My News

I have a new love in my life! He was born on Sunday 31st August. And he has stolen my heart and I have not even been to visit and cuddle him yet. Yes, he is my first grandchild. My eldest son Robert and his wife Joey have become parents. They have named him Jaxon Peter, very heart warming as they gave him Robert's little brothers name as his middle name. As you maybe able to tell I have turned into a doting Nanna!

I think he is most handsome & gorgeous baby ever.

Here are some photo's so you can see Jaxon. What do you think? 

Jaxon Peter 31/9/2014

My proud son Robert.

This is the day he was born. I did not tell a fib, he is gorgeous, well I think he is :) . The photo with my son is my all time favorite, he looks so very proud holding his son less than a day old.

 In the photo below he is 4 days old and has his cranky pants on, as my son tells me. He was woken to be fed! How rude of his mum hehe.  He screams the house down if you dare to take his clothes off for a bath, just like his daddy did. I will be visiting  them next month. My son works in Mt Isa Queensland as he works down the mine and that is 1877 kilometres away from Adelaide were I live. I am so excited to be visiting them.

Jaxon 4 days old with his cranky pants on ! hehe

So, of course as I quilter I had to make a quilt ! So this is the quilt Terry and I have made for our little grandson. I love the colours we have picked and the mustard 1st border makes the quilt sing. And of course a special little message of love from his Nanna & Poppy.

I have never made bibs before but must say I am happy with the results.

So, now you know why I have not been finishing off two design projects that I have on the go at the moment. Until next time.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

New design pattern release Adelaide

Hi Everyone,
Yes we have finished the pattern or my latest design Christmas Memories. I was inspired to do this design after having my eldest son home this last Christmas for the first time in 6 years. We also had his fiance'e Joey (now Robs wife) come share Christmas with us too. I am not a big Christmas girl as I was not brought up with a lot of tradition for the season. Partly I think as my parents found it hard celebrating Christmas in the hot humid weather of Sydney when we immigrated from England. So Christmas to me is about having my family around me, eating lots of food and having lots of fun and making lots of memories to treasure forever. My family mean the world to me and I love and treasure each and every one of them with a special place for each in my heart. So I made this table runner for you to share with your family each Christmas.

"Christmas Memories" copyright to Paisley Jam Designs 2014

Tomorrow the pattern and kits will be released at Sewing Stitching and Craft Fair at Wayville Showground Adelaide on the Patchwork By Sea stand S14. So if you are coming to the show please stop by and say hello.

Patchwork By Sea stand S14 

 I hope you like my new pattern. What do you think of the words I have used ? I felt these were very important ones for me and my family :0)

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

First Magazine ad.

I am so excited that Patchwork By Sea have advertised for some of my patterns in Australian Patchwork & Quilting and a couple of their sister magazines. I feel very excited and overwhelmed at seeing my designs on a glossy magazine page. Here is a copy of the ad.

I thought I would put up photo's of my other patterns for you to see too.

  

Patterns are $15.00AU each plus postage except for the bigger pattern Christmas Blessings which is $19.95AU plus postage. You can order them from Patchwork By Sea by ringing the shop on 08 8377 3942. If you are not in Australia like us, you can order them by sending an email to pbysea@bigpond.com   My patterns are exclusively available from Patchwork By Sea.

I am hoping to be able to share two new designs with you soon. One is still waiting for the pattern to be written and the I am working on another at the moment.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

We are having fun in the new shop.

Time has flown by quickly this year and it is hard to believe, that we will have been in the new shop 6 weeks this week. We have had so many lovely comments about the shop from everyone "who has come in to visit us from near and far. Everyone tell us how '
"bright" and "so much room" we have. We have over 500 new fabrics in stock with  more deliveries arriving.  We are proud of the new shop, so I decided to share some photo's with you.

These are some inside the shop photo's taken at night.

These are the new chairs in the classroom. The photo is taken after the Jelly Roll race we held in our Gala opening week with Nikki Tervo as the teacher. How pretty does the off cuts look on the floor with the bright chairs? :)

And last is a photo of our back entrance. See the big sign above the door, to let you know where to enter from the large rear car park. 

We have now finished painting and cleaning the old shop, and now we can finish settling into the new shop. Terry's office is a store room at the moment, so we have that to finish. Then I am hoping to be able to get back to some more designing, and be able to finish off the Bali batik quilt   I was making months ago.  I also have a completed design of a table runner that needs a pattern written for it. I will share these with you as soon as they are finished.
Please feel free to leave me comments on any of my blog posts, as i would love to hear from you :)
Till next time.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Patchwork By Sea has moved.

We spent 4 days over Easter moving our shop from Jetty Road Brighton to 5/365 Brighton Road Hove SA 5048. Such a huge amount of work in moving a patchwork shop I can assure you. Not just what you see in the front of the shop, but also the classroom and all the behind the scene Bom's fabric and a whole lot more :).

It is sad to move the shop from the street where it began back in October 1998. The street has become so busy and parking difficult, so we felt it was time to move our business to a bigger and brighter shop with ample parking at the rear.

Patchwork By Sea at Jetty Road Brighton Oct 1998 - April 2014

This is what is left at the Jetty Road shop now and we have to clean and smarten it up for the next tenant.

And this is how everything got to the new address ! Yep I was a truckers wife for a few days!! 

Can't tell you how many loads we had already done before this one !

And now for the reveal of the new shop.

What do you think? We have updated the logo colours and the signs really stand out, just as we had wanted them too. The sign design is also being used on our new web site we are having built and is coming very soon.

And this is a sneak peek of the inside from out side the front door. More photos next week after the Gala Opening which takes part all of next week. We have Nikki Tervo as a guest designer with us for the opening and she will be releasing some brand new designs at our Gala opening on Monday night.

Terry and I would like to thank everyone for your support and look forward to your continued support in our new and exciting shop. With your continued support we can grow bigger and better into the future.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Rob's wedding

We have had the pleasure of flying to Bali with our daughter Alynda her husband Jon and our youngest son Peter and his partner Ally for my eldest son Robert's wedding just over a week ago. We were privileged to welcome Robert's bride Joey into our family.

I hope you don't mind this proud mum sharing some wedding photo's with you.

Bride and groom with parents.

My beautiful daughter Alynda, beautiful bride Joey and my two handsome son's Robert & Peter.

The beautiful reception table

 The beautiful people of Bali and the resort we stayed in during our stay has stolen my heart and I am already looking forward to my next visit .....one day :0)

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

                                       Jennifer xx

New designs and a design needs a new name pattern giveaway.

Hi, I have been busy with ideas and have two new sneak peeks to share.

The first one is a new Christmas table runner. I decided to challenge myself and use the brighter Christmas fabrics. I hope you like them as much as I do. This peek is before it was quilted and I am now just stitching the binding down. Then to take the photo and pattern writing to be done and kits to be cut. Oh! 

and a name to be chosen too! 

Sneak peek of Christmas table runner.

The second is an idea I had using a Jelly Roll / Bali pop. We had this beautiful Bali one in the shop that I fell in love with. We did show this photo on the shop's Facebook page and people loved it so much.

Bali roll with blue/grey fabric.

So we cut the pieces and played with the layout and this was the one we like best. So this is the other sneak peek.

Bali sneak peek.

  

More work to be done on this one, but I have enjoyed myself so much so far.

The design with the snowman, has gone back to the drawing board. I found out the hard way not to use a felt tipped marker with the Floriani Stitch & Wash!! should of known the marker would run when wet.........but did not think of it at the time :( ..... Lesson learnt the hard way! one I will not forget.

On a brighter note I have finished another design that you have seen before and it has been waiting patiently to be quilted. It is Piggy in the Middle.

Piggy in the middle on display at Patchwork By Sea.

Close up of the hand stitching I have done around the rectangle in each block.

Full size photo before quilting.

I hope you like it. I would like to re-name Piggy in the Middle to something else as it is not my favorite name for such a pretty quilt. Any suggestions??

Please comment on the blog and if I like the name you suggest I will pop a couple of patterns in the post to you. I look forward to reading your suggestions.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

                                       Jennifer xx

Same pattern different fabrics.

Thought I would share with you some photo's of two of my patterns made up in different fabrics.The first is my Bar Cake pattern. The photo on the left is the original quilt sample made using a layer cake. The new quilt in the photo on the right is using 22 amazing aboriginal fabrics. I have re named this pattern to Steps to the Past. How good does it look! the beauty of this pattern is it would look great in almost any fabrics. I can see beautiful rose fabrics or fun kid's prints, yummy Batiks or even repo fabrics.

The second lot of photo's are of my Piggie in the Middle pattern (sorry, could not think of another name after running it as a class and picking the name for a bit of fun!) The photo on the left is my quilt now pinned and ready for some quilting. The one on the right is my daughter Alynda's quilt. She was a student in the class I taught at Patchwork by Sea. She chose the ever yummy Moda range Mimi by Chez Mio.  She added a few extra fabrics to her Layercake to make the quilt a bit bigger. She has quilted it herself and then gave it away as a Christmas gift. I just love  it!! (yep, I do know the photo is sideways, but I was not able to get it to download the correct way)

Both these patterns have been designed to use Moda Layer Cakes and are quick and easy patterns for you to have fun and make a quick quilt for that someone special.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Christmas and new year Oh! dear

Time has just flown past for me. We have been busy with interstate visitors off and on since the end of November. I ran around doing some deep cleaning house work before they arrived. So, very belated wishes for Christmas and New Year from me, sorry.
We had Terry's family visit end of November from Sydney. We all went out for dinner to celebrate Terry's Mum's 90th birthday, then did some sight seeing and a family BBQ.

Two week's later our eldest son Rob came to visit from Mt Isa and a few day's later his fiance arrived to spend Christmas and New Year with us. So wonderful to have all my family with us for Chrissy.

I am not a big fan of Christmas as a rule, but this Christmas I even invested in a new tree and baubles. It had to look good having my family together for the first time in 6 years. A big thank you to Alynda for putting the tree up for me. Christmas for me is not about gifts it is about family and the special time spent together as a family and making new family memories to treasure.

Years ago I made a fruit Christmas cake and iced it with marzipan and royal icing for Christmas. It has since then become a family tradition in our house.

This year I was running late making the cake. Yep, another tradition each year haha.
 So a late night to cook the cake and a few day's later an early morning to ice it before work. When it was iced I put a clean tea towel over it so the icing could harden. When I checked the following day this is what I found.

Yes! fat cat has walked on my cake!! I Shared the photo with my Facebook friends who told me to leave the prints in the icing, so I did. Hope fat cat does not think he can make this a new tradition each year.
We did take a family photo's one evening that turned into a lot of fun with both son pulling faces and being silly. Boy's never grow up....do they ?? hehe

New years eve we all went out for dinner and then came home to protect Sadie from the fire works. She hates them. We all spent a quiet evening having a few drinks and chatting to bring the new year in.

I hope you all had a family filled Christmas and may the new year fill your needs and keep you healthy and safe.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Customers photo

One of the ladies who bought my Dragonfly Chase pattern  has shared a photo of her finished table runner on our Patchwork By Sea Facebook page.
It is with Jude's permission I share her photo of her lovely runner with you.

 Jude said..
I purchased your Paisley Jam design "Dragonfly Chase" pattern at the recent Adelaide quilting show. I have just completed it and love it. I made it for a friend and used mainly neutral colours as I wasn't sure what suited her home.... I changed the pattern a little. I made the large squares slightly smaller as I like the dragonflies to fly "free" of any encumbrance (in line with Japanese art principles). They therefore encroach on the small squares. I am really happy with result and hope you didn't mind me using a bit of licence with your pattern (I have acknowledged that it is your design). Thankyou for your beautiful pattern.


I feel very privileged that you have shared a photo of your runner Jude. I love the neural colours so much. What a lucky friend you have.

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

And the winner is !

Thank you for those of you who took the time to answer my questions on my  blog post yesterday about what sort of things you want to see in a BOM's and patterns. Some of you liked the idea of stitcheries and others liked the idea of a zoo animal quilt I have been working on. What I have in mind for the zoo quilt is appliqué either by hand button hole stitch with embroidery threads or button hole stitch by machine. And other ideas have been suggested too!.

Now for the winner  and what they said is..


" I love stitcheries!!! Currently doing "Life is Beautiful". Drawn firstly by the stitcheries and secondly by the fabric. Would love to see an all owl BOM with stitcheries. Keep up the great work!"

 Kellie

So a big congratulations to you Kellie if you email me your details to pbysea@bigpond.com and we can arrange to get your pattern pack to you.



Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Give away.

I have been thinking a lot of the direction I want to take my design work. Terry and I are thinking of collaborating in the design process. As it is he does have in put and he writes the patterns for me. It could also mean a name change from Paisley Jam Designs which is me to something that will be a name for us both to design under together.

I asked in my last post if you would like BOM's with zoo animals or a boys transport themed BOM. I have other ideas as well. These will be designed exclusively for our shop Patchwork By Sea.  We will also have a new website with on line shop early in the new year which we are very excited about.

So I am asking my blog reader's for your valued opinions. As to what sort of theme's if any you would like to see in a BOM. What is it that gets you to buy a BOM ?? is it the style, your favourite  colours, fabrics, or do you buying it to make for a  family member or friends because it would be something you like ? or just because you are addicted to getting a wonderful parcel in the post each month?

 So If you please leave me a comment with some suggestions on what you would like to buy in the way of patterns and BOM's and what you think of my design work, you will go into a draw for a pack of my patterns that I have designed so far ! :0). (photo's below)

 I will choose one lucky winner of the Pattern pack on Monday night and maybe a few single patterns if I find it hard to choose. Please put where you live in your comment so I can see where my blog is reaching too. :0)

Good luck and Thank you!



Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

 

 

You can follow Paisley Jam Designs on facebook Here

and you can also follow Patchwork By Sea on facebook Here

 

Here are some photos of the patterns in the giveaway if your comment is the lucky one selected.



Christmas Blessings

Peace on Earth







Bar Cake Quilt




Piggy in the Middle



Dragonfly Chase

Remember me ?

Sorry I have been tardy in posting. It is a busy time for us in November, a Melbourne Cup champagne luncheon mystery class and setting up for the Adelaide show the following day. Always fun to do our home show and catch up with friends and see all the amazing quilts in the Exhibition. Many of my friends and customers have won prizes. We had lots of fun unpacking  and putting everything back into the shop ! .... small fib :(

Terry and our daughter Alynda have challenged each other to enter a quilt each into next years exhibition. It will be interesting to see how they go. I know Terry started his entry this week. He hand dyed the fabrics and has had the pattern for two years now. This quilt will be stunning when finished, all foundation pieced spikes. As Terry would!!

Our eldest son Rob lives in Mt Isa Queensland and I am VERY excited that he will be coming home to spend the first Christmas with us in 6 years. His new fiancé  Joey is also going to fly down and spend Christmas with us. We are so looking forward to meeting her. They are getting married in Bali in April next year. So our little family will be a bit bigger this Christmas. Might have to put the tree up this year :)

I have  a few ideas running around in my head for new designs. I'm wondering if I can design a BOM for the shop. Wondering on a boy's transport style quilt or a Zoo animal one. Which would you like to see ?



Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

Adelaide Craft & Quilt Fair

 Yesterday was the first day of our Adelaide show. These are photo's taken of our stand just before the doors are opened. In the top photo  on the top right you can see my Peace on Earth sample. At the back of the stand on the left is the new sample of the  Bar Cake Quilt made in aboriginal fabrics. I will be changing the name of the Bar Cake Quilt pattern to Steps to the Past  soon. And to the right of it is Christmas Blessings, only a few kits left and then it will be available as pattern only.

 

 

 

 

In the next photo you can see Dragonfly Chase in the top left hand corner.



Jennifer & Terry

Don't forget to stop by stand C11 and say hello and see all our  goodies and see my designs for "real" if you have not already seen them. See you at the show !

 

 

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)

And if you near the bush fires please stay safe.

Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

More excitment.

I am even more excited to share with you that another of my Christmas Blessings kits is heading overseas ! this time to England. A lovely lady visited the shop today and fell in love with the quilt, her words. She was so happy to be buying the kit to take home and make for Christmas.

Sorry it is such a short post, but I just had to share my excitement with you.

On a sad note it is so darned windy here tonight that my beautiful roses will be looking very sad in the morning. Terry was out earlier tonight picking some buds for me to enjoy inside. The house smells wonderful :0)

 Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)
And if you near the bush fires please stay safe.

Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx

How exciting.

I am excited as today in the shop I sold a Christmas Blessings Kit.
 (picture below, just in case you are not sure which one I mean)

Anyway it is heading overseas ! this is why I am so excited. The lovely lady did not speak much English and is here on holidays. But her sister in law told me she speaks Swiss German so I am assuming the lady lives in either Switzerland or Germany. So to my knowledge, it is my first design to leave our shores :0)

As we left for work this morning I was looking at all the buds on my rose bushes. The bushes are covered in buds mostly due to all the rain we have had. This afternoon lots of the buds had opened in the warm weather we had here today. I could not resist taking a few photo's with my phone. They look so pretty I thought I would share them  with you.

They both have wonderful fragrances and I have them planted  alternately down the side of our drive way. The red one is named Camp David and the peach once is Just Joey. I have had both these roses in each of our homes, I love them that much. I would love to get a William Morris rose bush too !

Hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are :)

Happy Quilting

Jennifer xx