Quilting in 2014

These journal quilts, 8" square, are the sum total of my quilting in the past year - the "High Horizons" series. It's been a quietly un-quilty time ... a year more of writing and drawing (and getting back to reading) than of stitching, be it quilting or embroidery. Next year CQ has some other interesting challenges (details in the January issue of the newsletter, which is currently still at the printers, sorry about that) and I have a few ideas for those....

Thinking about the reluctance to start any new textile pieces - partly it's a complete lack of excitement at the prospect ... call it the lack of An Idea ... and partly it's the confusion of finding the fabrics among the various boxes they've been "sorted" into. Handling the fabric isn't kick-starting the process of generating ideas, not at the moment, not the way it used to. I'd rather be making long lines of running stitch ... but for what "purpose"?

This is recognisable as a fallow period. It's often cyclical - one morning you wake up knowing what to do and where to find the fabric, and that's wonderful ... but unpredictable.

Meanwhile there's knitting, and darning, and revisiting and sorting old photos, and cooking, and - very important - getting out into the world and opening your eyes to things, meeting friends and going to see art (or wander round nice shops). The last day of this old year has seen blue skies in London, always a welcome sight. Next year, tomorrow, anything could happen,...

Addendum
Christine has reminded me that these JQs are not the only quilts I made in 2014 - what about the Dislocation quilt? Ah yes ... how could I have forgotten that...! Maybe because it felt more like a painting than a quilt?

In 2014 I challenged myself with several things - the portraiture course; tap dancing; daily painting; weekly drawing; a first stab at studio reduction. All very stretching, "rather good for one". Some, I'll get back to - they seem less terrifying, less impossible, than they once did!