Jennie's Threads

Ok - I am a quilt-long-aholic. I confess. I've signed up for another one. I've finished the yellow table cloth, so I am able to justify it. Honest. And if my husband asks, I am not buying any fabric for it - it's all coming out of my stash. Except for the sashing..... It's the Stained Quilt-Along from Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. I'm already planning a similar project for my Mum, using batik fabrics and bias applique (which I will be sewing on by hand and will take me forever - just as soon as I start it), but I love the idea and how modern the design is. I also have just about enough fabrics in lemon, lime green and orange for the project, which I bought with a different plan in mind with a black and white jellyroll.... but I have changed my mind - this will be a very cool lap quilt for my sofa! If you have few moments, check out the plan!

That is.... me teaching other people..... I'm actually really looking forward to it. One of my regular sewing buddies is my Mother-in-law, Linda. She has been talking about quilting to her colleagues and they want to have a go. So I've pulled together a series of eleven blocks, none of which I will pretend are original, for which I'll write tutorials, plus one foundation piecing pattern that I have found online. Over a number of sessions (at least eight to make the blocks) we'll make all twelve blocks and end up with a lap quilt.... sounds easy doesn't it! The idea is that the blocks are very straightforward, but will gradually teach the skills to make sampler blocks. The first session will look at rotary cutting, pressing seams, matching seams and getting use to the quarter-inch foot. Then we'll gradually move on to flying geese units, half square triangles and head towards curved seams and and foundation piecing. This is the first block, which I'v...

So I've had an idea - it's called Relegation Rescue Please feel free to let me know if it's daft. I was inspired after last month's Friday Night Sew In - I pulled out the yellow tablecloth I'd started for my Mum, which I had shoved in the cupboard and which was in danger of being relegated. I unpicked the bit I didn't like and within a week the tablecloth had been promoted to a finish, as I fell back in love with it - the comments people left on my blog really spurred me on again. So my idea is kind of based on the English football leagues (bear with me if you're not a sports fan - it does get quilty). In the top league, the Premiership, there are 20 clubs who play each other twice in a season and at the end of the season, the three with the lowest number of points get relegated. Newcastle United have been there, done that. And hopefully won't again. And we all have quilts that we started and then fell out of love with. With all of these quilts...

I am so sad to see the end of January - I have had a fantastic month with my sewing and I really hope this continues into February. Here are some of the things I've been working on: Although we are on a break from the Farmer's Wife , I've made five blocks - two I had cut out before Christmas, one replacement (two still to do), one monster block that I had totally abandoned in July and I still don't like) and a 6" version of Swoon. As mentioned, I gave in to the communal swooning by joining the Swoon Along - it's up to 765 members. I've made 3 in the original 24" size, three in the 12" size, which I love, and my mini 6" Swoon. I signed up for the Chasing Chevrons quilt along before Christmas and finally made a start in January. I finished this quilt top last week and I have decided to back it with flannel and no wadding. I also signed up for the Oh My Stars Quilt-along before Christmas. I got the fabric for this project as a Christmas present...

So - I signed up for the Free Motion Quilting challenge from Sew Cal Girl.... The January challenge was leaves. The video tutorial was exxcellent. My skills, not so much. This is my first attempt at Free Motion Quilting. It's not tooooooo bad. But I am definitely not going to be risking it on a quilt anytime soon. Lots more practice is needed.... I'm happy with the shape of some of the leaves, but not others, and trying to go back over stitches seems to be a bit of an area for improvement. This is the view from the back Hopefully one of these tutorials each month will help me improve.

The yellow tablecloth that I rescued from relegation last week is finished!!! I hope you like it, Mum. Last week as my project for the Friday Night Sew In I pulled out this beauty that I had been ignoring because I had to do some unpicking. The unpicking took ten minutes and I quilted over half the quilt top last weekend. This weekend I pulled it out again, cleared my sewing table and quilted the rest of it. It only took a few more hours. Then it took that time again to sort out all the thread ends. This morning I could see the finish line. While Nadal and Djokovich slugged it out in the tennis, I made my binding, attached the binding with my machine and then stitched it all down by hand. This is the fabric for the binding before I cut it up - isn't it gorgeous? Unfortunately I bought it before I appreciated the importance of knowing what the fabric was, so I have no idea - all I can tell you is that it is a batik, it's very pretty and I had the last piece ...

Today I finished the Chasing Chevrons Quilt Top from That Girl That Quilt . I struggled to get a good photo of it as it is dark and my quilt-holder-upper is not home from work yet. I'll try again at the weekend, but I'm too excited to wait till then to share it! I have been working on this since last weekend when all of a sudden, the end came into sight! On Tuesday night I finished the last of the Chevrons, cut the plain squares and decided on a layout. The final piecing went together very quickly and I'm so pleased with how accurate my seams are. Although quite a straightforward pattern, I learnt a lot from this design: 1. It was the first project I started on my new machine where seams and seam allowances mattered, so I've learnt the spot on my machine for a perfect quarter of an inch (doesn't mean I hit it every time - sometimes I miss it) 2. A new way of making four HSTs at once . Although the technique results in bias edges, I was careful with them and they did...