Jennie's Threads

Turn back the clock to November 2017 and I started a project. I was going to make a dog quilt for Jessica. I made one dog of the three required for my planned layout. And then it lay abandoned. I suspect it was the foundation piecing that caused it. This dog has then appeared on nearly every Finish Along list since, and gradually been downgraded from a quilt to a cushion, still with no further progress made! Well last week was the week! I got it out, Jess decided she still wanted it (I had thought about making it for Joshua but she gave it such a good reaction, I couldn't - Josh will get other things...) and she "helped me" chose fabrics and cut them out (no children touched a rotary cutter in the making of this cushion). And then she helped me piece them. The ear is a flap - I'm a bit worried it'll be pulled off, so I've sewn about 5 lines of stitching with the machine! I hand quilted it and added a back and it's done. It's off the list! The...

So this was all but a finish about 6 weeks ago... I had most of the embroidery done last quarter and it only took a further evening of sewing on the sofa to get it done. And then I left it for five weeks. And it was only this week, in my drive to finish stuff up before the end of my maternity leave, that I finally got round to framing it in a hoop. It took about 10 minutes! This is the final of three panels, two of which I finished earlier in the year. But I enjoyed sewing these so much, that I've ordered another four panels to stitch up next. Two unicorns, a fox and some Sloths. All the patterns are by Aimee Ray, Littledear on Etsy.  All of the embroidery is done by hand in DMC threads - a mix of 2 and 3 strands. I used stem stitch rather than the split stitch that Aimee instructs, as my stem stitch is far, far neater than my split stitch. But there's also satin stitch and backstitch included. I think the moon moth may be my favourite so far! This is a Finish Along...

My Trinket Quilt is finished. I joined in the #trinketsal over on Instagram and I loved it. You can find more information about the quilt in my previous blog post where I showed you the finished quilt top. But now it is quilted and bound as well. We took it out and about for some photos and found some beautiful rhododendrons/azaleas at Belsay Castle! The backing is an Asda Duvet of fossilised Dinos. Except when I came to baste it, it wasn't big enough. I used the pillow cases in the contrast print to add a section and broke it up with the four left-over Trinket blocks. This is the best photo we got... This was one of those quilts which I knew exactly how I was going to quilt as soon as I had decided on the layout. In the past I've had issues with the backing shifting when I do spiral quilting, and I've never done it on anything this big, but this time, with one teeny exception, it went off without a hitch! The binding is the charcoal text print from Alison Gl...

We are now onto month five and block six of the Sharks Dinner block of the month and I'm really enjoying following this one. Here is my sixth block: And miracles have happened this month - I actually started to applique the blocks to a background fabric: three are now attached and papers removed. Next step is to start some quilting!

I've worked on quite a few EPP Blocks this month, all of which will one day become full quilts. Though I'm not committing to when that day will be! Quite a lot of those blocks use Tula Pink fabrics. I love the fabrics, and it seems a shame to whizz them under the machine, when I can enjoy sewing them by hand which takes a little longer. But when I'm using Tula Pink, I like to break up the busy-busy with some solids. I ordered some Kona coordinates to go with my hoard of Tabby Road. This is my latest block featuring Kona Sprout: But Tula has her own range of Designer Solids, which are lovely. I picked up a fat quarter bundle last year, but they weren't labelled. A friend and I have spent many a Monday evening trying to work out which was which! So when I restcoked my fq bundle from the lovely Saira at Olve and Flo Handcraft, I was delighted to find that she labelled the solids.No more frustrating Mondays for me! I have made myself a shade card. This lives in my...

Just after Joshua was born, I was scrolling through Instagram and happened upon this year's Mini Dresden Party #minidresdenparty2019 and as Michael was holding the baby, and it looked pretty quick, I decided to make one up. An hour or so later I had a little Dresden, all appliqued to some background. I obviously had my normal Dresden issue... there are not the same number of blades in this as there were in the pattern... this always happens to me! I used scraps from my Mandolin Quilt so they are mostly Spirit Animal by Tula Pink but with the odd added extra! Then I got distracted by other pretty things and Baby Joshua...Fast forward to writing my Quarter 2 Finish Along list. The Dresden was still lurking on my sewing table, waiting to be finished as... something. I added it to the list. And then last week, I was looking for a piece of fabric and stumbled across it. I thought it would be a quick finish as a pincushion. Just whack on a back and stitch up the opening. Easy. I c...

I am absolutely loving this year's Block of the Month from Sarah Fielke. There's so much variety of techniques, the instruction are so good and it's a wonderful challenge every month. I'm even enjoying the applique, which is just well because I think next month will be all about the applique! And because I'm enjoying it so much, I am 100% up to date! This is the status at the end of month four. The tulip appliqued corners were last month, which I failed to blog about. I found the inny corners tricky and I may have to go back and embroider some strategically placed ladybirds... I made all the houses in the outer border this month using a mix of rotary cutting and foundation piecing, with appliques doors and windows. This quilt will be for Mum and Dad when it's finished and I find myself taking Mum's taste into account far more than Dad's. He's a musician so I was pleased to get the red musical notation print in (it's an old Basic Grey print...

All of those Trinket Blocks. 138 of them. And 160ish half square traingles. Lots of little 4" squares. And of course that inevitably means that they have to put together... lots and lots of long seams. Commonly known as Jennie's least favourite job. It took me several days and a lot of self-control to not abandon the whole process.... but here it is, my finished Trinket top. I am chuffed to bits that I didn't just follow the pattern - the chequerboard layout it contains is good, but it was so nice to do something original (I don't always have the imagination!). The finished top is 64"x 88". Too big for the backing I chose before I had my layout brainwave. So Asda has kindly provided some fabulous new duvet covers for me to cut up. Now I need to find the energy to baste and quilt it.

I can't believe how useful the two Speedy Vinyl Zipper Pouches I made in March have been. I kept reaching for them to put something in only to find that they are full already. So I knew fairly quickly I would be making some more. The pattern by Aneela Hoey is, like all her patterns, excellent. The largest size in the pattern is about 8"x11" and is therefore perfect for orphan 6" blocks. I pulled out the four I made for the Summer Sampler 2017. The reality was that I didn't like my fabric choices and would not be finishing the quilt. I added some extra blue round the block to bring them up to size and used the original fabrics to source lining and binding. In this context I love these fabrics! Please don't ask me what the fabric is.... I know it's Michael Miller and I know I bought a fat quarter bundle before Mia was born, so it's at least five years old... As with the Zuma pouches I made using the same pattern, these pouches do not have any wad...

It's been ages since I blogged about my Tula Nova Quilt. But progress has been made - a little bit every now and again. I finished the EPP before Christmas but couldn't face the task of basting ready for applique with a bump. Once Joshua was here it was one of the first jobs I did! I've appliqued EPP to backgrounds before - I perfected my technique with the 40 blocks for Round We Go . But this was A LOT bigger! I decided to use exactly the same technique and hope it worked. I pieced my background fabric with a centre seam. I pattern matched by folding one edge over, pressing it well, then laying it on top of the other piece, pinning in place and then top stitching in a matching thread. Very little of the seam will be seen and I'm happy with the result... the worst part is behind the EPP! I then placed the EPP medallion centrally along this line and worked one side then the other. I'd left the final round of papers in the fabric at this point. Once I was happy...

Every so often I come across something on Instagram and I fall for it. Something I just know I'm going to have to jump on board with. And let's be honest, they are normally quilt alongs or blocks of the month. Well, this was one of them. Within about half an hour of Jen Kingwell announcing her Dear Jen block(s) of the month I had paid up! I then forgot about it until the day before the first patterns were released! The plan is six blocks a month for a year. Easy. Except these aren't easy blocks. Jen's method is to make your own templates and then hand piece. Me and hand piecing are not friends, so I'm going to apply other methods. This first month I have made two blocks using foundation piecing and the remaining four using English Paper Piecing. Can you tell which is which? I know in future months there will also be some applique and probably some surprises... I really enjoyed picking out random fabrics and putting them together. It's how I created...

You may or may not be aware that I am the proud curator of The List! I have a bullet journal, which I couldn't live without - it's what makes me productive and stops me forgetting things. Most things. And in that bullet journal is The List. The List is a list of all of my current Works in Progress (WIPs). As the start of the year I had over 120 WIPs. I have certain friends, hereafter referred to as The Committee, who believe that 120 items is too many. The problem is that I am a sucker for a sew-along, and go bananas for a block of the month, and there are just so many good ones out there. And the start of the year is a bad time - everyone has new projects and I sign up for them. If you follow my blog regularly, you will be aware that I do also finish a fair few projects, but the ratio is generally to start more than I finish in any given month. The Splendid Sampler. I've made lots of blocks, but not enough, and I'm not sure of a setting Down The Rabbbit H...