Jennie's Threads

If you're on Instagram you might have seen a flurry of teeny tiny pincushions recently.... there's been a bit of a party, and I couldn't help but join in! I took the opportunity to make some tiny pincushions for my guild buddies for our recent retreat (more on that to come!). Here are most of the pinnies all together, but the hexagon one below was made a bit later so missed the group show. It's made from a tutorial by @cloudtori and uses some Zuma fabric and Tula Pink Designer Solids. This scrap of Alison Glass fabric was begging for some embroidery and I know just the person who loves green I couldn't resist this little frog so made him into a teeny tiny polaroid block A scrap of Liberty left over from my Summer Sampler cobined with some really lovely Essex Linen and the cutest pink button. A pineapple. Of course. He's a little but wonky.... This is one of two tiny embroidered pinnies each finishing at 1.5" square. The den...

Just after Joshua was born, I was scrolling through Instagram and happened upon this year's Mini Dresden Party #minidresdenparty2019 and as Michael was holding the baby, and it looked pretty quick, I decided to make one up. An hour or so later I had a little Dresden, all appliqued to some background. I obviously had my normal Dresden issue... there are not the same number of blades in this as there were in the pattern... this always happens to me! I used scraps from my Mandolin Quilt so they are mostly Spirit Animal by Tula Pink but with the odd added extra! Then I got distracted by other pretty things and Baby Joshua...Fast forward to writing my Quarter 2 Finish Along list. The Dresden was still lurking on my sewing table, waiting to be finished as... something. I added it to the list. And then last week, I was looking for a piece of fabric and stumbled across it. I thought it would be a quick finish as a pincushion. Just whack on a back and stitch up the opening. Easy. I c...

There's a bit of an ugly Christmas Sweater thing going on over on Instagram. I didn't pay it much attention to start with. And then I kept seeing it pop up. I checked out the pattern. Decided I didn't love it enough to pay £5. But I kept seeing it and thinking about it. So today I happily paid my £5 and made one straight away! This is now the world's largest Christmas pincushion! The penguin fabric was something I received in a swap somewhere along the line. I didn't have much, but managed to cut out the front of the jumper, and the full backing square for the pincushion. The green for the sleeves doesn't quite much but #sewmystash2016 ! And you can't beat red polka dots, can you?  I didn't really intend to make any more of these... but it's the perfect size to add into the Splendid Sampler as a replacement for one of the blocks I'm not so keen on - perhaps not a Christmassy themed one though. And I do have a snowman print from the sam...

So the headline for June was 88 blocks completed! That brings me to 371 for the year and my new years resolution of a block a day has been smashed by the half-way point! The 88 came from so many different projects - where to start? There were of course many #365 blocks - 29 of them. I'm catching up on this project - about a month behind now, but none of the blocks are easy: for 6"x6" they certainly pack in the complexity. I'm enjoying the workout, but I'd love to be up to date. We've just moved back on to the 3" blocks which tend to be simpler, so this is my chance. I'm hoping to be up to date by my holiday at the end of the month!  Twenty-six blocks were for the Jane Austen Sampler quilt . Although I don't have a photograph, all of the blocks are now completed and the sashing done, and border (with mitred corners!) added. This quilt is a monster at 86"x 100". I'm waiting on a cotton sheet to arrive for my backing, and then ...

This week has been about preparation, rather than sewing. I'm still hoping to meet my deadline of a full sized quilt by mid July - it's for friends that we don't see often - by which I mean, once a year, and that once a year is coming up quickly. I'm using Sweet Serenade by Basic Grey for Moda, which was released a few years ago now. I confess when I first bought it, I didn't have a plan for it, I just knew I liked it. But I also knew that it wasn't really my normal fabric choice. It was fabric I would enjoy sewing with, but perhaps not the end result so much. Then I realised it's colour scheme was perfect for these friends. I've spent this week cutting out all the pieces for the remaining 20 blocks. And by Thursday night when I finished I was feeling like I hadn't achieved much. Obviously I had and when I started piecing the blocks, they went together beautifully quickly. But I needed a quick finish on Friday Earlier this month, Fat Qu...