Another month has slipped through my fingers and I don’t seem to have got a lot to show for it. As January drew to a close I went to Cholet to exhibit at Fils Croisés, I hung a a mix of old and new works. Working on one’s own it is always good to share one’s work with the public and very rewarding when it provokes an emotional response as was the case several times.

This is a new piece that I made straight after the fire at Notre Dame, Paris. I took a while because, at first, I wasn’t happy with it. After storing it away for a couple of months I took it out and reworked the stitching. It is rare that I don’t use my own photos but this image really cried out to be worked.

This is a second new piece which I did after the Cholet show in 2019.

As I was preparing my things to leave for Fils Croisés I realised that i needed a photo of myself, instead of a photograph I did a quick stitched portrait.

I am really bad at taking photographs of other people’s work but here are some which I really liked, some are overall shots some are close-ups.

Chantal Guillermet had a big exhibition with an interesting collection of her work and this photo really doesn’t do it justice.

Marie-Christine Hourdebaigt also had a very interesting exhibition.

Galla had the biggest space and was showing work of her own and her students, the individual image is that of one of her students ( Galina Bogdanova) which I particularly liked due to its muted colours.

Stephanie Michaud was next door to me, I had seen her drawn threadwork work previously and I really admire it.

Embroidery by Nicole Jarret, her smaller pieces are really attractive.

Jacqueline Jégou’s thread painting is painstakingly worked and really grabbed my attention.

Finally France Patchwork had a really colourful and varied exhibition reflected in their banner.

At the end of January it was the latest Fifteen by Fifteen reveal. This year we are working with letters of the English alphabet. I have chosen to create a series of places I have visited and am using the morse code symbols as an additional link between pieces.

S for Suzdal. I have used a couple of the many photographs I took in Suzdal as the inspiration for this piece. The inner panel, the view through the window, is machine stitched and then coloured with aquarelle pencils, I wanted there to be colour but it need to be soft. The front is then hand painted and stencilled with the brown panels appliquéd. 

Lastly I have completed the second journal quilt of the year using things that have been used previously, in this case a piece of lace that I have transformed into a hedge. My theme this year is out and about, I often pass the ostrich farm when I go out for a walk and it is down a lane lined with high hedges…

February is going to pass by very fast and I have dead-lines to meet so back to the drawing board….