I am reading a wonderful book at the moment called Quilting Lessons notes from the scrap bag of a writer and quilter by Janet Catherine Berlo. She is an academic with many publications under her belt but has had writers block for some time and turns to quilting.  She discovers that she has changed one set of circumstances for another, not dissimilar in her passions for both; quilting many hours a day; using serendipity as a process.   The quilting is helping her to understand her connections with her earlier life experiences and how quilting has been employed in many circumstances of loss throughout history.

I found this book ‘ by chance’ but is very relevant at the moment for me. I have only read 10% of it at the moment but she is a very good writer.  Another book of hers Wild by Design also looks interesting.

Struggling with my research at the moment with colleagues telling me I have ‘hit a brick wall’ and am ‘burned out’ I have taken the summer off. I have decided to make a piece of work that I love relating to nothing at all ( as recommended by a friend).
So, I have gone back to what I know and love – hand stitch – cloth and thread.
I have taken a piece of fine woollen cloth, bamboo wadding and a fine cotton and am hand stitching it with perle 8 – this I have discovered is much loved by the modern quilter.
This has linked me into the stitch itself and how it relates to the cloth and how the stitch changes the surface of the cloth. I have added colour to the piece for the first time in many years. This is one of many of pieces that I intend to join in some way together with the edges on the outside. This relates to my thinking for an exhibition I am part of next year at Nature in Art in Gloucestershire with the Brunel Broderers.