Jennie's Threads

Yep - I'm still on my block kick! So here's the progress since last time: First up I think I have nine Farmer's Wife blocks to share. I'm nearly up to date with the quilt-along over at Gnome Angel - just four blocks behind now, of which three are baskets or flowers and will therefore be replaced by non basket/flower blocks! I've just finished Dolly (bottom middle) this evening, and let me tell you, she was a bitch! Glad to have her out of the way! The there are the #365quiltchallenge blocks. I'm a couple of days behind on this one but really proud that I've kept up with each week's link up. These are the blocks I haven't shared yet. There's one more dark 3" block waiting to be made, and then the centre of the medallion which has caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it for another month, and I'm not yet sure how to work this into the colour plan I have in my head. I may need to get my crayons out tomorrow! I...

'bout the blocks... Having finished piecing My Small World , I had some catching up on other blocks to get on with. First up was the #365quiltchallenge2016 blocks - I had 8 to piece. I'm well behind on the Farmer's Wife quilt, so I printed the patterns and caught up with one block this morning. This block felt HUGE after working on the 3" blocks above! And today was the start of the Splendid Sampler Quilt - there were literally thousands of quilters on Facebook all waiting for today's block to be released. Timing was perfect: Michael and Mia were busy watching the football so I pieced it immediately. My plan is to make only the blocks I like and see how big the quilt gets. I'm using an assortment of low volume backgrounds and any and all solids: the plan is that each block is a single colour way so I can lay them out in rainbow order in the final lap quilt/baby quilt/mini quilt... My heart applique patch is a little smaller than everyone els...

A lot of my sewing time recently has been dedicated to this project and I'm really pleased to say that I now have a finished quilt top. I have mixed feelings about this quilt. As I said last week, I have loved putting it together. It's been a real workout for the brain cells, as some of the instructions are more than a little vague... and I've tried to find ways to avoid templates at all possible opportunities. I've learned a lot. Most importantly: I love freezer paper! I've used it so much for this project: for all my applique, for foundation piecing any units that stray from squares, rectangles and half square triangles, and for creating those few templates I couldn't avoid (curves). I've definitely improved my applique and freezer paper is the key. I create and cut out a template (without seam allowance) from the freezer paper, iron the shiny side to the wrong side of the fabric, then cut the fabric eye-balling a quarter-inch seam allowance....

I've been plugging away at this quilt and have made some really progress over the last couple of weeks: parts 1-4 are now complete and work has started on 5 and 6. This has turned into quite a strange project for me... I love the process of making it - it's proving to be a real workout for my quilty brain - I'm not working from the templates unless there really is no alternative; I'm making up the foundation patterns for certain elements, and I'm working out my own cutting instructions (rather than reading the instructions two or three times to realise that I've just read the cm measurement....) and I'm having a ball! I'm picking out some of my favourite fabrics, and finding some lesser used fabrics I'd forgotten about. But I don't actually love the quilt. It turns out that pure scrappy is just too much for me! But despite this I look forward to working on it, I'm looking forward to quilting it. I just might not have it on display when ...

New year and new energy! January has been good to me! Firstly I had a finish - an actual finish. Of a proper full-sized quilt! It's been a year since I had a full-sized finish! My pixelated heart quilt is on our bed right now! I love it. As does my daughter! And blocks... I set myself a challenge at the start of the year to make 365 blocks - one per day. For some projects a block is obvious: I made thirty-two blocks in the 365 Challenge (there was a bonus block at the start of the month!), so I'm up to date with that; I made 22 of the Farmer's Wife blocks below (5 are from December), so I'm still not up to date with these; And I made t he first block in the Zodiac BOM . Other quilts don't have such well defined "blocks". For the My Small World quilt I'm counting a row of each section as a block: for some blocks this means they are very simple and completed in just a few minutes. For other blocks, like the hand pieced clamshel...