Jennie's Threads

I am definitely getting my money's worth out of Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Forest Pattern. This year I think I've made 6 separate quilts using the pattern or parts of the pattern, and I haven't made the big full size one yet - that's for 2018! This is yet another quilt using the Allie Owl block. Back when I made an Allie Owl baby quilt using just 3 owl blocks, not-so-subtle hints were made by my mother-in-law that she would like one. And then I found the absolute perfect fabric. It's called Feathers and Letters and is by Indigo Fabrics. It's not a make of fabric I'd ever come across before or since, but it was just so perfect that I trusted the shop that was selling it and ordered 3 metres. In our family, a feather symbolises my late father-in-law, and the colours in this fabric were just so.... Linda! I selected the fabrics for the owls based on the colours in this print. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a bundle of Shot Cottons seemed to mat

This is a quilt that was a year in the making. Last December, improv Christmas Trees were all over Instagram - a tutorial by @diaryofaquilter and I couldn't resist joining in. I made six blocks using the smaller sizes provided. I thought they'd make a nice cushion. Then I made a few more blocks, and then some more and then I had 76 small Christmas Tree blocks. And then it was Christmas. Those 76 blocks helped push me over my target of 1000 blocks in 2016. But once Christmas is over, the last thing I wanted to do was make them into something, so they have sat in my bedroom all year. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them! In the last few months, I finally got round to ordering the minky I wanted to put on the back - red, of course. I pieced the blocks into a usable panel. And I bought some red for some wide uneven borders. It only took me an hour to get a finished quilt top. Then the fun started. This was my first time playing with minky and it.is. slippy! I ch

There is nothing quite like an impending deadline to get a project finished, and that was certainly the case with this finish. Advent starts on 1st December (in terms of advent calendars, anyway) and Jessica needed an advent calendar. It might have been better if I'd started it earlier... the first challenge was picking out a design. Like Mia's I wanted there to be a central embroidery, surrounded by the pockets, but I could not find an embroidery that fitted the bill. It wasn't until I changed my search to "Christmas Line Drawings" that an absolute gem popped up . It's a Christmas card design and it's perfect. Jessica loves standing on the sofa looking out of the window, and she loves dogs! I needed to make it bigger, so I added some words and then my mother-in-law had a brainwave - I could add the side of a Christmas tree and the final pocket could be a present under it! Perfect! Challenge number 2 was picking a colour scheme. In the end I went with

So looking back through my blog history, it would seem that I haven't mentioned this project here before, so let me explain. Ever since I saw this quilt, I've wanted to make it, but getting hold of the pattern in the UK seemed impossible. Earlier this year I won a $25 voucher to a Canadian fabric shop, and they had it in stock. They were able to do me a good deal on the postage and so it seemed like a very good use of my voucher. And then @Gnomeangel announced that it would be a quilt along starting in August and ending in December. I decided that this would be the perfect quilt for an Alison Glass rainbow so I started stock-piling fat quarters - such a pretty rainbow! You can just about see the background print at the bottom there, too. The quilt along started just before a number of other quilt alongs finished, and just a day before we went on our summer holiday. I worked really hard before the holidays getting a couple of quilts finished, and I came back with a lul

I'm back with another week of the #stitchedsewingorganizersSAL and this week it's the "See-it-All pouch". This is another of the patterns I was really drawn to in the book so I was quite excited. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use this pouch as a gift for my Aunt-in-law. About a year ago (I think) I made myself a zippy pouch with the word "Always" embroidered on it, but with the A replaced with the sign of the Deathly Hallows from Harry Potter. Comments were made at the time - very subtle comments - from various family members. So as it's her birthday, Aunty B gets a pouch! I then read some of the tips on this pouch - the instructions have you make enough binding for two pouches! So I picked out some fabrics for me that would go with the black binding I was going to use for Aunty B's. Yep black binding. This was a mistake - it's a pain in the arse to make and use black bias binding... I cut all the pieces for two pouche

I've been joining in with  Tuppence Ha'Penny's sew along making items from the Stitched Sewing Organizers book by Aneela Hoey. This week's project is the Boxy Pocket Pouch and is another of the projects on my original must-make list. However, I decided to complicate matters this time round and use cork fabric for the first time! And those cacti - it was always going to be that fabric for the pocket! First up, my learnings on cork fabric. It's much thinner than I expected. But it's thicker than regular fabric - always a good plan when you known a project is going to involve turning things through and sewing through multiple layers. It doesn't seem to be as robust as regular fabric, so I was very careful not to be too rough when I turned this pouch through. It's not keen on the iron. I very carefully added some interfacing to it - it warped a tiny bit, but seems to have regained its previous appearance now. The heavier weight meant I probably didn't

It has been months since we talked about my Down the Rabbit Hole Quilt on this blog. There's a very good reason for that - I didn't touch it! This is a block of the month programme from Sarah Fielke and it combines templates, hand applique, bias applique, foundation piecing.... you name it, it has every technique going, and right from the start I knew it was going to be a huge challenge. I got through the first couple of months a little behind, but then in month three, we had to applique, by hand, the tiniest, fiddliest little leaves going... and that's where the wheels came off. I had 24 to add and the first one I did is still the best. Over the summer I did work ahead a bit, but the next section - 40 tiny houses with paper pieced roofs didn't go quickly either... I knew that the next borders were heavy on the hand applique, so in September I made a decision: If this quilt was ever going to be finished, and I would like to finish it, then hand applique just wasn&#

I'm back with another fabulous project from Aneela Hoey's book "Stitched Sewing Organizers". And this project is the reason I bought the book. It's also my first time using vinyl.... It took about an hour to cut and prepare the fabrics, interfacing and wadding. And then another 2 hours to stitch up - I love these quick finishes. This is the first of these projects from the book where I feel that I would like to make it again, and if I did so I would do a better job. I managed to get my interior the wrong way round, so it doesn't quite match the pattern and the pincushion is a bit scruffy I also did my topstitching in two different colours - I had a good reason when I did it, but I think it would have looked better all the same. The outer fabric is a Dashwood one from a range called Club Tropicana and I just love that green. I also went back to my trademark pink lining on this project. And that vinyl? A breeze. I didn't even have to use the teflon

I'm back with another make from the Stitched Sewing Organizers book by Aneela Hoey as part of the #stitchedsewingorganizerssal hosted by Tuppen Ha'Penny Quilts. And the more I use this book, the more I love it! Last week was another week I was going to skip: fabric trays. Not very inspiring at first glance, to be honest. Then I started seeing them pop up over on Instagram. On Saturday night, after a rather hrad 24 hours, and with the kids finally in bed, I decided that rather than the many projects I already had on the go, I was going to make these instead. I cut into my new Comma fabric. I was lucky to get rather a large piece of the black asterisk (?) fabric as part of #getyourquiltywishesgranted3 along with quite a few fat quarters, so I felt I could spare a piece from my quilty plans (still early days...) to use for this project. I matched it up with a couple of prints from Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater. In an ideal world, it would have been nice to use these fabrics for

Have you seen the book "Stitched Sewing Organizers" by Aneela Hoey? It's fantastic. I bought a copy because I liked the cover project, and I can tell you the other projects do not disappoint. Back in October, Tuppence Ha'Penny Quilts started a sew along from the book - a project a week. I love a good sew-along (in case you didn't know) so I'm joining in. But realistically I'm not making every project - just the ones I love. Which it turns out is quite a few. I started with the Handy Fold Up Pouch - the first project in the book. I made it on a bit of a whim, because it wasn't one I had planned to make. I made the smaller of the two sizes available. It went together in less than an hour and it is the perfect size for my headphones. Add some lovely Rifle Paper fabric with a pink lining and what's not to love! Also, I think magic was involved. I have no idea how the turning through worked, but it did. I shall continue to follow the instruct

Back in mid-October we had our long anticipated inaugural North East Modern Quilt Guild Retreat. Five of us spent the weekend in a lovely little cottage on the Northumberland coast. We decided that to commemorate the event, we would have a swap, and we settled on the open wide pouch from Noodlehead. Of course we decided all of this back in the Spring, and it was the Wednesday before the weekend that I actually finished it! Mostly because I decided to do lots of handwork. The swap was a a secret one, so we knew who we were making for, but not who was making for us - well, one person had worked it out - witchcraft! My partner loves Liberty and Alison Glass - I can't cater to Liberty as I have none, but Alison Glass I can do! I have long looked at the Stitched fabric from Alison Glass and dreamed of embroidering it. So I did. And it was such fun. I love the result and a hoop of this has been added to the WIP list - and I'll be keeping that one! For the reverse I

It's #ridiculouslylongfinishalonglist time again! Who will have more, me or @Archiewonderdog ? 1. Superhero doll for my niece - following the success of the dolls I made for Mia and Jess I bought a panel to make one for my neice. 2. Superhero doll for my husband's cousin's son... and the panel comes with two dolls - a girl and a boy superhero. Even boys are allowed dolls! Though his father may not agree! 3. Fancy Forest baby quilt - another one! This is for good friend's whose baby arrived over the summer, and this is such a great pattern that I'm doing it again! I've cut out all the fabrics since I took this photo and I've got a weekend away coming up and I am going to be doing nothing but block, blocks, Blocks! 4. Speaking of that weekend, we're planning a secret swap - we're each making a zippy pouch. Mine's nearly there....but this is all I can show you for the moment! 5. Allie Owl baby quilt - getting the most out of th