Karen Ruane

pom poms two days running!

It would appear I am having a bit of a love affair with pom poms at the moment as they featured in yesterday's post too. These ones are at an edge, the edge of the latest finished embroidered sketchbook cover. The pages still need to be placed in here, I cut those out less than half an hour ago.

These little books I have been making are feeding my ledger class. I have plans for adding these to my pages, plans which I shared with the girls this morning and I'm itching to get cutting more pages, creating a little sketchbook to adorn a partially worked ledger page where at the moment there is collaged paper and colour studies.

As I have two classes running at the moment I get a bit confused sometimes, forgetting which colour thread is for which class, which bead selection too (yes, thread and beads are very present in the ledger class) At least I shouldn't get confused over which class the little sketchbooks belong to.

French knots and pom poms

Yesterday was a perfect day, a perfect day by my definition anyway. It was spent with fabric and thread and all things embroidery, ledger and creativity. There was an added bonus too, the final page for my cloth book was completed, adorned with pom poms to be precise. (it isn't edged in these images but I have done that now and we are good to go)

The next thing to do is stitch the pages to the cover and hey presto we should have a cloth book with an embroidered cover. I say 'should' because I have been playing with placement of the pages for what seems like hours and I can't decide which one to put first, second, third and on and on......don't hold your breath is all I can say.

stitching a doodle

This is the second time I have stitched a little into a page with you. (recently at least) I refer to the first time in the short video today and you can see that here if you haven't a clue what I am talking about. In the video here I say I most likely won't work on this any more for the time being but as soon as I turned the camera off I added running stitch, more French knots and a couple of little beads.

It's surprising how little embroidery is needed to lift a page, to alter it completely, to add depth and texture.

two pieces

Please indulge me today, I really couldn't decide which images to leave out. Some are similar but I have tried to show you as much of the surface of the larger piece as I can. You last saw that in a hoop. It's finished now. Well I say finished, it still needs to be lined and have the edges titivated but it's damp stretched and ready. That piece is a cover for the third little sketchbook I am making.

The other piece, the single motif is very small. It's approximately three inches long. That piece is another page for the little cloth book of embroidery I am making. You last saw that here. (quite a while ago actually) The little cloth book is obviously a slow burner although I think I'm nearly there.

This morning I made videos for ledger class and tomorrow I'm going to make videos for embroidery class. I'm guessing you won't see these very colourful things for a few days because I am going to be surrounded by colour studies and charm squares!

 

sequins and a green ribbon wrap

A little hand made sketchbook with an embroidered cover. This one has sequins at the lower edge and a green silk ribbon which wraps around the pages from the top to close it. I'm making a few of these and then I'm going to list them in the shop. I have two finished books at this point and a third which is almost complete. They are a joy to create. I'm loving working with the brightly patterned ribbon and fabric, the vibrant threads for the embroidery and the pretty sequins which change colour depending on the light.