About Jenny
Jenny is a modern quilt designer and teacher known for her colourful, curvy machine pieced patterns.
Jenny Haynes (née Nilsson) studied Pattern Cutting and Tailoring in her native Stockholm. Soon after, she followed her passion for fabrics and moved to London to study Fashion and Textiles at the London College of Fashion. She went on to develop her own label ‘Papper, Sax, Sten’ (that’s ‘Paper, Scissors, Stone’ in case you’re wondering!), creating award-winning designs that reflect her many different influences. She is based out of Sheffield, now.
Her bespoke quilts and furnishings are recognised for their clean and simple, mid-century modern design. Jenny mixes rich colours with pastels and is not scared of a colour clash. She often uses her trademark curves together with solid fabrics, while remaining faithful to her Scandi’ roots.
Jenny’s work was recognised in Summer 2015 when Jenny was invited by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, along with 18 other Swedish designers, to be a part of Heal’s Swedish Summer Exhibition. Heal’s have a long history of promoting Swedish design with exhibitions in 1923, 1951 and 1971.
Her quilts and patterns appear regularly in books and magazines, including Thames & Hudson for the V&A and in Patchwork & Quilting: A Maker’s Guide, ‘Designed by teachers and practitioners at the leading edge of today’s craft revival.
Two of her quilts won awards at QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville. QuiltCon is arranged by the Modern Quilt Guild and is the biggest exhibition of modern quilts in the World.
When Jenny isn’t designing her curvy and quirky quilt patterns, she teaches at the V&A as well as giving talks and running workshops for Guilds and textile venues in the UK and abroad. She also offers live online workshops.
You can watch Jenny demonstrate how to sew no pin curves in this episode of The Makers Studio series.
Signature Technique
Colourful curvy quilt patterns
Top Tips
- Use a shorter stitch length (1.8) for stitching curves to give your block extra strength and to avoid splitting in the seam.
- When colours clash a bit it gives your quilt spark.
- When sewing curves, always start with the smallest curve then work your way up.
- Your finger is the pin when sewing no pin curves.
- Always finish all of your piecing before pressing your block. It’s easy to stretch your block out of shape if you press before you are done.
- Press your seams open for a flat, block print like finish.
- Use a tailor’s block to help you seams stay flat.
- Precise and variable quilting designs help to enhance the organic shapes in your quilt.
Videos
Patterns
Posts
Can I mitre the corners on my quilt?
Yes of course you can - BUT you need to be aware that you need more fabric at the corners to work with than you think you might - so not one to be attempted if you are short of fabric! You can also use more than one fabric - so a double or triple border with a mitre is also possible.
What can I use to hold up my quilt sandwich when basting?
If you are using the basting gun it is so much easier to have the quilt sandwich lifted up from the surface; there used to be a basting grate that could be purchased, but this seems to be a thing of the past; a tip from one viewer is to use the cake cooling tray, and another uses an upturned plastic cutlery tray - just a couple of lateral thinking ideas!
Take 9 a great success
Hi all Just giving an update on my king size quilt,I decided to try take nine for the side of quilt and cut all the pieces out ,this wasn't easy for me but I got there eventually,I purchased my fat quarters from Hobby craft in Havant & I just want to tell you not all of their fat 1/4s are good size some in the 6 packs are a bit smaller and I used some pieces from my stash.I have sewn 4 of my blocks together and am so chuffed with them - each 1 is exact size and went together so easily.Thanks Valerie for pattern and video couldn't have done it without you xxxxx from Sheila (learner) Want to know what Sheila was making?