Jennie's Threads

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...

I have my first big quilt finish of the year to share with you today - it's my Gypsy Wife quilt. I started this as part of the quilt-along hosted by @GnomeAngel back in the summer and decided to go totally scrappy for the blocks and low volume for the background.This was the recipe I had used for my Long Time Gone quilt and I love it. After a few blocks, I decided I didn't like it this time. We had to take Mia into A&E one Sunday (nothing serious) and while we sat in the waiting room, she played on her tablet, and I coloured in a print-out of the quilt - can't go wrong with a rainbow. And I started again. Of course, I was well behind, and I stayed that way unfortunately. Even in the week after Christmas, I still believed I could make it  - a finished quilt top by the 2nd January. I spent a few hours cutting all the background strips (what a job... not just the cutting, but keeping them organised)! But I had to give in. There was just too much to do and def...

Now for some finishes - as promised, I've got quite a few to share with you! First up is the Long Time Gone quilt. Back at the start of the year, Angie @gnomeangel announced her next round of quilt alongs and this was one of them. Classy modelling from my husband!  The pattern is by Jen Kingwell. And I bought the pattern without really committing. I know that these things have a habit of selling out. Last year I made the My Small World quilt to one of Jen's patterns, and if you've followed me for a while, you'll know that I had a bit of a love hate relationship with it. This was why I was hesitant. But in the end I love the finished quilt. So I decided to join in this one. Plus, the fear of missing out on one of Angie's quilt alongs is real! Unlike My Small World, Long Time Gone is entirely machine pieced. But that did not mean it was easy. This quilt along stepped up the game from a block a month (as this quilt was originally run) to a block a week. And...

Well this week was the week. The Pineapple log cabin blocks. When I first got this pattern, and was contemplating joining in the sew along, this was the week that scared me. Sixteen, foundation-pieced, five-inch-finished pinapple log cabins. These are the last real blocks - just some checquerboards next week and then constructing the complete top. I knew that if I wanted to have a finished quilt by the deadline of the end of the quilt along, some forward planning would be required. So as I was cutting the many many many pieces of fabric for the other blocks in the qquilt, I made sure to cut strips to use for these blocks too. I've then been piecing them here and there throughout the project so I didn't have 16 to do all at once. By last weekend I had 8 done - less than I had hoped. But I've ploughed through the final 8 and I'm pretty pleased with how they look! I can see the end now!

This week is equilateral triangles. In the pattern, this unit (all 30 odd of them) is designed to be template pieced. I do not like templates. I find my accuracy, which is normally pretty hot, goes totally out of the window when I use templates. So I created my own foundation pattern, and these units went together remarkably quickly. They create two "blocks" for the final quilt and I am starting to think about putting this beast together....

Week 12 was all about flying geese - 64 of them..... Made up into 3 blocks. There's just a few more weeks to go of this quilt along, and I am amazed I am still on track - but. There are some tough weeks ahead...

Back in March or February I shared the first block in the Delilah quilt. This is my first foray into templates and hand piecing - properly, not English Paper Piecing. It's proving to be a challenge, not helped by the fact that months 1 and 2 were all about the curves! My plan for this quilt is bright and scrappy with dark backgrounds. Here are my month 1 blocks. And my month 2 blocks. And I've just finished the first month 3 block. Now to pick out fabrics for the second of these blocks and hope that the next monthly installment doesn't drop through my letterbox just yet!

Things got a bit hectic round here the last few weeks so I'm a bit behind in sharing things here on my blog. We're now up to week 11 on the Long Time Gone sew along and I need to show you weeks 9 and 10 as well. So here is week 9: log cabin quarters. Week 10 saw the start of the half square triangles. And week 11 is more of the same. And even more in week 12 I laid out all of my blocks so far this week. This is definitely a scrappy quilt in the making!

I'm still with you all for this Quilt Along. And this week sees nine Court House Steps blocks. I chain-pieced these on Saturday morning and they went together quite smoothly! And laying them out like this makes me wonder how good a whole quilt of them would look. I would only need 120 blocks....

It's getting harder to keep up - the quota of chaos in our household has just gone through the roof the last few weeks! But I've had my cutting party and I am now totally cut out for the whole quilt top, except for the large sashing pieces! And that feels good! I might just be able to keep up with the cutting done! This week was all about Churn Dashes. It's one of my favourite blocks. But there were 21 of them! It seemed to take a lot longer to piece than I had expected. But that seems to be true of every block in this quilt along! The individual churn dashes go together to make two larger blocks. Court House Steps blocks next week!

Six weeks in and still up to date!!! But I'm coming to the end of what I pre-cut so I'm going to have to schedule in a bit of a cutting party soon! This week's block is a bit of an odd one: the Plus a Star block. I like the plusses. And I have nothing against stars. But I struggled with the combination. I actually spent a bit of time planning this block and even so, I'm not too pleased with how the star doesn't really stand out. I think in the grand scheme of the whole quilt, it will look absolutely fine and not be an issue. But today, critically appraising this one block all on it's own, it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Next up - eleventy billion mini churn dashes!

This week's block is my favourite so far: Trip Around the World. A truly scrappy blocks, so I'm going to link up with Leanne and Nicky for Scraptastic Tuesday. Tonight I took stock of how far I had prepared so far. Next week's block is pieced, and the week following is cut and ready, but after that I'm not so prepared. I continued cutting tonight and whilst it feels like I didn't make much headway, I'm at least further ahead than I was! I'm also making good progress with a few of the pineapple blocks - I'll need 16 of these in the final week and so far I've made four.

I'm still keeping up and I'm still thoroughly enjoying this project. This is week 4: Jacob's Ladder. Nine blocks sewn together to create this panel. This is truly a quilt entirely from my stash and I'm really enjoying pulling out fabrics I don't normally use and rediscovering long buried scraps! The pattern is Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell and you can find all the information on this quilt along at Angie's blog.

I'm really enjoying this quilt along so far, and I'm staying up to date! Working ahead even! I've done a lot of the cutting in advance and although I'm not totally finished, it is definitely making it easier to get the blocks ready in time. This week is a lovely little block called Crosses of the UK and the pattern calls for six of them. Aren't they cute? They were also very easy to put together! One of the big challenges of this quilt along comes towards the end: 16 foundation-pieced 37-piece Pineapple blocks in a week. I don't think so.... so I've started making them already - 2 down, 14 to go. These blocks are great for using up scraps! The Long Time Gone sew along is hosted by Gnome Angel and you can find more information here.

So far, so good! Like I said last week, forward planning is going to be key to keeping up with this quilt along. I have a few weeks already cut, and I have cut all of the low volume background fabric I need for the blocks. Stealing a few minutes here and there is paying off. I need to work through the colours now! This week's block was a single "Square in a Square Stars" block. It took longer than I expected but I'm pleased with it! My quilt will certainly be colourful!

It's now a well-known fact that I am a sucker for a quilt along. Here's the next one I've joined in with. The host is Angie @ Gnome Angel - who is just a dreadful influence on anyone trying not to start new projects; and the pattern is 'Long Time Gone' by Jen Kingwell. This was a block of the month originally, but this quilt-along steps up a gear as a block of the week - and some weeks, that's a lot of sewing. This is going to be intense. But Angie's a good 'un and has given us advance warning of the running order and I've been doing some preparation! There's no other way I could make 16 foundation-pieced, 37-piece, pineapple log can blocks in a week! I decided to join in this quilt-along as I was finishing up my My Small World quilt. And I wasn't allowed to join in if I hadn't finished that quilt. You may remember my journey with that quilt. I really, really enjoyed piecing it, but once pieced I didn't like the scrappiness of i...