This has been a hard time for everyone. In January 2020 we all had life plans. If foretold what was to come, we would have run screaming and hidden in a dark cupboard. How would we get through? We experienced uncertainty, fear, isolation and boredom. The numbers of ill and dying rose. There was no hope of a cure or a vaccine in the immediate future. We focussed on gratitude for our families, homes, gardens and jobs. When we had had low points, we were ashamed. So many were suffering worse, often alone. We did what we needed to. We stayed home. We saved lives. We kept busy.  Some of us - we sewed.

The garden, the park and the heath were the only escape from incarceration during repeated lockdowns. I longed for wide-open spaces and hills. I learned to embroider as a child on wet Scottish caravan holidays. Now I make collages that remind me of my homeland, from smaller and smaller scraps of assorted fabrics, threads and lace, wasting nothing. I embellish with machine and hand embroidery. In my piece I escape to those hills and the soothing effect of nature and focus on what I have missed and what I am grateful for.