I’ve been retired from my UK job in the National Health Service for quite a long time. I worked in Administration then later in Technology and Project Management. The years since retirement have been filled with all kinds of stitching and learning. I’ve taken numerous courses including City & Guilds Level 3 in Patchwork and Quilting and Hand Embroidery. These activities have been therapeutic and uplifting. My husband died several years ago after suffering with Parkinson’s Disease for many years. Before he died we would go to Craft Fairs together where over the years I made and sold hand-made bags, children’s’ quilts fleece dressing gowns for kids and ladies and much more. Since he died I’ve taken part in several Open Studies Art Trails in this part of England. Here I specialised in hand finished linen handbags as well as machine embroidered children’s quilts.

My home now is in Ross-on-Wye in the beautiful Wye Valley and close to the border with Wales. I’ve established an Arts & Craft group locally and enjoy developing tutorials for the group to enjoy. A couple of years’ ago I produced a website for my little hobby business which I call Stitch-Pretty. The website address is https://stitch-pretty.com and was originally created to link with the Forest and Rivers Open Studios website. As I’m not planning to take part in the Art Trail this year I’ve spent time on updating and changing the theme of my site. Now I want it to contain tutorials based on what we’re doing at the Arts & Crafts group. I also want to use it for comment and critique on articles, books, magazine and internet projects that I find and use. As part of these activities I make samples of the resulting products myself. So I accumulate hand-made goods which I can give away or sell. For that reason some examples will end up in my shop.

This new direction is exciting for me and I hope the links to my articles and tutorials will be useful or helpful for friends and whoever else may find my site by chance.

I hope you enjoy looking at what I do and that you find something interesting for yourself to enjoy and try out.