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
Textiles Fair – Teddington Middx
Textiles Fair Teddington – more detail Diversity Textile Group This was such a fun few hours and I met some really interesting artisans; of course there was Lois Bellew and Julie Winter from Diversity (who we have met before) (www.diversity-textileart.com )who are mixed media textile artists; Made in the United Kingdom Golden Trees Bridget Skanski-Such who creates pictures of golden trees and magical landscapes – https://www.bridgetskanskisuchtextiles.com/
mine is in shades of burgundy but there were some in blues and turquoises; Vintage fabrics and Stitch for Home Decoration Zara Day who trades as Rosemary Rose (www.rosemary-rose.co.uk) who takes pieces of antique and vintage fabric and adds to them her own hand and free machine embroidery to create stunning pieces including upholstered chairs;and here's one that was made for me: Woven silk scarves and finally Nick Ozanne who creates wonderful woven silk scarves in his studio in Thrupp – (www.letoariadne.com) wonderful as a gift for the adult male in your life.
Worth checking out – and certainly a date for next year.
Don’t waste your selvedges
Myra and Valerie met at the Textiles in Focus exhibition at Cottenham Village College and here is a picture of the bag that she was using - great use of selvedges Myra.