Jennie's Threads

I'm so pleased to call this a finish! I've been planning this quilt for a while, ever since I found the perfect fabric for friends who had dropped subtle hints for a quilt (thoroughly unsubtely...). We see these friends normally once a year only, and by the time I realise that week is coming up, it's always too late to start the quilt. This year, I remembered earlier, but still thought it was a long shot to make an 86" x 100" quilt between March and July, especially when I was due to have a baby in the middle of that time! But if I didn't start it, there was no chance at all. The subtle hint went along the lines of "big enough for our [large] bed" and "coastal colours". So I had free reign over pattern, so long as it was big. I came across a weekly block programme by Barbara Brackman called the Jane Austen Family Album quilt . I quite enjoy a Jane Austen read, though mostly, TV adaptation, and the background that came with each block ...

With this finish I've already had more success in the third quarter finish along than I did in the previous quarter, and I am by no means finished! This finish was a beautifully quick and straightforward baby quilt. Back in May, when Mum came to visit, I made my first Quasar Quilt for her to gift. Whilst I was at it, I cut all the fabric I needed to make a second. If you look back at the photos of the original Quasar quilt , you'll see that the only real difference is the colour placement. Once I'd trimmed all those half-square-triangles, this quilt went together in just an hour or so. The quilting was also pretty quick: I just used my walking foot to echo the seam lines, making the light blue and orange pop against the dark blue background. I picked a fabric from Cinderberry Stitches for the back - perfect for little boys! This is such a quick quilt to make and I love the finish. I don't think this will be my final Quasar quilt: maybe a girly one...

Last Wednesday I had a day to myself: no children for a whole 12 hours. Just six days after Jessica was born, the lovely ladies at Simply Solids announced two workshops with Sarah Fielke: much as I would have loved to do both days, the reality was that with two small children, I could only push the generosity of my sleep-deprived husband so far! And the willingness of Linda - because let's be honest, it would be her looking after the girls, not Michael! I did there-and-back in the day. It's a two-and-a-half hour journey by car (three and a bit if you get stuck on the M62), and those nearly-six hours spent in the car were totally worth it. The workshop took place in an old mill building by the canal. It will be absolutely lovely once fully renovated, but at the moment it looks like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter! And the windows didn't open. My car read 28 degrees when I left mid-afternoon and I'm sure it was far hotter in the room. But despite the long...

I made myself two new zippy pouches this weekend. And Mia is not allowed to steal them. For the first, I used a tutorial by Truly Myrtle to make a large boxy pouch. I made it bigger than the tutorial (using her excellent instructions for doing so) and it came out shoe-boxed size. The fabric is Moda Sanibel by Gina Martin, which I found on sale and fell in love with. It makes me smile. I could only get 1/2m and planned a one-hour basket, but this was a perfect alternative. I'm using it to store my perle threads. The interior is a print from Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander, and I used it for the zip tab and the handle lining too. The tutorial was excellent, and although I thought I had totally messed up the step which forms the seam at the ends of the zip, it worked out pretty well. If I made this again I would add a more structural interfacing - I only used wadding and it's pretty floppy. My second zippy finish is a Finish Along finish - my first of the qu...

I don't normally get political on my blog, but just this once, please bear with me. 2016 is having a laugh. I was heartbroken to wake up on 24th June and find that the majority of people who voted on the day before had believed the campaign of intolerance, racism and hatred spouted by the Brexit camp. I then watched in disbelief as not only the prime minister went, but the leaders of the Brexit campaign were shown to be liars and quitters themselves. And in amongst it all, one of our most promising young MPs lost her life - the first visible victim of the politics of hatred we have seen recently. She left behind two small children. They are also victims. But the Leeds Modern Quilt Guild leapt into action, organising the donation of wonky cross blocks to make quilts for those two small children. Because when the world starts to fall apart around us, quilters quilt. Unforunately it's not just our side of the Atlantic that seems to be having a crazy year. Politics aside (and ...

A few times recently I've been asked by people how I get stuff done with two young children to look after as well. Here are the culprits: Mia is nearly 2 1/2 and Jess is 12 weeks. It got me thinking - what do I do to get stuff done. Here are my thoughts... First up, I want to get stuff done: that's a really important factor. It does take some effort to do 'stuff' after I've done middle of the night feeds, a ridiculous number of dirty nappies, and built a train track and a duplo tower, not to mention done the washing, cooked dinner and loaded the dishwasher. Sometimes the temptation to do nothing is huge. Sometimes it wins. Once I've decided I want to do something, the next important factor is that I can. Even if I only have ten minutes overlap between a Jess nap and a Mia nap. And the key to that is that the sewing machine, and associated mess, is right there in the corner of the living room. This has downsides: what with my piles of mess and the c...

Have you seen the Splendid Sampler? It launched in February: two blocks per week from a variety of designers using a variety of techniques. When I first heard about it and thought I might join in, my plan was to just make a few of the blocks I liked. Well it turns out that although I don't like all the blocks, I like an awful lot of them. So far 43 blocks have been released and I've made 22: I'm hiding one cause I don't like it and there's one that will appear in a few sentences time! Whilst I'm enjoying the variety of these blocks, there is a niggle of doubt that they won't work very well together in a finished quilt. That's the reason I'm making each block a single colour, in the hope that a rainbow layout in the final quilt will add much needed cohesiveness. I've just made up the above collage, and I'm optimistic. There have been some straightforward rotary cut and foundation pieced blocks. I particularly loved these two blocks I ...

I accidentally joined another quilt-along. I definitely have a problem! Let me explain.... it's the Bee-utiful quilt along host on the Moda Bakeshop blog. I can't remember where I saw the first block, but I know that by the time I did, the second block had already been released. The first block featured a cat. Mia loves cats. The original project is 20 embroidered blocks set in a quilt. The theme is bees and there is a bee in each block. I'm not keen on bees, but cats... I thought it would be a nice block to make for her, so I shrunk the design by 50% and stitched it up. Then I tried to decide what to do with it. Middle of the night bottles have their uses and I decided to add a scrappy border to make it up to a 6" block. I've also stitched up a second block. I'm not keen on all the blocks in this project, but I think I can find nine to stitch up and add a similar scrappy border. I sorted some scraps into colours at the weekend to help out with...

Last quarter was unsuccessful because I hadn't planned. When I wrote my list my mind was elsewhere and the list didn't include much that was achievable, and certainly didn't include much that inspired me over the last few months. As such, I didn't have many finishes to share. But I know how important the Finish Along is, not just for getting me to finish things, but also for getting me to be creative and find time to sew, which in turn keeps me sane in between the dirty nappies and bottles! So with that in mind I've planned this next quarter a lot more carefully! However, that doesn't mean that the list will be any shorter! So, in no particular order, here are the plans: ABC Embroidery: This project is pushing my embroidery comfort zone with some new stitches and I'm thoroughly enjoying leaving the backstitch zone behind. It's rubbing off on other embroidery projects too which I'm finding quite exciting! I've done A-G and I need to start thinki...