Jennie's Threads

I've finished another mini! And I'm prettyr surprised by this finish too to tell you the truth. I was feeling pretty uninspired at the start of the quarter, but as we started to pack up the house I found it and decided I still liked it and this was an achievable finish! I started it last August, not long after the pattern appeared in Love Patchwork and Quilting Issue 11 and was designed by Rebecca at Bryan House Quilts . I decided it would make a great holiday sewing project for our summer holiday in Devon and I used a Design Seeds image to pick my colour scheme and raided my stash for the fabrics. It's all pieced using the EPP technique and I think it took me longer to baste the pieces than it did to join them together. By the time we drove back up the A1 after our holiday it was pieced! And then I ignored it for a while. Until I got round to piecing the back... There was quite a lot of large pieces of waste fabric from when I trimmed rectangles cut from yar...

When Vicky and Karl first got engaged, I said that I would love to make them a full size lap or bed quilt, they just needed to let me know what they liked. They picked out this pin from Pinterest and my heart sank. It's pretty boring isn't it.... I know marsala is quite brown and that's the colour of the year... but it's still brown. Lots of brown. A little negotiation ensued and I offered to make this as mini with an open offer of a larger quilt at some point in the future. The "engraved" details are hand embroidered in DMC stranded cotton and I've then used reverse applique to add the "bark". It's not a smooth heart because although I have never engraved a heart on a tree, I imagine it's pretty hard to get it smooth.... right? Also, it's quite a difficult shape to get smooth using the technique I did.... I used Aurifil 40 weight to do some wood-grain quilting and just scraped together enough scraps of the remaining brown fabr...

My WIP is all about binding at the moment... I've nearly finished binding my UK mini swap I've started binding the "brown one" I've just attached binding to the "purple one" I'm really hoping for a few finishes soon - these three minis are so close! And Mia is also sharing WIP Wednesday - the scraptastic edition! This little fruitcake took her first few steps yesterday! Linking up with WIP Wednesday

Three moths in and I am still keeping up to date with this block of the month. It might be some kind of record! Last month we just made one block because of the curved piecing. Curved piecing doesn't really bother me so it meant an easy month.... to make up for it, this month there are three blocks. And although half square triangles are nice and straightforward, there were quite a lot of them... I made two shoo-fly blocks And a crows foot block When I planned out my colours for this quilt, I took each of the colours in the original and lined it up with a colour from my palette. For the last two months it's taken me longer to work out the colours than to cut and piece the fabric. So this month, after the first 20 minutes of trying to work it out I decided to chuck out that method and just pick fabric combinations I liked!

It's been a fair few months in the works this quilt. But it is finally finished and it has to be one of the coolest quilts I've ever made. I can take little credit for that, however, as it's mostly down to the fabulous pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. Let's be honest, I've even stolen her fabric placement. The whales are all made from solids, all except one are Kona solids - a bright pink Art Gallery slipped in to make up the numbers! The quilting is quick and simple cross hatch at 3" intervals. The binding was very nearly a disaster. I cut the binding fabric in advance, making use of the rarest of events - a clear cutting table. And then a couple of weeks passed. And then we did some packing. And of course, the binding I had cut disappeared entirely. I even unpacked boxes looking for, but it is gone.  So the next step was to pull out the remaining fabric. I looked at it, laughed in desparation and shoved it back in the box - there was no way I could...

**I'm totally using this post to share random photos you've all seen before!** I missed posting for WIP Wednesday yesterday. I like to try and to do this each week as it means I check in regularly and I also post about things in progress, not just finishes, as I have fallen into the habit of mostly just posting about finishes... but life sometimes gets in the way: Michael was out of the country with work, Mia decided not to go back to sleep after her 4am bottle and I had a commitment on Tuesday night that left me exhausted - but in a good way! At the end of the talk, people came up to me to tell me which quilt was their favourite - I think this one got the most votes: it currently lives folded up in a cupboard but on the basis of Tuesday night, it's now going to live with Linda! My mother-in-law, Linda, is an active member of the local Methodist Church and attends Tuesday Club. Apparently it use to be called the Young Wives, but as my mother-in-law is one of the y...

I love earrings. I'm not in any way slim or petite, so the clothes I want to wear hardly ever fit, so I make up for it with earrings. And that means I have quite the collection. A couple of years ago I made myself a travel roll for my earrings, with the intention of making something more usable for when I'm at home. Well of course, that never happened, the earrings stayed in the roll. Or rather on the roll because I never bothered to put them away properly. Fast forward to last week when I had a huge pile of earrings, hair accessories, bracelets and necklaces (which I rarely wear) in the middle of my dressing table. I was late for work and could not find a pair of earrings for love nor money. I forgot to take a picture of it at it's worst, but we'll call this the before picture! Back when I originally had the idea I had bought the frame I needed and the ribbon I needed and they were all carefully packed away. I even found them. Originally I had intended low ...

It's shipping - my gravity quilt kit is on it's way! And the ruler I need has already arrived. All I need now is a quilt-along.... oh wait! Myra at Busy Hands Quilt has just announced she'll be organizing one!   Anyone else want to join in?

Right now it feels like I'm juggling a hundred balls and nearly dropping them: work is hard - I'm a new project manager and learning on my feet a lot of the time. At home we're juggling solicitors, packing, paperwork, and keeping on top of the washing! Not to mention squeezing in as much as possible to spend with our little monster. All of that doesn't leave much time for sewing... but I find I have to fit some in - a day is better if some sewing happens. So I'm working on little bits and even here I feel like I'm juggling lots of little projects. I'm still quilting the girl with the umbrella - I've made a little progress... ...I've basted the woodland cushion and dug out the perle threads tonigh - I need bright pink... ...I've attached the binding to my UK mini swap quilt, but haven't sewn it down yet... ...and Preppy is basted and marked up, but I think I'm out of light grey thread... So far I'm happy to rep...

A while back, I explained why I had trouble falling in love with my Patchwork City, and mentioned that I would love to try a mini version of it. Well once I'd put it out there I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so instead of working on one of my many on-going projects, I cut up some yellows and greys and went for it: a fair few of the pieces end up at just 1/2" wide (and a couple at 1/4"). My plan for this year is to have a different mug rug on my desk at work each month, then after that month add them to the wall of minis that I will have in our new house. My three Patchwork City blocks, with a bit of sashing and a border cam in at 9.5" x 9.5" - perhaps a little large for a mug rug but I don't care. I finished the mug rug off with some hand-quilting in yellow perle thread around each of the blocks. I then machine stitched the narrow binding to the back, and brought it round to the front where I hand stitched it in place with the same yell...

Does it ever happen to you? Random fabrics, accidentally placed next to each other on a shelf, which are simply a match made in heaven!? Those heavens aligned with these fabrics: the fox and raccoon print (the selvage says it's a Timeless Treasures print) was a very generous extra in the Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug swap parcel I received from Alison (@alisonwhite31 on Instagram). The coral from Modern Neutrals (the inner log top left) was a recent purchase at our LQS, bought with no project in mind - I just liked it. And they were perfect for each other. So I shopped my stash and found a few other coordinating fabrics: Art Gallery Natural Elements, Fossil Fern, Kona solids, Figures by Zen Chic, a Lu Summers print.... I knew right from the start that I would make log cabins. I did all the cutting, then sat and pieced. The first two blocks went together beautifully. And then I got cocky. I had finished block three before I realised that not only had I twirled my log cabin anti-...

My sister-in-law is a Japanophile.... she likes things Japanese (it is a real word - I looked it up). Back in the autumn Mum and I visited a local quilt show and saw some some zippy pouches with Sashiko embroidery on. I've done Sashiko embroidery once before, at the Harrogate quilt show, taught by a Japanese lady who spoke no English. I really enjoyed it and the next time I saw a kit, I bought one. I decided to dig out the kit, and make my sister-in-law a Sashiko zippy pouch. But could I find that kit. I have searched high and low and it remains elusive. In came Jo (My Bear Paw) to save the day with a perfectly timed Sashiko project in Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I say perfectly timed, but said sister-in-law's birthday was on January 1st. As you can probably tell, this is a belated present. In my defence, this weekend is the first time I will have seen her since her birthday! It was further belated when I saw the new Japanese-inspired Cotton and Steel print...

I introduced you to this little project a couple of weeks ago. I prepared and stitched three or four in a relatively short space of time, then I started on the French knot hoop and progress slowed. Here's the current state of that particular monster: This little hoop seemed to be a bit of a roadblock, so rather than waiting to finish it before starting some more, yesterday I started another one: I've loved this foundation pieced design since Juliet released it and this was the perfect excuse to have a try. I reduced the pattern to 70% so it fit in a hoop and used some Kona solids and a new purple fabric. It seemed to take forever to work out the size of the pieces of fabric I needed, cut the fabric, and trace the pattern (I use freezer paper for my foundation patterns and can't be bothered to work out how to print on it, so I trace the patterns and it doesn't really take too long). But by bedtime yesterday I had my finished girl with a brolly. I cut two lot...

I've had a browse through the remainder of my Finish Along list for Q1 and picked out a quilt I really should finish: it's a baby quilt, but if I take much longer, the recipient won't be a baby any more... Preppy the Whale needs to be swimming off into the distance! All of the whales are pieces and yesterday I started working on the sashing - I really don't enjoy sashing, so it hasn't moved as quickly as it could have done. Normally I go out to sew on a Monday evening and I often use these few hours to layer up quilts, but next week I won't be going so I need to work out how to get this done. And how to get it marked - I'm going to quilt a cross hatch grid, but find I get better results if I mark each line, rather than relying on quilting guides. And then life will get very busy with the house move, so this month could be one where I don't achieve my goals. Pop back in a few weeks to find out! Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes  

Where the hell did February disappear to? I did not get enough sewing time last month.  And when I don't sew I get grumpy. The move is creeping up on us - just a month to go - and I'm dreaming of the end of April when I will have my sewing space set up again and fewer commitments. That thought, and my "things I want to make" list are keeping me going! And although sewing time was less than optimal, I did get a few things finished: a baby quilt.. . ...a hooded towel for Mia (and I bought some more flannel to make another two)... ...two bibs for Mia (I want to make at least another 8 as they are so much better than the shop-bought ones) ...three sets of blocks for Patchwork City ( teal , curry [below] and buttercup ) ...lots of hand sewing: hoops for Mia's nursery ... ...fiddly, obnoxious clamshells ... ... I've kept on track with the Moccasin BOM ( and March just landed in my inbox)... ...I had a ball trying ...