My ‘Tile’ series of pieces for my client Heritage Crafts continues to be popular in the world of cross stitch with ‘The Intruder’ taking the range through Christmas 2019. The origins of the sequence lie in a piece called ‘The Optimists’. An obsessive little thing representing the reaction to the sound of the opening of a pack of cat food. Although the original image wasn’t reproduced in cross stitch, it led to a whole series of puns, contradictions and misplacements that the client embraced.

While working on The Optimists, I found the repetition took me the closest I ever get to meditation and was compelled to explore the principle further. ‘Once Upon a Time’ was created as both a placement print for garment embellishment and as a repeat fabric pattern for licensing.

There is something oddly satisfying for me in inking bricks and roof tiles, but in Once Upon… I resisted the urge to have visible brickwork. There’s a point where looking at something that busy is like trying to find meaning in a bowl of Rice Krispies!

My original plan was to have ‘Once Upon a Time’ just as clean linework, but once that was complete, I decided to add colour digitally through Procreate, creating night, day and greyscale versions. Using this theme, I put together a range of products and garments through Vida to see how it performs. Time will tell.