Karen Ruane

an embroidered band for the edge

Do you remember I made an embroidered panel for the inside front cover of my cloth sample book? Well.....it's too big. Something was amiss with the measuring....don't ask, I haven't a  clue. The cover is too narrow for the inside cover. Are you keeping up? Two choices, cut down the inside cover or extend the outside cover. 

The outside cover extension it is. A simple band embroidered with web stitches and French knots in white with three hand made buttons and two vintage buttons which will be added randomly as a finishing touch to draw the whole piece together. I have around 4 inches of embroidery to complete on the band before I can attach it and move on to the inside back cover. There will be more measuring involved. Wish me luck....

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an inside cover for the cloth book - Karen Ruane

the early stages of making a cloth book - Karen Ruane

Cloth books not pockets

There's been a change of plan. My intention was to create pockets for the ''workshop kits'' for London 2018. I've changed my mind. I am now going to make cloth books with internal pockets to hold the supplies, the hexagons, the little snippets of things, the stitched papers and other stuff I haven't even thought of yet. 

More embroidery will be added to this, it isn't finished yet. There will be web stitches for sure and the embroidery will continue inside too. I can't get too carried away though as I need to make several of these....I best crack on. You won't see these again until after the event as I would like there to be some element of surprise on the day for those who are coming to play. There are only two places left................you can read more here if you are tempted. We will have to be on our best behaviour as someone is coming all the way from the USA...wow. 

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a few French knots on paper

Design sheets have been the focus of my attention this morning. There are several of these still to finish, to extend before they can be mounted and added to my ''inspiration'' stash for when I need a prompt, a spark, a suggestion of an idea with which to work on fabric. 

I chose paper today after working mostly with cloth over the past couple of weeks. It's good to remind myself of the possibilities offered by paper for expressing an idea for embroidery and building the resource which accumulates as a result of this ''playing''.

126 stitches for the lining

The central area is now embroidered meaning this piece from here is finished and waiting to be damp stretched before being lined.....when the lining is complete. As you may recall the pouch has 290 stitches around the edge. The lining will have 126 stitches around the edge, spaced differently to the outside. I have started that process (second image). I just noticed too, (in the last image) that one of my little clusters is missing a green French knot! Did you notice that? I best rectify that....the sooner the better.

 (I really wish I had an open mouthed emoji to put here) 

Now for a reminder.....Hankie class starts on Monday. We will be making pretty needle cases and bags. You can read more about that here. If you are already registered you should have received sign in details for our private blog yesterday. If you didn't receive those please let me know.

And London.....a live workshop....you can read more about that here.

It's dark as night here and pouring with rain. I hope the sun is shining for you and if it is please send a little my way.

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290 stitches

Two hundred and ninety stitches around an edge. That's fifty eight web stitches and two hundred and thirty two French knots. This is a circular drawstring pouch in the making. There will be more web stitches and French knots scattered across this surface before I begin the lining......there will be web stitches and French knots on there too. There may even be hexagons, not as many as you can see here but I might be able to fit a single ''flower garden'' piece in there somewhere. I would like this little pouch to be titivated to the n'th degree.

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a pocket, gimp and buttons

a seam

A single seam, eleven inches long, what was the beginning of a small embroidered bag. I'm not feeling it. You may not see this again, at least not like this, not a bag. I won't throw it away. I am going to leave it a while and see how I feel after a few days. If I decide I don't want to keep going with the bag idea it's not a problem, it will go in my stash and may well end up looking perfect elsewhere.

I guess when you aren't feeling 100 percent yourself even embroidery can look unappealing. It could be my mood affecting my stitching decisions. For now I will concentrate on my hexagon pouch, that's sure to make me feel better.

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a hexagon pouch and an update on my cloth sample book - Karen Ruane

French knots

Surface embroidery on this piece is finished. I need to add the ''cabbages'' you saw the other day but I also want to add something else, similar to the cabbages but which need to be ordered..... I have ordered some but they haven't arrived yet. (the cabbages are completely hand made by yours truly....the other things won't be)

Circles of French knots have been scattered across this, over all areas except the velvet and the reverse is embroidered too. ( I will show you that when this is completely finished) 

Meanwhile......whilst I am waiting for my other titivation's to arrive I started a new piece using these fabrics. I don't like it. I am going to unpick and rethink. 

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blue and white French knots with gridded paper

Yesterday afternoon was very productive......an idea was formed and this is the result. This is almost 100 percent what I have been aiming for, what I could partially visualise yet couldn't seem to get all the pieces together. Hopefully I'm off now, on a roll, will be able to create more of these with different colours, different papers, different snippets of cloth along with a few stitches....

This morning I made a video for ''embroidery school''. I talked this through with my group. It helped. (you will be getting that video shortly girls) Chatting about stuff.....it always helps even if you're only talking to yourself.

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seams and bullion knots

My embroidery time, my sewing hours, my focus......this cloth. I started to count how many bullion knots were on here and gave up. I didn't give up in desperation, I just thought there will be more bullion loops added to this before you know it so that little task would be best left until this cloth is completely finished.

Today? A video for you, a brief show and tell and a little bit of embroidery.....

 

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the beginning

folds, points, stitch, - Karen Ruane

a new pocket taking shape

blue and white....the beginnings of a design sheet

I spent a little time playing with blue and white paper yesterday. I treated myself to some blue batik paper earlier in the week and couldn't resist adding a little of that to some of my own stitched paper. Things were shuffled around a little bit first before I added a few blue and white French knots. There are some tiny white seed beads scattered amongst the French knots too....sadly not very visible in these images. 

I plan to extend this sheet with a little doodling, perhaps some lace and more embroidered paper. The paper here is from this post. You will see in the video that I considered adding some of the cloth too but it just didn't work for me. 

 

 

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