Karen Ruane

flowers

All my hoops are full of flowers at the moment, flowers everywhere. Mostly they are appearing as I try my best to finish work for hankie class, panels for an embroidered bag, soft layers, pretty layers. Traditional patterning is being used for the hankie class flowers, I'm connecting with my memories for that one. The other flower shown here (second image, lower left) is less traditional and has been isolated in a hoop so I can concentrate solely on that without distraction from other embroidery on that particular piece. Why? Well because I am trying to visualise another, potential piece of work, a piece of work using those techniques.  An embroidery hoop is also a very useful window viewer.....

labels and a scrap of lace

I'm enjoying this hankie work so much. Playing with the layout of cut up handkerchiefs with pretty edges, adding doodles...hexagons, flowers, petals, stems before adding hand embroidery stitches using bright, fresh colours. This one is the second piece of a plan I have, it will live with this one. There will be two more of these but not before I play a little with the lower edges of this one and fill the empty space you can see here.

My favourite area on this one is the hexagon flower which is shown in isolation in the second image. Ideally I would have preferred the applique piece to be elsewhere on that one, not centred but it is covering a stain. Despite laundering vintage cloth it is sometimes impossible to remove every mark. Some marks are worth keeping, worth showing but some definitely need a little disguising.

 

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a covering

I am hoping this piece which is now finished can be fashioned into some kind of covering for embroidered samples. I have a few small embroidered hankie samples and others worked on silk which are quite a lot bigger. (you can see one of those in the last two images)  If you take a look at the little video you will see the bigger ones are a little too big. No worries there though, I will just have to make another, bigger covering for those. 

I am going to continue with this hankie play so you will be seeing similar pieces to these for a while with artist book related work here and there but I have other hankie ideas I want to explore and there may be a ''mini'' class resulting from that. First of all though I need to play with a few ideas.

 

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beads, buttons and a flower

I spent a couple more hours with this yesterday. Along with filling pages I added pages....it's a good thing I'm in no hurry to finish this one. You will recognise the lilac scrap from yesterday. That is waxed paper, it's beautiful. It's so useful as it lives happily alongside almost anything. The smallest piece of it can transform a composition,  a little piece of cloth, a different paper, lay a tiny torn strip of the lilac alongside and it completely changes. 

 

hexagons and flowers

Continuing the flower and hexagon theme, the needle case theme. I am enjoying these explorations so much. It takes me back, way back to a big collection I created years ago when I was studying, studying all things Nanna related.

nanna (plural nannas)

grandmother

It's basic, it's functional yet pretty, it's memories of tablecloths and hankies, it's comforting.

 I'm not 100 percent sure what the end outcome of this will be, what will happen to the needle cases I am creating at the moment. For now I need to keep them, I can't bear to part with them, maybe I never will.  I am getting ideas for other pieces from this work though. It's feeding my ''to do'' list...more of that soon.

The 12 month ''artist book'' adventure began this morning. It's not too late to join us. You can read more here.

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the lower half

When you last saw this piece here the lower half was unstitched. The doodles were there, the patterning but I hadn't gotten round to the embroidery. I have now.....flowers, flowers from designs in vintage embroidery transfers to be exact. I have taken my floral patterning from vintage embroidery transfers for as long as I can remember. There is usually a simplicity to them. Occasionally I have adapted the flower shape or the petal shape but these ones are unaltered or at least they are as near to the original as they can be. 

This type of pattern, this transfer design reminds me of my Nanna Burns and my Nanna Garstang. It reminds me of the tablecloths they would stitch and it reminds me of my fascination watching them, begging to ''try'' , badgering them and more often than not making a mess which had to be unpicked. 

This piece now needs an embroidered reverse, more doodling on vintage hankies, more simple patterning and a little stitch before it can become a needle case, yes, another needle case.

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hexagons and flowers - Karen Ruane

hexagons and flowers

It's not pink gingham and it's not an artist book. It's a little bit of doodling on some vintage cloth followed by simple embroidery to enhance the doodles  along with a few''kind of '' pom poms. 

I hadn't realised how delicate the vintage cloth was until I began to embroider onto it. The threads on the back are very obvious, very visible on the front but I don't think they will be as noticeable once this piece is backed or lined. I might even embroider a reverse to go along with this as for now I have no plans for what it will be I'm just playing with an idea.

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pages - Karen Ruane

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hexagons and stitch

This piece has been on my mind and in progress for a couple of days now. It's finished as a piece of embroidery but it hasn't yet served its purpose.  This is the start of exploration for my new class, the beginning of the sampling process. The next step is to take elements from this and use them in a different way. I have discounted the ''domestic cloth'', the embroidered motif on the left. The patchwork, the hexagons and the flowers however will be staying as I hope to take those further. 

The next step is to adapt this layout with the aim of developing a surface pattern I am happy with which I can then use as the basis for the finished pieces I hope to create in ''studies in stitch''. 

This design process does not form part of the new class. This process is my way of easing myself into the new class, creating space for thought and ideas. 

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looking back

white, gimp and flowers

Aside from classwork these are my ''in progress'' pieces. You saw the white for the first time here and the floral piece is to enable me to extend this piece and if you remember, to scratch my pocket itch.

The white piece has three new cutwork motifs since you last saw it, cutwork with a reveal of lace and some ''twiddled'' gimp which I added. This one may be left for a little while now though as I am desperate to finish the flower piece so that I can add it to the main body of the cloth and give myself an excuse to make another pocket....who doesn't love a pocket.

In other news....my computer is sick. If I disappear there is no need for a search party but I would be very grateful if you could send a nice man to fix it. 

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an edge of cutwork

I promised

gimp....

two flowers

A partially stitched silk panel, the next piece in this puzzle. There is more embroidery needed on this surface but I am itching to make a pocket, positively straining at the leash. I will have to contain myself a little longer though.

The pattern here is hand drawn, hand doodled onto silk Dupion......large petals, floral shapes which are then embellished with French knots and chain stitch. Once the surface embroidery is complete I will attach it to the main piece and have a lot of fun playing with the seam. I will also then be able to scratch my pocket itch!!

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Tiny pockets, adding cloth, extending a surface.