Jennie's Threads

Hopscotch is finished! I don't mean the big full quilt sized one, I mean the little practice one. I refuse to use horrid templates! So I needed to do a practice to make sure I could rotary cut it and still sew it accurately. I can. This was only the second quilt I've done with binding attached by machine both front and back. I struggled a bit with the non right-angled corners, but only one out of the six wasn't very good - you'd still have to look closely to spot it - especially on the glass table that reads dark grey in the photos. I hand quilted it with Perle cotton. A quilt, a cuppa and a snoozing doggy - a perfect bank holiday!

Last night we saw out March in style with my Mum's "significant" birthday party. We had a great weekend down at my Parents and I have some photos to share later this week. For now, a round up of my March sewing: From the top left, aiming for a logical order: 1. Farmers Wife Block #74: Ribbons 2. Indian Summer cushion . This was a present for Granny, and I gave it to her this morning. She really liked it and the colours match her decor perfectly! 3. Oh My Stars : the quilt top is finished, except for a thin border and a wide border, but I couldn't face any more long seams with lots of points to get accurate. 4. Farmer's Wife in Your Life blind runner . My first attempt at binding using only the machine - no more slip stitching for me! 5. Swoon : All nine blocks completed with the Happy Mochi Yum Yum fabric and pieced together. 6.Farmer's Wife block # 28: Duck and Ducklings - a green block for St. Patricks Day 7. Farmer's Wife block #22: Corn and (baked) bea...

I don't normally blog twice in one day, but I have to share my latest creation with you! The " Swooning on a Hop Along" Flickr group is moving on and I am doing Hopscotch . Triangles. Not the kind where you cut a square in half.... I don't remember ever doing a practice test block before, but today I did. Here are six Hopscotch blocks! The thing is the pattern uses templates..... I HATE templates - there is just so much opportunity for inaccuracy: you make the template - 1/16" out, you draw round the template onto fabric - another 1/16", you cut out the fabric - another 1/16" and then there is the normal opportunity to mess up your seam allowance. Just no. So I was determined to work this out with my ruler and rotary cutter. It is possible!!! And so straightforward. Except for the number of times I had to turn the ruler round to find the right angle.... These blocks come together so quickly and I'm really excited to work on the "real" on...

Just one Famer's Wife Block this week: I may have avoided Corn and Beans (block 22) after there were a few comments posted on the Flickr Group about it being a bit of nasty one. Also, the foundation piecing pattern looked horrific. With my new-found piecing skills and ability to calculate HSTs I decided to have a go at a rotary cut version, and I broke it down into small blocks. It turned out pretty well. I had originally picked out yellow and green, and then Linda said that it should be orange for baked beans. I still haven't got orange out of my system, so it didn't take much to convince me! I've spent loads of time this weekend making Oh My Stars blocks: I had 36 left to do when the post went up with the final contruction instructions . I cut all of the fabric (I'm quite tight on blue and green but have loads of pink left) and then pieced. And pieced. And pieced. Just six left to go! But I've had to clear the table so the guys can see the football on TV, so t...

I have my first March finish: Last night, way after bed time, I finished the binding on my Chasing Chevrons quilt from That Girl That Quilt. I tried to photo it outside on the washing line, but it was a bit windy: Here it is on our single bed (it's nearly big enough): And here some smaller shots of binding and backing. The busy print on the flannel (Robert Kaufmann) hides a few rucks in the backing when I was quilting. I couldn't decide over the quilting, but eventually decided to straight line echo quilt some of the seams, a (large) quarter inch on either side. As the chevrons are laid out in a random manner, I decided to quilt random seams as well. I picked a flannel for the backing and didn't use wadding, which gives a lovely light quilt for the summer, to go with the summery fabrics. Then I bound it in the background fabric - I nearly had a problem here as I was a little short. I went back to my LQS where I had originally bought it and got the last fat quarter they had...

I have two projects on the go with the Swoon pattern from Camille Roskelly. One making the 24" blocks in Happy Mochi Yum Yum and a red background and a 12" version in browns and duck egg blues. One bright and cheerful, the other elegant and subtle (my middle names!). This weekend I completed my fourth 24" block in white and green. This is my favourite colour combo so far. And this is the fourth (and final) of the 12" blocks. I've got some ideas for sashing and then this will be a wall hanging for our bedroom. Earlier this week, Katie, who got me into this Swoony mess with her Flickr group announced some ideas for the next quilt along. There are two options, both patterns by Camille : On a Whim or Hopscotch . On a Whim uses fat quarters, Hopscotch uses a jelly roll. I think I'll do both. But first I really need to finish my Swoony projects!