Jennie's Threads

My reviews of the year are getting longer... I've split this years into 3! So part one is all about family. Whilst 2016 has been dubbed the year of the celebrity death, and has been the year of some pretty dubious political decisions on both sides of the Atlantic, in our little bubble, 2016 was a good year. Mia turned two in February, and in April, Jessica joined the family after a very, very long nine months! Most of the rest of this post is just photos of the girls! Mia's Second Birthday Party Showing off her new jumper from Gran Loving her new room Mia and her cousin, Ellie-Jo - these girls are going to run rings round us as they grow up! Christmas morning Mia is nearly 3 now: she doesn't stop talking, she's very bright and her imaginative play is fabulous. Just watching her being busy is enough to wear me out! She moved into her new bedroom and big-girl bed in October and is turning...

I mentioned in my last post about including a new Christmas tree ornament for both the girls in their Christmas Eve box. Back in 2014, I made a "First Christmas" ornament for Mia. I wanted to make one for Jess, and for my new nephew, Henry, this year. And of course, Mia would need one too. I started off with an idea in my head of snowflakes embroidered on felt and made into baubles. Having unsuccessfully hunted for snowflake designs on Pinterest (ones I liked anyway), I designed my own. I think it was the first time I had used a protractor since I was at school! I designed four snowflakes with an idea of a cushion - I can't share the cushion. It isn't finished yet! The first ornament I made was for Henry, my nephew. We met him for the first time at the start of December when we celebrated Christmas with my brother and sister-in-law. I also used the snowflakes patterns to make Jessica's ornament. It's made up slightly differently to Henry's....

I'm a bit behind on sharing some of my recent finishes so beaer with me for a flurry of blog posts over the next few days! We started a new tradition last Christmas of a Christmas Eve box. Except that last year I left it to the last minute and it was all rather rushed. The part I was most disappointed by in that rush was Mia's stocking - it was a poor quality shop bought one. But she's little and didn't notice and it was full of presents and she had a lovely morning. But I knew that with another baby on the way, Christmas 2016 would involve hand made stockings. So I've been looking at stocking patterns online for months, but nothing really fitted the bill. I just didn't fall in love with anything I saw. Whilst I grew up with stockings, my husband's family tradition was pillow cases, so I started to think about that as an alternative. And then I saw some drawstring bags and knew I had found my solution. I used Jeni Baker's drawstring bag tutoria...

Early November I decided I wanted to make a Christmas Tree Skirt. I did what any sensible person does and spent a few hours on Pinterest looking for inspiration. But I couldn't see anything that really  grabbed me. Then the latest issue of Quilt Now arrived through the letterbox and there was a beautiful Christmas Tree skirt by @heartofcharnwood. Perfect. Except it was English paper pieced. And it was mid November... Ever ambitious, I started. I found most of the shapes I needed in my stash of pre-cut papers, I made a few of the more unusual pieces, and I ordered some others. Then there was fabric. I pulled out my entire stash of Christmas fabric and hated every combination I put together. So I grabbed some fabrics I'd had out for other projects and found something considerably less traditionally Christmassy but more me. The EPP shapes in the design were quite large and it grew so quickly. I've had the luxury of a few days recently without the girls and I spent mos...

If you had told me back in January, that I would have be nearly up to date with this project come December, I think I might have laughed at you! Despite everything that has happened in my life this year, I am just a few day's blocks behind at the moment and will easily catch them up in the coming days. But today I can share the next milestone in this quilt: the next round of borders, a dark one made up of mostly 3" blocks, with a sprinkle of 6"ers is now finished. It's not attached yet, due to the nature of the corner blocks, but laid out you can see the effect. Not only am I surprised that I am up to date, I'm also surprised that the colour vision I had in my head back in January is now looking so good. Speaking of the corner blocks, when I took this photo on Monday, I had only completed three of them - and they were three of the most complicated blocks I have ever made: there wasn't anything particularly difficult - the techniques used have been pra...

A finished baby quilt to share with you today. This one is rather special as it is for my new nephew. The design and colours were picked out by his mother, my sister-in-law and I strongly resisted the urge to add orange... The equilateral triangles were cut from 5.5" strips and I needed 192 of them to make the complete quilt, which measures 41" x 57". The edges were made using full triangles and then trimmed after quilting. I quilted simply by echoing each seam line a quarter inch on both sides. The backing is Ikea Nummer - appropriate as the baby is half-Swedish, don't you think! I have to confess that this isn't one of my favourite quilts. It feels like it's lacking something to make it pop - orange might have been the answer. But I was limited by the specifications I had been given, and my mother. But then, it's not really about whether I like it - I hope that my nephew will love it for many years to come - and maybe once he's older I can ...

Well that month flew by, didn't it? I got loads of sewing done - not just blocks, but actual, real-life finishes! The #100days100blocks ended on 24th November and I have 178 blocks now waiting to be sashed. God bless black Friday - I managed to get the fabric for sashing at a reasonable price! It's a shame that I hate this next step, and the idea of sashing three quilts does not fill me with joy. I think I will put this off until the new year! I've also been working on my Splendid Sampler blocks ( see my last post ), and the #365quiltchallenge blocks - the  next border is just about ready to share! I completed my first two Farmers Wife blocks in a few months too. I've made good progress on the Modern Building Blocks QAL - lots of little blocks left to go on this one - this is the top half of that quilt But the finishes! So from the top: my Bee-utiful Mini quilt ; Hugo's quilt ; Goodnight Improv quilt ; Jane Austen cushion ; Orla's quilt ; ugly Chris...

My Splendid Sampler project has been a little left out of things recently amongst the glut of finishes. But last week I finally pieced the three blocks that I cut ages ago, and then I kept going, with a couple of the earlier blocks which I had been avoiding for no particular reason. I realised two things: it's been a while since I shared an update here, and I had finished 49 blocks - not only is that nearly half way, but it aso means I can lay them out in a pretty 7x7 grid for a photo of progress so far. As you can see, I miscounted. And it tuns out I have 51 blocks, so not quite the even grid I had planned! And here are some of the blocks closer up.  #36 Inchy Hexagon Club  #31 Blossoming #64 Rising Star  #60 Hearts and Flowers  #63 The Icing on the Cake Bonus Block: Summer Flip Floppin'  #28 Stitching Fashion  #29 Scrappy Happy Heart; #61 Traveller; #66 Happy Thoughts  #50 Flights of Fancy #53 Whirling in C...