Jennie's Threads

You may remember that at the start of the year, Mia and I were making Snail blocks. One block every Sunday. The original plan was 42 weeks and 42 snails as part of a quilt along with @gnomeangel. Well half way through, the plan changed and the quilt along was shortened to end in July. Which was perfect: I had a brainwave. How about I finish all 42 blocks by July and turn them into a picnic blanket for our holiday? So that's what I did. Scattered through the post are some of our favourite snails. Mia picked the feature fabric for most of the snails. I snuck in a few of my favourite fabrics. My niece, Ellie-Jo picked a few when she was visiting on a Sunday, and even Jess picked a couple. The block was designed by Pen and Paper Patterns and is all rotary cut. I framed each of my blocks and alternated a black or a white background to give me a chequerboard finish to the quilt. My next brainwave was to use a shower curtain as the backing to make it slightly more water-r...

At a snails pace my snail quilt is coming along. And I realise I haven't shared any snaily updates recently. This week I took the opportunity of open floor space to lay out all the snails so far. Except the 2 I couldn't find. I'm hopeful that the chequerboard effect of black and white background will pull together what is otherwise a rather haphazard and Mia-driven colour scheme! The plan from here is to continue making snails until I have 42 blocks. Once together in a quilt top, I have bought a very lovely shower curtain for the backing, and this will become a picnic blanket for our summer holidays. I have until the end of July to make this happen! Any tips on sewing with shower curtain greatly received!

It's been a while since I shared mine and Mia's little escargatoire, so here are our recent additions. Mia picks the fabrics: can you tell what her favourite colour is? #snailday #gardensnailsquilt #jennieandmiasescargatoire

Time for a bit of a snaily update. Here are the snails we've made since I last shared:  Literally the only photo of this snail where it isn't covered by a small hand. So it's a little fuzzy.... Two blocks this week as my neice was here and both her and Mia made a block: Mia picked the lime green and EJ picked the pink.    The ponies wanted in on the action! The flower print is from Art Gallery.   This shell fabric is one of the first fabrics I ever bought and whilst I love it, I've always struggled to use it. Perfect for a shell! Some weeks Mia helps and presses buttons on the sewing machine. Other weeks she just picks the fabric.

Whenever Angie @gnomeangel announces a quilt along over on Instagram, you know it's going to be a good one. She's responsible for The Farmers Wife 1930s quilt along, and the #100days100blocks. Of course she has a couple of things kicking off at the start of 2017 and one of them is #snailday #gardensnailsquilt. I wasn't going to join in this one. But as I was browsing Instagram this morning, Mia saw the snails and declared undying love. As we scrolled through the pictures she named each snail she saw after family members. Life with a two-year-old is definitely entertaining. So I thought this could be a project for both of us. Mia loves pressing the buttons on my sewing machine, and helping, so this could be a project to work on together. We started today with the fabric used on her new cushion, a bit of navy and a light background. In the future she can pick out the fabric for the snail's shell, and I'll choose the body and the background - we're going ...