Journal Quilts and Difficult Decisions

 

 With  most of my energy and time at the moment focused on  sorting through house contents for  pre- painting storage ( 8th May) or disposal ( 30 April), it's taken  a   very focused effort to finish off   CQ January-April  Journal Quilts  before 30th April  deadline.  They're mainly machine rather than hand stitched for expediency but having made JQ's since 2003, it was important to me to  keep going  with them as these fabric 'sketches' are a crucial part of my artistic practice. 

 

April : Rodwell Trail. Positive and negtive monoprints of vegetation  

March : Weymouth Harbour ( from  Rodwell Trail)

February: Rydal Colours - 'sketch' from NW CQ retreat in Lake District

 

January: Red Loops- sample for International Threads ' Red  Stapelia '  piece

 

With most of my studio packed up ( apart from art materials, scraps for JQ's and an on-going hand stitched indigo piece ) and the first of  my courses for  University Certificate in Biological Recording  coming up this week with it's 2 assessed assignments, I came to the very difficult decision to stand down from the next round of challenges with International Threads. I've been very proud to be a member ( and my work will still be  touring to various exhibitions) and I've enjoyed working within  parameters  that stretched me.  I like the 40 x 80 cm size and this I may well be continuing with in the future.



Just Being

After a frantic few days finishing things up at work (ordering chemicals before we transfer to a new finance system, joint union meeting, setting up new experiments) we're down in Weymouth again for a well-timed weeks break. We travelled down on Saturday with the football crowd, yesterday (Sunday) was our first full day and we soon got into the swing of doing not a lot. After the best Sunday lunch we've had in a long time ( apart from our own!) at the New Inn, Portland we had an afternoon siesta( got a lot of catching up on sleep to do this holiday) and then walked  a short distance from our cottage in Ferrybridge to the 'Painting Promentary'  near Smallmouth Bay at the end of the Rodwell Trail.  I've got painting materials with me with the intention of doing some mono-printing towards a little book and scraps of fabrics for composing some journal quilts. Meanwhile we were very content to send an hour sitting on a bench watching the changing light over Portland , hearing a lolloping labrador continually chasing after stones in the waves, just being.

Big Skies, High Winds, High Seas, Low Tides

 An exhilarating weekend in Weymouth for Ian's birthday,  with strolls on Portland between meals experiencing the varied weather and its effects, and a bit of sketching from and on tablets while it was still fresh in our minds.   
First thing on Saturday the combination of high tides and high winds meant you could see the waves crashing against Portland from our cottage in Ferrybridge ( about a mile away!)  It was a bit calmer ( still 30mph+ winds) and heading towards low tide when we went by bus to Jackson Gallery and Café for lunch - delicious mini pizzas and Florentines and views out over the sea

 We headed down the hill to the Cove House Inn for  a pint, very blustery and difficult to keep the camera still. You can see the high water mark right at the top of Chesil Beach ( going over the top in places) with sea spray like smoke.

 After a lovely dinner at Floods on Saturday( red mullet baked with fennel -yum) , Sunday was a little  calmer although still windy  with incredible skies and cloud formations as the sun rose.

 After a leisurely lunch at Blue Fish Café  we walked back over the causeway, stopping off at the Chesil Beach visitor centre to admire the mudflats in the waning light  and then headed to the oyster beds at Ferrybridge - I took so many photos!!!

Finally at the end of the Rodwell trail, the sea was so far out that you could see the remnants of the pier associated with the  old Whitehead Torpedo  factory  and there were hundreds of seabirds where land met sea.  There was a very high tide again as we left on Monday but nothing  as  bad as in January.
Update 5th Feb - video of waves crashing over Chesil  earlier today.