She began as a sketch of Persephone, a story I have loved since childhood. Persephone being whisked away from her mother to the underworld by Hades. Demeter grieving so much that the crops don’t grow and then Persephone is allowed to return to Demeter but only for six months of the year because she ate six pomegranate seeds while she was in the underworld and therefore has to go back down for six months of the year. I have always loved this explanation of winter with no crops growing and then Persephone rising from the underworld to bring the spring.

After my first stitching I altered some of my colour choices, in particular I fell in love with two dmc colours 922 and 3328, an orange and a red. Because of this I shifted the greens I was using and the whole thing became more autumnal. When I shared her on instagram I realized she really did look more autumnal. Autumn always brings mother nature to mind which has lovely associations with Demeter and so she has become ‘Mother Nature’

I played around with her cape quite a lot in the end needing to choose between filling it with split stitch or the grid pattern but I thought the grid was more interesting to stitch and to look at.

It has taken me the longest time to finish designing her, although in part that’s due to some beautiful weather and two of my children being back from university, so a bit of a ‘stay at home holiday’ which has been very beautiful after so long in lockdown.

We explored the Helford and the Lizard and Nanjizal, sometimes quite windy but beautiful bright days and lots of picnics.