Hello and welcome to our newsletter. Linda here writing for a change! I noticed quite a few new subscribers over the past week so if this is your first newsletter from us, an extra warm welcome. This free weekly mailing is really just a round up of what Laura and I are working on or interested in. I hope you’ll enjoy it and consider subscribing on our paid-for tier, that way you’ll also have access to all our other written articles (about two new ones a week, plus hundreds in the archive) and also our live workshop sessions (usually one a week, plus about 25 so far in the archive). Your support for our work, writing and live workshops means so much. Well quite frankly it means we can keep doing it for a little longer!
We wouldn’t be British if we didn’t start a newsletter by talking about the weather would we? You probably already know I often find inspiration from my garden and I love to photograph the plants and flowers as references for my quilts and paintings, but this summer is proving to be a challenge for our garden. While many people love the sun it has been relentlessly intense for weeks now and there’s been little or no rain. I keep expecting the newsreaders on TV to confirm we are in drought, but so far, nothing official although our grass has looks like a Weetabix for weeks already.
I often paint my flowers but when I walked around our garden I had to edit my photos really severely so you could only see the flowers that are surviving and not the ones looking crisp and sad. It’s hard when you’ve nurtured things only to see them miss their moment of glory and be scorched. Still, we are at least not suffering the threat of wildfires like so many in France and Spain. It makes you wonder if this prolonged summer heat and dry weather will be a more frequent thing for us in the UK and weather we need to start changing our planting for more drought tolerant plants.
Looking at these today I notice that there is a lot of pinks, reds and purples - I wonder if that’s significant to plants who can stand the heat or is it just the time of year?
Much as I love bright colours like orange, yellow and red, I prefer something less shouty. All of these fit the bill and there’s still plenty at the moment to find to draw and paint.
But this newsletter isn’t just about the trials and tribulations of gardening in a heatwave!
Even when the hot weather makes us feel like we should be in holiday mode we can’t stop making stuff. I keep reading how good creativity is for wellbeing. If that’s true Laura and I ought to be very content!
I’m breaking my own rules by knitting at the moment - that’s usually my winter hobby but I need to make inroads into all that yarn I bought at auction recently. I’ve got some lovely colours to work with but have started rather boringly with grey. I made a teal version of this sleeveless top last year and it proved so useful over the winter so I’m having a second go. It’s satisfying to have a project to pick up whenever I have a few free minutes. To be truthful, most of this was done in front of the TV while watching either the World Cup or Le Tour de France. Both of them are over now so I don’t have an excuse to sit on the sofa for hours knitting!
More creatively, I’m working in a tiny ATC book I made some time ago. ATCs seem to be very popular again don’t they? Let us know if you’d like to see more about them and Laura will include it it an upcoming video. Here, as they say, is one I made earlier - actually there are three tiny books.
And here are four single ATCs which maybe just framed as little artworks in their own right. They are 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches so very doable when time is short and such a great way to experiment with techniques and materials.
Laura’s working on a series of tiny paintings and I’ve got some blank ATC cards still waiting for inspiration so we’ll keep you posted about what happens with them. She put our ATC workshops into the featured section on the website so you can easily find them if you’d like to try your hand at some tiny art too.
Paid subscribers will have seen I wrote about using gouache this week. It’s a really versatile medium and well worth a try if it’s new to you. I don’t think everyone realises how it can be used like watercolour or to create areas of flat colour. It’s such a versatile medium. Look at the lovely visual texture you can create if you want to…
I’ve got my eye on this lily - I think it might well be my next subject because I’ve got a beautiful carmine gouache that should be a perfect start. I could cut the bloom, take it into my studio and paint from life but it’s helpful to take photographs to work from. This will fade and shed its petals very quickly in the heat. Besides, don’t you think flowers look better in the garden than they do in a vase?
We don’t just paint and print, we piece and quilt too! I’ve often been asked whether I prefer painting to quiltmaking and the truth is I don’t see a division. It’s all about colour, line. shape and texture, the rest is simply interpretation. Sometimes I work with paper and paint and sometimes I work with fabric and thread. All the same to me! That’s why sometimes you’ll see lots on here to do with drawing and painting, and at other times much more will be stitching. We just veer off into whatever direction appeals to us at that time, or at least, whatever technique and media serves us and the idea best. That’s beginning to sound like a lecture and I don’t mean it to. I’d simply encourage anyone to have a go with what they feel comfortable with. You don’t have to think of yourself as just a quilter or embroiderer, of course you can paint too if you want to, there are no rules.
If you are one of our loyal supporters then can I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you? Even if we rarely meet our followers we do feel we belong in a like minded community bubble kind of way. I know if we bumped into each other at a quilt show or exhibition we’d get along famously! Many of you might be heading off to Festival of Quilts this week. We’re taking a year off from exhibiting there so we won’t catch up with you this time. Hope you have a great time if you are attending.
Thanks for everything.
Linda x
Thank you for creating with us. For more please visit our online video workshops.
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