One of my daughter's closest friends has had his first baby, a little boy. Today, after returning from the memorial for an old friend who died a week ago, I didn't have energy to do much more than organize the final details of a sampler for this new baby, i.e. the name and the date...it was a restful and regenerative exercise. I said goodbye to one dear person and hello to another.

I started working a couple of days ago on an interpretation by Beth Russell of the Orange Frieze by William Morris. The colours really drew me into the project and since William Morris also is the artist of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England (a period in the decorative arts movement that I am particularly interested in) at the turn of the 20th century, it was normal that I would want to work this.

The original design was by John Henry Dearle (1860 -1932) for a firescreen. Beth Russell, British, a contemporary designer of needlepoint, through her brilliant adaptations, provided a cartoon for a bell pull. She intended the project to be executed in wools on a 12 point canvas. I am not partial to working with wool so I have taken the same cartoon and have translated the design on a 28 count antique white linen with DMC floss, using just one strand. The colour selections are beautiful and I am drawn excitedly to work this all through the day. I do not tire of the design, this much due to the selection of colours, a testimony to the taste and talent of Beth Russell.

I have been having difficulty getting into serious projects, but when this happens, I fall on my tried and true ideas and this one has been on my list of 'things to embroider' for a long long while.

It is part of a magnificent collection of historical 'cartoons' dating back to 1932. It is called 'Frise Africaine'.

It is restful to do a monochromatic cross stitch; no need to think of colour, just the need to follow a pattern already calculated and put all my attention into the precision of the technique and the effect of the thread on the linen. I worked this project on a 32 count linen with a dark grey (DMC 3799) thread of cotton floss. The final piece measures no more than 12 cms x 4 cms.

It creates refreshing point of non-colour on my studio wall - a little like ink letters on a fresh page of white paper. Hopefully this therapy, this restful period, will generate the energy I seem to be in need of to return to my more complicated project 'Arabesque'.

Stay tuned and patient!