It's time for 'The Blues'.

It's time for the Blues! JQ's for the last four months of 2012 are shades of blue. I was inspired by a photo that I took of a rusted window frame in a derelict building in Dungeness. Self dyed fabrics, pieced and free motion quilted.

This is called 'The Boardwalk across the Road from the Beach'. The scraps of cotton stitched onto the rusted cotton were stained with beach pebbles and seaweed from the beach at Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, and from blackberries and seeds by The Boardwalk Nature Reserve, across the road. Unfortunately the stains don't really show in this photo.I've used stitch to contour the different areas of the beach, sea and boardwalk from my 'birds eye view' memory.

This piece is called 'Oasis'. As I stitched, it reminded me of the desert with sand dunes, and a couple of small watering holes, surrounded by some greener growth.

This is a small piece of silk, embroidered with simple stitches to convey the seashore from a sketch I had made a couple of years ago while sitting by the sea at Ferring. I had been inspired by the simple, but very evocative mark making on some aboriginal art. I decided to try and capture the movement of the sea from the horizon, to the waves breaking onto the beach in front of me against the pebbles, using just a few simple lines/stitches.

Thanks for looking in, and here's to stitch, cloth and colour!!