I arrived back from Quilt en Beaujolais a little subdued. The show was wonderful with a wide range of contemporary work and over 6000 visitors over the 4 days. My teaching went very well but I was not happy with the display of my work, I had a much bigger display than originally planned and as a result my work did not produce a coherent exhibition.

I now need to spend time rethinking what it is that I really want to produce, not easy when there are ideas all around me and I want to try so much!

My journal quilt for May was finished ahead of time and is the first with a touch of green. I saw some fabric at the Anouki museum in India and loved the way only part had been quilted so I wanted to try the same effect.

 

Meanwhile I have had  two pieces which have not been accepted in to exhibitions, this has helped me decide to work in a different way and not to try for acceptance to different challenges. The first is a piece that I am really pleased with but is probably to ‘simple’, the fabric is distressed with tea and the pattern is painted and stencilled and then the outlines are machine stitched, it is hanging very happily at home.

The second is still waiting for a home:

 

When ever I am out and about I look for inspiration, only now I need to channel my ideas, these are some of the photos that I have taken recently.

Detail of a railing outside the classroom I was teaching in.

Nice iron work part way up a mountain.

Interesting pattern on a tree trunk on the way down the aforementioned mountain.

The dandelion which was growing, uninvited outside my backdoor.

Then I have also been playing around with lino cuts and printing, this is the beginning of a series

I have still a whole list of things which need to be done in the next couple of months,  including a quilt for my niece’s wedding. She has chosen a fairly traditional design and we went shopping for the fabrics last week, all I need to do now is to get cutting the 540 pieces…