Jennie's Threads

In hindsight, my sewjo took a short break following the house move. But it is back and here's what it got up to in June: I finished Mia's cat quilt and she really loves it, which makes me soooo happy! I finished the Cotton and Steel Mini Quilt Swap quilt... tracking says delivery has been attempted last Friday, but no word from my partner so far... and that means I can't share the extra with you here. Just as soon as she receives it I'll share the package I sent in full. I finished a baby quilt for friends - it should have been finished just after Christmas! I played with some scraps I cracked open the Gravity Quilt Kit and churned out the first 10 blocks in less than a week! And I'm still keeping up to date with Moccasin BOM ! I played with some low volume, with a pixelated heart quilt (or most of it)... ...And started the My Small World Quilt - I must share the rest of panel 1 And accidentally I starte...

Can you tell it's coming up to the end of a quarter for the Finish Along? This is The Cat Quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman and it's my second finish in two days! And this was my June goal for a Lovely Year of Finishes: it's really because of that goal that this is done, which I guess is the point. When I pick my goal at the start of the month, I like to pick something which is achievable, and with this goal it was dubious. Back at the start of June I hadn't even made all the cat faces (though I had cut all the fabric). Last Friday, Mia let me sew for a bit whilst she played and these blocks were perfect as they go together really quickly. By the end of the day I had a finished quilt top. I used the "mini" size from the pattern but wasn't sure if I would need to add some borders to make it big enough. This quilt was destined for Mia's cot now she's old enough to sleep under one. With no borders this quilt is just a tad bigger that t...

I love this quilt! I found this pattern whilst on holiday in December - I clearly remember sitting in the hotel room in the evening and getting really excited by it. It was the setting that I really liked. But I had no use for another  lap quilt. I decided to reduce the size of the blocks to 6" (and the sashing accordingly) and use it as a baby quilt for little boy. The little boy is now 6 months old, but better late than never. On first glance I had assumed that the blocks would be fairly standard patchwork blocks that I'd seen before: It wasn't until I was piecing the blocks that I realised that I wasn't familiar with most of them. This first one is one of my favourites, but I really liked them all. And the pop of black cross-hatch just brought them to life. Quilting and binding this quilt proved to be a challenge. I wasn't sure how to quilt it, and after thinking about it and putting it off for ages, I pulled it out and just did the first ...

I'm totally addicted to these blocks! I've had the kit since February, and had hoped to follow along with Myra's quilt along, but with the house move, I just never got round to opening the fabrics up. Until last week, when, on the same day, I read Myra's latest post , and opened the box I had packed the kit in. Well, if the planets are going to align like that, there's only one thing for it. I made blocks 1 and blocks 2 at the weekend... and then kept going with blocks 3, 4 and 5. That makes a total of 10 blocks! Here they are all together: And some close ups: Block 3: Orbit: A pink one... And a turquoise one And, of course, the baby ones! Block 4: Intergalactic: a lime one And a purple one. And the baby ones. And block 5: Celestial: a green one And a pink one. And the baby ones. I've now successfully managed to create baby blocks in three different sizes.... pretty special. I don...

It really is a miracle but I'm still keeping up with the block of the month pattern! Here are the June blocks for the Moccasin quilt . I really underestimated these blocks. I was lulled in because they are straightforward rotary cutting. But there are a lot of pieces and loads of seams and points to match up. In the end most are pretty good and one corner is dreadful. But not bad enough to unpick.

Two more blocks finished this morning. The yellowy one isn't my favourite colour way, but it will look good in the rainbow. I much prefer the indigo one And after a little bit of trial and error here are the baby blocks with the Mummy and Daddy blocks. Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and slowly catching up.

Remember the two panels of scraps I share as part of Scraptastic Tuesday? Well I'd really hoped to show the final finished item back then, too. I finally finished it last night and waited until this morning drizzle to photograph it. The pattern is the one-hour basket by Kelby Sews . And I guess once I'd finished piecing those panels, it really did take less than an hour to finish it completely. There are some truly treasured scraps in this basket - from some of my earliest quilts: Swoon, Oh My Stars, Chasing Chevrons, Neon Stained, the red and green one, Rhubarb and Custard. And I'm going to get to look at it every time I sew because this basket of scraps is a basket for scraps. I used scraps of binding for the handles!

It feels like ages since I received huge parcels of fabric from Fat Quarter Shop for this project. And I know I have more works in progress than I can count, but I just had to start it. I came across it when unpacking a box yesterday and just dived straight in. I'm a good few months behind in the quilt-along over at Busy Hands Quilts, but I'm hoping I can catch up soon. The fabrics are all arranged in the order you need them, so I've started at the beginning with Block 1 - Horizon. A greeny version.... And an orangy version.... I very rarely buy a quilt kit - mostly I buy a pattern and use my own fabrics. But Gravity is different - there are so many different fabrics that to buy the kit was the best idea. Even better - this a 30th birthday present from my parents! But the best thing about it, is how much fabric is left after I've pieced the blocks. I'm hoping this excess continues, because I'm having a go at making some half(ish)...

In hindsight my Sewjo has been a little absent recently. Or to be more specifically, my machine sewjo. Well it came back at the weekend with a fabulous class led by Katy Jones on Saturday: there was a lot of cutting, but I love how this quilt top looks so far (I know you've seen it already this week). I had thought that I would come back from the class and maybe finish piecing it. But I got home, browsed Pinterest for a bit, and started a brand new, totally unplanned project. These are inside addition blocks I found on Debbie's blog . I made mine slightly smaller and grabbed fabrics that were already lying on my cutting mat. The plan was a cushion cover. Except I totally failed when it came to the maths: twenty 5" blocks don't make a square cushion... so I cut too much fabric. I could scrap four blocks. Or I could cut more and make a baby quilt.... I'm thinking baby quilt. I carried on with these blocks on Sunday. I should have been finishing my C...

Back in March 2012 I created a "modern" mini quilt  . I remember looking in my two 9-litre boxes of stash and being thoroughly disappointed with the lack of "modern fabric". I pulled out the best I had, but I have to confess, it's never been my favourite finish - it looks like lego... But we still use it today and there was a silver lining: I realised what I was looking for in fabric and for the past 3 year I have carefully created a stash that represents that. Here it is: Doesn't it look neat and tidy? I'd just unpacked it after we moved. I can confirm it does not look like this anymore. Because I've started a few projects recently that have required the mass emptying of this cupboard. I did a class at the weekend with Katy Jones. The design was a pixelated heart and it required 8 different fabrics. And here is the limiting thing about my stash: it's mostly fat quarters. And in general this is fine - I like mixing the fabrics together...