Catch-up

It is almost a year since I last posted here and high time to get back to blogging!  I have done quite a lot of work over the past few months but have felt unfocused and found it difficult to know how to progress my stitching.
Last year I went on a course run by Tilleke Schwarz; I like her work and was eager to go on the course but unfortunately it did not work for me and I did not find the course as inspiring as I had hoped.  However I am now working on a large map of a walk I often take across my local common and it is definitely informed by Tillike's style, (not least in its size, 32'' X 20'').  I keep picking it up and working on it for a week or so and then doing something else, it could take a very long time to finish and already many of the things featured on it have changed or no longer exist.  This is the piece that I am working on at the moment , that is why I am showing it first.

 

I have been continuing with my patchwork/applique pictures and have sold a few more. 

These last two are a bit more abstract, influenced by a sketchbook workshop I did on line with Dionne Swift where circles were the focus.   

 
I also got into quilts last summer, maybe because they are easy and quick to do when inspiration is not around. I made six in all, incuding a 6 x 7 foot one made up of two inch squares of shirt fabric - nightmare - here are a couple of the ones I made, including the large one!

This is the wrong way round, my husband is behind it holding it up.

  

Sale of a picture

Last month three of my patchwork pictures were in a local exhibition and one of them, Cats on the Wall, sold.  Mostly I stitch for my own enjoyment but is such a good feeling when someone else appreiates what I have done enough to buy something!

 The other pictures that were in the exhibition were the one of houses that was in my last post and this one which started off as just a sea scape but then turned into "I'd like to be, under the sea....".   A bit Janet Bolton, but I had just got her book out of the library when I made it.  

A year of stitching

Last January I decided that I would take time out from the C & G Diploma course; it had taken me over a year to complete module 2; it was taking me longer and longer to do the exercises and my motivation was dwindling.   Rather than following the requirements of a course I decided to stitch what and how I wanted  and to see where that led. I have put some work in two local exhibitions and have sold a couple of pieces.
I have decided not to continue with the C & G course,  but just dip into a short course or a workshop every now and then.
Below is a some of the work I have done during the past year.

These are portraits of my chickens, "The Chicken Supremes!" - Diana, Mary and Florence, which were created as a result of me doing patchwork beasts class with Jude Hill.