The theme this month was “Africa” – very broad,  so much choice for this procrastinator.   This is my offering.  The cotton is hand painted using wax resist and layering which I then hand stitched.

Another side of London, this centre is a ten minute train ride from Clapham Junction – the contrast is stunning!

Can you see us?

Dreamtime:

Wonderfully textural plant:

Gorgeous feathers:

and gorgeous grass:

Loving these feathers:

Shelter:

We are family:

Soul Food :

Total refreshment for body, mind and soul.

For some years I seem to have been creating pictures in various media of older women – the Crones in my psyche I suppose.   This is one such, painted with acrylics on hessian,  that I don’t think I have shared before – she hangs on my small landing beneath a window where she greets me each time I climb or descend the stairs.

I am extraordinarily fond of her.

They speak for themselves:

latest posting is here.

This is my progress so far:

I really must keep up with posting here.  I am trying to work out a way to combine my blogs – I feel I am compartmentalising  rather than presenting a whole, something I am familiar with in terms of my thinking.  However, I am finding it much more difficult than I imagined.

In the meantime, here are the quilties :

May theme was free – I decided to use some multi-dyed cotton cut into strips, woven together again into two pieces, the one placed diagonally onto the other …then the stitching – my favourite part.

June theme: Birds, Butterflies and/or Bees.  I chose birds – this one may look very familiar if you followed the sketchbook entry – i took it directly from one of the sketches – it works for me!

A small group of friends decided we would set ourselves a sketchbook challenge.  That challenge was to fill a small (A6) sketchbook in seven days.  We could choose our own theme and work in any medium – the only proviso being that if anyone used photos in their book,  you would have to do three sketches to each photo used.

I chose to go with a theme that arose in a spread I did for the soul journal project which is “In Gaia’s Garden”.   It is a theme I will continue to explore and develop, definitely using some of the ideas that were very quickly put to paper during this challenge.  I haven’t included every single page of the sketchbook as there is a fair bit of repetition.

It was a great idea and a good experience – one I shall certainly do again.

seeds couched on leaf rubbed linen

ivy outline on leaf-printed paper

seed opening-earth

air

wood

Sister Circle

seed-human doodle

thoughts on healing hands

more playing with the human/plant connection.

That’s it ……….seeing these again fills me with ideas once more – ideas sketchbooks are definitely a great asset.

My contribution to a book made for a friend who was not at all well – many friends made pages and the book was an absolute beauty, the recipient was more than happy with the surprise .

The quote I used on the back is one I love and one which said what I wanted to express:

“Each friend represents a world in us,

a world possibly not born until they arrive,

and it is only by this meeting

that a new world is born”

Anais Nin

I have been neglecting this blog for far too long, mainly because I have been concentrating on the story cloth quilt I am creating/obsessing on, apologies.

However, I didn’t realise it had been so long since I had posted here – well slap my wrists!

So, what have I been doing?

Firstly there is this:

A page for a friend’ s Travelling Colour Journal.  I chose green….this was way back in February.