Karen Ruane

scraps

Yesterday afternoon I gathered scraps of lace. The piece with colour was made some time ago, the piece with the cream lace frill was created yesterday. (I'm not happy with the cream lace frill, it reminds me of knicker elastic). I do have a plan, a plan that has changed since yesterdays piece was put together.

I want to make something in a similar vein to my veil piece below. Not a replica but something light, with an abundance of seams, an abundance of lace edges, buttonhole lace, mirrors....soft and  feminine. 

Tonight I will randomly piece lace, embroider a few seams, add a mirror or two.

sampling class

Sampling class, sampling, pretty, lace, gingham, it's like play time every day. This is a small selection of my work from ''sampling for stitch''. I am being restrained in this class, trying not to race off at 100 miles an hour. It's hard.....the lace, the gingham, the lightness of it, the pleats, the tucks....they are so tempting to pick up and work with. 

I am going away next week for two weeks holiday. Class is happy. They can misbehave, they can maybe even play catch up. We have been running for almost four weeks but you can still join in and if you do that now then you will have two whole weeks free to acquaint yourself with all of this, join our private Flickr group, chat, make friends, stitch and play....just saying.

This piece from yesterday now has another added strip....an edge from a table cloth. As yet there isn't any more embellishment on this one, last night ran away with me and it was time for bed before I knew it. Today I'm thinking I want something else in my life in addition to the white piece, the lace and the gingham. I may well HAVE to put something else together later today. It seems I can't live without an unfinished pile after all.

 

a titivated strip of cloth

Yesterday I added a strip of eyelet trim to this piece of cloth, on video. Last night I embellished the strip with bullion loops after securing both edges with tiny stitches. I now need to find another strip of cloth, ready made perhaps but failing that I may have to create a hemmed strip with a strip from a larger piece. I need to rummage, to open boxes, sort through piles.......it will be a pleasure.

Did you notice that single, tiny applique circle? I'm not sure about that. It will stay..... but whether I will add a row of those I don't know.

So I've got strips of cloth on my mind, this one will be known as the strip piece from now on. I think it will stay white. I may be tempted to add glass beads at some point but that's not decided yet. What I really want is an old buttonhole band, from a  shirt or something. Maybe even a seam from something, a hemmed edge from something old.....hmmmm.....strips, the possibilities are endless once you start thinking.

a strip of cloth, a video

 

Yesterday afternoon I wasn't sure about this.....now I love it. To be fair it didn't look like this yesterday afternoon. It didn't have the tiny hand made embellishments which run along that seam yesterday. The creation of those brought it to life for me and it's a ''yes'' from me today.

There are some tiny dark marks along one seam which I didn't notice until I took the photographs. I'm not worried. I have no idea what they are but that seam is vintage cloth. They will stay, they are a reminder of its previous life.

The finished ''in progress'' pile....

Lots of pictures today, lots of new things now listed in the shop. That's my ''in progress pile'' progressed, finished. In one sense it's liberating, in another it's quite strange. What to do now? I know, I've been talking about that all week and i'm still no nearer a decision. I fiddled with something last night, played a little with a seam on some vintage white but it's not grabbing me. I wonder has my creativity progressed right out of the door with my finished pile? Maybe we need an in progress pile to motivate us, keep the creative juices flowing.

Actually, disregard the motivated bit above. I am definitely motivated....

 

glass beads and French knots

I guess the glass beads don't show up too well on these images....they are on the far left in the first two images, on the right in the third. They are laying on a bed of French knots, they like it like that. The surface embroidery on this one is now finished. Later today it will be lined and have its seams titivated. This is the final piece from my unfinished pile meaning I no longer have an unfinished pile. The body bag doesn't count, that is on my devotion pile, my ''this will take five years '' pile.

I never did get round to starting something new yesterday. That's not a bad thing. It means the excitement carries over for another day. Also, I am dithering. Paperwork or a cloth to wrap myself up in? I really can't make a decision. I may just have to do both.

turning pages

My table has been full of ledgers this morning, old sampling, new sampling. I have said this before on here I'm sure but there really isn't  a better way to reignite the creative thought process than to look through old work. Sometimes I scroll through my flickr photostream, other times I get my ledgers out, open, sampling jumping out at me, turn pages., go back a page and have another look....

What's brought this on? It's not that I am devoid of ideas but my ''unfinished''pile is now finished. It's time to start creating a new pile isn't it....I have work from class, from ''sampling with stitch'' but I want to keep that for there, for class. I also want to start  a new piece, a pocket? I'm not sure. Maybe some paper based work, white? That's favourite at the moment  and then there is the hankering I have to create a cloth, just a cloth, for wrapping myself up in maybe?

silver and white

The final piece of the pile puzzle is coming together. When this is finished I will have six embroidered pieces to list in the shop along with four little artists books. I spoke a while ago about my need to be restrained, to not list things singly but to wait until I had a few pieces, make more of a statement. I was setting myself a challenge, a challenge not to get excited at the completion of one piece but to be patient and wait until there were a few different pieces, titivated, ready. I did it, I didn't itch to list things as badly as I imagined and here we are, almost there.

If you look at the second image here, the silver kid leather I have added seems oddly spaced, wrongly spaced. There is a reason for that, a reason I hope is evident when you see the piece folded in the final two images. I'm not sure what I will add to this yet, I keep glancing at this piece as I pass it on the table, thinking.....It's quite a small one, folded it measures approximately 9 x 4 inches....very small in comparison to other pockets I have made recently.

And I do love the way the lace frill hangs off the edge in the bottom image

tissue paper and a scrap of embroidered cloth

Torn tissue paper, snippet cloth and a small amount of embroidery thread.......another page.

This morning I have been playing again. I can hear you say that it's all I ever do.....rip up paper, stick things down, stitch something. I think I am going to have to make a video of me cleaning the bathroom just so you know I don't live in complete squalor.

Last night I finished the two pieces from yesterdays post. I lined them, I folded them, I pinned, tacked and stitched them. They are finished. Work has started on the final one, this one. I am beginning to wonder what I will do once my pile has disappeared. Yikes.....I best start thinking about what to make next.

two

Lots of images today...I'm excited, two pieces almost finished, backing, titivating and edges happens later today. The white piece here appeared at the bottom of a pile yesterday. It had lain there unloved for quite some time.  Last night it got a large applique flower as an ''I'm sorry'' gift.

There is still one piece left to finish, this one. I can see bling in its future. Glass beads? Silver leather? Silver purl? a mix of all three or just one or two of these....we shall see.