Jennie's Threads

It's been a while since I wrote a post about the Farmer's Wife quilt hasn't it? My 1920s Farmer's Wife Quilt made in batiks Well, I'm starting on a new one. We've moved on from the 1920s farmer's wife to the 1930s: a new book, 99 new blocks and considerably more pieces. There are two quilt alongs happening: one organised by Kerry and the other by Angie . There's a Facebook group with nearly 4000 members. I'm a sucker for a sampler quilt and a sucker for a quilt-along, so I'm diving in. Last time I was pregnant I made the City Sampler quilt (as yet unfinished), so this pregnancy - and undoubtedly beyond - I will make a Farmer's Wife quilt. But if the children think they are getting their paws on any of these quilts, they can think again! Lots of people have been posting photos of their fabric pull for the quilt - the specially-curated bundle offered online contains 50 fat quarters, so it's clear you need variety. This is my fabri...

I signed up for the modern fabric postcard swap on a bit of a whim. I'd never come across fabric postcards before (but got a lovely arty one from Lin a few years ago - she might call it a fabric postcard, but it's beyond anything I could achieve with fabric!). It sounded so simple: make three postcards and send by the end of September. I got my partners in July. Loads of time. And that's the killer isn't it - I knew none of the postcards would take long, so I kept putting them off. And then I fell ill with pregnancy and disaster was on the horizon. Luckily I found a little bit of sewjo in time to complete the three postcards just a few days late. This is the first time I've ever been late with a swap, and it doesn't feel great...  My machine did not enjoy the free motion applique through the thick interfacing and a lot of the dark thread from the front created a knotted mess on the back, which you can see through the fabric... so rather than make...

Time flies when you're throwing up in the morning, and it's been a couple of months since I did a bit of a review. So here's what August and September looked like: We found out that we are expecting again - Mia will be a big sister in April next year. We spent a week in Sidmouth , and Mia has got over her fear of Morris Men, which is just as well really. This is Dad in Mendip kit. There hasn't been much sewing, but what has happened has been focused on my La Passacaglia project - this photo is a month old now, so I'll do a post soon to show recent progress. I completed my Thimbleblossoms Mini swap: But then as August progressed, the Harry Potter swap started stressing me out a bit - with limited energy, I struggled to complete this on time - but I just managed it and sent off my interpretation of The Burrow on the deadline! I've also re-read all 7 of the books in the last few weeks. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten and ho...

This weekend we stayed with my parents and went to the wedding of an old school friend. It was one of those wedding invites that didn't come with a gift list. And as I haven't seen this old school friend in quite a few years, and never met her now husband before, I had no idea what to give them. If in doubt, sew something. I can at least be sure that no one else got them the same thing! I did some pinning, and came across this pin , which linked back to a no-longer-open Etsy shop. I googled a bit and found nothing more except broken links - all I know is that the original design was by someone called Bec Groves. With the printer not working, I ended up redrawing the image I had found. I surprised myself at how well that step went.  I also added in names and date which weren't part of the original. My finished embroidery is definitely a copy of the pin I found, but with a few personal touches. As well as the names and date, I also did a chunkier leaf border using fea...

In the current sewing drought I forgot to share something with you that I actually finished. Back in July. It was an extra for the Thimble Blossoms mini quilts swap. I work on the basis that everyone loves zippy pouches and you can never have too many! I used a mini charm pack of Odds and Ends by Julie Comstock which I've had for ages. I always struggle to know how to use them, but this was the perfect project: I laid them out in two 5x4 grids, carefully positioning the lowest volume charms together on one side. This gave me a canvas for a small sewing machine embroidery. It's hand stitched in one or two strands of DMC stranded cotton in dark grey and I added some basic cross hatch quilting by machine. The 5x4 layout left two mini charms over, which I used to add tags to each end of the zip when I made the pouch up. Unfortunately I totally forgot to square off the corners! And I struck gold with this extra - apparently the fabric line was one of my partner's f...

Five posts in the last two months is pretty low for me, so it's about time I told you why... It turns out that when I'm pregnant and in the first trimester, I have energy for anything! Baby is due early April and I'm now 13 weeks in and starting to feel like I have a little more energy - if only the sickness and nausea were starting to abate as well! I did manage to turn on my sewing machine yesterday so hopefully some more sewing in the near future!

I signed up for a lot of swaps this year, and I couldn't resist a Harry Potter mini quilt swap. I read the books when they came out and I love the films so this had to be done. But it took me a long time to decide on a quilt to make, because this kind of novelty sewing really isn't me at all. I'd started collecting ideas on a Pinterest board , and loved the patronus ideas, but wasn't sure I could pull them off as well as I wanted. And then I came across the quote from Ron about the Burrow "It's not much, but it's home." I couldn't get this idea out of my head. My first idea was to paper piece it, but as soon as I sketched out what I had in mind that seemed like a really stupid idea. Free motion applique for the win. And even then it took some thought, making sure I got the layers right! I finished the building and wasn't sure whether it was right. So I keep adding free motion details of plants, and driveway until the house seeme...