"We are going for a walk
and a chat and a talk
We might see some busy bees
Making honey for our teas"
Juliet, age 6

I'm a writer, photographer and designer of needlework and knitting patterns from the North East of England.  My day job is writing too, but not the sort of thing you'll find on this website.  Here you'll find fiction and not what you might expect from an arts and crafts kind of girl.  I don't mind a bit of blood and guts or things that go bump in the night! 

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. It's simply something I've always done.  It was with huge relief that I read Conan Doyle on the writer who writes then looks back on the work as something completely new to them.  It's as if it came from someone or something outside.  I thought I was just a bit crazy until then.  Of course, there's nothing to say those writers aren't crazy too, but at least I'm not the only one!

Finding the confidence to share what I do took some devastating and life-changing events to happen first.  I write mostly fiction - there are some short stories on the site already, more on the way, and the plan is to complete a novel soon.  The latest venture is a supernatural murder mystery horror novel.  It's quite brutal and I sometimes read it back and wonder just where it came from.  I'm really excited about the story, more so than I've been about any previous efforts.  Watch this space for updates!

The cross-stitch designs are all created on my computer. Sometimes they begin with a photograph that I edit as though I'd traced the image on paper and filled in the rest.  My favourite charts took the longest to put together - the Egyptian Sampler in the Egyptian Collection book is one.  It was drawn stitch by stitch with reference books piled up around me.  My first Kindle releases are motifs from the sampler.

Knitting patterns are a new thing.  I'd only ever followed them before but have caught the 'design-my-own' bug again.  I have one or two patterns that I'm confident enough to publicise, the Union Jack Beanie on Kindle being the first.  Again, watch this space.

All of the proceeds from sales of my cross-stitch designs go to the MS Society to help fund vital MS research, raise awareness, fight for the rights of people with MS and provide much needed support.  To learn more about what they do, visit http://www.mssociety.org.uk