Jennie's Threads

I know it's Friday but it's Scraptastic Tuesday week! Does that make any sense? I've got some scraps to share with you! Last month I shared my Preggosaurus pouch, and my sister-in-law's partner commented on Instagram that it was "fab". It was her birthday this week so I made a sister to the Preggosaurus Pouch. This is the Baby-Brain Pouch. There's a good reason for that name: I made a right bloody hash of it and I'm blaming baby brain. I had to put it together in short, stolen moments, when both girls were otherwise occupied. It took a couple of attempts to get the panels big enough. I packed away my scraps before I measured - duh! Then I cut the first zip to the wrong length. Yep. Then I forgot to topstitch one side of the zip, so once I'd finished the lining kept getting caught in the zip, and I had to do a fudge job. Then I forgot to open the zip before stitching it all up, which meant turing the finished pouch through was a time co...

I've been doing quite a lot of embroidery since Jessica arrived. It started with one of those dangerous hours where I was cuddling the baby with one hand and browsing Pinterest with the other. I don't know how I found it now, as is the way with Pinterest, but I came across an embroidery designer I'd never heard of before: Kelly Fletcher. I followed the links through to her pattern store and was blown away. There were so, so many patterns I could have started right away. I pinned quite a lot, and then picked my favourite, an alphabet sampler, paid my money and printed it off. This is my progress so far: A-D but no wheels! I've now received the threads I was missing, so there's no excuse for the wheels to still be missing. I'm loving the challenge of this piece. Because Kelly's designs are rooted in Jacobean crewel-work, she uses a lot of raised stitches in her designs - no backstitch here! I'm getting happier with my stem stitch and I think I'v...

I have a finish along finish to share today! Two years ago my mother-in-law, Linda, asked me to quilt a quilt top she'd made. It's not my style of fabric, but it is a lovely quilt top! I then ignored it. We moved house with it. I ignored it a bit more. I did make sure that it was downstairs and in view, rather than hidden in a cupboard. By keeping it in sight, it's even made it onto quite a few finish along lists. Though that's as far as it got. The day before I was induced, Linda, came round. She spotted the quilt. Mentioned the quilt. And I took my opportunity: Linda entertained Mia and rather than spend the next two and half hours sat on the sofa, I spent them at my sewing machine. And that was all the time it took - two and a half hours and it was done. Tell me again why I've put this off for two years? I did an all over stipple, which is well in my comfort zone. Much as I like challenging myself with more complex free motion quilting, I do actually re...

It's May. My favourite month. Suddenly the trees have leaves and blossoms on and it feels like summer is near. But first, how was April? The first half of April was spent waiting for Baby to arrive: I managed to get more sewing done than I had thought I would: I am especially pleased with the progress I made on the #365quilt : I ploughed through blocks having fallen behind, and found that I had enough to piece the quilt up to the first dark border. Of course, the nature of a block-a-day project means I am now ridiculously behind again! I even had a couple of finishes! I finally finished a cushion cover that had been waiting to be quilted for months and months. This was finished the day I was induced! I made a pouch for Mia's many hair clips . I used up some scraps on a Preggosaurus Pouch (it was just how I was feeling that day). And I finished the yellow and grey quilt - another project that had been sitting round for ever. Michael went back to wo...