Jennie's Threads

May has been quite the month! It's my final month of maternity leave and has been dominated with chicken pox... Mia got her first spot on 9th May and by the end of the month both Jessica and Joshua were covered in spots... But at least it's over and done with before I go back to work... My highlight of the month was ticking a box on my bucket list: two years ago we visited Belsay Castle and viewed the quilt show held by the Quilters Guild local region. At the time, I was just finishing off my 365 Quilt Challenge and said how much I would love to see it hanging at the next display at Belsay. The show happens every two years, and was on over the bank holiday weekend. Here is my quilt hanging in the Library! Despite the chicken pox, I have been sewing! I finished my Trinket Quilt: A pincushion : And a cushion : I finally framed the Moon Moth embroidery I was working on 6 weeks ago: And finished off the set of zipper pouches I'd been working on ...

My Trinket Quilt is finished. I joined in the #trinketsal over on Instagram and I loved it. You can find more information about the quilt in my previous blog post where I showed you the finished quilt top. But now it is quilted and bound as well. We took it out and about for some photos and found some beautiful rhododendrons/azaleas at Belsay Castle! The backing is an Asda Duvet of fossilised Dinos. Except when I came to baste it, it wasn't big enough. I used the pillow cases in the contrast print to add a section and broke it up with the four left-over Trinket blocks. This is the best photo we got... This was one of those quilts which I knew exactly how I was going to quilt as soon as I had decided on the layout. In the past I've had issues with the backing shifting when I do spiral quilting, and I've never done it on anything this big, but this time, with one teeny exception, it went off without a hitch! The binding is the charcoal text print from Alison Gl...

All of those Trinket Blocks. 138 of them. And 160ish half square traingles. Lots of little 4" squares. And of course that inevitably means that they have to put together... lots and lots of long seams. Commonly known as Jennie's least favourite job. It took me several days and a lot of self-control to not abandon the whole process.... but here it is, my finished Trinket top. I am chuffed to bits that I didn't just follow the pattern - the chequerboard layout it contains is good, but it was so nice to do something original (I don't always have the imagination!). The finished top is 64"x 88". Too big for the backing I chose before I had my layout brainwave. So Asda has kindly provided some fabulous new duvet covers for me to cut up. Now I need to find the energy to baste and quilt it.

It feels like the start of April went really slowly and then suddenly about mid-April it picked up place and just rushed to an end. We had a busy April with lots of family and Jessica's third birthday and I can't believe it's already May and just a month until I go back to work after my maternity leave! Scrolling back through my Instagram feed, it doesn't feel like April was very productive. But the reality was that I made nearly 100 Trinket blocks, and inevitably that took up a lot of my sewing time! I had a plan, and I'd nearly finished piecing blocks, and then I had a brainwave and needed twice as many.... so whilst I've been sharing regularly over on Instagram, you've only seen about half the blocks. I laid them all out on Monday and I've started putting the top together and if it looks as good in reality as it does in my head, I'll be happy. For now, there is a lot more boring construction in my future, but hopefully a finish this month. ...

March seems to have been a really long month! But in a good way! I've got loads of sewing done, Josh has grown loads - he's ten weeks old now - and we've been away together for a weekend to the Lake District. Here's what I've been working on: I've had some finishes: Awesome Ocean And Ice Cream soda And a cushion for Jess . There's also been a couple of other finishes that just aren't quite ready to share yet... I received my Tula Pink Pinkerville fabrics and cut them all up to start my Meadowland quilt. I've been taking part in the Trinket SAL I've made some progress on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt - I've put together the bits I'd already completed and spent quite a few hours preparing the hand applique on the next border. I made ten blocks into four items in a little self-imposed challenge. I kept up to date with the Shark's Dinner BOM and the Coming Home BOM and started the Geo Diamonds BO...

You know I'm a sucker for a quilt-along, especially when I already have the pattern. So when Alison Glass announced a quilt-along for her Trinket pattern, I was in! I've had the pattern a while, but it's foundation pieced, which, whilst I can do it, I haven't always enjoyed. This was the push I needed. I had just finished the extra rainbow cushions , so I had all my Alison Glass stash ready and waiting - it was clearly meant to be. The 40 blocks in the pattern are split into groups of ten - here are my first ten - I've made multiples of some of the blocks so I'll have a lap quilt when I'm done - they finish at 4". And the second ten blocks: And you know what - I'm really enjoying the foundation piecing, and it's even pushed me to make progress on a few other foundation piecing projects!