I heard the discussion about making a Covid Panel on a Radio 4 Woman’s Hour programme earlier this year. This captured my imagination because last summer I had hand stitched a banner to mark the awful pandemic symbolising all the things that have become part of our normal life. I wanted to take part but I wanted to use my sewing machine this time. I had been trying to make my pieces more 3D and had made some successful spirals using free machine embroidery and manipulating the pieces I made.

With the announcement of the success of the vaccine programme I knew that I wanted to make my piece “The Light at the End of the Tunnel”: the spirals would replicate the tunnel, like a black hole!  I used calico frayed at the edges to portray the NHS caring for us all, cradling and bandaging us up….hand stitched corona virus germs are splattered around the edges on their way out! I am normally inspired  by natural organic matter found on walks – this piece did remind me of an alien seed husk!