Jo Avery – the Blog

Forthline Project

A month or so ago I started a lovely new community project called the Forthline Project:

“The idea was inspired and developed by a group of experienced craftworkers, supported by the Edinburgh Shoreline project.The finished creations will be combined so that the whole Forth shoreline story can be displayed in whole and/or local sections.

The aim is to provide an inspiring challenge for artists and craftworkers in these constrained times and, importantly, to celebrate the amazing shoreline we have on our doorstep, with a particular focus on our coastal environment and the amazingly varied wildlife that can be found there.”

I was sent a 40cm square of calico which represented 1 kilometre square of the Forth shoreline and asked to express things that move me about the coastal environment and the natural heritage of a particular piece of coast.

I live right beside the Firth of Forth, which is ‘an arm of the North Sea that thrusts westward into the Scottish Lowlands’ (says Google).

It’s basically a huge estuary of several Scottish rivers including the river Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south.  You may have heard of the Forth Bridge which is one of the most famous bridges in the world.

I live on the South coast of the Forth just beside Blackness Castle.  These days I often start my day with an early morning walk along the coastline and into the woodland.  I took some photos on my Monday morning walk showing the beaches either side of the castle, and below shows the beautiful native woodland I walk through. This route is also part of the John Muir Way.

These walks have made a huge difference to my mental health and general well being over the last year. I hardly ever see anyone else early in the morning so it is very calm and relaxing, and there is so much natural beauty to enjoy. It’s also always changing, with the tides, weather and seasons meaning you see a different vista every day.

So when I heard about this project to create an ‘illustrated story’ of the Forth Coast I just had to join in!

I put my name down quite early on and got to choose square number 2.  Square 1 was the closest to my walk, butting right up to my route, but as that was already taken I was very happy to have number 2.  The landscape is pretty much exactly the same so I used the favourite bits of my walk as inspiration – the beach (represented by pebbles and shells), the trees (strewn leaves) and all the different birds I see.

I gathered together some subtle, natural coloured fabrics and sketched a quick plan with a list of my favourite birds. I then just freehand cut my pebble shapes and used needle-turn applique to stitch them down. Usually I gather stitches around a paper template for curved pieces but I found I didn’t need to do this here, as the curves were lovely and smooth just be turning the edges under as I stitched. I guess I must have had enough practice at this now! I was also using the wonderful Aurifl 80wt cotton which makes hand stitching such a joy.

Goodness I enjoyed stitching these pebbles so much! I’m definitely returning to this lovely mindful stitching for a future project. I added some felt pebbles for extra texture too.

Once I’d filled the beach I started adding leaves, again cutting these out completely freehand. And again I added some felt leaves.  Next I moved on to the birds.  These needed to be drawn up and transferred to linens before being individually embroidred.  I used a range of linen and linen mix fabrics in blues and aquas as I wanted a patchwork look for the water.  I started with the oyster catcher above. Such a beautiful bird with a very distinctive ‘peeping’ call.

I used Aurifil 12wt wool for all the birds except the tan coloured stripe on the shelduck.  I didn’t have the right colour of wool so used some Aurifil 12wt cotton instead. The other birds featured are a curlew, with that fabulous long curving beak, and a pink footed goose.

Every year from around late August till November these geese fly over our home in huge flocks, honking at each other continously as they fly. The come here to overwinter, flying backwards and forwards between the water and the surrounding fields. They are one of the big natural treats we look forward to and treasure every year.

Once out of their hoops I trimmed the linen around the birds and deliberately frayed the edges (quite a departure for me!!). I then laid them together with extra pieces to fit the water shape and stitched them down on the machine.  Lastly I added lots of hand stitching using Aurifil 12wt wool.

I stitched around pebbles and leaves using a mixture of running and backstitch and added veins to some leaves and ‘stars’ to some pebbles.

I also added waves and ripples to the water using running stitch.  I basically finished this a couple of hours ago!  I am a little over the deadline but as the project is spreading down the coast in batches it will take a while to finish completely, so being a few days late was fine with the organisers, Edinburgh Shoreline. I am dropping it off tomorrow in person. I’ve just submited an image of my piece to the online gallery.  You can view the artwork as it takes shape here. Wow there are some incredible pieces! Do head over and have a look.

Quite a few of my fellow Edinburgh MQG members have also joined in (and already finished theirs!). I thought I would share a couple of these here so you can see the wonderful range and versatility of these pieces.

Janet’s beautiful oyster catcher is on the left and Juliet’s spectacular traingular water is on the right.

But I think my absolute favourite is this gorgeous embroidery from Margaret, isn’t in stunning?!

We could really do whatever we wanted on the calico square but we were asked to keep the actual marked coastline showing so this can be viewed as a continous line when they are hung together.  It is hoped that this huge artwork can be hung and exhibitied at the COP 26 meeting in Glasgow later this year. I would absolutely love that!

I’ve really enjoyed being part of this project, both making this piece and now being able to enjoy all the others. I can’t wait to see the whole thing together one day!

4 comments

  1. Your birds are super Jo, as ever, whether a humble blackbird or sophisticated oyster-catcher. I loved seeing your pebbles and realised I needed to up my game. What an inspirational project and I feel so honoured to have contributed too

  2. Your block is gorgeous Jo. My daughter lives close to the shore and I love walking there on my visits from South Africa. Looking forward to see the exhibition. What a wonderful group project.

  3. I have just found this Jo it’s beautiful, I love your colours and leaves,pebbles,sea and birds…..really so lovely 😍 Hope you are well (a few hours ago I was just telling my friend Catherine all about you and Jonathan beautiful handcrafted kitchens and sewing projects….Love this one xx

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