A Friday Review

A look back on the week and a bit more

Jun 05, 2026

The Friday Substack Post
I had a lovely chat with one of my subscribers this week. I am still not quite sure how this platform works and it appears that there are multiple ways that people navigate it.

I usually post notes once or twice a day. Either from my portfolio of work or from photos I take of things in my garden. Then I have been posting a regular article, "The Friday Post," & "The Sunday Stitch."

I have been writing a "Friday Post" on my FB page for quite a few years now, almost as a weekly diary, about what's going on in my little bubble here on the SW coast of Ireland. I don't really think of it as a "public" post, it is often on the "private" setting for my friends & family.

When I started Substack I thought it was something I could just cut & paste and that would be easy enough to do. But this goes out to "Subscribers" here on Substack & I presume that most of them really signed up because they wanted to see or learn more about my stitching?

In my conversation I learned that not everyone sees notes, they don't either check on a daily basis or go to my page to see what's going on. Obvious really but I hadn't considered it before.

So the suggestion made was to use my Friday Post as a review come catch up of my weekly posts. Giving me an opportunity to add more context & detail and that's what I thought I'd try out this week. I'd love to hear what you think?

I'll start the ball rolling with my "Odd Ball" series. I've been playing around with 3D sculptural stitching for many years. Some of it comes under what's called "stumpwork" and is incorporated into other embroidery. I've used felt and other fabrics. The recent elemental series is based around using table tennis balls. I was an international table tennis coach for many years & it enabled me to travel around the world, I even got to coach in China at the SO World Games, an amazing experience.

As you can imagine using a table tennis ball as the "core" for these pieces has an extra significance to me. I may put a couple more photos of the other pieces in my Sunday Stitch. I have been meaning to sort out some video for them but I've been busy.

I posted a couple of panels this week. The peacock feather panel from my "Magic Hat" and the "Holes as in Holes" panel from my Quantum Quilt Project.

They are the same size 3½"×4". I stitched 100 of these panels over a 2 year period for my Quantum Quilt. After I finished them I thought it would be fun to stitch a matching hat, something I could wear to a future exhibition of the quilt! 🤭 Well the idea made me giggle!

I have finished the hat & even wore it to an exhibition opening. However it wasn't my Quantum Quilt Exhibition it was to my friend Loretta's exhibition. My Quantum Quilt is in a box ready to be quilted, I just need to find a space big enough to work on it and to get off my tushie and get on with it.

I also put up a post about my mum who died this time last year. That was a difficult post to write. I love my mum very much. She faded a lot over the last 5 years of her life. There was some relief when she finally passed but there was also guilt and grief. There still is.

My mum introduced me to stitching. It is hard not to think of her every time I thread a needle and think, I wonder what she would make of this piece. I used to send her pieces every now and again as well as monthly photos. We never managed to get her to use a computer, so they had to be printed out. She didn't like me typing letters either, I don't hand write letter at all these days. I think I will try to do a few to others now, I think it's a good thing to do, but I'm not sure why!

That experience contrasted dramatically with my first tme experience with a Troll. It shook me up for a bit. I do try to avoid negative people, I still haven't processed my thoughts on this yet, so I won't expound here. What I would like to say is how incredibly supportive people have been here on Substack. The good out weighs the bad at least 1000/1 and I shouldn't let it bother me, it does, and that bothers me!

I stuck up one of my drawings this week. A piece of Celtic Knotwork. I did a series of these to make my kids colouring book. I did them in ink pen (rotary) copied them and then printed them out. I then coloured them in with a set of felt tipped pens (Sharpies).

I used to "doodle" a lot but haven't done any for awhile now. I have note books full of designs and have done a number of illustrations for record covers, books & advertising. Living in the country you have to be able to turn your hand to a few things to make a living.

I finished off this week by announcing my new "Pride Month" series. I was worried about how it would be received, it seems to be politically sensitive in some regions. Things have certainly changed in my time. It's hard to imagine that homosexuality was still illegal when I was a kid. We have gay marriage in Ireland, not something I would have imagined possible even 20 years ago. We had a gay Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 2022.

If I'm honest I don't profess to understand all the language associated with diversity & identity. My kids help me a lot and I forget pronouns but I have never experienced any negativity around it. I just try to do my best & am happy to be corrected when I get things wrong

Anyway, with this series I just thought I'd like to teach myself more and support my friends.

That's about it. I hadn't realised I had posted so much. I hope you found at least some of it interesting and let me know if there are any other ideas out there you'd like me to write about.