Jennie's Threads

2011 was the year that my quiting habit really took on a life of it's own! For years I had done Cross Stitch. This year I have barely touched it. Back in January I started an Essential Sampler Quilt - this taught me so much and got me hooked. It seems customary to create a collage of the year's successes, so here are mine: 1. Count Down to Christmas Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt : my first ever quilt 2. Ambrosia Quilt (a WIP for 2012) 3. Medallion Log Cabin block - the centre of my Essential Sampler Qui lt (another WIP for 2012) 4. Vignette block 1 (a third WIP for 2012) 5. Apple Mug Rug 6. Farmer's Wife Mug Rugs for Mum's Christmas present 7. Farmer's Wife block (the Farmer's Wife Quilt is another WIP) 8. Wilding Angels Quilt : my first ever quilt - completed 9. Farmer's Wife block 10. Michael's Kindle Case made from his favourite, but awful, hoodie. 11. Christmas Table topper 12. Calendar Girlie : Miss October 13....

I've been working on loads of projects this weekend and so many are really nearly finished. I have had a thread issue - I ran out of the cream that I've been using to quilt, so my Countdown to Christmas Quilt is mostly quilted - just four more wavy lines to do; my Merry Cushion is nearly finished - just some top stitching on the back; and my animal quilt is nearly finished - just the binding to finish. Some of the Christmas presents I've been working on are also NEARLY finished - some I won't be able to share until after Christmas, but others I'll share as soon as I finish them. As such, it has been quite a frustrating weekend, but I have moved a lot of projects further forward, if not finished them. So my only finish to report is the first of my December Calendar Girlies: designed by Debbie from Letters Tied with Blue , this is the final design in the set of 12. I've stitched 6 of each design each month for 2011 as the Christmas presents for 6 special pe...

I can think of no reason for a sane person to cut out 57 (very small) pieces and sew them back together again to create a block only 6inch square. Insanity is the only reason I can think of! And also that fact that it's soooo pretty! You guessed it - I've been working on the Farmer's Wife Quilt again! But, if you've ready yesterday morning's post, you'll know I've already done my two for the week. Well, I got seduced. By a very pretty purple batik that wasn't bought for my Farmer. Regular readers (i.e. Mum) will know that throughout 2011 I've been stitching Calendar Girlies, designed by Debbie from Letters Tied with Blue - 6 a month for 6 special people as a Christmas present. And today I finished the first of the November Calendar Girlies, ready to be posted in time for November. Here she is: The fabric is a purple batik (that hasn't photographed well) that my Mum helped me chose back in December last year from Threads and Pa...

Those of you who look at my post on a semi-regular basis will know that I am stitching a lot of Calendar Girlies. These are tiny redwork stitcheries designed by Debbie Johnson from Letters Tied with Blue and surrounded by a pretty fabric, making a 6" quilt. For Christmas last year I am stitching a Calendar Girlie a month for the whole year for a select group of people: Linda (my mother-in-law), Aunty Barbara (my Aunty-in-law), Aunty Mary and Aunty Margaret (my great Aunties-in-law), Granny and Sheila. Miss January arrived on Christmas Day complete with small hanger, and the idea was that Miss February would arrive in time for 1st February and so on. So far, I've only missed a few deadlines! This month I have been stitching the October Calendar Girlies: it's the first month where the Girls for different people have had different fabrics. Back in November last year, Aunty Barbara picked out the Halloween fabric that she wanted for her Girlie (she's the one...

I am now up to date with 34 Farmer's Wife blocks: #7 Birds in the Air was really fiddly, but I'm pleased with the end result (only a couple of blunt points). #5 Batwing: Not my favourite block - like Buzzards Roost it feels like the shapes don't flow, but I do like the fabric I've used: it's only with the large pieces that you can see the variety of colours in this fabric. The rest of my weekend so far has been spent on the October Calendar Girls - I'll post them once they are finished, and the Nikki Tinkler Essential Sampler quilt: I've decided on my layout (with some help from Picasa because I don't have anywhere large enough to lay out all the blocks where the dogs wouldn't help me!), and I'm working on hand quilting the central nine blocks, so I can join them all together and have something to show for our next workshop. It's a 25 block quilt in total, so still a long way to go.

Mum, Dad, me, Michael, Linda, Roy and Jan We are back from our holiday! We had a fantastic time! We spent the first day with my parents in Bedforshire and as well as going to see the new Harry Potter film (which was excellent), we went to Threads and Patches in Milton Keynes. I bought some batik fabrics for my (much neglected) Farmer's Wife Quilt. And Mum found some fabrics in turquoise and lemon that she liked for a double bed quilt in what use to be my bedroom. Linda also got some very nice fabrics. We drove to Sidmouth on the Friday for Sidmouth Folk Week . It was a fantastic week of concerts, workshops, morris men, shopping and eating. And...oh dear.... we found another patchwork shop.... Maisie Daisy . I have never seen a smaller patchwork shop - no bolts, just fat quarters, fat eights and fat sixteenths, but Pauline was so friendly that we spent quite a while with her at various times during the week. It was fantastic because I could buy lots of different fabrics ...

No - not custard! You know when you just see fabric and think " I just have to have that" and "I have to do something with that straight away". Well, it happened last weekend. I'm busy making my sewing machine cover, when Nicola goes "have you seen the new fabric round the back - I think you'll like it". The fatal mistake was going and having a look, cause she was right. I posted a photo of the fabric on my blog last week. It's Ambrosia from Westminster Fabrics in really summery reds and greens. I added in an extra green and bought six fat quarters. Already a project was in mind.... Linda bought a new book a few weeks back called "Fast Quilts from Fat Quarters" by Barbara Chainey. The idea of the book is that you cut each fat quarter to the same standard cutting pattern that is designed to get the greatest yield from one fat quarter. You then reorganise the pieces into blocks. The design I chose was the first one in the book. ...

Not literally, obviously - anyone who knows Michael would struggle to picture that. But I have finally started my Farmer's Wife quilt. The background to the quilt is really interesting: in the 1920s, farmers' wives in America were asked if they would like their own daughters to marry a farmer. The book contains some of the responses to that question and 111 6inch patchwork blocks. Yesterday I completed block 9, "Box", and today I have completed block 26, "Cut Glass Dish". I am foundation piecing (on paper) using a black background and abtoks from my stash. As my stash is not very mature I am using this as an excuse to buy any pretty batiks I see and it will end up a scrappy batiky quilt. I went through my stash yesterda, knowing I had some batiks there, only to find that they are all blues and turquoises. This will keep me going for a few blocks, but I think I'll have to add to this colour palette fairly soon. So here is block 9, Box. T...

I have had a very unquilty week. And as I said in my very quick post on Thursday, I am getting withdrawal symptoms. I spent last weekend with my Mum and Dad. I took the train down on Wednesday after work and Mum and I spent Thursday and Friday baking cakes for the cake stall at the church fete: 48 jumbo cookies, 6 gingerbreads, 8 fruit cakes, 6 lemon drizzle cakes, a slab of chocolate sponge, 4 chcolocate sponges, 4 coffee sponges, 6 coffee and walnut sponges, 2 batches of chcolate brownie, 2 batches of chcolate orange brownies, 4 batches of Shortbread, 100 scones (half fruit and half cheese). In the end we bakes about half of the cake stall and the stall made more money this year than any other year, as did the fete as a whole, so it was all worth it! Needless to say, I didn't have much time to get any stitching in! I did manage to print off the paper piecing patterns for the Farmer's Wife Quilt, but that was all. I also spent a long time talking to my Aunt and Granny who bot...

I've been bad this evening. Michael is out at a beer festival, so I'm sitting here, browsing the internet on my own..... I found the quilt a long group for the Farmer's Wife Quilt block. It's a sampler quilt with 111 different 6 inch blocks. As we've nearly finished the Nikki Tinkler Sampler Quilt (by nearly, I mean I still have a long way to go, but my mind is wandering to my next project already), I though this would be a lovely next project. I've joined the Flikr group, ordered the book and can't wait to get started. I'm thinking a black background fabric to unify it then all sorts of different batik fabrics... I can do some shopping and browsing at the quilt show in Harrogate in September (if I can wait that long). Meanwhile this week I have made another two elephants, the first for a girl at work who is leaving (above). Gave it to her today and she loved it and apparently the fabric (from Durham Fabrics) was spot on. I work in a German pay...

Bearreraig Bay The second post yesterday was only half finished, so here it is.... Today we got back from a week long holiday in the Isle of Skye in north-west Scotland. It was fantastic and by some incredible flook we had lovely weather for most of the week. Normally I just talk about embroidery and patchwork here, but I shall indulge myself and share some photos from my holiday. Archie and Charlie THE JOURNEY So, it turns out that even starting our trip from as far north as Newcastle, the Isle of Skye is still quite a long way away and we maybe underestimated our journey time slightly... it took 8 and a half hours but the journey route was lovely. We crossed through the Northumberland countryside to Hexham, then across to Carlisle. North on the M73/4 then the M8 (not the prettiest section of the journey), then across the Erskine Bridge, up the west coast of Loch Lomond towards Crianlarich then over Rannoch Moor, through Glencoe to Fort William. Past Ben Nevis, up ...

Hello - this will be the first of two posts today. Firstly I'll bring you up to date on what I have been sewing recently. Firstly, here are four of the six June Calendar Girlies in green and yellow with tiny buttons for juggling balls. Jane has asked for some stuffed elephants for her birthday. I thought I'd do a practice run, so here is a purple one, that I made for Michelle. In preparation for our holiday to the Isle of Skye I wanted to finish the piecing for blocks 2 and 3 of the Vignette quilt. Here are the results before any embroidery

How time flies when you are having fun! It is nearly two weeks since I last posted and I haven't finished much in that time. I have been getting on with a lot of different projects.... but not really finishing any. The Vignette quilt continues. I have done over half of the embroidery on the first block and it is looking gorgeous and I have started piecing the second and third blocks - I have another 6 Shoo Fly blocks to make, then it will be fully pieced, ready for transferring the embroidery designs. I hope to get it ready for the embroidery this weekend, as it will be ideal for my holiday stitching. I have embroidered all of the June Calendar Girls and mostly made up the mini quilts, but I still have the hand finishing to go. Last weekend we were back at the Fat Quarters for out Nikki Tikler sampler quilt class: we made up the Wedding Ring design. I decided to stitch mine together backwards (it was choice not mistake!) and the end result looks like a flower. I have also s...

Well - a small update. On Thursday I finished off the May Calendar Girlies - it was a bit of a tight schedule as I had forgotten that Friday was a bank holiday so there would be no post. The four that have to be sent by post were in the letter box at the bottom of the road ten minutes before the box was due to be collected all with first class stamps. So, if the post hadn't been picked up early.... they may have been delivered today, in time for the start of May tomorrow. We can but hope for small miracles. You can only see four in the photo, because those for Linda and Aunty B were finished Thursday evening as they didn't need to go in the post! Also in the photo you can see some of the black and white fabrics that I'm using for some log cabins.... the log cabins will go together to make a bag for my cutting mat - it's now all pieced - I just need to make up the bag. The May design wasn't one of my favourites, but I did some more embroidery on the ha...

Hello So it's been a while since I updated. The Wilding Angels: The Wilding Angels quilt from Letters Tied with Blue is now fully embroidered, so I have six angels and a large central panel. I have also pieced it - though this nearly ended in disaster - I don't know whether it was my cutting, or the destructions, but the top and bottom panels ended up 2 inces shorter than the central panel, which couldn't be reduced. The original shop where I had bought the beautiful red fabric had sold out, so we went on a major hunt for the same fabric. We finally found it in another local quilting shop, where I bought the final meter from the bolt. It was a perfect match so the quilt front is now pieced. I'm backing it with some fairly plain fabric from French General (from the Lumiere de Noel range). It's all tacked together and I have made a small start on the hand quilting. This project is getting very close to completion, but I've loved doing it, so when Mum said tha...