In a tiny corner of my rented apartment I opened up a box of hearts and spread out with some carefully considered work I have yet to share. I enjoyed the feel of the fabrics again, stitched with love and deep emotion.
Although winter remains my favourite season, I have struggled with the Cornish storms and constant mizzly rain of recent months. I find myself longing for spring and light and sunny bulbs. I find myself longing for yellows, soft blue greens and a home of my own, a studio to work in, space to spread out with my thoughts and a cosy armchair. Things will gently fall into place, I'm sure.
These hearts are spring and summer … memories and hopes … of walks on the beach, little Cornish cottages and time spent looking for pearl shells and dark mussel tangles.
One or two of these hearts were featured in Maggie Grey's WOWbook 4. I was very kindly invited by guest editor, Lynda Monk, to make some work for the alphabet series featured in this issue which was published in 2019. "B" is for beaches and beachcombing (something I have always loved since I was a little girl) and there evolved twelve hearts, three for each season.
I very much appreciated being asked by Lynda to participate in this wonderful textiles book. The invitation came at a difficult and dark period in my life, when I was doing very little creatively, and when my focus was simply trying to get through the days. I look back at this collection of work with grateful thanks to Lynda and Maggie.
I would also like to take this opportunity to give many thanks to Anne Kelly for inviting me to share work in her book "Textile Folk Art" which was published in 2018. Anne very kindly selected two stitched collage pieces, a nostalgic one called "the sparkle of the water" and a slow stitched piece called "faraway cottages" … inspired as always by the sea and the sky and the wonderful feeling of just being in Cornwall. I will write a little more about these pieces and how they were inspired another time.
