I love the start of a new year. Each month I love to write a round up of what I’ve been making and my analogue hobbies. This helps me to see what I’ve made, and holds me accountable for projects half started or bought. This year I’m calling my series The Monthly Thread. April’s post is all about quilts & cake.

The Monthly Thread: April’s quilts & cake

Baking

There has been quite a lot of baking this month, mainly due to Easter. We made the usual Chocolate Easter nests filled with chocolate eggs. There was also a delicious rhubarb, lemon and ginger picnic cake. The recipe was included in a subscription box and it was fun to bake a cake with fresh fruit. The recipe was so good I made the cake twice.

Making

At the start of the month I made a really cute diy kit from Rolife. My teen is obsessed with making these kits so I decided to try one for myself. I made the Rolife Childhood Toy House – Lovely Room with bright pink shelves stuffed with toys. It was fun to make but so so small, I think I will be sticking to my fabric crafts.

I stitched a linen cutlery wrap which was the main project inside my Spring Craftpod subscription box. I love working with linen and the colours were really lovely. I can’t wait to plan a picnic and use it.

I’ve been doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles lately, they make a great analogue hobby for me (and the whole family seem to enjoy it too). This month I did the Teatime puzzle from Gallison and Stationery from Happily, I currently have a third puzzle on the go.

There have been small makes too, such as the laser cut banner I bought from Vinted, to the sashiko bag bought at The Stitch Festival last month. There has also been the cross stitch bookmark, another Vinted purchase, even though I swore there would be no more cross stitch (it makes my eyes hurt!).

I was totally inspired by Kith & Kin: the Quilts of Gee’s Bend at the American Museum and Garden in Bath. I recently did another jigsaw featuring the quilts of Gee’s Bend so was excited to see some of them in person. They were beautiful up close and I really loved the vibrant colours and the fact that they grew out of a genuine communal tradition and personal necessity, rather than being manufactured for a commercial market.

Reading

You all know I’m obsessed with the Persephone grey books, they publish forgotten women writers of the twentieth century. I read Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton which I really loved. It’s a novel about the life of a London architect from the 1890s to the early 1930s who realises that he may have married the wrong woman. I loved all the architectural detail in the novel.

I’m so happy to look back over the last month at all the lovely things I’ve enjoyed!