So, here we are at the end of the year, mid December to be precise, and I honestly don’t know where the time has gone, or more importantly what I have done with my time. I haven’t the excuse of being elsewhere, since the end of October we have been under lock-down…. I have been very focussed about walking daily and at the same time looking for photo opportunities, after a month of walking the same 5 km circuit daily I think I knew every blade of grass! With the restriction of a 1 km radius it did encourage me to be more observant and really look around me, hopefully some of the photos will be put to good use.

I have continued with my on-line course with Sue Stone and produced a couple more portraits adding appliqué and mixed media and just have the last section to do, all that I need is the right photo! I have found it a wonderful course and hopefully I will use what I have learnt and take it further. 

On the subject of courses I have also continued to do some of the Textileartist.org workshops which have pushed me to try techniques I might not otherwise have tried, again there are techniques which I intend to return to.

With the uncertainty of how the world will pan out next year I still have pieces stored away for exhibitions and I would like to add to them, I have the feeling that my productivity has really dropped and I must try and get focussed. I have finished my year of journal quilts, (subject Out and About using used materials) many of which used techniques from workshops. I think that next year I might take a break from monthly journal quilts, I will see how I feel in January., although they do give one the chance to try out ideas in small pieces before making a something larger.

I have completed the monthly SAQA regional challenges here below:

The year has also ended for the Fifteen by Fifteen pieces and my series is complete. we were working on a different letter each challenge and I decided to use places I have visited as my subjects, with the inclusion of the letter in morse code.

Looking back over 2020 it has been a strange time for us all, it started for me with a flurry of activity and a heavy work load trying to complete things for exhibitions which gradually fell by the wayside, the result is a feeling of emptiness. On the whole I am happy in my bubble and I have not lacked time for reflection, the result is that I think in my head I am getting a clearer picture of the direction I want my work to go in…

Seasons greetings to those of you who have read to the end!