new year, new course

 for me there has been a major benefit from the chaos of covid ........ so many more stitch and textile learning opportunities online! i started this blog because of an online course and have continued to learn and develop through online and face to face courses and classes ever since - but the restrictions imposed over the past year have led to a massive increase in online opportunities with tutors i thought i would never be able to encounter face to face - so i am making the most of these opportunities and hoping they will continue once life resumes a more normal pattern

this year opened with the introduction to Poetry of Stitch with Christine Chester - i came across Christine through her connection with Committed to Cloth and have wanted to attend one of her classes in Eastbourne - but covid restrictions have meant that i can now attend from home and work in my own time so this is my christmas present to myself

the first exercise is one i have done before so i am considering whether to review or revisit it - 

drawing a curve using straight lines

i feel i got too ambitious with this exercise, trying to fill the spaces with a variety of patterns rather than using line simply and exploring the variations in line i could use - so it looks like a practical revisiting will be necessary

at the time i decided that i wanted to use the opportunity to practice designing a simple block which coul be used to build up a pattern - i feel i succeeded with that but got distracted with the filling part

as usual i did not complete the exercise, stopping after 3 squares

also i used the same weight of thread throughout, creating the variety purely with pattern 

my main learning points from this have been: 

1) keep it simple

2) try sticking to the instructions for most of the exercise

conclusion: do it again, properly