Jennie's Threads

I don't pre-wash. Well, not often anyway. I pre-washed the fabric for Mum's yellow tablecloth. I even pre-washed the wadding because we were trying to avoid the crinkly-quilt look because it would be a tablecloth. I pre-washed the fabrics for Steph's quilt, because they were batiks. (note to self - MUST get a move on with this quilt!) I didn't pre-wash the batiks for my Farmer's Wife. A risk, I know. It could seriously have backfired. Tonight was the night I found out whether this was a huge mistake.... or whether I had got away with it. I put in eight colour catchers! They went in white. Here's how they came out. Of course, if it had been a huge disaster, I wouldn't be writing this post. The risk paid off and I now have a slightly crinkly and very soft Farmer's Wife Quilt. This was seconds after it came out of the tumble drier - it was sooooo warm I couldn't resist it - yes that's me in there - I look slimmer hidden in a...

So I've had an idea - it's called Relegation Rescue Please feel free to let me know if it's daft. I was inspired after last month's Friday Night Sew In - I pulled out the yellow tablecloth I'd started for my Mum, which I had shoved in the cupboard and which was in danger of being relegated. I unpicked the bit I didn't like and within a week the tablecloth had been promoted to a finish, as I fell back in love with it - the comments people left on my blog really spurred me on again. So my idea is kind of based on the English football leagues (bear with me if you're not a sports fan - it does get quilty). In the top league, the Premiership, there are 20 clubs who play each other twice in a season and at the end of the season, the three with the lowest number of points get relegated. Newcastle United have been there, done that. And hopefully won't again. And we all have quilts that we started and then fell out of love with. With all of these quilts...

I am so sad to see the end of January - I have had a fantastic month with my sewing and I really hope this continues into February. Here are some of the things I've been working on: Although we are on a break from the Farmer's Wife , I've made five blocks - two I had cut out before Christmas, one replacement (two still to do), one monster block that I had totally abandoned in July and I still don't like) and a 6" version of Swoon. As mentioned, I gave in to the communal swooning by joining the Swoon Along - it's up to 765 members. I've made 3 in the original 24" size, three in the 12" size, which I love, and my mini 6" Swoon. I signed up for the Chasing Chevrons quilt along before Christmas and finally made a start in January. I finished this quilt top last week and I have decided to back it with flannel and no wadding. I also signed up for the Oh My Stars Quilt-along before Christmas. I got the fabric for this project as a Christmas present...

The yellow tablecloth that I rescued from relegation last week is finished!!! I hope you like it, Mum. Last week as my project for the Friday Night Sew In I pulled out this beauty that I had been ignoring because I had to do some unpicking. The unpicking took ten minutes and I quilted over half the quilt top last weekend. This weekend I pulled it out again, cleared my sewing table and quilted the rest of it. It only took a few more hours. Then it took that time again to sort out all the thread ends. This morning I could see the finish line. While Nadal and Djokovich slugged it out in the tennis, I made my binding, attached the binding with my machine and then stitched it all down by hand. This is the fabric for the binding before I cut it up - isn't it gorgeous? Unfortunately I bought it before I appreciated the importance of knowing what the fabric was, so I have no idea - all I can tell you is that it is a batik, it's very pretty and I had the last piece ...

Yesterday was Friday Night Sew In . I could have chosen any of the current WIPs (of which there are many) but.... ...I have a few projects sitting in the relegation zone at the moment - they are currently on my WIP list but if I ignore them for much longer they may have to be relegated to the UFO list. The Yellow Tablecloth was one such project. It's not that I don't like it - I love working with these colours and it's for a very special person - my Mum. I have mentioned the Yellow Table Cloth on my blog before, but I don't think I told you the background: In August 2010 we went on our normal summer holiday to Sidmouth in Devon for the folk music festival. You can't have a summer holiday in Britain without at least one rainy day (if you only have one then you are very lucky). At Sidmouth 2010 the Wednesday was the rainy day. Mum and I were half way down the high street when the heavens opened, so we dashed into the nearest shop, a news agents. I have never seen suc...

This summer is the summer of finishing projects (and if the last few weeks are anything to go by, also the the summer of buying fabric). The first project I decided to concentrate on is now finished! This is my finished Wilding Angels Quilt. The colour hasn't come out very well, but it's a dark, rich red and the thread matches this. I bought all the patterns and materials on my 25th birthday. 18 months later and the quilt is now hanging in our dining room. I had a few issues on route - I was so enjoying the stitcheries that I didn't want to do them too quickly, so I took a break, then when I cam to stitch the central panel, the calico I had bought to stitch it on had faded in the sun, so I had tobuy some new fabric - luckily it's fairly standard. Lesson learnt: store things away from direct sunlight. Then I cam to make up the final quilt and there was a problem with the pieces I have cut - I don't know what happened, but I ended up needing some more...

Mum, Dad, me, Michael, Linda, Roy and Jan We are back from our holiday! We had a fantastic time! We spent the first day with my parents in Bedforshire and as well as going to see the new Harry Potter film (which was excellent), we went to Threads and Patches in Milton Keynes. I bought some batik fabrics for my (much neglected) Farmer's Wife Quilt. And Mum found some fabrics in turquoise and lemon that she liked for a double bed quilt in what use to be my bedroom. Linda also got some very nice fabrics. We drove to Sidmouth on the Friday for Sidmouth Folk Week . It was a fantastic week of concerts, workshops, morris men, shopping and eating. And...oh dear.... we found another patchwork shop.... Maisie Daisy . I have never seen a smaller patchwork shop - no bolts, just fat quarters, fat eights and fat sixteenths, but Pauline was so friendly that we spent quite a while with her at various times during the week. It was fantastic because I could buy lots of different fabrics ...

How time flies when you are having fun! It is nearly two weeks since I last posted and I haven't finished much in that time. I have been getting on with a lot of different projects.... but not really finishing any. The Vignette quilt continues. I have done over half of the embroidery on the first block and it is looking gorgeous and I have started piecing the second and third blocks - I have another 6 Shoo Fly blocks to make, then it will be fully pieced, ready for transferring the embroidery designs. I hope to get it ready for the embroidery this weekend, as it will be ideal for my holiday stitching. I have embroidered all of the June Calendar Girls and mostly made up the mini quilts, but I still have the hand finishing to go. Last weekend we were back at the Fat Quarters for out Nikki Tikler sampler quilt class: we made up the Wedding Ring design. I decided to stitch mine together backwards (it was choice not mistake!) and the end result looks like a flower. I have also s...

Hello So it's been a while since I updated. The Wilding Angels: The Wilding Angels quilt from Letters Tied with Blue is now fully embroidered, so I have six angels and a large central panel. I have also pieced it - though this nearly ended in disaster - I don't know whether it was my cutting, or the destructions, but the top and bottom panels ended up 2 inces shorter than the central panel, which couldn't be reduced. The original shop where I had bought the beautiful red fabric had sold out, so we went on a major hunt for the same fabric. We finally found it in another local quilting shop, where I bought the final meter from the bolt. It was a perfect match so the quilt front is now pieced. I'm backing it with some fairly plain fabric from French General (from the Lumiere de Noel range). It's all tacked together and I have made a small start on the hand quilting. This project is getting very close to completion, but I've loved doing it, so when Mum said tha...

A new year means some new projects. The first of these projects started in December and will continue all year. Back in September, Debbie, from Letters Tied with Blue, asked me to stitch some models for her, which I have done. It is a set of 12 Calendar Girlies, one for each month. I decided to stitch the set as Christmas presents. Initally I planned to do a set for Granny and a set for Sheila, then we had the idea that Aunty Mary and Aunty Margaret would like it too. Then Aunty Barbara said how much she would like them, and Linda made some less than subtle comments. In the end I stitched 6 January Calendar Girlies which I gave as Christmas presents with the promise that Miss January would be followed by 11 sisters throughout the year. This is Miss January (one of my favourites). The fabric came from the Fat Quarters - I thought it looked wintry without being Christmassy. Throughout January I was stitching 6 Miss Februaries. This fabric also came from the Fat Quar...

I have now located a USB cable and here are the photos of the too-small mobile phone cases - despite size issues, they are very pretty. This is the front of Vicky's mobile phone case - it's plain dye purple fabric, then I used a rubber stamp to put on the daisies, then stitched over them in DMC 210 - there were an awful lot of French knots.... Here is the back of the phone case. I haven't actually done anything to it, but I just loved the fabric so much I had to share it - I bought it as a 20p scrap from the Mill in Barton (I still have some left over), and it was only when I came to use it that I realised we had bought the same design of fabric, but in red, to go in Mum's tablecloth. And this is the front of the second mobile phone case (ye to be checked for size). The fabrics are off-cuts from the cupcake quilt (picked by Steph). The flower design is stamped on the contrasting fabric (that I...