Jennie's Threads

The highlight of my March sewing was a finish! Before she arrives, Baby's Sunrise quilt is finished. You can read all about it here ! My other finish of the month was a dolls house. I had a great time making this at a workshop and added loads of detail playing with felt. There are lots more photos on this blog post . And the rest of the month has been about blocks again. I've made real progress on the Patchwork of the Crosses, not just piecing - 11 blocks - but also cutting for the next eight blocks - that should keep me going for the next couple of years. I've made 7 Farmers Wife Blocks - you can see some here , and I made these four in the last couple of days: Sixteen #365 Blocks (I'm a little behind with these) A couple of Splendid Sampler blocks and the first block of a new project - the Jane Austen Family Album quilt . Including the work to get the Sunrise quilt finished, this brings me to a total of 64 bl...

I've been a bit short on finishes this quarter - the focus has been on blocks. But I have what must be a final finish to share with you today. And it was the most important from my list at the start of the quarter. It's the quilt for the new Baby. The pattern: this is heavily inspired by a pattern by Lee at Freshly Pieced called Wavelength . Unfortunately I'm unable to buy the pattern as I live in the EU, so instead I drafted my own foundation template at a size that would give me the right size finished quilt. The colours: this palette has been knocking around my head for nearly a year - we get some spectacular sunrises on the North East coast in the UK, and the colours really are stunning: white, yellows, oranges, corals, pinks, purples, blue and navy. This seemed nice and girly and the idea of a sunrise also appropriate. The fabric: I cut all the fabric at once. I didn't have enough of the light blue Botanics cross hatch for the background in my stash but ...

It's been a while since I made any blocks - I've been working on the Sunrise quilt for Baby - on Monday I got it pieced: Yesterday I got it quilted, and I've sewn down half of the binding, so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a finish! Today I sat down to the #365blocks: the last one I completed was the block for 10th March. So two weeks to catch up. Today I focused on the most recent blocks - it meant I could enter this week's link up, and to be honest, they looked easier! I'll work on the mitred corners tomorrow. Maybe. I enjoyed these blocks - nothing too complex, all turned out more or less the right size, I like my fabric choices except for the busy blue one... The green block on the left is called Pineapple flower which is appropriate for this week: one of the myths for inducing labour is to eat pineapple: further checking online would suggest that in order to get enough of the chemical that could have an impact, I'd need to ...

Last Saturday I went to my first sewing workshop in nearly 9 months! It was wonderful - a full day of uninterrupted sewing! The workshop was to make a small carry along dolls house - perfect for Mia and her little sister (who currently seems quite comfortable where she is, despite a small scare last Thursday - 3 hours monitoring her heartbeat and everyone confirmed she was ok and I didn't need the C-Section that they had mentioned at the start!). Ahead of the workshop I not only picked out all the fabrics I wanted to use, but I also made a couple of inserts to add to the interior of the dolls house - the options are endless, but I knew we would have limited time on the day to decorate and prettify, so this was the solution. I grabbed my felt stash and made a kitchen, complete with fridge, freezer, sink, pans.... and a flower in the window (added after this photo)! In addition to the photo, is a small oven/cooker unit, with Sunday roast cooking inside! I've included some of Mi...

It's been a slightly sparser week in terms of blocks this week. I was really pleased that I was pretty much up to date on the Farmer's Wife blocks, with the exception of a few that I want to replace. Then I ran out of the white fabric I've been using. I sent a sample off to the shop I bought it from, discovered it was Makower 001 plain white, and asked for 7 metres (I have a sashing plan that is fabric hungry). The shop didn't have 7m but promised me a trip to her wholesaler this week. Unfortunately it seems that the dye has changed and rather than being a slightly off-white white, which I've been using, it's now a white white. Bugger. So I've bought the half metre they still had in stock, and I've taken a risk on some Ebay fabric - the listing said only 3m left so I'm praying it's an old bolt and is still the off white (if it isn't then 3m of white fabric is hardly going to go to waste...). And then once I've pieced the blocks, I'll ...

I know that the WIP Wednesday link up isn't happening any more, but I'm going to try and keep up with it, as a prompt so that I do actually blog. One of the reasons I'm blogging less is because a lot of the sewing I'm doing at the moment is 'just' blocks, and I worry I might bore you. But this blog is as much for me as for you, so prepare to be bored during this year of the block. On the plus side, at some point, next year (or more likely the year after) there'll be a few (hopefully) fantastic quilts coming out of this block drive! First up my first block for a new project. A few years ago I came across the Basic Grey fabric line 'Sweet Serenade'. I liked it, but it's not very me. But that didn't stop me buying a few fat quarters. It then struck me how perfect it would be for a good friend, who in making her subtle hints about a quilt had mentioned "beach colours". I'm pretty sure that the blue is sea-y and the peach from this...

It's March! Already! February just flew by! I feel like I did a lot of sewing, but don't have masses to show for it as I was mostly working on the individual blocks which I've already shared in these blog posts here and here . The final total for the month is 64 blocks! I'm nearly up to date on the Farmer's Wife - as of last night four blocks to make. I made 10 blocks in February bringing my total to 40. I'm nearly up to date on the #365quiltchallenge - I made 27 in February and have two 3" blocks and the centre medallion to catch up on. I made three Splendid Sampler blocks, there's one I don't like enough to make and another waiting for me. I've started Mia's big girl quilt (finally) with two blocks. And just yesterday I finally made a little more progress on the Baby's quilt with 4 blocks, which is just as well because her due date is getting closer - Five and a half weeks to go! I've also made 3 hand pi...