Jennie's Threads

Well, not bad all things considered! Here is my final finish for the quarter: the mini quilt for the UK Mini Swap. I'll write up a proper full blog post once I've (hopefully) added in some extras I have planned and sent it. But this mini is just one of nine finishes! January saw my first rash of finishes - four in total! I finished of a couple of swap items with January deadlines - a Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug ... ...and a Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt. As well as making  a new mug rug  for my desk at work And with a final push and the help of my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes I finally completed my Essential Sampler quilt.  And then things slowed down a bit. Life got in the way and I got distracted by pretty new projects! But I did get a few more things ticked off: My February ALYoF goal was the Trellis baby quilt . And my March goal was the Preppy the Whale baby quilt And squeezing in at the last minute - two more mini...

A while back, I explained why I had trouble falling in love with my Patchwork City, and mentioned that I would love to try a mini version of it. Well once I'd put it out there I couldn't get the idea out of my head, so instead of working on one of my many on-going projects, I cut up some yellows and greys and went for it: a fair few of the pieces end up at just 1/2" wide (and a couple at 1/4"). My plan for this year is to have a different mug rug on my desk at work each month, then after that month add them to the wall of minis that I will have in our new house. My three Patchwork City blocks, with a bit of sashing and a border cam in at 9.5" x 9.5" - perhaps a little large for a mug rug but I don't care. I finished the mug rug off with some hand-quilting in yellow perle thread around each of the blocks. I then machine stitched the narrow binding to the back, and brought it round to the front where I hand stitched it in place with the same yell...

I love the start of a new year: there are lots of new projects popping up and I feel no guilt in joining them like I do the rest of the year (normally because I joined so many in January). And because of that there aren't too many finishes to share this month: Two mug rugs: one for the Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap - have you noticed my addiction for Urban Threads recently? Another for me using a Lucky Stars pattern and some morning sky inspiration for my colour palette. I finished off a mini quilt to send to my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap. I made two 2-in-1 zippy pouches to go with the swap parcels. And my final finish was the Essential Sampler Quilt - my oldest WIP. You can read al about how important this quilt is to me in this post. At the time of writing this, the Schnitzel and Book mini quilt has been received by @nwquiltedcat, but the mug rug is still in transit. I, however, have been very lucky with both of my packages. A fabulous parcel f...

So it may seem that I'm on a roll with these finishes, but after this, the next one is a good way off still. I made this block by accident (I totally mis-read my partner's likes for the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap). And by the time I realised I'd made over half of this block. It's just as well, because the centre of this block is bloody awful! So bad, that I've added a button... Luckily I loved the colours I'd picked and I had a brainwave: during December I loved having a little mug rug/mini quilt (cause I don't put my mug on it) on my desk at work. It let me dream of quilting whilst actually project managing... I hope my manager doesn't read this! So I've decided that for each month this year I will have a different mug rug on my desk. It's a great excuse to make a mini each month! And once the month is over I can add them to my mini quilt wall. My mini quilt wall doesn't exist yet, but when we move to our new house I am definitel...

I may have cut it to the wire with my Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt, but my Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug is done a week ahead of the deadline! Go me! My partner likes foxes, among other things, so I did a hunt for a fox design (no pun intended) - first I was looking for a paper piecing pattern, but nothing really grabbed me, so I moved on to an embroidery design and hit on the winter fox from my new favourite Urban Threads . I carried on the colour theme with a log cabin on two sides, then pulled out my perle threads for some hand quilting. There was a delay whilst I ordered orange (and a few other colours for good measure) but I finished this on Friday night. As I said before, a swap needs extras, and for this swap they had to continue the whimsical woodland theme. When I was hunting for fabric the other day I came across some hedgehog fabric which I've had for ages - I was sent it by Liz in Sweden and although I love it, inspiration has been lacking so I've never...

The little Christmas tree block I shared yesterday is now a finished mug rug and is cheering up my desk at work - I keep looking at it and smiling! I added some extra white strips to the edges to make it mug-rug shaped, free motion quilted a squiggle round the trees (quite badly - it's hard to quilt something so small - I kept falling off the edge and getting the foot stuck under the top fabric when I tried to get back on)! I cut really narrow binding - just 2" and used a tutorial I spotted just yesterday to bind it - the tutorial is from Crazy Mom Quilts and it would have worked fine, except I managed to twist the binding before sewing it into a loop.... I will try again! I finished it all off with a small amount of hand quilting in green perle cotton which for me just really makes it! The pattern is from Julianna and the fabrics are a mix from my stash including for the trees Pearl Bracelets, Nancy Halvorsen (I think), Pam Kitty Picnic; the tree trunks are Sweet ...

It's 3rd December and I am feeling totally un-Christmassy. In an attempt to find my Christmassy feeling I'm making myself a mug rug to have on my desk at work. It's come about because last week Julianna starting posting blocks for her #lastminutechristmassamplerqal and the Christmas tree block had to be made. I knew straight away. I've shrunk the pattern to a 6" block, rather than the original 12" block and I love it. I'll add some borders and some hand quilting, and most importantly, red binding. That should make me feel more Christmassy! Linking up with WIP Wednesday

My brother and his fiancee get married tomorrow. I decided last weekend to make them a present. Nothing like the last minute to get things done! Inspired by some of the mosaics I saw coming out of the Big Stitch Swap earlier this summer, I had a play with the periodic table to see what I could spell. There's a great website which lists a LOT of words which can be made from the elements... With some help from hubby we decided on His and Hers. I picked fabric and thread to match the colour scheme of their living room and started the embroidery. I got most of the way through "HErS" when I realised the bobbin of thread I was using was not going to be enough. That was fine - from my cross stitching days I have plenty of bobbins of most colours. I pulled out the other bobbins labelled 318. Out of four bobbins only one was the same colour. I don't know whether the dye lots were different or the people from whom I had inherited some of the threads had incorrectly labelled, ...

Half way through the year - it's hard to believe really! So what have I achieved this month? I finished the challenge quilt! Challenge because my Mum reckoned I couldn't make a double bed quilt in the time allowed! But I did, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I fell in love with the Tula Pink City Sampler : but I'm behind - I've only made 9 blocks. I did make the latest Lucky Stars block, but April still waits patiently I got in on the Zakka Along action and made some Pepper Coasters . I didn't get any further and I believe my book may have been borrowed..... And I finished two baby quilts : a cross quilt for Ellie-Jo, my beautiful little niece.... .....and this one, which I've called Murmurations, for a work colleague. I am horrifically behind on bee blocks - if you're reading this and expecting one from me, then I promise I'll get back on track this week! And we lost a tree ! (not as careless as it s...

I've jumped on the Zakka band wagon! Yesterday and today I made myself three Bell Pepper Coasters. What a fantastic design! These were really quick to put together and are so cute. They are finished, so not really a WIP but I would like to make at least one more so it's a set of three. I love a lot of the projects in the book, but I really can't commit to a project a week, so I think I'll pick and chose which weeks I join in with, depending on other stitching at the time. But I do have one enormous WIP this week: it's the quilt I'm making for Dad to give to some friends of his. I had planned on having a completed quilt top, but as you can see, it's looking a bit wonky in this picture. Michael's arms aren't quit long enough - there another row of blocks on the right too That's because I ran out of the yellow... again. There are two more rows which I couldn't sash at the weekend. I picked up more yellow yesterday but got distracted...

It's been a long time since I was so glad it was the weekend. In some respects this week has gone by very quickly. But I am super tired. Tomorrow is the wedding where I hand over two sets of place mats. So tired or not, tonight I had to finish the second set. And I have. Four place mats with a 6" foundation pieced star on each surrounded by Art Gallery Floral Elements. I wanted to keep the quilting simple, clean and away from the piecing, to let the stars shine, so I did a grid of organic lines, randomly spaced but similar across all four place mats, using my walking foot and Aurifil thread. So the final stats: each place mat is approx 15" x 11". The star blocks are from Don't Call Me Betsy and are 6" finished. The fabrics are all Art Gallery: Floral Elements for the background, Pure Elements for the solids and Oval Elements for the final fabric in he stars, the backing and the binding. I think this may be the first time I've actually boun...