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
What you can view during November 2012
This is a five Friday month and we start off with a tour of Creative Quilting, the quilt shop just outside London and in the shadow of the Hampton Court Palace in Surrey; Isabelle shows us lots of lovely fabrics, threads, notions and her stunning Block of the Month quilt programme. We also have a new demo using the embellishing/needlefelting machine showing its versatility (and if you want to have a go you could join us and Myfanwy Hart at our weekend getaway 14-16 June 2013– more details in the classifieds).
New look website seems to meet with approval
Well the big move happened! and on the whole pretty smoothly; thanks to all those who helped test the site and pointed out typo's and other horrors. I thought I would share some of the nice comments we have had: I love your site for information and fun. Janice Brilliant – new website is great, much easier to navigate around, clear and packed with information.Thank you. Carol The website is excellent and I'm having great fun exploring its nooks and crannies!
Kind regards Sandy Hi I love the way you have organised the new site ,brilliant you can get quickly to where you want to be for help so so quick .
Thank you Liz Wall Have really enjoyed looking round the new site.
Contribution from Catherine in France
Hello, I have joined your club as I was looking for an idea to recycle men's ties. I did find your excellent project and have started working on it. I also want to show you the entirely handmade bed cover that I have just finished. It took me about 12 years. In 1994 I stopped working as an English teacher and joined the patchwork club of Alençon.