After a couple of weeks break due to teaching I have spent the last few days finishing my latest art quilt. It is called Cadence 7 and I’m sharing a detail from the piece. Yes it is made from breakdown printed fabrics. Yes turquoise features heavily. And yes there is lots and lots of straight line quilting. But it needed something more.

The addition of a thin strip of complementary colour and some curved lines have helped to bring the piece alive. I absolutely love it and hope that some of you will get to see it in the Art Quilt section at Festival of Quilts at the end of July. Because the quilt is big (297cm wide and 101cm high) it should get displayed on a white wall …. I design my pieces to be exhibited on white walls and don’t enter them into shows where they would be displayed against black cloth. My art, my choice!

The next couple of months are super busy. As well as teaching my own workshops I’m delighted that Christine Chester and Ruth Brown will also be teaching in my studio. There are a few places left if you fancy a fun packed staycation in (hopefully sunny) Manchester. Details on my workshops page. And then there is Festival of Quilts where I will be demonstrating breakdown printing on my stand in the Quilt in Action area. I have everything crossed that it goes ahead - it will be such a boost in so many ways!

And whilst I like to fool my husband that I can bend time to get a couple of extra hours out of every day the reality is that teaching is all absorbing (and knackering) so I’m unlikely to get much ‘art’ time. I certainly won’t have the time to start the next Cadence quilt but I might find time to do a little sampling of some new ideas ……..