Jennie's Threads

I'm still working on these nursery hoops for Mia and I've got a few more finished since I last shared... in March! And I've got them on the wall. Brolly girl: this is a pattern by Tartan Kiwi and I just love it. I reduced it to 70% and used up every last piece of the light blue fabric to make it big enough to fit in the hoop!  I made a second one for me which turned out to be a mini mini mini quilt and now hangs on my quilt wall. The umbrella theme continued with a small Forever Friends cross stitch - I complete this years ago (maybe 7 or 8 years) and it has sat in a box with other unloved cross stitch all this time. I finally mounted it in a hoop and it fits right in! The next two were very hard work - honest. Isn't this Art Gallery print pretty? And it fits perfectly inside the hoop. I added interfacing to give it a bid more body and that was it! And this uses some Heather Ross fabric which @sleepinsarah sent me - I believe Moo has a matc...

Emily, over at Momy's Nap Time is hosting a linky with a bit of a difference. Thoughtful blogging about quilting. Each week a different question. This first one is about your sewing history.... it's nice to look back so here goes. design by Margaret Sherry My Grandmother was a seamstress - she entered things in WI (Women's Institute) competitions and won prizes, she created collections of dolls, telling the history of British traditions which she toured round local WIs, she knitted, crocheted, made lace. And she did it all by hand. My Mum has a dressmaking background, but hasn't done any for many years. Lots of other bloggers talk about getting hooked on quilting when they were pregnant or new mums. I got hooked on sewing aged about 5! I was bought a long stitch tapestry kit, then another, and another and another.  By the age of eight I made my first ever cross stitch card. And for another 15 years I was a cross stitcher - Design by Maria Diaz I dabbled in ...

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...

So it's been a while since we had an update. Christmas is long gone, so I can now post some pictures of the presents I made: The bag pictured here was a paatern from Moda Bakeshop. Originally designed to be made from a charm pack, I bought 5 fat quarters in Moda fabrics from the The Fat Quarters and cut them to the size of a charm pack. The design is made to be reversible, so on the inside it is lime greens adnd on the outside it's the purples. The straps are the same - purple on one side and green on the other. I love the design, but if I did it again Iwould do the topstitch in a colour that matched the inside colour, as it's not easy to keep the lines matching on the back where you can't see it on the machine. This was a Christmas present for Michelle. This needlecase was made for Aunty Catherine as a Christmas present. The design came from the Art for Heart Sew necessary book by Nancy Halvorssen, which Ive already made the pincushion and thread catcher f...

Christmas is creeping up on us..... and I have made a start on my Christmas present making. By it's very nature I can't share much here, but there's a few things I can show you. I'm also going to update my slideshow with some cards I made for last Christmas and some other photos I found on my camera before I wiped it! To start with I spent yesterday morning finishing off four cushions: two for James, and two for Jane (guess who's is which!) Firstly two pirate cushions. Both are the same so here is a picture of back and front. The pirate fabric came from Harrogate and the spotty and stripey fabrics came from the Fat Quarters. The cushions have envelop backs to I don't have to do any slip stitching, and so they are easier to wash (vital for a three-year-old!). The pink ones are inevitably for Jane. The pattern came from a summer issue of Qutmaker magazine, and I have been collecting up fabrics to make a quilt of the same pattern but in blues and browns (...

It's been a while, but I don't have a lot to report by way of finished pieces. I've been working on some quite large projects recently, and that means that I've made progress on a few things, but I haven't actually finished anything. The quilt that I'm stitching by hand has had a bit of a revival. i was struggling with it because I couldn't get the seams to align. I've now started redrawing the stitch lines on each piece as I cometo it and it was remarkable how, despite using the same template to draw around, each piece was rather inaccurate. It also explains why the seams weren't aligning! I've now successfully complete two 12"blocks and made a start on a third and I'm really enjoying it - I can do it all from the sofa, rather than having to sit at the table with a sewing machine, which is really nice. Once I've completed a few more blocks, I;ll take some photographs and share the progress. Our local fabric shop, The Fat Quarter...

Another month is over and a few more projects have been completed. I haven't finished as much this month as some other months, but larger projects have been started and not yet finished, plus I spent a week working on a secret project for Debbie from Letters Tied With Blue.... more information will come, but not yet. The first thing to show you is a bit of a cheat, because I actually stitched it whilst on holiday in Sidmouth in August, but I only mounted and finished it off today: it's a small picture of swallow in a tattoo style that was originally a cover kit on cross stitcher. Instead of stitching it on the provided 14hpi fabric it stitched it on 22hpe hardanger fabric to minimise the pixalated effect. I've stitched it for Steph's birthday, so hopefully she doesn't look at this blog, cause she won't actually get the card till Tuesday! It was Natasja and Ruben's wedding last weekend (I stitched the hardanger ring pillow for them), so I...

Firstly, apologies for the delay in the lastest post. I've been meaning to post some photos for a while, but I've ony just located a USB cable with which to download them. Having found the necessary cable, I can now provide an update. Towards the end of July I started stitching a small picture of Humphrey the elephant, from Humphrey's corner. This was a first birthday present for Alexander. Unforunately, it wasn't finished until mod August ( his birthday being the end of July), and he won't actually get it until mid September, but for everyone else, here is a sneaky look. I made it up into a small quilt with some green fabric I had bought because I like it a few months ago and turned out to be an excellent match, and some yellow fabric, that I bought for a project that never really happened. I didn't find it the most enjoyable thing to stitch - the backstitch was unnecessarily detailed and although the sketchy nature of it adds to the design, I felt there was...

And in between the larger projects I've shared below, I've done a few smaller cards: This was a graduation card for my brother Robin, who graduated from York in July. It's stitched on marbelled blue 28hpi cashel linen from DMC (Vintage Blue 5139) in Anchor threads (with some DMC threads!). It's a Margaret Sherry desing from Cross Stitcher Issue 189, p 30. This was the wedding card to go with the memory book for Jen and Geoff. The celtic knot border came from the World of Cross Stitching, Issue 162, p. 55 (no. 40), though I changed the colours slightly (blues: 158, 794, 3807; greens: 369, 368, 370; outline in dark purple 550). It was stitched in DMC threads on a hand-dyed lilac 28hpi evenweave from Kates Kloths. The charm in the centre was from a shop called Bead Lagoon in Sidmouth, Devon. And finally this patchwork owl from The World of Cross Stitching, Issue 167, p45 (Subscribers extra). It hasn't photgraphed bri...

So, I appreciate that it has been a while since my last post regarding current work, but I have been very busy, and I have lots of new pieces to show you, some of which I couldn't post photos of earlier, in case people saw presents before they were given! First fo all, the cup cake quilt that you have heard about but not yet seen is finished: It's the biggest piece I have ever completed and measures 36inches (90cm) square. The crazy patchwork blocks were machine pieces, then the applied is stuck on with bondaweb, then I've done hand blanket stitch around every piece (the cupcakes and the writing at the top of the quilt). Around the edge of the design is the cupcake recipe, hand embroidered in backstich, and I have hand quilted in decorative running stitch around each of the nine panels. The quilt is finished off with a pearly button to top each cupcake. As well as my beautiful quilt, I have been doing cross stitch. First some brithday cards as June is quite the busy mo...