Jennie's Threads

We have just had a fabulous weekend celebrating Mia's third birthday. Third! Where did those three years disappear to? She is a little star: She is constantly talking, and her speech is so good; she is constantly busy with something - she wears me out just watching her. She loves fabric and quilts and Mummy's sewing machine. She loves dolls houses and little dolls (God bless Happy Land) - we bought her a castle dolls house for her birthday. She is also stubborn (don't know where she gets that from) and isn't keen on having her photo taken - so the one above is the most recent, nice one that I have! She refuses to potty train or give up her dummy. She also refuses to nap (except for when she's with the childminder - black magic, I tell you!). But every day with us, at some point, she will curl up on the sofa with a cushion and a quilt and "have a sleep" - during which time she watches TV and doesn't close her eyes. She picks which cushion and which...

May was a bit of a slow sewing month. Instead I've been enjoying time with this these two fruitcakes! Jess is now 6 weeks old, desperate to see whats going on and be involved, giving out great big smiles, and starting to chat away! I forget how quickly they start to interact. And speaking of chatting away, Mia doesn't stop! She's taken a liking to map-reading in the photo above! Having completed 43 blocks in April, I had a feeling May would be a drier month - just 27. But my running total for the year is still a healthy 283, so my 365 blocks in a year goal is well on track! But this month's blocks were more varied: I finally made a second Zodiac block. This project has been held up because I do freezer paper piecing and I had to replace my iron, and it just didn't get hot enough to melt the wax, making freezer paper foundation piecing a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. I've now replaced my iron so hopefully I'll get caught up o...

I don't bake. It's not that I don't enjoy it, it's just that there always seems to be something else to do. But once a year I do bake. The end of June means Wimbledon and the Church and Mum and I run the cake stall every year, and bake approximately half the cakes for it. I started on Wednesday with 48 jumbo cookies (that's 6 batches). And Thursday was brownie day. And the most amazing brownie ever is the Chocolate orange brownie which started as a tripled chocolate cake with rich icing in a magazine I borrowed and photocopied, but which has changed unrecognisably over the last few years..... it takes me an hour from starting to getting in the oven and I normally make 4 btches of the recipe all at once (if you're doing it, you might as well do it properly!) Ingredients: (four one quarter of what you see in the photos below) 100g marg 100g dark chocolate - I use Bourneville 125g caster sugar 3 large eggs, separated (I hate separating eggs) zest of two...

It's Fresh Sewing Day at Lilly's Quilts, so I'm linking up! But I forgot at the end of May, so there are some pictures here from May too. 1. Farmer's Wife: I reached the 111 blocks total at the end of May - Wohoo! And I took the opportunity of a large carpeted area on holiday to decide on my layout . 2. Noah's quilt : Noah was born 16 June to Natasja and Ruben. 3. End of May I sent off my swap item for the Modern She Made Swap - a sewing machine cover with someembroidery. 4. Just last week I started sashing the Farmer's Wife blocks 5. June blocks for Stash Bee 6. Owl cushion (applique) 7. Amelia Jelly Roll Quilt - I finished stitching the binding on this just last night (just in time for the Finish Along) and I'll show you some more photos tomorrow. 8. Oh My Stars quilt - I know I showed this a few months ago, but I've now added borders and been able to photograph it in daylight. This morning we basted it ready for quilting. 9. Lots of ...

Two weeks ago my friend, Nastasja, gave birth to a little boy called Noah. Since I found out she was pregnant I've been intending to make a quilt, and once I found out she was expecting a boy, I was able to buy the fabrics. I went for some Robert Kaufmann Flannels and a pattern from a   Fast and Furious quilt-as-you-go book. Except I didn't quilt as I went. I pieced, layered, stippled and bound (in that order). I wasn't sure about the fabrics for a while, and it wasn't until I heard he had been born, that I felt the urge to cut up the fabrics. And yesterday evening I finally  finished stitching down the binding. I haven't always liked this quilt, but now that it's finished, I happy enough with it. Now I need to package it up and send it off. Oh - and after another 6 Raspberry and white chocolate cakes, 6 gingerbread loaves and 6 lemon drizzle cakes, my baking mojo, rare at the best of times, has deserted me. Mum is still at it - she has made 8 c...

I'm staying with my Mum and Dad this week, and Saturday is the annual Church Fete (St. Nicholas's in Barton-le-Clay if anyone fancies coming along). Mum and I run the cake stall. We also bake at least half of the cakes on it! The fete is Saturday, yesterday I stocked up at the supermarket and today I made a start: 48 jumbo cookies (6 batches) which we will sell individually 6 times the recipe for chocolate orange brownies - these are really delicious, but a bit of a pig to make: split the eggs, melt the chocolate, take the rind off the orange, juice the orange.... they take a while. 4 times the recipe for regular chocolate brownies (from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook) And four Polish cakes (not pictured), (as in  Polish from Poland, not polish as in furniture polish!) I don't think this cake has ever been near Poland! It's crushed digestive biscuits mixed with golden syrup, drinking chocolate and margarine, then topped with melted chocolate - mmmmmm In betw...

I have had a very unquilty week. And as I said in my very quick post on Thursday, I am getting withdrawal symptoms. I spent last weekend with my Mum and Dad. I took the train down on Wednesday after work and Mum and I spent Thursday and Friday baking cakes for the cake stall at the church fete: 48 jumbo cookies, 6 gingerbreads, 8 fruit cakes, 6 lemon drizzle cakes, a slab of chocolate sponge, 4 chcolocate sponges, 4 coffee sponges, 6 coffee and walnut sponges, 2 batches of chcolate brownie, 2 batches of chcolate orange brownies, 4 batches of Shortbread, 100 scones (half fruit and half cheese). In the end we bakes about half of the cake stall and the stall made more money this year than any other year, as did the fete as a whole, so it was all worth it! Needless to say, I didn't have much time to get any stitching in! I did manage to print off the paper piecing patterns for the Farmer's Wife Quilt, but that was all. I also spent a long time talking to my Aunt and Granny who bot...