Juliette Orton

I had a lovely evening at Chiltern Embroidery and Textile Group in Tylers Green earlier in the week, it was good to be back there after giving my own talk back in March. I took my Mum and a friend to see a talk given by Wendy Dolan on 'Art, Architecture and Stitch' which was right up my street! Wendy is a textile artist who uses fabrics and threads to create textured designs with some wonderful results. I have met Wendy several times before as she is from Sussex (where I grew up) and we also have some mutual friends.   Wendy's talk covered how she develops her work from sketchbooks through to her final designs and she showed us photographs that had inspired her from a variety of places such as Barcelona and Venice. My work is also very sketchbook led so I could easily identify with her thought process. I am also drawn to textures but Wendy's work differs from mine in that she starts with plain coloured fabrics, stitch and thread - ...

I realise that I have not mentioned my health of late and you might like an update so here goes.................. please feel free to click to something else if this is not of interest to you, I won't be in the least bit offended. I have also peppered this blog with some arty photos from my therapeutic walk today which may appeal to you! Where to start? Well, I think the last time I wrote about my health, I was on the AIP diet in a bid to control my arthritis and recently diagnosed MS (along with Raynauds Syndrome). Since then I have had an almighty flare up with my RA and have been unable to straighten my arms which has led to several steroid injections in my elbows over the summer months and a lot of pain. I had to change my medication because of the nerve damage I was experiencing and this seems to have triggered the flare up.      I came off my diet (after several weeks of pain) as I didn't have the energy to prepare everything I...