Jennie's Threads

I had been planning to post this once my partner received this parcel. According to tracking, it was delivered 10 days ago, and I haven't heard a word from my partner, so I'm assuming she has a good excuse and I'm sharing this anyway.... This is it. My last swap commitment. I am absolutely not signing up for anything more until Baby is here and we are settled into some kind of routine - so maybe 10 years time if I'm lucky (I haven't said what sort of routine). Even if I am very, very tempted. My partner, gave me a really clear list of likes - designs and colours. This made it so easy for me to put together a quilt for her. The design is by Julianna @sewingunderrainbow and appeared in an old issue of Love Patchwork of Quilting. I knew way back when I first saw it that I wanted to make the quilt, so when I was cutting the fabrics for this swap quilt, I cut double, so hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll have a matching quilt/cushion cover. However, li...

Well this BOM is going better than some others... it's month two and I have made the block during the month! I've got this far before - next month will be the real test of it! Curves this month, but just one block, rather than two. I love how this turned out. I did my curves following Leanne's curves video . I've used this in the past and it is brilliant, but it had been a while since I've sewn a curve so I needed a refresher. I didn't use a single pin on the curves and my mothe-in-law declared she hated me - so Linda, if you read this, follow the link above to learn the secret for yourself! Whilst curves were conquered, basic piecing was more an issue - spot the deliberate mistake...which I kind of like and won't be fixing!

It's been ages since I did anything to the Skill Builder BOM except for very slowly sewing together hexagons for one of the earlier blocks. That particular block, and the second EPP block from April are close to completion, but not there yet. Instead today I've been working on some of the more recent blocks and learning a few new techniques. Boosted by my new applique tools (you can read more about them here ) I started last night preparing the pieces for the September blocks. I had originally planned applique, but I have quite a few hand sewing projects at the moment and my machine does do a lovely blanket stitch, so I changed my mind. Here is Liberty Floral And Modern Beauty. Two blocks that had me intrigued when the tutorials were first posted were the next two I tacked - curves.... but not your regular drunkard path. Saturn involved an inset circle, and flanges which I've done just once before, and was far quicker than I had thought possible... ....an...

Have you noticed I have a bit of a thing for Art Gallery fabrics recently. They are just SO pretty. In the last two days I have started two new projects, both with Art Gallery. Fireworks This is a new(ish) pattern from Camille Roskelly (who also designed Swoon) and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make my own version. I was just waiting for the perfect fabric. In the end I was a close decision between Luxe in Bloom or Rock and Romance (both Art Gallery), and I went for Rock and Romance - the combination of purple, peach and grey is just so unusual, yet so pretty. I made the first of sixteen blocks last night. The background is Art Gallery Pure Elements in ash. Double Wedding Ring I can remember when my Grandparents lived at Datchworth, my Granny was making a double wedding ring quilt. They moved when I was 12, so this was at least 15 years ago I would say. She used templates, and cut all the fabrics by hand and hand pieced a whole quilt. It was beautiful - ve...

I should have gone to bed about two hours ago, but I am addicted. To tiny little 4.5" patchwork blocks. In the last four days I have made 11 Dear Jane blocks and finished an eighth. I just can't stop. For those of you who missed my last post, I have a plan to use the quilt as you go technique on this quilt to make it more manageable - I hate sashing, so this breaks down that task into small pieces, and I want to hand quilt this project, which would simply not happen if I was working on the full quilt. I've decided to work on 9 blocks at a time and today I've been working on the first of these. B-3: Mirror Image. The fabric is one of my all time favourites and is from Art Gallery. I used curved piecing on this block. B-2: Sweet Tater Pie. This fabric is one of my more recent favourites, Architextures and was a challenge for me. After my not quite so successful attempt at applique at the weekend I changed the technique this time round. I ironed the freezer paper to...

Another day off. I could get use to this! And today marks another finish on my Quarter 1 Finish Along goals. The Pac Mania Jelly Roll quilt is finished. I started this quilt as part of a class back in July last year. The pattern is from Jelly Roll Dreams by Pam and Nicky Lintott and I used a Jelly Roll of Ruby which I had got as a Christmas present. The background is Kona Snow. I signed up for the class because I wanted to work on my curved piecing, and it was really good practice of shallower curves before I tackled my Mod Pop quilt. However, in my eagerness to learn to stitch curves I overlooked the practical aspect of a quilt that was mostly white in a house with two dogs (not to mention my husband). And once I had realised this I I fell out of love with the quilt. I picked it up again over Christmas when I was going through what I had done in 2012 and decided to get it finished and a home would present itself. So I put it on the Finish Along list, pieced what was...

One down, four to go - quilts for Christmas, that is! Today I quilted and bound my Mod Pop Quilt. I started this with Leanne's QAL and used my collection of browns and blues which turn out to be mostly from Pure by Sweetwater (I really do have a bit of a Sweetwater thing), but there are some other random fabrics added in. This was the first time I've done a quilt with lots of curves - I've done a sampler block of a drunkards path and I'm working on my Pac Mania quilt which is large scale curves, but Mod Pop was proper curves. Leanne has a great video for how to sew curves without pins. I think if I had had to pin all of these curves, this quilt would never have been made! There were loads of options for quilting this. The way Leanne quilted her first Mod Pop is stunning, but it was a bit too modern for the recipient of this quilt, so I went for a free motion stipple in the "background" - the brown - and left the blue un-quilted so that it po...

Before I went to Budapest I had finished making the curved units for my Mod Pop Quilt and I had made one block. At least, that was what I thought. Leanne set 2nd December as a deadline for finishing the quilt top in her Quilt Along, and I figured that if I picked up my machine on Saturday morning and spent most of Saturday and Sunday stitching, I could get my quilt top finished for then. Yesterday, I didn't get a chance to sew. So this morning I started... and made six blocks before I ran out of curved units.... I was 32 short, so out came the templates, and the scissors and off I went. It is now 11 o'clock and I have a finished Mod Pop top! Not all of my seams are perfect as I would have liked. And it doesn't have the level of contrast that I had hoped for (the photo makes it look worse than it actually is, but it's late so no day light), but I fully intend to do some kind of quilting that will make the "glasses" pop more, so hopefully when finish...

After the success of Quarter 3, I'm going to be even more ambitious in Quarter 4. The projects that didn't get finished in Q3 will be carried across (though will be the least like to be finished!) And then will come all of the projects that MUST be finished in Q4 because they are Christmas presents. So here are my finish along plans Farmer's Wife Quilt: I am so close to having this one finished! Without last week's travelling, it would already be finished. Last night I finished the quilting and cut the binding: Binding cut and ready This may be my first finish of the Quarter - pop back tomorrow! If I do get it finished, there will be loads and loads and loads of photos! Steph's Quilt: this one is killing me. I just need to get it finished. But in all honestly I'm finding it really boring. Maybe I need to make myself do a couple of blocks each weekend before I do anything else. But I have bought the batting.... Daniela's Quilt: this is t...