Jennie's Threads

 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 ...

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!

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 .

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...

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...

It's my second finish of the quarter! I actually did all the hard work a couple of weeks ago before Joshua was born but it's taken me a couple of weeks to buy the hoop I needed to mount it. This started life as a printed panel designed by Aimee who trades on Etsy as Little Dear . I've long-admired her embroideries but she is based in the States, so postage was always an issue...so when my sister-in-law travelled there 18 months ago, I took the opportunity to order a couple of panels - a mermaid and a moon moth - one each for the girls. I prepped the mermaid, and then I lost it... pretty special. So when a friend travelled to the States last November, I replaced the mermaid and ordered this owl for the new baby. The embroidery is straight-forward outlining in a variety of stitches and while the pattern called for a lot of split stitch, I find my stem stitch is much neater so did mostly stem stitch. It's then finished off with some French knots and lazy daisy stitc...

2018 doesn't feel like my most productive sewing year. Even before I fell pregnant in May, finishes were few and far between. But having spent some time this morning going through photos, it turns out that it wasn't quite as unproductive as I thought. Plus I've grown a human! So first up, the quilts: Gypsy Wife - I love that it's a rainbow and I love that I finished it on my birthday. I love the low volume stripes. I love everything about it! Summer Sampler 2016 - two years late but I still love the fabrics I chose. I also love that I was able to pick up a matching backing in the sale. I don't love that this quilt seems to have been "adopted" by my eldest daughter! Though it does look very cute on her bed. The Kittens Quilt - rather a spur of the moment decision to make this one but Jessica's reaction to her own cat quilt was lovely. Not quite a rainbow but so pretty. And go to the original blog post to see the amazing Caticorn backing!...

It's been quite the quarter, hasn't it! I only have five Finish-Along finishes to celebrate this quarter. I think the first quarter is always slow because there's so many yummy things to start...But I do want to celebrate progress on a few long-term WIPS this quarter - although they aren't eligible as a finish, they are definitely closer than they were! Certain people will be horrified to hear that my WIP list currently stands a nice round 100 - with a couple of interesting items from Instagram threatening to push it higher still! Here are my finishes: First up my Gypsy Wife quilt. I finished it on my birthday and I love it! Such rainbowy goodness! The other large quilt finish was my Summer Sampler 2016. Obviously this one has been around for a while, but those colours and fabrics are just so summery, that given the snow we've had recently, I felt it was the perfect pick-me-up! On the subject of Summer Samplers... my 2017 Summer Sampler is sitting unloved...

Sometimes you see a pattern and you just know it would be perfect for someone. And sometimes you have a friend who is going through a pretty tough time, who just needs a little reason to smile. And those two things combined in this embroidery. The pattern is by @lolliandgrace and comes with a selection of different words to add, and "Breathe" is important for my friend, so it was an easy choice. I used DMC threads, including some of their beautiful new colours, for the embroidery, which is all done by hand. I totally underestimated how long it would take to do those roses, but they were worth every stitch. The background is a pale yellow Kona fabric, because it felt so happy. I had originally planned to do it on navy but couldn't transfer the design successfully. Whilst I love the yellow, I would like to stitch this again, and I'm determined to try it on navy, so I've bought myself some Solvy wash-away, self-adhesive stabilizer to try.I haven't been ...