Karen Ruane

mounting embroidered samples....thinking out loud

More about embroidered samples today.

I'm surrounded by them.

How to preserve them, present them, store them?

They are good decisions to make, enjoyable decisions, the chance for more embroidery perhaps with embellished cloth backdrops.

 

 

assessing....

 

Yes, I know there's a bit of clashing going on here. That's a good thing.

The white silk piece will be a wrap/cloth book for these samples....it's all explained in the video below from my original post about this project.

My thinking.....have the cover completely different to the content, it is after all a piece of embroidery in its own right.

I've had it all together today as I've been measuring for the pages which will be embellished too but probably in a way that is more in keeping with the actual samples.

 

embroidered samples

There has been some 'sorting out' going on.

Mainly I was looking for fabrics to use in a new project but I became blinded by all the unmounted, embroidered samples I have.

Time to get a grip Karen and get them safely mounted in cloth books or wraps.

These samples today are probably only a 5th of what I have but I have to start somewhere!

Today...binding an edge....

 

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My wish is for you to use this learning experience in the manner best suited to you, to learn in a way which makes you happy and furthers your individual creativity.

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The cloth sample book

There is a short video in this post from February 18th which briefly looks at my embroidered cloth sample books.

Today I look at those in more detail.

As the cloth sample book is something I intend to explore during my next online class, examining them in this way generates ideas, inspires, throws up questions, possibilities.

You can read about my next class, '2024 Embroidery School' here.

 

embroidered pages for embroidered samples

The mounting of stitched samples onto my embroidered pages has begun.

Blimey, I need so many more pages, each one hand embroidered. This could take me until next year.

I think there are a quarter of the samples now mounted, some not visible here, so three times more what's here plus plus.......

I best get stitching.

samples, samples, samples,

This stage of the sampling from here is complete.

There are five of these pieces, each one four inches square.

My next step?

Prepare a larger sheet for these to live on.

The large sheet will be embellished too, I could go on forever.

Paper and ribbon with more ribbon....

Paper pages embellished with snippets of ribbon to hold embroidered ribbon on ribbon samples.

I was assessing my page needs in this post and it seems that need has now grown.

Not only do I need more pages for my ribbon samples, I need more pages for these too.

assessing embroidered page needs

You may remember I started to hand stitch pages to hold all my small stitched samples.

This morning I took the pages out of the cabinet to assess how many more I need.

There are so many small samples, the ones laid out here, that I'm thinking mammoth task, tons of pages.

 

sampling and gingham

There are a few things going on here....gingham, the newest piece the one which is just web stitches, 16 0f them to be precise.

Also, several small four by four inch samples of embroidery, you saw three of them here, there are now five patterned ones and three white ones.

At the top of the first image are two as yet unworked pieces on paper waiting for hand stitch.

I don't think my brain is working though. Take away the gingham for which I have a purpose in mind and the other work.....well I wish I knew.

These are pieces of the collection of surface design I have been building but I'm no clearer on where that is heading.

Does that matter or am I just being impatient?

embroidered sample swatch collection

The third piece of my latest sample puzzle is now finished.

These three pieces form a very lovely collection of embroidered swatches, sample pieces.

In the creation of these I have used prairie points, scalloped edges, padded cloth, hexagons, numerous hand embroidery stitches, patterned fabric, plain fabric, applique, pleated and gathered fabric and ribbon. (I may have left something out of this list....but you get my drift)

I have taken a deep breath and decided to list this selection of fabric pieces in the shop as a 'collection'

You can see that here.