Jennie's Threads

So it's that time of year again to look back over the previous 12 months and proclaim it good! My year has been somewhat mixed, I feel... We spent 11 months of the year moving house.... from the day we started clearing out and packing on 3rd January to when we finally completed on the house on 3rd December! We swapped houses with Michael's Mum, Linda, and while this meant we avoided estate agents, we couldn't avoid the packing, the unpacking, or the solicitors. I always thought that no matter what my children decide to do when they are adults, I would be proud. But I think I'm changing my mind. My recent dealings with solicitors have not been successful, so here's hoping they don't pick that career path! We physically moved on 4th April - Easter Saturday, and both of us then proceeded to do a lot of work on the houses we moved into. Our builder came in on 7th April, and the final new carpet was laid on 5th November. I know I've said it before, but never ag...

I had really hoped to get this embroidery finished in time for Christmas, but some last-minute Christmas present making screwed that plan! It is now 10.30pm on New Years Eve and I can at least call it a finish for 2015! The design is by Rosalie Quinlan and was a kit with pre-printed hanky linen and Cosmo embroidery threads - I just added some interfacing and the embroidery hoop. It was interesting to try out Cosmo embroidery floss for the first time. I've heard a lot about them, but in all honesty I can't say they were much different to DMC or Anchor threads. Which is a good thing! Because Cosmo threads don't seem to be available in the UK, while DMC and Anchor are! We'll be packing away the Christmas decorations in the next couple of days, so sadly I won't get to enjoy this hoop for another 11 months.

I struggle every year with what to get my sister-in-law. She's a pain. And I don't care if she reads this, because she knows! Normally we resort to cash or vouchers, which is pretty boring. Last year I tarted up the voucher with a little Two-in-One Zippy pouch . But I can't do that every year. You may remember back in the summer, I signed up for the doomed Harry Potter Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram. Steph follows me on Instagram and expressed interest... expressing interest out loud is as enthusiastic as she tends to get. A few months later and we were talking Harry Potter again, and I learned that a Dumbledore quote is one of her favourites and she wouldn't mind having me make her something. This is the equivalent of anyone else standing on the roof and begging for me to make it. Really. Unfortunately I then forgot this conversation until the Saturday before Christmas. But being a last-minute merchant, I took the opportunity of a Saturday afternoon nap to draft out ...

I don't like Star Wars. There. I said it. When my husband and I were dating at Uni I was dragged to a midnight showing of whichever film it was that came out in 2003 or 2004, maybe 2005.... I don't get the hype. I have no intention of going to see it at the cinema.  But I know a six year old, who absolutely loves Star Wars and loves Lego. So thanks to Kristy @ Quiet Play, his Christmas present was a very easy decision. Of course, it's impossible to be totally ignorant of Star Wars... I mean I know who Darth Vader is. So I picked the foundation pieced pattern of Darth Vader. Printed it out. Decided it wasn't the most complex pattern I'd ever seen, and then procrastinated. Why is it that even the easiest pattern becomes harder, the closer to the deadline you get? I tackled it head on yesterday morning. Mia played nicely all morning and by lunch time, Darth was fully pieced. By the end of the afternoon I had a finished cushion! Miracles do happen and all you ha...

My husband and I had a cushion discussion this last week. It went like this: Michael: "Do you think we could get rid of some of the mankier cushions?" Me: "Which ones do you consider 'manky'?" Michael: [stupidly taking the bait] "well, the red one... and the star one." Me: "The red one is one of my favourites. But you can have the star one." A fifty percent success rate. Not bad for a man. I conceded that there were a further two cushion that had actually been made for Mia and could be moved to her bedroom. Each morning, Mia decides which of the dolls and stuffed toys that are upstairs need to come downstairs and are favoured for the day. Today she decided to bring downstairs Poppy the dolly, teddy, doggy, Lily the cat, and one of the cushions I took up yesterday! I have an accomplice! Anyway, cushions make a good present, so I decided to make a cushion for our child minder and her family. I had this pattern in mind when...

It's the time of year for snatched moments at the sewing machine, desperately sewing together last minute Christmas presents.... and today I finished one of those presents. At the start of December, with loads of time left before Christmas, I started making some pairs cards for Mia: I fussy cut from my fairly small stash of novelty fabrics: two of each print to make a total of 24 "cards". And very quickly I added the white borders. And then I procrastinated. Eventually I picked a backing fabric, and procrastinated a little more. Because I knew that once I had completed the next step I would have 24 cards to turn through and make neat. Not my favourite task. Especially when I am extremely good at leaving a turning gap that isn't quite big enough for the job to be easy. It was our patchwork club's final get together before Christmas last Monday and I decided that this awful task would be made slightly less painful with some company. It took me over an hour a...

This could be something of a record: normally my finish post for my goal in A Lovely Year of Finishes is as near to the end of the month as I can get it whilst still being eligible for the link up. Not this month! Oh no! We're not even half way through December, and the cushion is finished! Urged on by the fact it needs to be posted and the last posting date for 2nd class mail is this coming Friday - even so, it's still only Tuesday! I started this cushion many, many months ago, pieced two sections and abandoned it. Christmas seemed as good a time as any to get it finished and gifted. So last week, when I had a few hours of energy, I finished the piecing. Present Jennie needs to thank past Jennie for cutting generous pieces way back when, because it made the foundation piecing so much easier! I took a couple of days to do some chunky hand quilting in white perle cotton, and I added the back yesterday morning. It was delivered to the post office by the end of the day...

Last week I was looking for a black and white jelly roll that I know I have somewhere and I've seen recently.... needless to say I couldn't find it. But whilst hunting through the yet-to-be-unpacked boxes (why is it that 9 months after moving, it's my sewing stuff that hasn't been completely unpacked?) I found an embroidery kit. It's a Rosalie Quinlan design that I bought at least two years ago (I think) and it hit the spot. Just the night before I'd been sat in front of the TV itching to do some embroidery, but Mia's advent calendar was finished and I didn't fancy working with the huge frame which my other long-term embroidery project is on.... This packet included the design pre-printed onto linen, and the thread. All I had to do was add the interfacing, and start sewing! Add to those advantages the following: no colour changes - it's all stitched in two strands of Cosmo embroidery thread; no complex stitches - much as I enjoyed the chal...

My goal for December will be a cushion which I would love to gift this Christmas. That makes it a pretty good goal fr this time of year. I picked a foundation pieced design, but with nice lare pieces. I've pieced two sections, I've cut all the fabric. A few hours sat at the machine, and this should be pieced. Not quite sure on the quilting yet though. Maybe hand quilting in chunky perle... This needs to go in the post, so really needs to be done in the next week or so, rather than by the end of December!

I'm still working on these nursery hoops for Mia and I've got a few more finished since I last shared... in March! And I've got them on the wall. Brolly girl: this is a pattern by Tartan Kiwi and I just love it. I reduced it to 70% and used up every last piece of the light blue fabric to make it big enough to fit in the hoop!  I made a second one for me which turned out to be a mini mini mini quilt and now hangs on my quilt wall. The umbrella theme continued with a small Forever Friends cross stitch - I complete this years ago (maybe 7 or 8 years) and it has sat in a box with other unloved cross stitch all this time. I finally mounted it in a hoop and it fits right in! The next two were very hard work - honest. Isn't this Art Gallery print pretty? And it fits perfectly inside the hoop. I added interfacing to give it a bid more body and that was it! And this uses some Heather Ross fabric which @sleepinsarah sent me - I believe Moo has a matc...

I am going to declare that November was a successful sewing month. I count 8 finishes looking back through my blog posts! It's been a while since I had a month like that! A swap, two cushions, three mini quilts, an advent calendar and a dress! Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap Camper Van cushion Rainbow cushion Two Karen Lewis quilts and a dolly quilt Mia's new dress And an advent calendar . And I made progress on a few other projects so maybe there will be some more finishes next month....Michael and I spent a rather wet weekend in the Lake District. And we discovered that baby #2 is going to be pink! I also did loads of baking in November: there are two Christmas cakes, made using my Grandmother's recipe, which are waiting for their next feed of brandy before marzipan and icing; I tried a new banana chocolate cake recipe which seems to have been a hit, and I made cakes for me and my sister-in-law too! Hopefully this week I'll g...