Karen Ruane

artist book update

You last saw this little book here. It has moved on since then, another page has been worked and the larger piece in these images is a wraparound cover. there is still work to do on that and I also intend to make a little bag for this, to protect the delicate papers.

Once this is finished, ticked off the list it will be back to my wrapping cloth and my vintage quilt repair.

Thank you for the feedback regarding the quilt repair.

There have been lots of suggestions, all of which make perfect sense and some 0f which especially excite me.

Thing is, I think I know what James is going to say......I think he is just going to want it left alone once the binding is reattached.

I will let you know what he says.

(scroll to the bottom for a baby update!)

The light of my days...I wish there was a heart emoji.

Stanley, now 4 months old.

 

Sonny, 13 weeks old.

 

new, hand made artist book

This little book has been evolving over the last couple of days. Each page measures 3 inches wide and 5 inches in height.

It's quite a long time since I have put one of these together and I had forgotten how time consuming it is.

That isn't a problem, I embrace 'time consuming'.

But for eaxmple if you have a 4 page book, you will need 8 pieces of pieced laces and papers, followed by dense hand embroidery and added titivations before it all comes together.

And when it does start to come together......sigh.....

developing design

Work in this notebook is continuing.

I am stitching paper but thinking about cloth.

I'm making mental notes for my next wrapping cloth and this helps, this paper play.

A stitch is a stich no matter where it's placed.

paper, sampling, stitch

I picked this up again yesterday, an excuse to play with some paper I bought in London.

When I got home late on Saturday there was a birthday to celebrate.

Today is another opportunity for me to say happy birthday James!

There is so much love for you, from the people who surround you and who also delight in your new life as daddy to Sonny.

Besides birthdays and cake there has been some domestic catch up to see to and today that continues but I am almost there!

Back to the book....it's been present quite a bit recently and if you missed those posts you can see them here and here.

Three weeks from today my new class begins, 'a sampler's cloth'. You can read more about that here.

If you're busy in May you have nothing to worry about as you have access to the class forever once you sign up.

Take your time, leave it for winter.

Whenever you decide to start the stitching you also have access to me forever too.

and if you do sign up, a massive heartfelt thanks for supporting my little, tiny, teeny embroidery school. xxx

as and when (again)

As and when...again.

More work in this little book.

I only picked this up because I had ran out of one inch hexagon fabric pieces and it was too late in the day for me to be faffed cutting more.

So, a little diversion from embroidery on cloth, stitching this notebook.

 

as and when

This is the ultimate 'as and when' project, my stitched grids and guides notebook.

I have been working on this piece for I don't know how long, just picking it up every so often and working a page or two.

I know one or two of you have these notebooks and I actually started a Flickr group for this project some time ago.

You can find that here but I warn you, it's severely neglected and empty!

potential

The potential of a new artist book....fresh pages, blank canvas.

This is an old image but was just what I needed to see today to fire me up.

This book isn't yet finished. The pages were removed after this image was taken.

If you have just taken my last class you will know why....shhhhh.

Meanwhile, I told you I was knitting.

a tiny composition

Sewing circle finished earlier this week. On Monday we held two group Zoom sessions during which we had a good old natter and I demonstrated the 'putting together' of a little snippet for an artist book page.

Since then I have been embellsihing my piece and here it is.

I hope the group approve of what what I have done here.

this morning

I'm back.....phew. I have been back from London for a few days but have been extra busy hence my absence from here.

I've also been knitting as opposed to stitching, trying to crack on with baby things before the babies actually arrive. I may start campaigning for pregnancy to last 12 months so I can get my knitting finished!!

This morning however the embroidery was back. I made my last videos for 2021, quite an occasion I guess.

This is my work space, my creative clutter.

(it's tidy now, pristine!)

a wrap for an artist book

This piece, the woven, embroidered ribbon piece was inspired by an old photograph of a similar woven ribbon surface I made some time ago.

It gave me an itch to make more and this little artist book needed a wrap so hey presto.

It still needs work but I'm on it.

I've been a bit quiet this week. There is so much going on here at the moment and it's likely I will be quiet again this weekend.

However you are spending yours have a good one.