We all have to look for something positive to keep spirits high during these extreme times. For me that’s meant trying to get stuff finished. As you can imagine, if you follow us on DMTV, you’ll know I always have a hundred different things on the go. As long as they are completed enough to satisfy the latest video there’s no incentive to actually finish everything completely, especially since most videos mean we have to have several versions or step by step examples of the same thing.

Maybe you remember this little panel? It’s indigo dyed fabrics with appliqué, compressed sponge printing and lots of free motion quilting. For the video I demonstrated all the various steps but never completed the quilting. It had lain discarded in a corner of my workroom until today!! After a couple of frantic hours on the sewing machine it was quilted.

All I needed to do was to trim it to size, add a binding and mount it onto a stretched box canvas. Job done – no idea why I left it so long as it’s very satisfying to get it finished! It was especially nice to be able to sit in the garden and hand stitch the binding while enjoying the sun and listening to the birds. I don’t want to sound flippant but although there may be a pandemic it doesn’t stop spring.

You won’t have seen this on DMTV yet but it will appear one day if I’m ever allowed out to record at Laura’s again! It’s a drawing/painting done on cotton fabric using Inktense blocks and pencils. I think it’s lovely the way it looks just like the watercolours I paint in my sketchbooks. Such a natural progression from paper to cloth!

Here you can see how I’m beginning to add lots of free motion stitch. It’s very liberating to have the drawing as my guide. I can ‘scribble’ away as if I was sketching rather than sewing. I’m using Madeira Cotona 30 threads in a soft green and a sugar pink. It won’t look like much until the background is quilted though.

It’s not all been stitching though – I’ve also been spending time with my Creative Sketchbook work. I’ve posted more about this strange page in the final module if you are a student of the course and you’ve got as far as Module 4 you can find out what it’s all about there. Think I may be going a little off piste with this but it’s fun to see where it might take me.

I fervently hope you are all staying home and keeping safe and well. Try to find a balance between being well informed and panic stricken. The news is relentless but if you can find solace in a bit of stitching or painting then do – it will keep you sane.

Love Linda x