Jennie's Threads

The highlight of my March sewing was a finish! Before she arrives, Baby's Sunrise quilt is finished. You can read all about it here ! My other finish of the month was a dolls house. I had a great time making this at a workshop and added loads of detail playing with felt. There are lots more photos on this blog post . And the rest of the month has been about blocks again. I've made real progress on the Patchwork of the Crosses, not just piecing - 11 blocks - but also cutting for the next eight blocks - that should keep me going for the next couple of years. I've made 7 Farmers Wife Blocks - you can see some here , and I made these four in the last couple of days: Sixteen #365 Blocks (I'm a little behind with these) A couple of Splendid Sampler blocks and the first block of a new project - the Jane Austen Family Album quilt . Including the work to get the Sunrise quilt finished, this brings me to a total of 64 bl...

It's been a slightly sparser week in terms of blocks this week. I was really pleased that I was pretty much up to date on the Farmer's Wife blocks, with the exception of a few that I want to replace. Then I ran out of the white fabric I've been using. I sent a sample off to the shop I bought it from, discovered it was Makower 001 plain white, and asked for 7 metres (I have a sashing plan that is fabric hungry). The shop didn't have 7m but promised me a trip to her wholesaler this week. Unfortunately it seems that the dye has changed and rather than being a slightly off-white white, which I've been using, it's now a white white. Bugger. So I've bought the half metre they still had in stock, and I've taken a risk on some Ebay fabric - the listing said only 3m left so I'm praying it's an old bolt and is still the off white (if it isn't then 3m of white fabric is hardly going to go to waste...). And then once I've pieced the blocks, I'll ...

'bout the blocks... Having finished piecing My Small World , I had some catching up on other blocks to get on with. First up was the #365quiltchallenge2016 blocks - I had 8 to piece. I'm well behind on the Farmer's Wife quilt, so I printed the patterns and caught up with one block this morning. This block felt HUGE after working on the 3" blocks above! And today was the start of the Splendid Sampler Quilt - there were literally thousands of quilters on Facebook all waiting for today's block to be released. Timing was perfect: Michael and Mia were busy watching the football so I pieced it immediately. My plan is to make only the blocks I like and see how big the quilt gets. I'm using an assortment of low volume backgrounds and any and all solids: the plan is that each block is a single colour way so I can lay them out in rainbow order in the final lap quilt/baby quilt/mini quilt... My heart applique patch is a little smaller than everyone els...

We made huge progress on the house this weekend - so much so that my new sewing corner is now built (it came in Ikea boxes!) and I was able to unpack just enough to do some sewing. I picked some easy relaxing sewing to get me started. This was made with two charm packs from Karen Lewis - one brights, and one low volume. I randomly pieced the charms into half square triangles, spent a while trimming them, and then laid them out, switched them about a bit, and stitched them all together. It was so nice to be back behind the sewing machine again, but my head is still full of the two new English paper piecing projects I want to start - the New Hexagon Millefiori quilt and La Passacaglia... I've picked out some fabrics, but decided I need to be properly awake to start basting these, so instead I worked a little bit more on the Patchwork of the Crosses, finishing a corner block and another sashing block. Here are the pieces I've completed since we moved, laid out ...

So we've moved. It all went very much to plan. The removers came on the Saturday and I can without doubt say that the 5 hours between them arriving and them finishing was the most stressful ever. It all seemed to plod along for the first 2 hours and then suddenly it switched up about four gears and as we were removing the last few things from the house, they were already moving in the new belongings - scary! We spent the rest of the Easter weekend stripping wall-paper and decorating two bedrooms, whilst the builder moved a doorway, closed up a fireplace and built a new fence. We also did a mammoth Ikea shop! Unfortunately a slight mix up means that the plastering is only just happening today, so we'll be in a bit of a rush to finish the painting before the new floor arrives... And until the new floor arrives on 27th April I can't build my new sewing desk, and I can't unpack my sewing and my machine....though my stash has been unpacked already! And that means...

I hope you're not getting bored of the same project week after week.... 'cause the thing with hand sewing is that it takes a while... but these Wednesday posts are a good way for me to make time to keep track of what I am achieving in the five-minute slots I get when Daddy changes nappies! This week I've moved back to English Paper Piecing after last week's embroidery. I've completed my fourth block of the Patchwork of the Crosses, and next I'm going to make some of the joining sections and put some together so I can see how it's going to look (I hope I like it). Each of the blocks is surrounded by low volume honeycombs/elongated hexies and then at the corners are different blocks combining a splash of colour, low volume and grey. It will all make sense when I do it - maybe next week I'll have that to share with you. I've also completed the final month's blocks in the Get Your Hex On Bee. I've been really bad at photographing the blocks...

It's Wednesday. Little Miss Mia is now 3 weeks old. I've been doing a bit of sewing. My third block for my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt is finished - this is a great project for five minutes slots when Daddy does the nappy change! And I'm starting a new project - before Little Miss arrived I'd been collecting the Best Friends Forever Block of the Month from Rosalie Quinlan as I thought this would be a good project for nap times. But I  failed to do any preparation before she arrived.  So this evening's nap time was spent picking out the threads and getting ready. I've written this post one-handed and it's now time to feed, so I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday and I'll be back later to see what everyone else has been up to!

My husband turned to me tonight when he got home and said "you seem more energised today". I guess with a two-week old baby in the house, that's quite a  compliment! I think a number of things have contributed to this today. The first was a lie-in - Mummy and Mia both slept until 10am today! Going out for lunch also helped - down to the cafe on the quayside with Linda, Steph, Ellie-Jo and Mia. But the key to a good day is some sewing - even if it's just ten minutes snatched while Daddy does nappy duty. It makes me feel normal. And my go to project has been some English Paper Piecing in the shape of Patchwork of the Crosses (you can find more info on this project in my previous post here ). I've completed my second block And block 3 is basted Linking up with WIP Wednesday

I am seriously going to enjoy nap time. Unfortunately nap time is a little elusive at the moment... Mia fed for 5 hours straight this afternoon. Such a cute grumpy face! But yesterday she napped and I stitched with some good friends. I started a new project - some English Paper Piecing - easy to pick up and put down again. The project is Patchwork of the Crosses . I hadn't heard of this pattern until a few months ago when Sharon started the same project. It looked interesting and I read up the background of the pattern. The original quilt was made by Lucy Boston , an author, quilter and gardener who lived at Hemmingford Grey - a manor house in Cambridgeshire less than an hour away from where I grew up - doing so much American style patchwork I was totally sold on something so local for me. I started pinning to my EPP pinterest board and then picked my current favourite colour palette and lots of fabrics from my stash. So the plan is initially 9 feature blocks and...