The quilted landscape that started the journey…..

Excited about being booked onto the two day course at Midsomer Quilting run by Effie Gallety I started to plan my project.  The course information stated it would be an advantage to have selected your image ready to get going on day one.  This was the easy bit, St Ives and Porthmear beach in particular hold special memories for me.  Looking at old photos and books the Chapel above Porthmear beach was ideal.  I started to sketch……

The old habits I had never overcome as a painter were creeping into my work.  Too much detail and overworking!  How on earth was I to get in all the details in fabric?  I tried to draw on my experience creating garden design plans, clean lines, geometric shapes and unfussy. The picture was improving now.  I popped some radial lines across the whole picture to give the impression of radiating shafts of light.

Enough was enough, I’ll take it along to class…..

The weekend came and off I went with my sketch and photos.  Ten of us sat around tables eager to begin. My fellow quilters thought I was being over-ambitious using 54 pieces. Effie was confident it could be done, not least because of the radial lines I was working with.

It grew quickly, working that evening and the following morning to get ahead, to prove perhaps that it could be done. The biggest challenges were including a building and the curves of the beach, both very ambitious for my first piece of work. As you can see, the buidling was never quite right. You can see the subsidence! Effie was very supportive and gave me invaluable advice that I have used since in my work with great results.

To date this is still my favourite piece of work. It’s where I spent our Honeymoon. It’s one of my favourite places. I still love the colours and it’s the only piece that hangs in my house.

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives.

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives

You can see the building’s subsidence here and the curves of the sandy bay are imperfect…

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives