Karen Ruane

this and that

It's been a week of very different things. Embroidery, Glastonbury, (last image, the most important one!!). There's been paper stuff, thread deliveries, gift deliveries, gloomy days and very wet days. The beach? That's from last week. This beach was on my doorstep when I was growing up. I was born and raised at the seaside. I love to go back. I'm drawn to the beach wherever I am, it's in my blood. The rocks are a new addition however, flood defences are being installed after awful flooding last winter.

There will be stitching today, some fiddling, some doodling, some note making and perhaps a little shopping list for my trip to London later this week.

connected?

The main thing here, the focus of this post was meant to be the addition of stitch to my new Liberty pouch. We'll focus on that first. I've added loops, (of course, I'm an addict remember), I've added buttonhole lace, more hexagons and some straggly flower things, wrapped thread with French knots on top.

Before I removed the embroidery from my damp stretching board I was rummaging through a folder looking for something. I came across these two bits of paperwork, paper based, collaged, painted doodle things. I wondered how they'd look with this embroidered cloth as I thought I could see a connection. I still see it, but not with the pinky one. I definitely like the flowery one, the collaged paper thing fits here. I made that years and years ago. Just goes to show, it pays to hang on to stuff.

 

buttons and a page

A round up of some of what's been happening in Simply Stitch 5 over the past week, buttons and a page. It's not just this, we're not lazy. The page in particular took some doing I can tell you. I made lots of basic mistakes....oops. I have learnt from them, they are now never to be repeated mistakes......I hope.

I'm working away on the new pouch I showed you earlier this week, the liberty cloth pouch. I began adding loops last night along with a few more hexagons. I'm hoping to show you that tomorrow. I've also been working on the bling pieces and creating more cloth on my sewing machine. These are all things you will get to see soon I promise.

At the tail end of next week I am going to London for a few days. That doesn't mean you will be abandoned. I have a plan........more on that next week.

Meanwhile...ledgers....I keep getting asked if I am going to run the Ledgers class again. I honestly can't fit it in any time soon but that is why I put the new Doodle class together, it's the next best thing. Everything I will demonstrate in that class is doable in a ledger. It is, I promise.

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pieced....

loopy towers

First of all....wow.....I wasn't expecting the response I got to yesterdays post. Thank you! I meant to give you a link yesterday to where you can create your own mosaics, I forgot. Here it is now, better late than never.

Loops, it's all about loops here at the moment. I just sit down, get my needle and thread, forget to look at the clock and make loops all night. I love them, adore them, can't get enough of them. I am renaming my tiny Lancashire cupboard of a house Loopy Towers as opposed to Ruane Towers. For now I'm resisting the urge to have a plaque made.......

I wanted to share this video with you. When it is released for sale all proceeds will go to ''Children in Need'' here in the UK.  Check out the sets, loving the balloons.

collections

 

Yesterday I created a mosaic of images from my blog post to upload to my flickr photostream. It's something I do often, it enables me to upload several images quickly. I have been doing this for quite a while now and as I was browsing my mosaics it occurred to me that you never get to see them. This is a selection, some new, some old, some VERY old.

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hexagons, a single buttonhole and newly pieced cloth

the next thing....(and an embroidery book)

pieced....

Because I had nothing else to do...ha, ha, ha, ha...my mother told me never to tell lies, sorry mum. Because I wanted to.....I pieced some Liberty and white together yesterday afternoon to make a new pouch. It makes me happy. It's a delight to stitch on. As you can see, aside from tacking there is very little stitch as yet but we do have a lovely row of cross stitch flowers standing proudly to attention and two Liberty hexagons floating in space. It has fulfilled a need for colour after days of bling, a need for pattern and I won't tell a lie, a need to play with Liberty fabric again.

 

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loops, hexagons and the Liberty pouch

The bling pouch

still making

two

Before we get to embroidery please let me indulge myself because I can't contain my excitement. I was up before the crack of dawn this morning, showered, clothed and sat at my station ready for 9 o'clock, limbering up my typing fingers, warm up exercises completed. At precisely 9.08 a.m. I secured these which it transpires sold out in less than 30 minutes. (all 130,00 of them) I am still doing my happy dance as we speak. Thank you, thank you, thank you....I want to kiss someone. I want to kiss everyone.

OK, I'm over it.....embroidery. I have stitched and stitched my pin pillow bling cloth. I have come to a halt because I am waiting for something, another titivation material that the postman is keeping me waiting for. It is different since you saw it last, there are more beads, there is more silver kid leather, there are oodles more bullion loops and French knots. As I was in the mood for bling last night I picked up the original cloth, the piece that started this obsession and worked some more on that. There are circles on that surface now, yes circles. (third image). 

Happy days. Bling and mud.....

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just embroidery

The bling pouch

Silk, bling and a swaddling band

French knots and silver purl

Friday doodling

I was gathering bits together yesterday which may play a part in doodle, gather, create. I was mostly looking at how my printed fabric worked alongside lace and how I could develop that with paper and stich. I hadn't planned to actually create anything, just make notes, think, jot down ideas. What can I say though, I just had to doodle, had to forget about embroidery and silk blingy things for a couple of hours and play with this idea.

It's out of my system now. Today, tonight, it's back to the bling and silk.

 

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Doodle, gather create.

doodles and bumps

doodling, stitching, blue and white

old doodles, new ideas....

light as a feather

It's hard to describe how this cloth feels to handle. It is light as a feather yet heavy in places where it is embellished with beads, silver purl and leather. The weight of the embellishments doesn't detract from the delicacy and softness of the surface. Strips of silk are joined to strips of lace and strips of metallic silk tissue. I am adding hand stitch. Lots of French knots, lots of buttonhole lace to the seams and I have just began to embroider bullion loops.

This will be a pin pillow, for me. 

I think this blog may have been offline at some point yesterday. I do apologise. I only know because my tracking service tells me when the blog isn't responding to ''pings''. So if you tried to get on and couldn't you can read yesterdays ramblings here.

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lace, tissue and edges....

The bling pouch

Silk, bling and a swaddling band

Lace....

Lace cloth

more sparkly work

My blue and white week

I think I'm a little bit in love with blue and white. I think I'm a little bit in love with doodles too. And then there's embroidery. Ok, I'm in love a lot. I'm also easily distracted, easily diverted from a task. I need to put things away when I'm not working on them. That way they won't catch my eye and demand attention.

Some of this blue and white will be new to you. It's ledger work from ''5''. You've seen the fabric before....here....I am very happy with this one. More so than the first piece I had printed as the pattern is more appealing in this scale. 

At the moment I'm embroidering a blingy pillow for pins but I am itching to get back to blue and white. Self control Karen.

 

 

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Doodle, gather create.