Jennie's Threads

Two weeks ago I had just got home from a really fabulous weekend. It was full of laughter, sewing, amazing food, very generous gifts and some of the most amazing people! I spent the weekend in the middle of nowhere near Church Stretton in Shropshire for the Sewing Shindig. Two and a half days of nothing but sewing and eating! It was lovely to meet, or catch up with some of the lovely people I chat to online every day! Not my photo - Pennie's! There was the option of taking two classes: I decided not to do the full day class and instead worked on my Fancy Forest Owls - here they are all together - one is a little sheepish - we were talking too much and I had a bit of a whoopsie. But he's so cute, and resulted in such laughter that I couldn't bring myself to unpick him! I also worked on my Kinship quilt, my penguin parade quilt, my tall tales quilt... on the second day I took part in a brilliant class with @mrs_moog - more on that in another blog post. I saw so many ...

I have to confess that when I first wrote my Finish Along list for this quarter, I wasn't sure if this project would actually be made, let along be one of my first finishes! But here is my finished Sewing Date Traveller! I first came across the pattern at the start of the summer and mentally added it to my list of one-day-I'd-like-to-make things. Then at the Sewing Shindig, I saw a few in real life, and it was added to the list for certain. I'd already picked up some Essex Yarn Dyed Linen with this project in mind, and the Shindig weekend convinced me to use Tula Pink's Zuma for the rest of it. This can be blamed on @rosedahlia who made a beautiful Sew Together bag in Zuma over the weekend, and Olive and Flo Handcraft who had a pop up shop with, you guessed it, Zuma! The interfacing on this project scared me a bit - and was the main reason I wasn't sure it would get done. The pattern  (which is free!) calls for Pellon 65 which I couldn't source in this coun...

A promised in my Finish Along Q4 plan post, the wee braw bag is my first finish of the quarter. It was made as a swap for our North East Modern Quilt Guild Retreat, which took place last weekend. We spent the weekend in a beautiful cottage in the Northumberland countryside, sewing and eating cake. The cottage kitchen/diner was perfect for sewing with a big table, space for a few extra tables, a sofa for hand sewing and tonnes of floor space for laying out blocks. And there was a separate living room for Strictly! Everyone was very productive and the projects we were all working on were gorgeous. We won't discuss the spiders at length, suffice to say they were HUUUUUUGE! Picture stolen from @lupilotty cause I forgot to take any photos of the cottage But back to the Wee Braw Bag....I was making for Tina, who I know very well, but that didn't make it any easier to pick out fabrics. Until I remembered I had this sugar skulls fabric (it's from Michael Miller, but there was...

If you have read my previous blog post, you'll know I've recently attended the Sewing Shindig retreat in Shropshire. Part of the retreat was a swap between Room Mates. You can see what Andrea made for me in my original retreat post. So here's what I made for Andrea. We decided to keep things simple as I'm lacking in energy and she was lacking in time, so we agreed on one pouch from Aneela's Stitched Sewing Organizers book, and then a couple of little extras to go with it. I started by making the fold-up sewing folio. I wasn't sure of Andrea's tastes in fabrics, so I thought this print was inoffensive and pretty. I then went a bit bolder and paired it with lime green and a coral! I also made a matching needlecase - the pattern is from the same book. And I added some delicious chocolate truffles! I have made both of these items in the past for myself and find them very useful - I hope she does too!

I went away on retreat a few weeks ago. It was my first retreat and I wasn't sure about signing up to start with, but I am so glad I took the plunge! The retreat took place at Eaton Manor in Shropshire - literally in the middle of nowhere! It was run by the very lovely @tuppencehapennyquilts - she was a force to be reckoned with and the organisation and planning that went into the retreat were phenomenal. Her partner, Patrick, did all the cooking for us for the weekend - the only guy on site! But the food was amazing! The homemade flat bread with chicken and dips and veg and salad was fabulous, and I have never had such good sausage and mash! My room-mate for the weekend was Andrea @frustrated_crafter. I didn't know Andrea at all when the room mates were first announced, but it turns out she lives very near where we go on holiday every year, so we were able to meet for coffee over the summer and get to know each other, which was either a huge coincidence, or some very clever ...