Jennie's Threads

We have just had a fabulous weekend celebrating Mia's third birthday. Third! Where did those three years disappear to? She is a little star: She is constantly talking, and her speech is so good; she is constantly busy with something - she wears me out just watching her. She loves fabric and quilts and Mummy's sewing machine. She loves dolls houses and little dolls (God bless Happy Land) - we bought her a castle dolls house for her birthday. She is also stubborn (don't know where she gets that from) and isn't keen on having her photo taken - so the one above is the most recent, nice one that I have! She refuses to potty train or give up her dummy. She also refuses to nap (except for when she's with the childminder - black magic, I tell you!). But every day with us, at some point, she will curl up on the sofa with a cushion and a quilt and "have a sleep" - during which time she watches TV and doesn't close her eyes. She picks which cushion and which

We fell back in love this week. Partly because I changed my approach. Instead of adding more and move curved lines echoing the one's I'd done before, I bravely stitched into the virgin edges of the hoop. And I love how just one line of stitching can open up so many possibilities. Here she is at the end of week 8. Monday, 20th February: Laced Arrow Head stitch (bottom right) in green and laced with pink (which it turns out just makes it look brown). Tuesday, 21st February: Straights stitch in green around that swirl that I wasn't loving. It became blanket stitch as I emerged from the swirl, but this is the one piece of stitching from this week that I'm not happy with and I may go back and redo it. Wednesday, 22nd February: Feathered chain stitch in blue (far right). Thursday, 23rd February: Heart in blue using a variation on lazy daisy stitch. I didn't have much time on Thursday so I moved forward what I had planned to do on the 24th. This heart is for M

Just after Jessica was born, we learned that Michael's cousin was expecting her first baby. She was one of the cooperative ones - those who share the sex of their baby in advance, so allowing us quilters to plan and start work! I decided to use the Moda Modern Building Blocks pattern for a baby quilt. It's a pattern I've been thinking about doing since I first saw it, and I just needed a good excuse really. However, it's not really a baby sized quilt. Easily solved: I shrunk every block by 50%. In the original quilt, the largest block is 36" and the smallest 6". In my version, the largest is 18" - which feels enormous as far as I'm concerned, and the smallest is 3" - which feels quite normal after working on the #365 quilt all last year. I have to confess, some of the maths made my brain hurt, but in every case, I got there. I have to admit, there was the odd 16th of an inch thrown in. I joined in with a quilt along on Instagram for the

This week was harder. I spent a lot of time staring at the hoop, not sure where to go next. And if I'm honest I'm not sold on some of the work I did. But I'm not going to unpic it. Not yet anywhere. I'm going to leave that section for a bit and work somewhere else until inspiration strikes! Monday, 13th February: Stem stitch in orange on the left hand section Tuesday, 14th February: A new stitch: Portuguese Stem Stitch. It's similar to regular stem stitch but you add a knot of sorts. I did two-thirds of this line before I realised I was doing it wrong and that's why it looked a little uneven. I decided not to unpick. I will definitely be revisiting this stitch! Wednesday, 15th February: green chain stitch on the left. Thursday, 16th February: dark red stem stitch to outline the area around the button hole wheel on the left. Friday, 17th February: more Portuguese stem stitch, this time in blue. It's this particular addition that is currently b

It's time to take some action. Since I had my gall bladder removed last September and I've been able to eat normally again, I've been putting weight back on. Not good. I generally feel tired (I know - it probably has something to do with small children and working full time too) and I think my diet probably exacerbates that. So I've bought myself one of those fit band things and (re)joined weightwatchers. I've followed Weight Watchers a few times over the years, and whilst I stick with it, it really does work for me. I was also quite pleased to see that I'm not the heaviest I've ever been! Three things about this time are different: firstly, I feel mentally different - like I can do it. Hopefully that feeling lasts - I don't remember feeling quite so confident and determined last time. But who knows. I've suffered a sever case of baby brain since then! Secondly, I've started bullet journalling and I'm planning on using that to help: s

Time for a bit of a snaily update. Here are the snails we've made since I last shared:  Literally the only photo of this snail where it isn't covered by a small hand. So it's a little fuzzy.... Two blocks this week as my neice was here and both her and Mia made a block: Mia picked the lime green and EJ picked the pink.    The ponies wanted in on the action! The flower print is from Art Gallery.   This shell fabric is one of the first fabrics I ever bought and whilst I love it, I've always struggled to use it. Perfect for a shell! Some weeks Mia helps and presses buttons on the sewing machine. Other weeks she just picks the fabric.

Another week, more stitches, still in love with this project, though increasingly crippled by indecision at the moment! Monday 6th February: yellow stem stitch to create the swirl bottom right Tuesday 7th February:orange palestrina stitch to improve the swirl bottom right. Wednesday 8th February: pink chain stitch - still trying to improve the swirl. Thursday 9th February: round blanket stitch on the far left in aqua. Friday 10th February: Laced Persian Star Stitch - the square-ish aqua/blue thing in the middle. I quite like it, but I need some practice. Saturday 11th February: Gold stem stitch to surround the Persian star - with a little loop! Sunday 12th February: Yellow chain stitch on the far left to start developing that area, as I can't decide how to continue in the centre.

I have to admit that there were points in the last year when I never thought I would be writing this post. But here I am. Today I can share with you my finished #365 quilt top. This is big: 98" x 98" (I guess - I forgot to measure it but I know each of the 96" strips I cut for that final border had to be extended by a couple of inches....). To get the photograph I lay it on our front lawn and hung out of the bedroom window! And that's really why it got finished last Sunday - I noted that not only was it sunny, but there was no wind at all, and therefore and outdoor shoot was possible. This is unheard of on the north-east coast. There's so much I want to say about this quilt top, so bear with me... I had come across the project in November 2015 and dismissed it. I looked at it again in December and dismissed it again. The reason was the fabric requirements. I was totally put off by the requirement of a dark-dark, dark-medium, dark, medium-dark etc. I couldn

Still in love with this project... a big change this week was my hoop size. I started with a 6" hoop and realised I was filling it too fast, so I moved up to an 8" hoop this week. I can't go any bigger as that's the limit of the fabric I cut, but it's given me loads more room to play with Monday, 30th January: Some moer Palestrina Stitch. This time I used a slightly paler green thread to further divide the space around the bullion knot wheel. It's hard to see the difference in green in the photo from the big Palestrina swirl I did last week. Tuesday, 31st January: Dark purple backstitch, just to highlight the space near the centre. I had originally planned to fill the entire space with dark purple back stitch, but after going round once, I think that would be too heavy, so I need to rethink my plan for that area. Wednesday, 1st February: Pale green backstitch infill. I used my new thread (see below) to infil a section around the bullion knot wheel. It

It's time to show you some more Splendid Sampler blocks! These are the fourteen I've completed since the start of December. Block #86: Unity Star  Block #87 Shining Star  Block 83: Minnesota Maze Block 82: Under the Apple Tree  Block #52: Coneflower  Block 73: +Love  Block #81: With Love From  Block #77: Prism Block #49: Summer's Gift  Block #59: Circle of Friendship - this one might be my favourite! Block #89: From Colorado to the Midwest  Block #78: Jersey  Block # 46: Twirl Time Block #79: Spool of Inspirational Threads

As it turns out, I haven't shared any progress on my 1930s Farmer's Wife quilt since March last year. There are two reasons for this: firstly, for a while, I didn't touch it at all. And secondly, when I did gradually start making the blocks again, it was so occassional that I never had enought to put together a post. Also, I have been quite lazy... so it's time for a bit of an update. I was inspired to pick this project up again with some of the blocks that inclined themselves towards EPP. Back in November this was what I fancied doing. Prudence was my first challenge: Any other technique and she would have been a bit of a bitch, but with EPP she played quite nicely. A couple of weeks later I pieced Peony - Y-seams, partial seams and so, so many pieces. Fast forward to mid-January and I made Carolina. Some pretty little angles just right for EPP. Then I decided to try and keep up with the blocks from the start of the year, gradually going back and makin