Yesterday I spent most of the day playing with fabric and felt in the hope of making these into jewellery for a craft fair in a few weeks. I thought it would be a good way of using up all the odd bits of lovely fabrics and threads left over from my many experiments.

The photo above shows some of the examples done, these will then be cut up and embellished with beads, buttons and stitch.

Far more exciting than this though, was an email I received from Kyra Hicks http://blackthreads.blogspot.com/ who responded really swiftly to an email I sent to her. I was so excited, and did my usual loud squeal, fortunately for them, none of the children were at home so I had to telephone to share my excitement. Even more fantastic than this, as I was checking out her blog I found that an image of girl behind the mask was there, this of course was reason for more excitement and squealing .Thank you Kyra.

I remember many years ago reading a letter from you to the Embroidery magazine requesting information on afro caribbean artist for your research. At the time I had all intention to make contact but life got in the way. It is lovely that our paths have now crossed. I am really impressed by your work.

Girl Behind the Mask is Finished

I have finally finished my quilt and I am in the process of having it photographed before sending it off to the Festival of Quilts competition. What a relief ! I have learnt quite a lot about quilting and myself. It has been an emotional roller coaster and I am glad I went for the ride. I know now that when I decide to attempt another quilt it will certainly be a lot easier. My Bernina has been a very reliable friend.


In addition to finishing my quilt, I have put up and taken down an exhibition of work done by children I teach. I have also this week been working with textile artist Ricky Outis to develop designs for costumes which will be made during the summer as part of a arts project for children. This was great fun and a welcomed break from the quilt, we had a good laugh together.

http://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/HDCCMS/Documents/Arts%20documents/Art%20Attack%20Summer%20School%20August%202010.pdf



Of course quite a lot has been sacrificed because I chose to spend my time in the studio, now there is lots of catching up to do.

Artist are often very emotional and sensitive people

The weather has been great recently and that has meant that I have happily done some stitching on my quilt but today I am feeling really worried as the deadline is quickly approaching and I am going so slowly. I have not shown any photos of it's progress and of course I am unable to work on anything else at this time so my blogs are a bit boring, I feel as if I can't until I have finished this one. I am a bit stuck for some reason and feel demotivated.
I am often quite hard on myself and critical of my own work and have been even more so recently. I have mixed emotions about it but I have to finish it as I have made a commitment to do so. I must get back to it now and put in a few hours before I go to work.
On a positive note, to help encourage and motivate me, Dave has started creating my website finally. I have a domain name and will soon be able to post all the details about it here; I am happy about it, thanks Dave.