Jennie's Threads

I just love how some projects start out of nothing - no plans, no long held desire to try a technique. Just the random placement of two random pieces of fabric on a shelf. That was exactly how this started. When I received my whimsical woodland mug rug swap package from Alison, she included a small piece of woodland print with foxes and racoons: bright green, blue, orange, coral and pink. Lovely as it was, it wasn't my normal type of fabric and I had no plans for it. I popped it up on the shelf to be put away when I next tidied. At around the same time I took a trip to a local patchwork shop and picked up a coral fabric from Modern Neutrals. I had nothing in mind, I just liked the colour. And it was these two fabrics which ended up next to each other - a perfect match! I can't remember why I choose log cabins, but I do remember thinking that I didn't need to think about it any more because log cabins were perfect. I took advantage of a nap time and pulled some more fa...

We are so close to finishing the work on our living room and dining room... it feels like it's taken forever but we have been in the new house less than a month so we're doing ok really. And when I sit down and think about it, a lot of the work that needed doing was so I could get a space to sew in the lounge... we've moved the door to the cupboard under the stairs... we've got rid of the fireplace, we've totally replastered both rooms...we've painted and painted and glossed (I hate glossing)... we have new flooring... and tonight we need to put up curtain rails, curtains, shelves. And then we can bring in the furniture - I have a lovely new sewing desk - still in the Ikea boxes. I can't wait to share some photos of the finished rooms, but for now all I have is a sneak peak at our new carpet! It's very brave for us! And this little monster stood up and walked by herself without encouragement for the first time! Whilst all that is going on and I...

This is one finish I really did not expect to be sharing with you this week! This was my first photo shoot on our brand new fake grass - I never need to use a lawn mower ever again! But I think the lovely bright green threw my camera off, as the colours, especially the background fabric, are a bit out, and it really is more brown in real life! Marsala is the Pantone colour of 2015 and thus the subject of the Pantone quilt challenge. As someone who doesn't mind brown (I love the richness it gave to my Rhubarb and Custard quilt ) Marsala is still a little out of my comfort zone. A hunt through my stash led me to pick Kona Burgundy as my Marsala of choice (I'm not a wine drinker so I can't tell the difference!). To this I added a fat quarter of Annali from Dashwood Studios - my only other "marsala-ish" fabric. Then I added coral/peach, lime green and some text prints. And by chance my recently acquired Karen Lewis Textiles scrap bundle also included some ...

We have spent today working on a work in progress of a different kind... painting the living room and dining room. There is a reason I'm not a painter and decorator by trade... I'm covered in white flecks and green smudges and no sewing is happening... I am simply dreaming of having works in progress to share. By this time next week I will hopefully have my sewing machine out and in the meantime I've been dreaming of new projects and picking out piles of fabric. Here are a few...[sorry for crappy phone photos - my camera was well-packed!]  .. A baby quilt  Another baby quilt  Some Karen Lewis yummy-ness for a mini quilt  random loveliness picked up in the Village Haberdashery Easter sale  The beginnings of a new quilt for Mia And another baby quilt I won't be linking up with WIP Wednesday today, as I really don't have any WIPS to share. But watch this space for a finish and hopefully, eventually, some photos of my painting attempts...

So we've moved. It all went very much to plan. The removers came on the Saturday and I can without doubt say that the 5 hours between them arriving and them finishing was the most stressful ever. It all seemed to plod along for the first 2 hours and then suddenly it switched up about four gears and as we were removing the last few things from the house, they were already moving in the new belongings - scary! We spent the rest of the Easter weekend stripping wall-paper and decorating two bedrooms, whilst the builder moved a doorway, closed up a fireplace and built a new fence. We also did a mammoth Ikea shop! Unfortunately a slight mix up means that the plastering is only just happening today, so we'll be in a bit of a rush to finish the painting before the new floor arrives... And until the new floor arrives on 27th April I can't build my new sewing desk, and I can't unpack my sewing and my machine....though my stash has been unpacked already! And that means...

This is a tough list to write. My sewing is packed in boxes and it will be a few weeks before it gets unpacked so this list could be totally unrealistic - let's face it - my lists normally are! I'm consoling myself by puling fabric from my stash (which is unpacked) for a growing list of baby quilts! Here's what I hope to finish this quarter: Lob cabin cushion: I've picked this project as my goal for a lovely year of finishes for April as it requires some hand quilting. I'm hoping my machine will be unpacked just in time to finish it off before the end of the month! City Sampler: I would love to enter this into a quilt show at the end of summer, so I have a fair amount of work to do to get there. This year? Maybe next year? Jennie Rayment Wall hanging: another hand sewing project to get me through the move! There's quite a lot of applique to finish then I need to decide how on earth to quilt it! Any thoughts? Secret Sewing: this may be an unreal...

Well, not bad all things considered! Here is my final finish for the quarter: the mini quilt for the UK Mini Swap. I'll write up a proper full blog post once I've (hopefully) added in some extras I have planned and sent it. But this mini is just one of nine finishes! January saw my first rash of finishes - four in total! I finished of a couple of swap items with January deadlines - a Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug ... ...and a Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt. As well as making  a new mug rug  for my desk at work And with a final push and the help of my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes I finally completed my Essential Sampler quilt.  And then things slowed down a bit. Life got in the way and I got distracted by pretty new projects! But I did get a few more things ticked off: My February ALYoF goal was the Trellis baby quilt . And my March goal was the Preppy the Whale baby quilt And squeezing in at the last minute - two more mini...