Karen Ruane

87 videos

We are covering 'paperwork' in my online learning forum at the moment and it's giving me the urge to start another design ledger.

Once I have finished my current pieces, (for which there is a deadline) I will be moving on to a new ledger/artist book/ design collection.

The work in today's images is from a past ledger class and as a reminder, if you sign up to any tier of my subscription learning you get free access to that class, 87 videos and countless images.

Membership levels start at only £5 a month and you can take a look at those here.

Meanwhile....I must crack on with what I'm doing so I can begin work on my new paper pieces.....more of that next time.

finishing edges

The first thing I need to do today is apologise for the images. I must have taken one hundred photographs, battling against the gloom and grey skies.

White is hard enough to photograph.....give me a break weather.

I've been finishing the edges of this piece, mostly with hand embroidery but also with a few little pompoms and a pleated piece of vintage lace.

cramming stitch into embroidered books

The important bit here, well the new bit I should say is the area of delicate white bobbly things with pink beads on the top. Those were worked yesterday afternoon along the edge of a page in my latest ledger. It isn't actually finished yet, that edge as I ran out of time but I got to thinking how page edges, embellishing edges can take longer than working on the page itself.

I'm hoping you can see how it's so, so worth spending that time from these images. Very often it's the edges I love the best, the droplets, the tangle of ribbons and trims and stitch and beads and sequins. My table this morning, prepping for these photographs made me happier than I can say. I'm not so sure I can say the same about the mess I made in my studio when creating for my online classes. (last image)

two edges

The edge with the green ribbon you saw last week. Following on from that one I was inspired to make another. These two won't necessarily live together but at the moment I don't really have plans for either except they have made me wonder how they might look in miniature, narrower ribbon or narrower cord perhaps for the edge of a page? I might just try that later.

I hope you all had a wonderful few days. I did and it continues...I have a revolving door of visitors. That will continue into next week but I'm going to try my hardest to come back on Sunday,

Meanwhile, registration is open for my 2019 class. You can read about that here.

decorative

A decorative edge. I've made two more since this one.  We made this in embroidery school and it inspired to to make lots more.

I was thinking how I sample and sample and don't really make anything conventionally 'useful'. I decided samples are my 'useful'. My pleasure comes from the playing, the testing...the sampling. I then get pleasure taking these things out, looking and being inspired all over again.

A reminder, new for 2019. Ledgers, a record of stitch.

I am going to spend a whole year sampling and recording. Recording colour, pattern and design ideas in a new class.

You can read more here.

tiny white adornments

These images are of current work from embroidery schoool. We've been making tiny white dangly things. They're addictive. You might also spot a couple of tiny pockets here too. They're personalised but it's a secret unless you're in class. They really are small, the smallest, the one with the blue silk ribbon spilling out is only around one inch wide. The ribbon is significant as is the lace spilling out of the other one, again that is to do with the personalisation of these little secret places.

Each of these pieces is related to pockets in some way. I remain pocket obsessed. One of them is already a pocket, the white piece will be used to create a pocket and the other piece has pockets in the seam.

In other news...I'm slowly getting more organised but am astounded at how much stuff we have despite the amount of stuff we threw away before we moved. I think it must breed when the lights go out.

a sequined edge

Here it is...finished, backed, titivated.....and edged with sequins on two sides. I resisted the temptation to use 'dangly' things. I love the contrast between the ornate sequined sides and the other two simply stitched using running stitch edges.

I guess this may qualify as a lap quilt...it's eighteen by twenty inches. It won't be used as a lap quilt but it will be on my lap a lot so I can examine it.

When you are in the process of creating a piece like this, or any piece for that matter you are always driven to continue, it keeps you going and feeds you creatively and even though I have lots of things which inspire me, work which is ongoing for online classes, plans for more design sheets.....there is still a hole left when something like this gets finished. There's a little bit of bewilderment about what comes next, at least there is for me. I may have several things 'on the go' but when one thing is removed from that group I am always left wondering how to fill the gap....

a lower edge

Yesterday, in an effort to reconnect with embroidered cloth as opposed to pages, I worked a little more on one of my sample swatches. I speak about that collection here if you aren't familiar with it. (there's also a short video on that link) A flounce has been added to the lower edge of this one, attached with buttonhole lace before little tassels were added to finish it off. 

Some of you might remember my decision to also add embroidery to the reverse of these pieces, to recognise the reverse as of equal value to the front. With that in mind I worked a little on the back too. I used bias binding as a simple adornment for one seam and added a small embroidered panel to another. I speak more about working on the reverse in this post.

 

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