Here is the completed piece "A Good Book". The text is cut out and appliqued onto a stitched background. I used stencils and reverse applique to construct the "illuminated" letters using silk and metallic thread to enhance it.
Mr Bedford's signature is printed in the bottom left hand corner.
This piece will be exhibited in the Weaver's Gallery, "The Beauty of Books", Ledbury, during the poetry festival from July 2nd to July 14th.
And --- I've updated my website at last!

I've been working on more ideas for my piece which will be included in the Exhibition at Weaver's Gallery, Ledbury, in conjunction with the Poetry Festival. The exhibition runs from 2nd July to 14th July 2013.
I have had so many books to sort out. They were my father's collection. The experience was overwhelming. They were so precious to him but I don't have the same connection.  However, I feel bound to look through every one. I like the idea of recycling the pages but find it hard to destroy a book even to move it on into something else. If they are damaged, that is easier. I made a large piece of fabric paper collaging it together with wax and thread. The book was Letters of Dr John Brown and actually is really interesting if incomplete. The pages are quite small and there are attractive spaces between paragraphs. This has now become the background for my new piece.
There were several books in the Everyman series published by Dent. The book is truly beautiful. There are quotations and beautiful intricate designs decorating the pages. Inside the front cover of The Life of Samuel Johnson was a signature H. Bedford 1906. I realised that I had known this man. I remember visiting him and his wife with my family when I was very young. The memories are extremely hazy but I remember he gave us boiled sweets - and their garden was quite dark with a huge holly hedge at the bottom.
So what a good job I looked in that book. I've used the page with the Milton quotation and the publisher's stamp as the inspiration for my design.

This is the second Journal Quilt of 2013, for February, continuing the theme "In other words". It is a quotation from Romeo and Juliet. "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." The rose is a digital print which I enhanced with inktense pencils and then machine stitched.

This is the March Journal Quilt, called " Sand Stories".
Last March,when I was in Mevagissey, I photographed lug worm casts on the beach and it occurred to me that they looked like a kind of alphabet again. I'm not sure what the story is yet - as long as it isn't a load of ----!

This is my take on the second "whisper", called "Foxglove". I took a photo of a stone wall and a foxglove, used filters and also changed the colour palette then printed on to recycled cotton sheet again. The background is machine stitched and the fern shapes are appliquéd on top. Areas of the wall have been embroidered with  French knots in a chunky thread.
I am enjoying this idea of just looking for a brief time at an image and then taking an idea from it for a new piece of work. The original piece was quite abstract but the colour palette was similar. I spotted a wall and a fern growing at it's base. My first print turned out rather light. This was the second attempt. I shall probably resurrect the other print by adding some inktense colour to it.

This is the sixth of my tiny lichen embroideries. I start off by highlighting the shapes with a small backstitch. The areas are then filled with knots of different weight threads. Beads and jump rings are added for texture. I estimated that there are over 10,000 stitches in this piece. They take a long time to make but are rather therapeutic to sew. You get in the zone, especially with a (small) glass of red wine to hand.

I do like this soft colour palette of pinks, lilacs and greys. They are all colours I have seen on the lichens I have looked at.

This is the base for my Virginia Creeper panel. It is layered with scrim, hessian, wool tops and home spun wool then embellished to create a textured background inspired by a stone wall. This is a response to a picture I was shown, not my choice, as part of a "chinese whisper". The idea is that the members of the group respond to an image which is revealed for three minutes only. The resulting piece is then shown to another person who makes their response which is shown to another person and so on. We are interested in seeing what transpires as the original idea becomes more abstract.

On this panel, linen was applied on the surface then cut back to reveal the textured background beneath. The leaves were made from a felted (by mistake) wool cardigan and embellished on the surface.
The linen cut outs were applied to another panel to make the third stone surface.
All three pieces have been freely machine stitched.

I've decided to display them horizontally.

The three pieces were finished with a cord edge and mounted on a natural linen canvas.

 The first of the Journal Quilt challenges for 2013, this time the format is horizontal, 8" x 12". We could choose our own theme. I thought I would continue my exploration of text, letter forms and writing so have called my theme "In other words". I thought this would give me plenty of scope throughout the year. The problem was, once I'd decided on the title I developed an "ear worm". That annoying tune that won't leave you. Mine was "Fly me to the moon" - in other words --- hold my hand etc etc. I couldn't do anything so decided to knock it on the head by machine stitching the whole song freely on to white cotton. Then I quickly brushed grey acrylic paint over the surface to make a textured background and appliquéd notes and a bass clef as it looked like an ear. The words were appliquéd on the surface and I added a little heart button that I found on the floor as the song was about love and it was Valentine's day. I've backed it on pelmet vilene and may make a book with them at the end of the year. One down,eleven to go!

This is the last Journal Quilt of 2012 - actually finished today in my new shed. It is a mixed media piece. The background is emulsion paint, scrim and tissue - painted and  machine stitched.
The inset panel is a digital print with text and hand stitched.
The quotation is the reason I made the piece.
It is a quotation by Edith Sitwell that I was sent recently and particularly like.
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand
and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

This is a view of the interior of my new studio/shed. We braved IKEA for a table yesterday and I have moved in my sewing machine. There is still lots to do - the plumbing needs finishing, electrics tweaking and the shelves and storage cupboard to kit out. It has been lovely working in there today.

I used hand dyed cotton and scrim for this one. The technique was reverse appliqué. I wish now I had used a solid black.I took a shortcut with the stitching and confused a reversed 3 for 5 so got the colours in the wrong order - ah well!
I decided to add some text from The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill. "The giant crows were circling over the cornfields below." There have been so many rooks and cows in the fields this year. It is such a lovely book and great to re- read it.

Just delivered my piece Four Nights to Ledbury.
It promises to be a lovely exhibition with varied styles of work.
I changed my piece slightly and added slivers of lacy stitched scrim to extend the organza "shards". I've got more ideas to explore with this piece - can't wait to try them out.

"Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New -bent in heaven shall behold the night
Of our solemnities."
Midsummer Night's Dream  - Shakespeare.

This is spoken by Hippolyta in the second stanza in Act 1.
The piece is printed, painted and stitched in four sections. The panel was appliquéd on to velvet which has also been machined and hand stitched with a lurex thread.
My aim was to create a moody and magical piece reflecting the woods and the spirits at night.
I decided to turn the stitched scrim to the back of the piece to reveal all of the five slashed organza shapes which are printed with the quotation. 
The piece has been made for an exhibition in the Weaver's Gallery, Ledbury, Herefordshire. June 26th to July 8th 2012.