Karen Ruane

paper

Paper, prints, tracing, doodling, a selection of the past couple of weeks playtime with paper. I love to roll paper, what can I say. I love to roll paper in the same way I love to fold cloth. It's a compulsion, it's unavoidable, it's a great way to spend five minutes!

I've been gazing at these all morning, lost in some kind of trance. I feel I should have had a blinding revelation on where to go next and it hasn't arrived. I'll just keep waiting......

Meantime, a reminder. Come doodle with me. Come and create a few pages for your ledger. I'm going to be playing more with paper, cutting it, collage and stuff like that........all good clean fun and the perfect way to keep out of mischief. You can read more about that over here.

I've got bullion knots to attend to now, colourful bullion knots wrapped around the thinnest of piping cords. I will keep one eye on these papers whilst I work those knots and who knows what will happen.

two in progress

There are quite a few pieces ''in progress'' here at the moment. The coloured piece, the doodled cloth you have seen earlier this week. It was added to last night. More applique and more coloured inserts have been added to that surface. I do adore this one, trouble is I can't decide when enough is enough. I could keep going with this forever.

The second piece here, the white piece...........it's a tiny pillow top with added gimp, bullion knots and a few glass beads. What struck me this morning is how good they look together. They couldn't be more different individually but don't they look happy together? If I had nothing at all to do, if my ''to do'' pile wasn't already huge then there would have been a new piece taking shape from these images...doodled cloth with added bling.

petals

Two partial flower heads consisting of three applique petals and one circular centre have  have been applied to the surface of this piece. Each petal and each centre has been edged with white chain stitch, pink chain stitch and green running stitch. I still want to add another of these ''almost'' flower heads on this section before adding a final row of flowers with wrapped stalks along the remaining, unembellished strip. 

This will be a pouch. At the moment I am having a debate with myself over how that pouch will be finished. Rather than have a centre opening at the back like this piece  I am tempted to keep it simple, or simpler. A basic pocket construction, open at the top, almost like a paper bag but with dainty titivations along the opening....

stitching on doodled cloth

This one is dainty, delicate....at least I think it is. The cloth from here that I doodled on in class has been embellished with tiny scraps of colour. The embroidery stitches have also been worked in colour, colour which I hope compliments the doodles. I most definitely want to add more to this, to finish it, to edge it, hem it, make tiny dangly things for one edge.

Then what will I do with it? I did intend to mount it, like a sample, a reference for future work but you know what.....I changed my mind. This one needs more care than that, more recognition. This one will be loosely folded and placed in my glass cabinet where I can see it and handle it regularly.....most likely every day.

remember?

 

Do you recall I spoke about my old blog a while ago?  It has mostly lay unattended since 2012 but occasionally I go back, take a look and am always amazed with at least a few of the pieces I made when I lived there. I haven't ''forgotten'' any of these, there is an instant recognition and in fact I see some of these images when I look at my flickr photostream. Looking back helps if I'm stuck creatively. It's a reacquaintance, a reminder of things that aren't necessarily in the forefront of your mind.

When I do go back, even as far back as five or six years I can always recall what was happening in my life at that point and I can always remember what happened to each piece of work. There are three pieces in today's images, various glimpses of those three pieces. One, a hanging, was sold. There is also a sample which I still own, the lacy piece with the tassel like edge and then there are two pockets from Helen's cloth, a wrapping cloth I made for my daughter. I know exactly where that is, it's across the foot of her bed.......

  

a row of tiny flowers

One row of flowers is complete, another is partially embroidered. These have long, wrapped stems, French knots and bullion knots in colours which I hope compliment the stitching on the vintage handkerchief. I think surface embellishment on this one will consist mainly of these floral forms along with a small amount of applique, probably petal shapes.

At the moment I have plans to work the applique in white cloth, adding colour as either an outline or an embellishment or maybe both.....decisions, decisions.

In other news...I've been doodling again. Attempts are being made at putting a pattern into repeat. I can't give an estimate of when you might see that. I fear it will take quite some time. Meantime I am gathering quite a collection of paper pieces that don't work yet aren't poor enough to throw away.  

paper and cloth doodling

Doodles, doodling, attempts at pattern making, surface design. Who knew an ironing board could look ''pretty'', an instrument of torture could live happily with flowers and hexagons? I could get quite carried away with all this, spend hours scribbling on paper, overlaying pattern, adding a bit of colour here and there, keeping some patterns exclusively blue and white. Watch this space, there will be more.......we will be doing a lot of this in ''reinventing the page''. I already had a list of exercises ready for that class and this has thrown all that up in the air. Sampling can be dangerous, hazardous, the best laid plans get thrown away, discarded. As if there weren't enough distractions already.......

Last night I embroidered pretty flowers, almost like a little garden. I have two more stems to finish on that one before I can damp stretch it. You will see it tomorrow.

and two more makes five....

They're pillows. I said I was pillowed out but these two have renewed my love for the humble pillow. When I made these three I said I needed more, tools, pin pillows for the tables at my London gathering. I think I have enough now. Five tables I think, five pin pillows it is then. There is no embroidery on these to speak of, just a few stab stitches to hold everything together. 

I am feeling one million percent better now.....phew. Yesterday I went here, a pre Mothers day visit. I went to the beach and stared at the sea for a while. I think when you are born and brought up in a coastal town the love of the sea never leaves you. I then went here for a meal with, among others, these two......the best kind of company.

a few stitches...

A few pretty pictures and a tiny bit of sewing.....some bumps and a little lace.....that's all. Enjoy the quiet while it lasts. This time next week you won't be able to shut me up.

it's mostly been ledgers....

 I've been doodling a lot through the day this week. Housework has taken a back seat and doodling is very relaxing when you sneeze every ten seconds or so. Yesterday I dozed for most of the day, hence not much needlework going on. So what you have today is a snapshot of the past few days. How am I feeling today? I'm not sure to be honest. Definitely not as bad as yesterday but nowhere near as good as last Thursday. Make of that what you will. The consolation for me is that with each day that passes I am one day closer to being normal again.....