An astound-ing trip to Iceland in winter provided my inspirational picture. The colours of glistening blue glaciers and the sea against the snow together with seeing my first iceberg were truly inspirational.

I had already created a large piece on the Iceland subject and had left-over pieces of dyed, painted and printed fabric. I used these with bonded appliqué and free machine quilting.

October. The beautiful sea and icebergs made me think of snowy mountains in Norway reflected in the water. I used the same strip method and machine stitching.

I continued with the theme of reflection and wanted to imagine mountains by water. I appliqued the mountains and the reflections and emboidered the trees.

For this quilt I decided to home in on one small part of the lovely snow scene picture I received. It was very apt in the cold weather! I used the slope to continue the mountain theme in the background and bare trees for winter. I heavily quilted the snow to give some texture.

The trees made me think of some abstract Helen Howes trees, so I followed a tutorial on her website.

Saint Michael's Mount.

Sept: St. Michaels Mount — strip peicing fine fabrics together.

It was a familiar scene which I chose to reimagine in daytime. I used applique and some embroidery.

The quilt that inspired me was of Saint Michael's mount.

I was reminded of a family holiday where we also went to Heligan, so I married the legend of Jack and the Beanstalk, said to originate at St. Michael's Mount and the Mud Maiden from the Lost Gardens.

This quilt took a lot of thought. The picture I received was beautifully stitched by hand and had no background I could use so I thought I would scale it right down and machine stitch a similar prone figure.

I decided not to quilt it as I felt it would detract from the simple line drawing I wanted to achieve.

Sally (H) sent me a really intriguing stitch sketch of a figure lying down with her head on her arms – was this dance, grief, exercise, was it male or female? My mind went on imagining the secret meaning of the piece, which was set on hand dyed green fabric. I made a responding quilt with ‘sketched’ flowers on ice dyed fabric. When it was complete, I decided I was not satisfied. Eventually, I turned to my sketchbook again and some work carried out several years ago. I had done drawings of my son in different poses. I decided a freestyle drawing of him lying down facing me with his legs in the air was a reasonable response to Sally’s piece. I had previously looked at some of Henry Moore’s drawings in order to get an idea for colour, and loosely dyed the figure’s shape pale lemon on a blue background (not sure this worked for me). I then drew with my machine needle not worrying too much about accuracy – a freeform sketch.

This was by far the hardest challenge. I love Patricia’s artistic photo and wondered what I could possibly do. My quilt is what I think the boy is looking at whilst lying on the ground. I tried to use similar techniques and keep the background looking much the same.

Original photo. Mawgan Porth Beach in North Cornwall

September. This was inspired by the original photo which I took at sunset from the Bedruthan Steps Hotel. I used overlapping 1/2 inch strips of fabric with machine stitching for the background. Thinner strips were added for the sunlight. Then I added the black silhouette of the coastline and buildings.

The first picture I received was a delightful sunset scene. I really wanted to use the shapes of the picture, to emphasise the dark shapes at the bottom and brighter colours above. I added the boat for continuity.

I just focused on the boat and used some African fabrics to create the sea,em-broidered stars and did some machine stitching.

Gill’s striking image of a sailing boat at night, set against the moon, initially put me in mind of the Owl and the Pussycat but try as I might, I could not think of an image from the poem that I felt comfortable with. Instead, I decided to create a sea and beach scene in a more realistic style. I used painted silk and commercial silk from a dated scarf. I also used manipulated and heat-deformed white synthetic material for the waves and added machine quilting and embroidery.

Colour was the inspiration from the quilt received.  In  Adelaide 2014 on the lace tour we visited a coastal town that had metal flag poles as the winds could be too strong for fabric.  The designed evolved into a fish!  Foundation piecing, curved seams and applique + couching and shadow quilting.