Jennie's Threads

 I made another two pouches in the last couple of months. If you've ever come across the pouches designed by Aneela Hoey , you'll know how amazing they are, and as soon as she released the patterns for the Flip Pocket Folio and the Four Pocket Case they went on my list! The biggest struggle was deciding what fabric to use on the outsides. I started with the Flip Pocket Folio and decided to use a pattern by Berene Campbell (designer of the Hello friend block I used for a cushion and a pouch ) - I love the Stitch On banner pattern but to make it fit I had to shrink it to 50% - that made from pretty tiny piecing, but the pattern is so good that it went together beautifully! Lots of pink on the inside and this is the perfect pouch for all my hand sewing threads. Aneela's instructions are very clear and the vinyl sewing went without a hitch - though I can recommend  a teflon foot! For the second pouch, the Four Pocket Case , I used a mini charm pack of Tilda fabrics from The C

I love a good pouch! They can be quick to make, or embellished with piecing and embroidery and hand quilting. I've got a few patterns I turn to again and again. One of those is the Speedy Vinyl Pouch pattern by Aneela Hoey. I've taken part in a swap recently (I'll blog more about that soon), but one of the extras was "a notion": I picked up some of my favourite hand piecing threads and needles, and made a tiny pincushion, but decided to make a pouch to put them all in. I picked Liberty as my focus fabric, and lined it with some denim from an old pair of jeans. This is the medium sized pouch and perfectly held the bits and bobs. While I was making one pouch, I thought I'd make two. I love the way I store my threads in my All in One Box Pouch (also by Aneela) but I have just a few too many threads for the front pocket. So I downsized the medium Speedy Vinyl Pouch (not all the way to the small size - just enough so it fits inside the all in one pou

A couple of months back I set myself a challenge to use up some orphan blocks I had lying round. I ended up making two Speedy Vinyl Pouches designed by Aneela Hoey. I knew right away I'd be making more! A friend has recently returned from a holiday in the US, and might  just have brought back some shopping for me! So as a thank you I knocked up three of these pouches. Except I had a bit of an accident and totally forgot to put the wadding in the first one. A council of war was convened at our Monday evening patchwork group and the original I had made was handed round alongside the new, wadding-less, example. Could I get away with it. I had also picked up a thinner vinyl... luckily for me and my seam-ripper, the consensus was that the un-wadded one was absolutely fine, so I went ahead and made up the other two waddingless to match. And I used a fabric I knew would be a hit: Zuma by Tula Pink: the main jellyfish print in all three coloourways for the outside, the low volu

Back in early 2017 I made ten blocks from the Quilters Planner. I shrunk the original 12" patterns to 6" and used an orange rose print from Floral Garden by Chloe's Closet for Moda as my colour inspiration. But I only made 10 blocks - and at 6" each they weren't going to make a quilt no matter how much "neutral space" I added, so they have just sat in a box for the last two years. Last weekend I decided it was about time to do something with them. I set myself a bit of a challenge and within 24 hours I had four finished items: An Open Wide zipper pouch - nice and large. I used the tutorial by Noodlehead to insert the zip, but the panels are a bit bigger than her pattern - 12" x 9". That used four of the blocks (two on each side). The lining is the leftovers from a duvet I used as quilt back over a year ago - it was the perfect green! Two Speedy Vinyl Pouches using a recent pattern from Aneela Hoey. I made the large size from th

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 think it's fair to say that I didn't achieve as much as I had hoped in Quarter 2 of the Finish Along. Various  commitments, and a desire to hand sew rather than machine sew, have meant less time at the sewing machine and as a result, fewer finishes. Though some good progress on my hand-sewing projects has been made. First up, my final finish of the quarter: a hoop I started on a whim last year using a pattern by Louisa at Sew Motion. The pattern uses her signature curved paper piecing, and came together quickly. The ring was then appliqued to the background, and I added some hand quilting and a splash of embroidery. The pink is a Kona Solid (probably Candy Pink), the blue is a shot cotton, and the pineapples are from Art Gallery. The quilting and embroidery is in Finca perle #16. Now for the rest of the quarter: just three other finishes... firstly a quilt for Jess , with lots of cats on it.  The Inside Outside Pouch I had planned using a pattern by Anee

Back at the start of the quarters I planned to make an Inside Outside pouch using a pattern by Aneela Hoey so I popped it on my Finish Along list. The problem was, I couldn't decide which fabric to use... so I made two! I didn't get the fussy cutting quite right on either, so the racoon peaks and bird has lost it's beak.... and some of it's head. Whoops! But I love these fabrics, and I love the bright green lining. The finishing, hand-stitching binding on those internal corners was a bit of a bugger, and I really struggled to get it neat. Also, the top-stitching on the binding round the vinyl was mixed - a matching thread, which I didn't have for the racoons, is definitely more forgiving. I hit 1000 followers on Instagram a few months ago, so I did a giveaway for the bird pouch, and I've kept the raccoons. To be in with a chance of winning, I asked people to tell me ideas for new projects - when one's WIP list is dangerously close to dropping