Karen Ruane

The first of three

This one is finished now, backed and stuffed, edges hand finished with running stitch and a little puff on one corner. There are two more pieces like this still to work on, lace, silk and white which need to be embroidered. This one measures 6 x 5 inches and the others should be around that size too.

In the background, out of sight, I'm still playing with my scribble doodles.....I'm also mentally playing with ideas from yesterdays post, making lists in my head, wondering what I can mix with what, doodle and paper, doodle, scribble on cloth and what any accompanying paperwork  might look like, what form that might take. 

Later today I'll be cutting pages and sharpening my pencil not forgetting the embroidery I want to do too. Embroidery is the main focus, the pencil and paper a quick ten minute distraction every now and then.

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the beginning

doodle or scribble....

I've been doodling on cloth over in class, blue and white hexagons and berry type things. They are laid here alongside finished ledger pages from  last year. I think this was a bad idea...I now have a zillion new ideas which have jumped into my brain because I did this. If I can restrain myself for a week or so it may turn out to be a good thing. In a week or so I may have more time to develop the ideas, create new pieces from this playing. 

This morning I decided I like the word ''scribble''. Its' more interesting than ''doodle'' don't you think? Having looked up both definitions scribble has a lot to do with ''illegible''......I will let you decide that one whilst I work on convincing myself I can change the English language to fit my needs.

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lace and mirrors...

ten days....

moving sampling forward

lemon

Lemon, I like a bit of lemon every now and then and I especially like how easily it lives with white silk, white lace and white stitch. One of the three white pillow tops is finished. Now it needs to be backed, stuffed, have the edges titivated....you know the drill, stuff and stitch. There's a ring to that...''stuff and stitch'', I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere.

I probably had more to say today than I've managed so far but it's gone clean out of my head because there has been a bit of a catastrophe at Ruane towers in the last half hour. A full mug of coffee launched itself from my hand causing untold damage, thankfully not to cloth....phew.....but to my computer desk and a pile of papers, letters, invoices. Oh my days, I'll be peeling apart wet paper for hours. Happy days.....what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.....the cloth remains pristine, safe, white, fresh and very relieved.

the beginning

It's pieced, it's been pinned and tacked and it now has minimal embroidery. This will be a pocket. My stash of men's hankies has disappeared, all gone save for a few scraps, all put to good use as pockets or as part of the hankie cloth. Never fear, I also have ladies hankies stashed away. Those will be mixed with a few of the manly scraps and hey presto, there will be more pockets.

This one needs more embroidery, for now only the the seams have been attended to, bullion loops, running stitch, stab stitch and buttonhole lace.  Meanwhile, out of sight, lemon has been used to embellish one of these........ it will come out of hiding tomorrow.....

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colour washed companions

folding cloth, a video

inspired to doodle by cross stitch

colour washed companions

The surface of this silk is slowly filling up with embroidered motifs......cross stitch roses and French knots clusters. I am conscious that you have seen this several times already and although I am adding to it sporadically it perhaps never looks any different to you. After all, a cross stitch rose and a French knot cluster are just that no matter how many of them you embroider. So....this morning.....a quandary.....how to make this even the slightest bit different?

Colour wash some tissue paper, scrunch it up and just lay it down alongside the embroidery was the answer. Complimentary colours, not a strict colour match, more an accompaniment, like salt and pepper.

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adding lace to white

two embroidered panels

lace and silk, white pillows....

I mentioned these three pieces yesterday, three white pillow tops.  Two of them are just tacked at the moment, I have begun embroidery on the third, just a tiny amount so far. In comparison to the pillow top from yesterday, these are tiny.  Each of these will measure approximately six by four inches when finished. The pillow from yesterday will measure around fourteen by eleven inches when it's finished, quite a difference.

In theory these could be finished very quickly. Don't hold your breath...please. They will now go on that pile, that pile that keeps giving whilst I flit to something else for a day or two. ''flit'' mode seems to be default at the moment.  Lots of irons in lots of fires.  That's not to say that nothing ever gets finished, it does. I do sometimes wonder but thankfully the evidence is here. 

 

flit

verb \ˈflit\

: to move or fly quickly from one place or thing to another

extending pattern with gimp...

I had hoped to add more than three applique circles to this piece last night....stuff got in the way. I did manage to add some gimp to the three applique pieces though and I love how it looks, it really does enhance. It also mirrors the gimp that sits on the other seam you have seen before which you can see again in the first and third images.

Gimp has only recently been appearing in my work again after a long break. I used it a long time ago and it just fell off my radar, no particular reason I can think of for that but I'm so glad I ''remembered'' it again. You can read a little more about it here if you aren't familiar with it and I know there are other blogs where it is spoken about if you do a quick Google search.

I was up very early this morning posting about gentle, quiet embroidery over in class. After that was done I put together three tiny pillow tops, nothing like the ones you saw yesterday. I will share those tomorrow....

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unhurried....

snippet cloth

it started with a box of old hankies

French knots and a little bit of gimp

three

They're finished, three pieces of piecing, stitched, backed and stuffed with little pin pillow tags attached. There is no embroidery to speak of on these, a few stab stitches securing the strips, points and loops. I'm keeping these for myself, to use in London and any other workshop which may or may not appear in my future. These will be trusty companions, tools, table additions....now I need to make another three. 

The plan was to put the next three together today but I have just read an e mail where the word ''gimp'' was mentioned and I now have a hankering for gimp. See how easy it is to distract me? to throw my plans off course? I can resist anything except temptation.

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there's always clutter....

two embroidered panels

this morning

lace and mirrors...

a new plan

Tabs in action....

As promised yesterday, tabs and how they work, where they live, how they fit into the body bag. Tabs lay across the pleated muslin, they represent binding, wrapping, holding, keeping safe. They adorn the muslin panels, enhance the pleats whilst mirroring the embellishment on the silk panels.

I need to make quite a lot more of these, my guesstimate is ten but that could be wrong. Truth is I don't really know for certain until the body bag nears completion, nearer to completion than it is now anyway. Later today I will be adding pleated muslin panels to the main piece along with a new tab, the one from yesterday and perhaps another finished silk panel. It is growing. I don' think we are speaking in terms of months until I have a finished body bag. I think it will be weeks.....I hope it will be weeks....

pleated muslin and a tab....

We're focusing on the body bag this week over in swathed in stitch. Panels are being joined, (after I have decided which piece I want where. I change my mind a million times before anything is actually stitched down!) These pieces, the pleated muslin and the tabs are an integral part of the body bag too. I can't have one without the other. The tabs bind the muslin, lay over the muslin panels as if securing them. Tomorrow I will show you this in action so to speak. I will photograph those sections of the body bag where this is evident. I hope it will become a bit clearer then.

Just a word of warning now. I feel another list coming on. Later today...I need some clarity of thought. I need some kind of plan. I have ideas coming out of my ears. I have pressing things nipping at my heels. I need to prioritise. I seem to float along for a few weeks, lost in my own little world of cloth and thread when suddenly reality jumps in and reminds that this tiny corner of the world isn't all fluffy and pretty. Well, it is but not exclusively. Some of that fluffiness and prettiness needs a little order from time to time, a little more focus maybe.