Jennie's Threads

I love this finish! I smile every time I look at it! It started off with no real plan when I was making Mia's cat quilt. I cut pieces from over 100 different fabrics, and whilst I had them on the cutting mat, I also cut a 2.5" square of each. Once done I laid them out to have a look, added the dark reds, browns and blacks and decided to sew them together exactly as they were. I hand quilted the cross hatch - picking the colour thread was the hardest part: white was too stark, turquoise was tempting, but with some help from my Mother-in-law I picked a very pale pink. The back of the cushion is a dark blue print from Simply Colour by V and Co. which I found reduced earlier this year. I finished this last week and Mia and I have spent the weekend arguing over whether it is Mummy's cushion or Mia's cushion - she's gradually coming round to my way of thinking! This is another finish from my Q4 Finish Along list !

A little close to the wire, but Mia now has a finished advent calendar and with a day to spare! Chocolates will go in one per day so that naughty puppies cannot be tempted... Last year when I made advent calendars for my niece and nephew I knew Mia had to have a special one for this year, and despite looking online for inspiration for a few months, nothing had jumped out. It was only when I saw the new design from Lilipopo Stitches back in October that I knew what I wanted to do. The embroidery pattern is an instant download and her instructions are brilliant, especially for the less common stitches (she writes blog posts with lots of photos to guide you through these unusual stitches). I decided to use some speciality threads which I bought years ago, obviously with a project in mind because they all go together beautifully. These are DMC satin threads - the "new" marketing of rayon threads. Also included are a few metallic threads. My past experience of metallic t...

A couple of weeks ago I shared the embroidery I was doing for Mia's advent calendar. The embroidery is now finished.... I've added borders, but still have a way to go and advent is just around the corner. Really bad indoor photos... Will I make it? And as I've finished the hand stitching on this project, I started a new one! This is the Collection Quilt from Carolyn Friedlander, and I'm getting it as a block of the month. So far so good, but I haven't done much! Linking up with WIP Wednesday .

Have you come across the beautiful screen printed fabrics by Karen Lewis? I came across them last year on Instagram. Love them. Unfortunately, and quite understandably, the screen printing that Karen does, adds a premium to the fabric, and I can't really justify buying the panels she prints up. Sometimes she posts scrap packs and charm packs on Instagram and they are gone in seconds. Last year I was lucky enough to be quick and snag a scrap pack. I didn't have a plan for the fabrics, but just added them into scrappy projects I was making, including this baby bib for Mia. I will add at this point, that the care instructions that come with the fabric recommend cool washes and no tumble drying. Unfortunately I live with two dogs, a small child and my husband, and anything that isn't wipe clean really needs to be machine washable and tumble dryable. Mia's bib inevitably got thrown in the washing and I was sad to see that the screen printing faded.  Sad, but not surpri...

When I received a beautiful parcel from New Zealand in July with my hand-pieced mini quilt swap goodies, Donna included a couple of Lecien fat quarters. After Mia had stolen the notebook I received, eaten the chocolate that was included and tried to wander off with MY zippy pouch, her eyes fell on the fabric. She likes fabric just like her mummy, so I decided to use them to make some things for her. With a huge long list of things I wanted to make before our holiday, these fat quarters quickly rose to the top of the pile. Dolly needed a quilt. So Mia "helped" pick some coordinating solids. Despite pinning lots of more complex dolly-quilt ideas (on my new Pinterest board ), I ended up with just straight forward squares but I ran out of time/inclination to get it finished before our holiday... that was back in August. It has lain on my sewing table since then but I was reminded of it this morning when Mia tried to tuck dolly in with her own, somewhat larger quilt. It took ...

I had been planning to post this once my partner received this parcel. According to tracking, it was delivered 10 days ago, and I haven't heard a word from my partner, so I'm assuming she has a good excuse and I'm sharing this anyway.... This is it. My last swap commitment. I am absolutely not signing up for anything more until Baby is here and we are settled into some kind of routine - so maybe 10 years time if I'm lucky (I haven't said what sort of routine). Even if I am very, very tempted. My partner, gave me a really clear list of likes - designs and colours. This made it so easy for me to put together a quilt for her. The design is by Julianna @sewingunderrainbow and appeared in an old issue of Love Patchwork of Quilting. I knew way back when I first saw it that I wanted to make the quilt, so when I was cutting the fabrics for this swap quilt, I cut double, so hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll have a matching quilt/cushion cover. However, li...

That's how long I have left to get Mia's advent calendar finished... I've been working on it when I have energy, but my latest anti-nausea tablets which "may cause drowsiness" actually send me to sleep for 3.5 hours when I'm not planning to sleep at all... yep - 19 weeks and still sick! Back to the sewing: I now have completed the central design and I'm working on the text at the top. It's slower going than I anticipated but I'm really happy with how it looks and I'm optimistic that once the embroidery is finished, it will come together quite fast. The only other sewing I've done this week was revisiting a project I haven't touched since June: Moccasin Block of the Month. The reason I haven't touched it in so long was because I fluffed up the Dresden Plate, making it hugely too big for the 9" block size. I finally got round to re-printing the template and trying again. Success. I'm now reinvigorated to complet...

About 18 months ago I made a cushion for some friends .  Early this year, they asked if they could have another one as a matching pair. Some may consider this to be a bit cheeky, but as far as I'm concerned it's the ultimate confirmation that they liked the first one, so I was only too happy to make a start on the cushion. Months ago I prepared all the applique pieces. And didn't get any further. This is where I was at the start of the quarter, when I added it to my Finish Along list. One of the things holding me up, was my sewing machine. The blanket stitch on my Brother machine is a bit pants compared to the blanket stitch on my Husqvarna, and the Husqvarna needed servicing, cause it wasn't working. The timing was out. It took me until October to get the machine serviced and last week I finished off the applique! I quilted this cushion differently to the first. Rather than doing the applique and then layering and quilting (avoiding the applique in the proc...

For the first time in a few years, I'm really quite excited about Christmas: I think as a child, Christmas is really exciting, but as you get older, some of the magic goes. Now with Mia at an age where she can enjoy Christmas and get involved, the magic is back. Last year I made advent calendars for my niece and nephew and this year I wanted to make one for Mia. But of course it has to be better! I spent a long time on Pinterest (as I'm prone to do) and couldn't see much that I really liked, or that were special enough. I want this to be an heirloom that gets brought out every year and loved. Then I saw some sneak peaks of a new design from Lilipopo and knew I'd found what I was looking for. Just days after the pattern was released I was ready to start sewing. I decided to risk rayon threads: I'd bought a handful a few years ago - obviously with a long-forgotten purpose in mind - and hadn't ever used them. I don't have a great relationship with speci...

Back in June I had a momentary lapse in common sense and actually purchased some Art Gallery knits and a pattern for a dress for Mia. I don't quite know what came over it. Maybe it was a slow day at work. I even bought sewing machine needles for knit fabric. I took photos. I added this grand plan to my Finish Along list. And then I lost my bottle. I can blame this loss of bottle on pregnancy. But the reality it, dressmaking scares me and knit fabrics scare me. And I don't know how to use/find the overlocking options on my Brother machine. And any other excuses I can think of, really. I put the dress on my Finish Along list for this quarter too, and suddenly, a couple of days ago, I just decided to go for it. I had got as far as printing and cutting out the pattern back in the summer, but when I looked at it, and the measurements in the pattern, I decided to reprint and go up a size to 3T - Mia is only 20 months old, but I couldn't bare the idea of putting in all th...