Jennie's Threads

 I've had a few recent finishes - mostly smaller pieces and mostly not on my list to finish this year (because I've only just started them!) - lots and lots of pouches! Here's a round up... Three pouches I made for the kids for our holiday - all are the Seamingly Sane Pouch pattern, but I used the pattern add-on to adjust the sizes and customised with some straps and in one case, a pocket. These three pouches are made for our work Yubikeys when we travel to protect them - it's a slightly adjusted Aneela Hooey pattern - the peas are an inside joke! I knew I had pea fabric for a reason! A couple more Seamingly Sane pouches - the smaller one was a birthday present for my Dad, and the floral one was for me to protect my diary when I travel. Seven pouches made entirely from my scraps to hold EPP pieces pre sewing! This is the Peekapouch pattern by Sweet Cinnamon Roses. This is the Not So Little Zippy Pouch by Fabric and Flowers. The pattern is a bit of a challenge, but this ...

 Well hello! Happy New Year from the chilly North-East! It's been a while, hasn't it?! A good eighteen months in fact! And even before that I was a trifle absent! I've got a reasonable excuse... ish: I've been working on my Foundation Degree in Payroll Management - yep - I'm such a nerd, and I love payroll so much, that I've been doing it for fun after work! I submitted my final essay on Wednesday evening and so for 2023 I'm going to try and be back here more often - sharing what I'm working on and sharing finishes now that I have more time to sew again. I also thought it was time for a bit of change of view - so my blog looks a bit different today! It's not that I haven't been sewing, but it's mostly been hand sewing, and that doesn't grow very quickly, so it's harder to be here regularly. But when I logged back in today, I found some draft posts back from 2020 and early 2021 that I never published. So whilst I'll still be doing ...

 Last Christmas, Joshua was just 11 months old. I got away with a few things... like he didn't have his own santa sack or his own advent calendar. Fast forward 12 months and there is no way I'd get away with it again - he's very aware of what the girls have and is determined not to be treated different (makes for some interesting tantrums to be honest).  I did start an advent calendar for him last year, but I didn't make any real progress. I put it on my Finish Along list in Q1 and Q2 last year thinking how good it would be to get it finished nice and early in the year and not be in a rush come November. But that's just not how we roll... and once Christmas is over, I really don't want to be doing Christmas sewing anymore, so inevitably it was a November rush! No the rushiest rush... I think I had three or four days to spare, but certainly not leisurely, The starting point for the advent calendar was a picture I pinned on Pinterest when I first used Pinterest, w...

We're now 10 weeks into lock down! Back at the beginning lots of fabulous lockdown sewing patterns and sew-alongs popped up! All of them were soooooo tempting. Fortunately I'm able to still be working full time. Unfortunately this means I couldn't start lots of new projects. But it didn't stop me starting a few! And this embroidery pattern by @tinkerellen seemed very achievable! So achievable, in fact, that I made two!. The rainbow one is for Mia and the pink, stitched in a single DMC variegated thread, is for Jess. I also made Jess an extra hoops as her wall was looking a bit bare compared to Mia's! I get a lovely bundle of Kona cottons each month from Sew Hot and the pink bundle was just begging to made into something ombre! Simple piecing and some chunky hand quilting - this is a 14" hoop (I think) so her wall is definitely less bare now!

This is my final finish of 2019, and I really didn't think I would make it! This is the Summer Sampler which was run a four-month-long block of the month by Sarah Edgar of Pretty Fabrics and Trims. Everything about this project was beautiful: the instructions were beautifully presented, the fabrics absolutely gorgeous, and the patterns are lovely: little blocks, mixing all my favourite techniques: applique, English Paper Piecing, hand embroidery and some machine piecing. And then there's the beautiful little extras - a touch  of lace here, and a button there... it's far and away the prettiest thing I have ever made! It's also quite the departure from my normal style, but I have adored every minute I spent working on this project - so much so that I have signed up for two more blocks of the month from Sarah. The quilt finishes at 18" x 24" and is entirely hand quilted - using the 12w Aurifil provided as part of the kit. I'm hoping to get this up on...

And here is Jessica's. Another pattern by Threadfolk, handembroidered in very Jessica colours. This was on my original Finish Along list .

Every year I like to make a tree decoration for the girls, which I put in the Christmas Eve box for them to hang themselves. I chose some Christmassy patterns by Threadfolk. A tree for Mia. It's hand embroidered in DMC Threads with a few beads for added glitz. This was on my Finish Along list which you can see here .

If you're on Instagram you might have seen a flurry of teeny tiny pincushions recently.... there's been a bit of a party, and I couldn't help but join in! I took the opportunity to make some tiny pincushions for my guild buddies for our recent retreat (more on that to come!). Here are most of the pinnies all together, but the hexagon one below was made a bit later so missed the group show. It's made from a tutorial by @cloudtori and uses some Zuma fabric and Tula Pink Designer Solids. This scrap of Alison Glass fabric was begging for some embroidery and I know just the person who loves green I couldn't resist this little frog so made him into a teeny tiny polaroid block A scrap of Liberty left over from my Summer Sampler cobined with some really lovely Essex Linen and the cutest pink button. A pineapple. Of course. He's a little but wonky.... This is one of two tiny embroidered pinnies each finishing at 1.5" square. The den...

Earlier this month I started a new project - I know that's very unlike me! It's a Block of the Month from Pretty Fabrics and Trims : three five inch finished blocks per month for 4 months over the summer, mixing embroidery, applique, English paper piecing and machine piecing (and eventually hand quilting too). I had saved up the blocks for the first two months to make on holiday, enjoyed making them while we were away and then came home to the next three blocks, which I haven't made yet. Here are the month one blocks: And the month two blocks.  (ooops - I picked the wrong pink on my photo editing programme for one of those didn't I!) You may be thinking, this isn't Jennie's normal thing... you're right, it isn't. But it reflects my changing tastes. Or rather my extending tastes (I'm not turning my back on rainbow and Tula any time soon. But I'm finding myself drawn to pastels and florals and vintge-y looking pieces mor...

Earlier this month I finished a little embroidery I started back in March. The pattern is called Bloom by Jessica Long at Namaste Embroidery and it was run as a Sew-Along which I failed to keep up with! After my success using colour-tinting on my February embroidery , I had another go for this, and again I'm really pleased with the results. I love the depth it gives the piece without the need to infill entire flowers or leaves, yet it doesn't over-power the embroidery. I have bought a greater variety of pencils already so expect more colour-tinting to come! I've done embroidery for a long time, firstly cross-stitch and then free embroidery, but I rarely use any more than 2 threads (of 6-stranded embroidery thread - normally DMC). This was a little different as large parts of the work were done in all 6 strands. And much as I love the finished look with the large flowers popping out boldly, I did not enjoy sewing it. Even after changing to a larger needle, there was a l...