Jennie's Threads

Two years after the Summer Sampler 2016 was announced, I finally have a finish! And it is so summery and colourful and I love it! I especially love the irony of finishing up the blocks and photographing them in the snow!  The fabrics I picked are Dreamin' Vintage by Jeni Baker from Art Gallery. I bought a fat quarter bundle when it first came out - on 11th May 2014 - four years ago! Then six months later, I picked up four metres of the large floral print in the sale for the backing of the as yet unstarted, unplanned quilt. It was so summery, that it was perfect for the Summer Sampler when details were first announced. I made the first block and didn't like it. I made the second block and I still didn't like it.  I was gutted. Whilst the fabrics were beautiful, they are all quite busy and lots are large scale and or directional. And I was struggling to make them work. I decided to add in some solids. I found a list of the coordinates on-line, and a UK...

Like an actual hat. One I can wear in public. I only have phone selfies to prove it though... I wore it out an about today. The pattern is from Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine (the latest issue) and I knew as soon as I saw it, that I would be making one. I ordered bias tape. And it took 2 weeks to arrive. But it did arrive yesterday ad by bedtime I had a finished hat. I used a grey Art Gallery print for the outside, and a bright pink texty/dressmaking fabric for the lining! It went together much easier than I expected: the parts that took longest were cutting it out using templates (yuck - templates) and hand stitching down the bias tape to finish it off. The biggest challenges were trying to press the seams - impossible! And attaching the self-cover button. I made the medium sized hat having measured my head, but it was way too big, so I added a small pleat to the back panel - it looks fine, though is still a bit loose. I bought fabric today to make another one - ...

I made a scarf. And I forgot to tell you. I used a pattern by Tie-Dye Diva , which is excellent. I have to confess that I don't understand how part of the pattern worked, but I blindly followed the instructions and it did work! As little of me as possible! The great thing about this pattern is that you can use any two fabrics you like - I used a large print from Modernology by Art Gallery and a Robert Kaufmann flannel. There was optional top stitching around the edge (the nifty part of the pattern that I didn't understand means you can stitch all the way round without stopping...). Next time I may not do the top stitching. Can you see my helpful assistant? The whole thing took me less than 30 minutes! There will definitely be a next time!

What started as a "I'll just try one block" has now ended as a full lap quilt that will hopefully bring comfort to a young lady waiting for a new heart. Today I finished it. That one block, quickly became two and ended up as 15. I was making them because I liked them. Until my sister-in-law told me about Chloe. It will be her who gifts this quilt. I originally thought I wouldn't be able to make this many blocks because I would be limited by my stash of text prints. In the end I had enough text but struggled to find fabrics that worked as the reels. Some of them are better than others! I had absolutely not intended the F to be visible! For the front I added a Kona Black border to the mixtapes and then brought it up to size with the quilters' favourite Ikea print! For the back I decided to piece a mega-sized mix tape - I upsized the original pattern and then rounded the numbers up and down so I wasn't cutting too many eighths of inches. It made my ...

I made a zippy pouch! You may have noticed on my Finish Along list that there were a fair few zippy pouches to complete. I've been making good progress on the embroidery that will be on each of them, but I couldn't find a perfect tutorial online for the right size pouch, so having made approximately three zippy pouches I decided have a go on my own... but no way I was jumping in and ruining some hand embroidery by getting my measurements wrong, so today I had a play. I mostly used this tutorial by Very Berry Hand Made , but I cut rectangles measuring 11.5" x 8.5" instead of using the pattern pieces and just boxed the corners by 1.5". The fabrics are all Color Me Retro by Jeni Baker - I really love these fabrics, but they don't often feature in my quilts, so this was a great opportunity to use them in a way that I will enjoy them regularly. I also used this project as an opportunity to practice my graffitti quilting . I'm hoping to use this type of qu...

We've just had a week of really lovely weather. This morning, however, Autumn has arrived with a vengeance: misty, grey, chilly. So a quilt pattern called Aspen Glow is starting to feel appropriate. It's week 2 and we've now caught up to where I was last year. I'm making this for a relative and picked out five of the fabrics from last year's Downton Abbey range from Andover, paired with Art Gallery Pure Elements in a cream colour. These aren't my style of fabrics, but they are beautiful and I was quite pleased to have an excuse to use them! The cutting for this quilt is extensive. I spent all day cutting. But the idea is you cut everything, bag it up, then chain piece the 10 different blocks.  I made my A blocks - these are quite straightforward. There's just lots of them. I made my B blocks - more to do, but still straightforward. It felt like there were hundreds of them. Now I need to make my C blocks - there seems to be qui...

Buoyed by my success earlier this week with a zip I decided to jump in at the deep end and make myself a Sew Together Bag . Four zips! My first zip attempt Except I ended up needing 6 zips, because I didn't secure the ends of zips and the pulls came off. Apparently that is terminal, so there was swearing and unpicking involved. And a trip to Hobbycraft to buy more! I have learned my lesson! Apart from this epic self-inflicted stupid fail, and despite being somewhat inexperienced with zips, I was amazed at how easy this was to put together. There were a few steps where I referred to the fantastic tutorials and photos from the Quilt Barn sew-along  and there was one step where I totally didn't understand the fold instructions for the zipper ends, so fudged it. This is definitely the hardest thing I've ever sewn! I can't wait to fill this with some hand sewing for my holiday next week! The fabrics on the outside are Pam Kitty Picnic, Dreamin' Vintage ...

At the weekend I mastered button holes . Today I had a go at zips! And whilst my first ever attempt isn't perfect, I am dead pleased with it! I made the key pouch from a tutorial by Fabric Mutt . he tutorial was so straightforward and the photos were perfect for a zipper virgin! I made one little addition - a strap and button - with another button hole - to keep my cards a bit more secure. The fabrics are Dreamin' Vintage from Art Gallery and Kona Solids. The lining is Moda Essential Dots in light grey. I did a touch of hand stitching on the back in perle cotton.

A new year means new projects and yesterday I started two! Both are sampler quilts. Let me explain... About 18 months ago I decided to make a quilt for my Uncle. He had seen my Farmer's Wife quilt top and spent ages looking at it in great detail. When someone shows that much interest in a quilt it's not a hard decision to want to make one for them. Add in the fact that he has a habit of falling asleep on the sofa and it's easy. While he was there we worked out what size quilt he would need, and for Christmas I asked for the book of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - I wanted to stick to 6" blocks and he really liked the jewel colours you get from using batiks but I was bored of the Farmer's Wife by this point. In February 2013 I bought the black batik background. And then I ignored it. Other projects took priority. Meanwhile I fell in love with a range of fabrics this time last year - Architextures by Caroline Friedlander. So much so that after ordering and playin...