Happy December! It's time for November's monthly report. See past reports here.

Side note: I'm going to set realistic expectations for myself this month and go ahead and say this may be the only post you see from me until next year. I have a cool gifty post idea, but I'm just not sure if it will happen, so no promises. Moving around the holidays is no joke!


It's an abbreviated report this month, because we are moving this coming weekend! We're actually much further along in the packing than the first photo in this post shows. The apartment is pretty much in disarray, but we're in the home stretch.

As you might guess, I have a lot of quilts to move. I went back and forth about how to pack them, and ended up landing on these ziploc space bags. I'm really happy with how they worked out and there are 30 quilts in that photo above!!


While we were home at the beginning of November, I found another vintage sheet in the packaging. I've found a few this year! Bonus, I've actually never seen/had this stripe before.


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I'm tracking my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track my here. Here is how I did in November:

November Fabric
Used up: 118.75 yards
Brought in: 2 yards
Net: -116.75 yards
Year to date: -295 yards

November Yarn
Used up: 2336 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: -2336 yards
Year to date: -6067.5 yards

This is officially the lowest intake for fabric I've had since starting this challenge almost two years ago! Full-blown moving mode has made me really cut back on bring things home. The only fabric I bought this month was to use up a reward at a local shop here in Madison. I let a lot of fabric go in my destash sale (thank you, thank you!), and I destashed a bunch of yarn this month too. I am feeling good about my numbers this month, especially since I haven't been able to work towards my other goals.

Only a tiny bit of sewing happened this month and unfortunately I can't share any of it yet. There was some Christmas gift sewing and some work sewing for an upcoming issue of Quilts and More. I'm really behind on sharing those projects, hopefully I can get caught up in the new year.


George bunny definitely knows something weird is going on, but he has been doing great. We moved his play area into our bedroom so that we can stack up box in the main living space. Don't tell him that he has a few long car rides coming his way!

Have a great month!

Finished: Modern House Quilt

Happy Wednesday! I have a finished project to share, which feels so good! There hasn't been much sewing going on over here the last month or so, so I'm excited to have something new to share.


This Fall I set about making a quilt for my sweet friend Jacey. She is my crafty partner in crime, and I decided I needed to make her a quilt. She has great taste in color/fabric, so pulling a selection for her was really fun. I loved pulling prints that I knew she'd given me, we bought together, or that I knew she liked. I made sure there were plenty of animal/kitty prints in there too.


For the design, I used my modern house quilt tutorial that I shared in late August.


This quilt came together pretty quickly, the hardest part was trying to figure out how to lay out the blocks. I played around with a random arrangement and then a few other gradient arrangements before landing on this one. It finishes at 56"x70".


For the quilting, I did diagonal lines through each block. Sweet and simple.


The minimal quilting makes it nice and snuggly, my favorite!


For the backing, I used a print from Tule by Leah Duncan that I had in my stash. She's one of Jacey's favorite fabric designers, and it happened to match perfectly!


A few months before making this quilt, Jacey sent me some garment fabric leftovers from a few tops she'd made. One was this stripey lawn, which worked great for the binding! I was struggling to find something that worked with the front and back, but wasn't too loud. This stripe fit the bill and I love the difference in texture compared to the rest of the quilt.

Info on my custom woven labels here.


Over the years I've gotten a lot better about gifting quilts, I used to hoard them all! I still have a considerable stash (pattern/book samples are partially to blame), but I'm learning to let go of more. I find it is easier and more enjoyable to make a quilt specifically for a person. I love being able to tailor it to their tastes and add in special prints for that person.

Pattern: Modern House Quilt Tutorial
Fabrics: Stash

Happy Quilting!

Black Friday Pattern Sale

I promise this is the last bit of shop news for the rest of the year! It's time for my annual Black Friday Pattern Sale! This year, I'm making things easier for you and me by skipping the coupon code, all patterns are already marked down 25%! Sale will run from today (11/24/17) through Monday (11/27/17).

Shop the sale here.

Happy Sewing!

Teaching at Glamp Stitchalot Retreat 2018

Happy Wednesday! I'm happy to share today that I'll be teaching at next year's Glamp Stitchalot Sewing Retreat, hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics. Mark your calendars!


If you're not familiar with Glamp Stitchlot retreats, let me give you the run down! It's a weekend sewing retreat in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The weekend is packed with classes, sewing time with your friends, and social events.

Back in 2015, I taught at the first Glamp Stitchalot event! It was a lot of fun, and students worked on a medallion style collaborative quilt, with a different row/center taught by each instructor.

The 2018 Glamp Stitchalot Retreat is November 8-10 at the Sheraton hotel in Ann Arbor. There will be three hour classes from four teachers (Kerry Goulder, Felice Regina, myself, and one more to be announced). There will be lots of open sew time to work on projects, and giveaways too! Plus, Thursday dinner, three meals on both Friday and Saturday are included in your ticket. I'd recommend coming in early on Thursday to make a shopping trip to Pink Castle Fabrics HQ!

My class will focus on transforming a quilt design with color and fabric. We'll discuss how color selection and fabric placement can completely change a pattern, and put those skills into practice working on a big block you could turn into a pillow or mini quilt. We'll squeeze in a crash course on color theory for quilts too. 

I find these kinds of events really help to recharge my creative batteries. Especially since we interact with other stitchers on the internet a lot, it is exhilarating to be in a room full of fellow stitchers! And an opportunity to make new friends too.

Hope to see you there! There are payment plans available for 3, 6, and 10 months to make your budgeting easier. Buy tickets and find details about the event here.

Happy Sewing!

Shop Now: Sample Sale

This is a day late, but I now have most of the sample items up for sale in my online shop! There are small throw quilts, baby quilts, mini quilts, pillows covers, drawstring bags, zipper pouches, bags, and more. I'll be continuing to add items this morning, including a bunch of tote bags.

Shop the sale here.

Thank you as always for your support!

Quick Update: Moving Sale

Hello! Stopping in to make a quick announcement about my moving sale. I'll be listing destash items for sale on my @jenidestash Instagram account this Saturday morning. There will be lots of scrap bags (quilting cotton, solids, knit, voile, rayon), some yardage, stash boxes, hand dyed indigo FQ bundles, books, project leftovers, etc.

On Monday, I’ll start listing items for my sample sale, which will be held in my online shop (quilts, bags, minis, etc). I’ll share more info about that on Monday.

Shop News: Money Saving Pattern Bundles

Happy Wednesday! Today I have a little shop news to share. You can now find three different pattern bundles available in my shop! These bundles come with pre-selected patterns and offer a discount over buying the patterns individually. Hint, hint: These bundles would make great gifts!

The Bag Making Bundle

First up, the Bag Making Bundle. This bundle features three of my bag patterns: the Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern, the Triplizip Zipper Pouch Pattern, and the Elemental Tote Pattern. All three patterns feature easy to customize bags, and are suitable for beginners. Even if you've never made a tote or installed a zipper before, you can make these bags. For seasoned sewers, they're all great basics! The bundle is available as digital PDF download or physical paper copies. It's $20, so you'll save $7!

Buy the PDF bundle here: The Bag Making PDF Pattern Bundle
Buy the paper bundle here: The Bag Making PAPER Pattern Bundle

Here are the included patterns:

Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern


Triplizip Zipper Pouch Pattern


The Elemental Tote Pattern

The Quilt Making Bundle

Next up, the Quilt Making Bundle. This bundle features three geometric quilt patterns: the Side Braid Quilt Pattern, the Arithmetic Quilt Pattern and the Triangularity Quilt Pattern. Explore different shapes in these fat quarter friendly quilts. Between the three patterns there are two Side Braid quilt options, five Triangularity quilt options + custom sizing, and eighteen Arithmetic quilt options. That’s twenty-five different quilt options! The bundle is available as digital PDF download or physical paper copies. It's $20, so you'll save $7!

Buy the PDF bundle here: The Quilt Making PDF Pattern Bundle
Buy the paper bundle here: The Quilt Making PAPER Pattern Bundle

Here are the included patterns:

Side Braid Quilt Pattern


Arithmetic Quilt Pattern


Triangularity Quilt Pattern

The Simple Quilt Bundle

Finally, the Simple Quilt Bundle. This bundle features all five of my postcard patterns: the Honeydew Quilt Pattern, the Stellar Quilt Pattern, the Lazy Daisy Quilt Pattern, the Fractal Quilt Pattern, and the Offset Quilt Pattern. This bundle is perfect for a beginning quilter, or anyone interested in making quick quilts. These patterns are simple and straight forward, you'll be cutting and stitching them up in no time! The bundle is available as digital PDF download or physical paper copies. It's $15, so you'll save $7.50!

Buy the PDF bundle here: The Simple Quilt PDF Pattern Bundle
Buy the paper bundle here: The Simple Quilt PAPER Pattern Bundle

Here are the included patterns:

Honeydew Quilt Pattern


Stellar Quilt Pattern


Lazy Daisy Quilt Pattern


Fractal Quilt Pattern


Offset Quilt Pattern

October Monthly Report

Happy November! It's time for October's monthly report. See past reports here.


So, for the past three weeks we've been traveling. This included time at home in Ohio, a much needed vacation to the beach (Captiva Island, FL), and a short trip to our new state...Connecticut! We spent a whirlwind few days in our new city of New Haven finding a place to live and getting a quick look around. We're moving sometime in early/mid December, so we are in major moving prep mode now that we're back in Madison. It's been pretty stressful, but it feels like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel which is good.

To lighten the crafty load, I'll be having a big moving destash of fabric/yarn and a sample sale this month. I'll post here with more details soon.


Finished up my house quilt last month, see the block tutorial for this quilt here. Will share the finish soon!


It was a quilty month! Finished and shared my Halloween Nine Patch Quilt this month. Just in time for Halloween.


And finally, shared my finished Harvest Log Cabin Quilt (and tutorial) this past month! Yay for quilts!


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I'm tracking my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track my here. Here is how I did in October:

October Fabric
Used up: 27.25 yards
Brought in: 6 yards
Net: -21.25 yards
Year to date: -178.25 yards

October Yarn
Used up: 0 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: 0 yards
Year to date: -3731.5 yards

I'm really pleased with how much I was able to get done this month, especially considering I was away from my sewing room from the 17th until the end of the month. I kept the incoming fabric down and managed to finish two quilts!


I think we can pretty much breeze past the goal section from now on. I am not expecting to be able to work towards too many of my crafty goals the rest of the year. I'm sad that I haven't been able to make more progress, but know it will be easier next year once we are settled again.

I'm sure no one is surprised that I organized the shells I picked up on vacation by type and then size or color. Not all of these came home with us, but I love shelling. My favorite beach activity!


Love this snapshot of George, who took a nap on his log. :)

Have a Great Month!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from George the sailor bunny, Jeni and Michael!


Not so sure about this hat business!


Well, I guess it's not so bad...


Did someone say treat?


Seriously, what does a bun have to do to get a treat around here?


George bunny was properly compensated in his favorite treats for this photo shoot! :)

Wishing you all a safe and happy Halloween!