Travelling Book - 6 February

Even by UK standards, Oxford is a temperate area; we rarely experience any extremes of weather. When the weather forecasters predict heavy snowfall for the region that usually means that the Cotswolds to the north and west of us, and the Chilterns to the south and east of us will get several inches of snow but Oxford will get a light dusting.

Unusually, in February we had several inches of snow one night and the following morning - the very night a friend and I were planning to drive to Manchester. According to weather reports, the North of England would escape the worst (or is that the best) of the snow so we delayed our journey to the following morning when we would at least be driving in daylight.


The forecasters predicted correctly, although snow was still falling heavily in Oxford when we set out, it gradually petered out as we travelled north. By the time we joined the M6, the snow had stopped and the cloud was beginning to break up.

The cloud formed two broad stripes across the sky, each dark grey at the top fading to the palest grey at the bottom. A small hole in the cloud revealed a patch of bright cerulean blue.

This scene provided the inspiration for my Travelling Page but I did not know how I would go about stitching it until I met Jan Beaney. I was inspired by her wonderful stitched fabrics to attempt making some for myself. Jan has spent years developing, practicing and perfecting her FME skills so obviously I did not expect my first attempt to come close to her artistry but I enjoyed doing it.


On the left-hand page I painted the scene in watercolours and gouache and attached my small fragment of FME fabric to the right hand page.



Happy Stitching