Jennie's Threads

I started this quilt five years ago. My plan was a sampler quilt of 6" blocks from a variety of sources using fat quarter bundles of Architextures and Botanics, the first two fabric lines from Carolyn Friedlander, along with coordinating Kona solids.  I made 20 blocks then moved on to other projects. Fast forward to 2018 and I was looking for a fabric plan for the final instalment of 100 days 100 blocks quilt-along hosted by @gnomeangle using Tula Pink's City Sampler book. Having made it a few times I was out of ideas for new colour palettes. It was a logical step, therefore, to pick up the Architextures and Botanics blocks and finally make enough for a finished quilt. In the intervening years, Carolyn had released a few more fabric ranges so I added in what I had from Doe, Carkai, Friedlander and Gleaned, as well as the newly released colours of some of her classic Architextures prints. I found out that I was pregnant with Joshua just before the quilt-along kicke...

You may recall that for the last two years I've participated in the Instagram-based quilt-along for Tula Pink's City Sampler hosted by Gnome Angle. The basic premise is that that you post a block a day from the book in order each day for 100 days. And of course by day 100 you have a pile of 6" blocks! The 2016 blocks remain in piles, unsashed and unfinished. However,the 2017 blocks were finished quite promptly after the end of the sew-along as Christmas quilts for Mia and Jess. The 2018 quilt-along started in July when I was feeling particularly rough with this pregnancy, but I forced myself to join in - it was the push I needed to do at least a little bit of sewing, and I figured that by the end of Summer, my energy and sewjo would be back and I would regret not joining in. My energy and sewjo are only just coming back now, as we post our final blocks, but I don't regret joining in at all. I'm glad I did some sewing over the summer! Rather than start a n...

Earlier this year, @Gnomeangel hosted another round of #100days100blocks - 100 blocks in Tula Pink's City Sampler block in 100 days. And last Christmas I'd collected together a bundle of Garland fabrics from Cotton and Steel. A match made in heaven! Half way through the quilt along I decided that rather than make one large quilt - we already have quite a few Christmas quilts - I would make two smaller quilts and give them to the girls at the start of advent. We do advent books, where each day the girls unwrap one Christmas-themed book from under the tree. My romanticized vision is that we can snuggle up with the advent quilts and read the advent books! Obviously that's unlikely with two toddlers.... but a girl can dream. Each quilt is 43" x 57" and made up of 48 blocks. I sashed those blocks with Kona pepper and swore lots - I hate sashing. The backing is an Asda duvet cover, and when I realised it wasn't big enough to back both quilts I swore so...

This quilt came about after a friend asked me to make a quilt for her to gift. The remit was purple, pink, orange, yellow and green, and it had to include the names of the children in the family. This is the best photo I have of the finished quilt! I was piecing blocks from Tula Pink's City Sampler book at the time, and decided to use them, but to go a a bit crazy, with some of the originally-6"-blocks up-sized to 12" or 9", and a fair few in the original 6" size and then set in random fashion with filler squares and strips. The names are raw-edge appliqued using a machine blanket stitch. I started by picking out the Kona fabrics for orange, yellow, green, pink and purple, and adding in a couple of extra shades of each. From there I raided my stash for prints. I designed the layout in five sections, each name, surrounded by blocks and fillers, and avoiding Y-seams and partial seams. And whereas I normally hate sashing, I really enjoyed putting this on...

Whoops! I may have fallen behind on sharing these blocks with you (we're up to block 38 today!). I'm following along with the Tula Pink City Sampler quilt along again this year, and I'm using Garland by Cotton and Steel, along with of the C&S basics, and the coordinating Kona solids. Here are blocks 11- 15 And 16 -20 I think it's going to be quite a bright quilt, don't you?

Angie @Gnomeangel is at it again. Another fabulous quilt along. Another 100 blocks in 100 days from Tula Pink's City Sampler book. Let's not talk about the unfinished version I already have of this quilt, shall we!  Instead, let's start about the new one! My plan for #100days100blocks2017 is a Christmas quilt using the Garland collection from Cotton and Steel. I'm not much of a fan of traditional Christmas colours of red and green, but Cotton and Steel have added aqua, blue, pink and coral to the mix and I love it. Here are my first ten blocks: #100days100blocks2017 #garlandcityquilt

Here's our final installment of 'ten things about Jennie'! Block 91: Fight I've just learned that one of my best friends has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She has a hell of a fight ahead of her. It took me a long time to decide on a name for this block - it was nearly "Cancer Sucks" - too many people I know have been lost to cancer. But the thing is that other people I know have to fight against other illnesses too, so "Fight" is inclusive of them too. Block 92: Grandad Reeds This is for my maternal Grandfather - the one who called me poppet, served apple pies and was the eldest of six brothers, who went to war and all came home. His mission in retirement was to earn as much from his pension as he had from his salary. And I believe he achieved it! He passed away in 2008. Block 93: Ben This is for my husband's cousin. He is Jessica's godfather and one of the undateable - see below! Block 94: Mrs. MacBeth During...

Our penultimate trip into the crazy world of 100 things about Jennie! Block 81: Aunty Mary This is for my husband's Great Aunt, Aunty Mary. She is the sister of Aunty Margaret, whose block can be found at number 27! Block 82: Pyjama Day Because that is exactly what we had on the day of this block. Every so often, you just need to slob out for the day and not bother. It was lovely! Block 83: Grandad Tom This is for my paternal Grandfather. He was actually called Eric, but with the surname Thomas, he'd been known as Tom forever. He was the grandparent I know least about, but he loved woodworking and built us our wendy house at the bottom of the garden. Michael's Grandad was also called Thomas (his block is #74). Block 84: Sampler Quilts In case you hadn't noticed I have a bit of an addiction... the quilts I'm working on with this hashtag #100days100blocks is just the tip of the iceberg! Block 85: Princesses We're a big fan: Jasmi...