I guess I'm like every other expectant mum - when will labour start (that's the big question at the moment), will I be able to stop Baby crying, will I be able to dress the Baby (previous practices on my niece and nephew have not ended well), will Baby look like her father....? And very unhelpfully, I can't tackle this head on because Baby is refusing to arrive. This is despite my Husband's determination that today is the day... here's the email I got from him earlier.... In order to make my prophecy come true I think you should have pineapple and raspberry leaf vindaloo, washed down with champagne. If we don’t have any champagne there’s some white wine on one of the racks and some lemonade in the garage. Isn't he such a romantic?! So I've chosen to tackle something ...

Look what just popped up on my Blogger feed! From Design Seeds website (click on picture for link) It is my palette of 2014! The one I just can't seem to get enough of. Does that dark look like navy? Yummy. Must buy navy fabric.... Baby Quilt and entry for Pantone challenge Resisting temptation  to actually start this project but all the fabric is now cut scrappy pincushion!

One of the few good things about being on maternity leave and still no arrival is that my weekend lasts all week! Might as well enjoy it whilst I can! And that means that the weekend of sampler blocks started with a cut-a-thon on Friday and ended today with back ache (one of the not quite such good things about my current condition). Of the blocks I cut, there are four that I still haven't pieced, but I thought it was time to show you progress so far. If you follow me on Instagram (@Jenniesthreads) you will have seen me post these as I finished them - I'm gradually getting the hang of IG. So first up my blocks made from Architextures and Botanics fabrics: 12 blocks in total: Clay's choice is from Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Bowtie is from the Farmer's Wife Sampler Friendship is from the Farmer's Wife Sampler (I really like how this one turned out) Cups and Saucers is from the Farmer's Wife Sampler - the colours in the photo don't really do ...

So many things I want to get done, fewer and fewer days before our arrival....agh! I mentally had a list of things I wanted to achieve before Baby arrives and this week I managed to tick one off of that list. I finally finished my Thread Along quilt. You can find more information in Monday's blog post and if you'd like to make your own all of the information is on the Thread Along page . But the other projects remain Works in Progress. I have three main ones: the City Sampler quilt - I've started sashing my blocks together and I'm half way done, but this is my least favourite part of the quilting process, so going is slow. I don't have any photos at the moment, because it's so big already! My "three-birds-with-one-stone" quilt which will be my entry into the Pantone Radiant Orchid quilt challenge, but is also a baby quilt for friends of ours whose little girl arrived a few weeks ago. If it doesn't get done before Baby, it may never get ...

This one has been a long time in the making (in case you haven't noticed)! After saying on Saturday that I had lost the impetus for this project, I haven't touched anything else since and it is now finished. It was a bit of a journey - there were times when it was a commitment I regretted taking on - though I couldn't have known for sure I would fall pregnant half way through! But there are times, especially today, when I am really proud of what I have achieved - a whole quilt designed entirely by me! This quilt was born from my love of rainbow colours, my love of tiny blocks and my love of languages - that's why the border to each embroidery is the name of the month in different languages. I learned so much about monthly customs and events while researching these designs - if you follow the link to the Thread Along page , you can open up the documents for each month which explain the reasons behind the motifs I've picked. A lot of them are quite British (...

Well here it is - finally I can share the December block with you! I've gone for grey/low volume for this block and it's the first time I've used more than one thread in the embroidery - Christmas is sparkly so I introduced a flash of metallic thread and found a lovely variegated thread from Anchor as well! The fabrics used are Painters Canvas, Pearl Bracelets, Mama said Sew, Architextures, Lucy's Crab Shack and Lillybelle, Nature Elements and Rock and Romance from Art Gallery. You can find the embroidery pattern here along with the information on the motifs and the stitches here . The instructions for making the mini blocks is here and for the applique section is here . You can find more information on the rest of the blocks in this series on the Thread Along page and don't forget to share anything you complete in the Flickr Group . Hopefully the centre of the quilt and the finishing instructions will be with you soon!