Jennie's Threads

This week's question: What is one regular thing you do for yourself to keep up your creative mind? Do you go to a guild, out for coffee with a friend? Are there people / activities you do regularly or as needed?   Quilting can be a very lonely hobby - just you and a machine. And sometimes that is exactly what I need. A quiet house, a cup of tea, two puppies and lots of fabric - that was what happened yesterday afternoon and I loved it. Free Motion Quilting is one of those tasks best done when "lonely" - hubby can't hear the telly over my machine! Patchwork can also be a really sociable event! At our local quilt shop we can end up in hysterics - I'm talking about you, Sue and Suzy! Photo from Kim: Me (on the far left and mostly not in shot), Margaret, who had spent most of the day trying to convince them that  the doll they were making didn't really want bright pink bloomers, and Suzy and Sue very proud of the dresses and bloomers the...

You may have realised I'm making a lot of my Christmas presents this year. The problem is, in ten days time the big day will be nearly over. And none of my Christmas presents are finished... I have banned my parents from reading my blog for the next ten days so tonight I can show some progress! Here is a picture of Charlie, so if Mum loads the web page, she can read this far, realise she shouldn't go any further and log off, before seeing anything! First up, my Dad's Christmas present. Inspired by this cushion  (I WILL be making one of these in the new year for MYSELF), I'm making a notebook cover. It will take an A4 notebook when I'm done (I hope). I asked my dad what his favourite colours were, and he said he didn't know, but nothing bright. I'm not very good at "not bright", so I had some help from Nicola picking the fabrics.I think they are from Collections for a Cause. Here they are together. I wobbly-line quilted it, and then e...

I spent this evening working on the quilt I started last weekend in pinks and greys I had a little help when I was laying it out - thanks Archie! But I got it pieced And Archie inspected it again. It's not enormous - at the moment it's 39x31.5", but I'm planning some borders when I can pick up some more fabric. I'm hoping to make it up to 49x42 - still quite small. I got out a finished quilt and folded and pinned the edges to work out just how small, and it still covers my lap quite generously, so I think I'm going to go with it - also.... it will WOF for the backing. Now to start thinking about quilting....

I finished two quilts this weekend. So I get to start two more. Those are the rules, right? I signed up for Leanne's Mod Pop-Along , but it was only yesterday that I finally got round to starting it. I made myself some plasttic templates and played with some scraps. Leanne has a great video tutorial for sewing curves without pins. It's just as well. The pattern calls for about 120 Drunkards Path units - pinning those would kill me. It took some practice, but I think I have it sussed! I'm glad I didn't start with my proper fabric first, as the unpicking leads to much fraying. I spent three hours this morning rotary cutting the units from which you cut the curves, and then the rest of today making up the first block Just one dodgy bit that I had to unpick, so I'm calling this a sucess. I'm even managing with templates! And last night, after I'd practiced curves, it was too late to really start on the real fabric, so I pulled out the Joy Jelly Roll...

This week has been really busy at work. I don't normally drink coffee, but this week I have needed it! So I was really glad to leave this afternoon and head home for the weekend. And when I opened the front door and found a package from the US I was even happier - I was only expecting one thing - this had to be my goodies from the  Polaroid block swap . And it was! A huge thank you to Debbie who organised the swap. Reinvigorated by such a treat I have added borders to my Sew Intertwined quilt and made a pieced back for it ready to buy batting tomorrow and quilt it on Sunday! So there should be some pictures tomorrow. Look at Charlie all snuggled in my quilts - doesn't he look cute!

Fat Quarters picked, background fabric bought. I planned to piece my first block in the Swoon-along last night. Then I realised just how red the background fabric was, and put it in the wash instead. I did get most of the cutting done last night, and this morning/afternoon I have pieced my first block (the seam ripper was used a few time....). Here it is: I know that this will go down as a pretty stupid comment, but 24 inches is big! I mean, I didn't realise how big until the completed block was covering a large amount of my cutting board. I love it. I'm now off to make some blocks at the other end of the scale: 4inch Oh My Stars Blocks. PS. How cute were Archie and Charlie snuggled up together in the sun!

Another mug rug - this one went in the post yesterday complete with mug and some choccies and will hopefully arrive before Christmas! I love the fabrics more and more each time I get them out. The flowery ones are Durham fabrics and Icould be tempted to buy some more and make a quilt.... because I really need more projects.... I drafted the Dresden petals myself then appliqued them on very carefully with the machine. I did the hand embroidery then quilted it on the machine and added the binding. Most of my Christmas presents are finished (but not wrapped) - I just have a pile of mug rugs and mini-quits, all of which need the binding stitching down by hand! And today I have to put my sewing machine away for Christmas.... A final photo: Archie loves my Christmas quilt!

I got some lovely fabric.... all fat quarters for a number of Christmas projects, including some of the pinks in this foundation pieces cushion quarter. Aunty Barbara got some fabric for sashing her mystery BOM blocks. We did a class, and I learnt how to do blanket stitch applique on my new machine. Linda got a dog. This is Buster. The owner of our local quilt shop, Kim, wanted to keep him, but her dog had other ideas, so Buster was looking for a new home and Linda has provided it. Isn't he gorgeous? And just in case Archie and Charlie get jealous: here is Charlie And here is Archie playing Fireman Sam on the Nintendo DS with Michael and James! There'll be some more stitchy posts later this week!

I know it's now Saturday, but I did my Week 21 blocks yesterday! For the first time I'm linking up with Friday Night Sew In: If it's quiet at work, I leave at 3.30 on a Friday - it's only an extra half hour, but it feels like a much longer evening when I do. So I sat down at my machine and did my Farmers Wife Blocks for Week 21! I am still loving this quilt along and seeing what everyone else is doing - check out the Flickr Group . I think it's the variety that keeps it so interesting. So this week, knowing I had a bit of extra time (the magical half an hour) I made a conscious decision to do two harder blocks, so I picked out Wild Geese and Wood Lily. In the end I did Wild Geese and then got distracted by Whirlwind, so did that instead of Wood Lily - I'll put that aside for next week, but I have already chosen the fabrics for it. So here is #104 Wild Geese: I simplified the background colours to all black then chose a fairly sickly but lovely green and pink com...

Here is this week's Christmas Sew Along Stitchery from Sew Happy.Me My bear is a bit wonky - rustic! Also - I love this photo of Archie and Charlie lying in the last of the year's sunshine. It's such a hard life! (Archie's the black one, Charlie's the brown one!)

Although we spent last week in Guernsey (see my previous Blog post) I have managed to get some stitching done! And the focus has, of course, been on the Farmer's Wife quilt-a-long. I have done 6 blocks: #81 Snowball: I decided to go for rather un-snowy colours and picked this lovely green fabric that I got at Harrogate. This was very very quick. #66 Periwinkle: Finally I have got some much needed yellow into my quilt. And I love the jigsaw effect on the green fabric. This was another really quick block. #58 Mother's Dream: I'm really pleased with the colour combination I used on this block. The burnt orange match was chance rather than planning, as the fabrics came from different stands at Harrogate and I didn't realise how good a match they were until I got them home. This block was also really easy. #39 Friendship: more fabrics from Harrogate. I love this block because I get to use lots of different fabrics together. In reality, the pink is much brighter than the p...