Jennie's Threads

I'm cutting it fine, but here is another Finish Along finish. And this is one that's been hanging around for a while: three and half years ago I started piecing green, yellow, orange and pink hexagons together with no real plan in mind. Every so often, I pulled it out of it's zippy case and added  few more hexies. At the start of this quarter I had quite the blob. Time to make a plan, and a cushion is always a good plan. So I added a few more hexies and got bored again. I pulled it out just after Christmas and squared it up, measured it, added a few more rows. Decided it would be a small cushion! I quilted it up and added the backing this evening. I have to admit that the backing fabric was a major reason to get it finished - I saw this in a local quilt shop and would love to have bought enough to back a whole quilt. But I don't have a quilt in those colours. Just this cushion. Maybe I need to start a quilt to match the backing fabric? And here it is. I stru...

This really is one of those patterns that gets easier and quicker the more you make it. My third Sew Together bag and the second I've made a Christmas present. I started off with purple and paper hexagons and a load of zips. I had the pieces cut out and interfacing attached weeks ago (something else which makes it seem quicker to make). But it took me a while to finally get round to making it up. The outside is a Kona solid with some graffiti quilting and 3/4" hexagons appliqued over the top. It was shame to hide some of the quilting in the end, but it would have looked a bit naff without the hexies! I have to confess that I didn't use scraps for these - I just didn't have enough purple variety in my at-hand scrap bags. Task for the new year: properly sort all scraps and make pretty quilted boxes to store them! I ended up cutting yardage at the same time as I cut for another purple zippy pouch. On the inside I picked a Tula Pink fabric and then co...

I'm sneaking one more finish in under the wire for the Finish Along from my epic list ! For a while I've been meaning to make another version of the Arabella Hexagon Quilt . I made the first one back in May and decided to work on the pattern for it. As I gave away the first version, I needed to make a second version to check measurements and take photos etc. This last week I've been working on both the quilt and the pattern. The inspiration for the colours for this quilt came from the backing fabric. It's from Timeless Treasures (I think) and it's based on the fact that young babies can see high contrast best - so black and white are perfect. But you need some colour for a quilt and red provides a good contrast against black and white. I'm not 100% happy with the quilting - I had to do it with a regular foot as my machine is skipping stitches with the walking foot - my machine really needs to be sorted out. I also need to take some better photos... ...

Months ago I picked up six fat quarters of Petite Street from Dashwood Studios. I knew I wanted to make a hexy blanket for Mia's buggy. I made this blanket with flannel on the back and no wadding - perfect for balmy summer evenings... but I had loads of hexies that I had already basted, and hadn't needed for the first quilt. So I decided to make another quilt. To make it a bit different, I decided to pick up some background fabric and applique some hexy flowers. I used the leftovers from the first quilt backing to make the second, so this one is pieced, and again it's flannel with no wadding. The background fabric is a Moda Essential Dot and I free motion quilted strings of pearls top to bottom. Once I'd finished the applique on the second quilt, I still had hexies left. At the start of the summer I'd been using a muslin (a lightweight loosely woven cloth normally used to mop up baby sick) to cover Mia's legs in the buggy on sunny days, held on  to t...

I had a great month! How was yours! I started a lot of new projects, but I finished a few too! My starts include some of my finishes and: a mini Tula Pink alphabet quilt A post card quilt - I've been waiting for inspiration to strike on the quilting - and it might just have struck in the last few days! And some mix tape blocks ...but I didn't intend to "F the world" #accidentalfussycutting My finishes: Nested Churn Dash Quilt - I only started this at the start of the month, but really enjoyed it... ...especially the quilting a Tula Pink City Sampler Mini quilt, which I used as practice for my big City Sampler quilt and to get use to free motion quilting on my new machine Another buggy blanket for Mia which is effectively a decorated muslin cloth which I can use to cover Mia's legs when it's sunny. There are two loops sewn into the binding which I can use to attach it to the buggy so it doesn't blow away in a summer gale breeze...

It's been a week of quilting and basting. I've been working on four different quilts. I've set up my machine for free motion quilting and started off with my Skill Builder blocks. I was quite pleased with the result... So I moved on to my Neon Stained quilt. I want to try lots of different fmq ideas on this one - some are working out better than others... The third quilt is all hand quilting - when I get a few moments I'm quilting my Thread Along quilt. I'm using #12 perle cotton in white and mostly doing echo quilting. So far I've done the centre and just about made a start on the main blocks. And the basting? Hexies. Two weeks after cutting the squares, I've basted 125 1.5" hexagons for a quilt for Mia. It's amazing how much you can get done in a few snatched minutes here and there :) Linking up with WIP Wednesday .

I have a finished quilt top to show you today! Last year, just after I found out I was pregnant, friends had a baby girl. I had put off making a quilt for them because I knew my hubby was going to visit them when baby was about three months old. However, an early pregnancy symptom was total lack of interest in a needle... so I never made a quilt for her. Roll forward to this week and I realised we will be seeing the same friends at a wedding in mid May. Can I make a quilt with a small baby? Yes I can. The design is my own and I've made notes while stitching it up to turn it into a pattern. I am still on a bit of a hexagon kick but this is totally machine pieced. I cut the fabric during short naps on Thursday and pieced it Friday and yesterday. The background is a slightly mottled pale green and the hexagons are all from my stash and include some Art Gallery, Architextures, Pearl Bracelets, Kona Solids... I know how I want to quilt it, but I need to buy some backing an...

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...

I have four finished table runners to share today - three very different designs and techniques! First up is a finish that qualifies for the Finish Along - and has appeared on my list a few times now. I finally can share the finished piece with you. This was the very first English Paper Pieced project I ever started. It was my holiday project for Sidmouth in August 2012 and the colour scheme was inspired by a palette I found on Design Seeds . The fabrics are a bit of a mixture: lots of Art Gallery, some beautiful low volume texty fabrics and some proper black fabrics! The background is Primitive Muslin from Moda, the backing is Nature Elements from Art Gallery and the binding is Floral Elements from Art Gallery. I finished piecing the hexies months ago and did the applique when I stayed in Budapest in March.  Basting was interesting. And possibly a contributing factor in my current bad back! It took a lot of time to decide how to quilt it, but I dec...