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
The Great Northern Quilt Show (31st Aug – 2nd Sept 2012 )
Val: Had a really lovely weekend up in Harrogate – such a pretty town – and the weather was kind. Saturday was spent wandering round under my own steam – its been a long time since I was just a visitor to a show; bumped into a lot of friends/contributors to our site such as Sylvia Critcher; Sue at Daisy Chain; Lynette our very own ‘Stitch Witch’ ; Hilary from The Silk Route to name but three and Jennie was busy there too - teaching; – and of course like all visitors I ended up spending money!
Quilts in the Cae Hir Gardens
Karen from Karens Quilts and Finish My Quilt says it was a wonderful weekend despite the heavy rain Saturday morning. below are photographs for the three winning quilts. 1st. 'A Cactus Wreath' by Gerda Bryant. 2nd. 'Bee Happy' by the Twine and W(h)ine Group 3rd. 'Spring Summer Autumn Winter' by Gillian Trickey We had so many requests to make this an annual event that, so next year the dates will be 2nd, 3rd and 4th August.
Owls on the move
Moving from Surrey to Peterborough these lovely owls don't look any worse for wear and we wish them well in their new home: (thanks to Sarah for sharing Twit Wit and Woo) - click here for the pattern by Gail Penberthy available through Daisy Chain Designs.