Jennie's Threads

For Christmas, Michael bought me some fabric. It was really interesting to see his interpretation of my fabric taste. He didn't do badly! It was a mixture of fabrics I've looked at and liked but not bought, a couple of fabrics I had already bought, a few fabrics that I would never have bought, but I'm already using and loving, and a fabric he bought just because he liked it. It's that last fabric that is the feature of this finish. It had to be a zippy pouch - a large piece of fabric so I didn't cut it up and lose the effect. All I added was some matchstick aqua quilting. The lining of the zippy is another fabric he bought - can't beat bright lime green! I use this zippy to hold my hand piecing threads, and as I tend to use them every day, this zippy is always nearby. It's bright and colourful, but I also love that it's a little bit of Michael in my sewing world! I used Noodlehead's open wide zippered pouch tutorial to insert the zip, but my

So far, so good! Like I said last week, forward planning is going to be key to keeping up with this quilt along. I have a few weeks already cut, and I have cut all of the low volume background fabric I need for the blocks. Stealing a few minutes here and there is paying off. I need to work through the colours now! This week's block was a single "Square in a Square Stars" block. It took longer than I expected but I'm pleased with it! My quilt will certainly be colourful!

Another week gone. We spent a lovely weekend in The Lake District, last weekend and I stitched up some Chevron stitch and embellished it - vaguely reminiscent of the mountains.... Monday, 20th March: Blanket stitch in purple and pink to carry the line from the bottom over to the left of the hoop. Tuesday, 21st March: Some bright green French knots filling in yesterday's blanket stitch. Wednesday, 22nd March: A few more yellow French knots in the centre of the hoop to continue the line I had already started. Thursday, 23rd March: A new stitch today: I added pink pistil stitch to the Basque stitch flower - I think we'll be seeing more of this stitch! Friday, 24th March:Chevron stitch in blue in the bottom right corner. I've technically done two rows to create the diamond shapes. I also unpicked the narrow rope stitch and re-did it so it's now less wonky. Saturday, 25th March: Aqua bullion knots in the centre of the diamonds created by the chevron stitch.

It's been a while since I shared mine and Mia's little escargatoire, so here are our recent additions. Mia picks the fabrics: can you tell what her favourite colour is? #snailday #gardensnailsquilt #jennieandmiasescargatoire

It's now a well-known fact that I am a sucker for a quilt along. Here's the next one I've joined in with. The host is Angie @ Gnome Angel - who is just a dreadful influence on anyone trying not to start new projects; and the pattern is 'Long Time Gone' by Jen Kingwell. This was a block of the month originally, but this quilt-along steps up a gear as a block of the week - and some weeks, that's a lot of sewing. This is going to be intense. But Angie's a good 'un and has given us advance warning of the running order and I've been doing some preparation! There's no other way I could make 16 foundation-pieced, 37-piece, pineapple log can blocks in a week! I decided to join in this quilt-along as I was finishing up my My Small World quilt. And I wasn't allowed to join in if I hadn't finished that quilt. You may remember my journey with that quilt. I really, really enjoyed piecing it, but once pieced I didn't like the scrappiness of i

It's amazing to believe we're already 11 weeks in and I'm still happily stitching away a little bit each day! After last week's light-bulb moment, I've enjoyed myself this week, building on that idea and trying out some new stitches! Monday. 13th March: Basque Stitch: the first of the new stitches. I used a blue thread to create a Basque stitch wheel (bottom left). Tuesday, 14th March: Aqua twisted chain stitch: I extended the line across the top of the hoop, under the line of double blanket stitch and swirled it round. It took me a couple of goes to get the swirl right... Wednesday 15th March: Guilloche Stitch: another new stitch. This one is quite involved. It starts with two rows of evenly spaced stem stitch (in coral). You then add columns of satin stitch at regular intervals between the two lines. I actually used running stitch to create the same effect - 5 stitches in each column. The final act is to weave a contrasting thread through the columns

I know - another new project. And another EPP one at that! But I just get so tempted with things I see on Instagram... This is another block of the month programme, this time from Tales of Cloth, an Australian shop. Normally any kind of monthly club from overseas would be unjustifiable in terms of postage. But at just 10$AUS a month including postage, I just couldn't say no when I saw pretty blocks popping up all over the place. Each month I'll receive papers for 8 blossoms (or equivalent) and in the final month, the setting shapes, to create a lap quilt. Easy. And they are. I love the Dear Jane blocks, which I shared yesterday, but they are very fiddly - lots of small pieces means lots of easing to make the pieces fit together. But these blocks go together like a dream. I also have to say that these are the nicest little parcels - such pretty labels and paper! Whilst I'm working on a couple of projects right outside of my comfort zone, it's nice to have this on th

It's been a while since I wrote a blog post with that in the title, hasn't it! I started my Dear Jane adventure back in 2013, made 39 blocks. And then I moved on to other things. I think part of the reason, was that I had decided to hand-quilt it using a quilt-as-you-go method, and I hadn't got on with the quilting. It has all sat in a project box in the cupboard ever since. I actually found it the other day! At the end of last year I saw that Paper Pieces 2017 block of the month was going to be a paper-pieced Dear Jane. I got very excited. And even more excited when Simply Solids chose to offer it. I got my first delivery of paper pieces in January and decided that I didn't like it with a light background any more. I wanted a black background. So that's 39 orphan blocks, 9 of which have some fairly dreadful quilting on them! Let me say at this point, that some of the pieces are TINY. And the first task is to take the bag marked A1-A6 and work ou

Another week and I have to confess I was struggling with where to go next. Until yesterday evening, when my mother-in-law had a look at the hoop and made a suggestion. And now I can see so many possibilities! Monday. 6th March: just a simple line of lime green backstitch heading out west. Tuesday, 7th March: I totally stole this idea from @tumpeduck o check her out on Instagram) - half a button-hole wheel in orange. I think it looks a bit like the setting sun... Wednesday, 8th March: A few dark red cross stitches right in the centre. Thursday, 9th March: My own little constellation: a star and some French knots in yellow in the middle. Friday, 10th March: I tried a new stitch - narrow rope stitch in coral. I don't think I'm a fan. It's a variation on chain stitch but it loses definition. It lies horizontally on the far right. Saturday, 11th March: Twisted chain stitch in purple/pink running vertically down towards the bottom of the hoop. Sunday, 12th March

I LOVE this quilt. But I didn't always. Regular readers will have heard the story before, but I'm going to tell it again anyway! This quilt first appeared in an issue of Quilt Mania back in spring 2015(!), and a friend managed to snag me a copy. There was a little bit of a quilt along going on Instagram and, well, you know me! I decided to replicate the original feeling of the quilt - totally scrappy. This was a new look for me: all the fabric all over the place! First up was the sky. I forget just how many 1.5" squares I needed to cut, but I multi-tasked: I cut it out the same week as I cut the background for my pixelated heart quilt . So whilst it took a long time - a ridiculously long time - at least I was killing two birds with one stone. And despite the size of the pieces, the sky area came together quite easily. I struggled more with the "city" - trying to get a good balance of colour. But I really enjoyed the freedom to use any fabric and t

Following on from yesterday's post where I talked about moving out of my comfort zone, here's the second project with that in mind. It's still a quilt with monthly instructions, but it's a medallion style. It started with a Dresden and plenty of applique and that theme is continuing into month 2, so this is a definite challenge for me. I'm even moving out of my rainbow comfort zone and using a slightly more restrictive palette: I loved the Christmas tree skirt I made, and decided to use that as my colour scheme, as it isn't Christmassy at all: aqua, purple, pink, green, white and black. I took full advantage of the post-Christmas sales and bought three metres of black from Modern Background Lustre. I got a 1.5m of a black with gold crosses and 1.5m of a black with what I'm describing as gold paint splatter. I'm going to alternate these two background fabrics for the borders. I also placed a cheeky order with Fat Quarter Shop in the US. I needed to

For the last few years I have taken part in many, many online quilt-alongs and block-of-the-month programmes. I've even got as far as finishing some of them... I can honestly say that I have never regretted the decision to join in. I've done blocks of the day, blocks of the week and blocks of the month and I've loved it. The one thing that most of them have had in common, is machine piecing, be it rotary cutting or foundation piecing. Only the Splendid Sampler, which is mostly machine pieced, and the New Hexagon Millefiore quilt which is English Paper Piecing and the Collection quilt, which will be applique if I ever get going with it, have stood out. And whilst I love machine piecing blocks, and will still always be tempted by these projects, I decided that 2017 was the year to step out of  my comfort zone. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be sharing with you some of the new projects I've started this year. I wanted to wait until I had completed at least some o

Monday, 27th February: pink back-stitch framing the cross-stitch and French knot border. Simple but effective. Tuesday, 28th February: I got fed up of the lines of chain stitch on the right hand side just finishing. So I picked out the same thread colour and extended two of the pink lines into loops. My new stitch for the evening was some pink blanket stitch in the loop below them. Wednesday, 1st March: Boucle' Stitch: this one is totally new to me but was this weeks TAST stitch: this is weekly stitch challenge (Take a Stitch Tuesday) from the Pintangle website - which is a great stitch resource. The stitch is meant to be worked on counted-thread - so evenweave or aida or canvas... I worked it very carefully, keeping the stitches even and managed to do a small section in yellow towards the bottom of my hoop. Although it looks a right fine mess in my photos, I think that's because of the colour I used. On close inspection, it does look like the example. I'm not sure

I have a problem. I can't actually share this project with you. It's a secret. I didn't think this through properly, did I? I can share a stack of fabric which I pulled many, many years ago. And I can confirm that I have two finished blocks and I need a lot more.... it's a hand project with a lot of raw edge/blanket stitch applique and embroidery. You never know, maybe by the end of the month I'll have a finish for you. If I don't it will remain a tantalising secret!

It's confession time... I had really good intentions for this quilt this month . And they all fell flat on their face. I kept thinking I had loads of time to make some blocks. And then life happened - we had two big birthday weekends - and all of a sudden February is over. And this is all I have to show for it. One, single 6" block. This is Anvil. I do have a plan to prevent this from simply going back in the cupboard for another few years: another of the projects on my APQ resolution list is my Architextures and Botanics quilt. I started both quilts at the same time and there is quite an overlap of blocks already. I don't know which month this project will be appearing, but when it does, I should pair up the blocks and make one for each quilt. None of the blocks are particularly difficult! Let's hope I make more progress with the March project!

I know I say it most months but seriously! Where the hell did February go? How is it March already? Stop the world, I want to get off! My sewing definitely slowed down this month, but in a really good way, I think. I've still made a total of 28 blocks, so one a day, but of those, 11 were hand pieced. They were all from projects which I haven't shared here yet, and I'm hoping to rectify that in the next couple of wees with a few posts introducing some of my latest projects! This includes restarting my Dear Jane quilt, picking up 2 new EPP projects, starting a medallion block of the month and learning to hand-piece a quilt. Of the machine pieced blocks, 4 were snails - Mia doesn't necessarily do a lot of the sewing of these blocks, but she loves picking out fabrics and seeing the finished block. I'm also keeping up with the #52weekswiththequiltersplanner blocks and I even made a Farmer's Wife block. I continued to add to my #1yearofstitches hoop -