I don't know why

but since we got back from holiday I have felt creatively uninspired. I am working on other people’s designs, but I have had no ideas of my own. I had lots before we went away, which I couldn’t start because there wasn’t time – but now I can’t remember what they were.

So these are what I have been working on – two designs from old editions of ‘Classic Stitches’, one by Anwyn Dean and one by Sandra Hardy - with some modifications of course, I rarely follow a pattern exactly. Each bag has a little notebook to go with it – the idea is that in exhibitions I will be able to make notes and quick sketches without having to search in my big bag for pencil and paper. Will it actually happen? – Well, only if I remember to take one with me! Why do I need two? – I don’t need two, I just made two.

I have also been working on the embroidery I took away on holiday. This is based on the knot garden I started in a class with Owen Davies and threw away because I hated the colours. The design is Owen's but I have changed some of the stitches and as you can see the colours are now completely unnatural – but much more to my taste. Since I took the photo I have started on the plush stitch foliage in the gap – and unpicked almost as much as I have sewn. Whatever made me pick black canvas? Of course watching the alpine stages of the Tour de France at the same time didn’t help! I think it will probably become a box top.

And on a completely different topic – Quality Control has been at work in the loft, including a very close inspection of some vintage spiders’ webs.