Karen Ruane

table

It's very busy chez moi (as I'm sure it is at your place)

A glimpse of my table earlier today.

the table....

It all happens on the table.....the table is piled with my stuff from morning until it's time to eat in the evening. Basically our dining room is my studio. I have pretty much taken over the whole house, there is stuff in every room belonging to me and belonging to embroidery. I live with the most patient of people.

I'm not here today. Today is my birthday. I am most likely eating cake.

three pockets and yesterday captured on camera....

This gorgeous book, which is now the ledger for my new class was purchased in Sweden last year. The title is ''prinsessan och gladjen''. The author and illustrator are Ulf Stark and Silke Leffler.

Yesterday, my brain thawed completely. I began to make the videos for ''embroidered pockets'' which starts next Monday and everything fell into place. It's amazing what a little doodling and cloth folding can do to your creative spark. These images are from then, no spoilers, just a glimpse. You can perhaps see a tiny bit of work on my first ledger page here in the third image....I'm happy, I'm excited. 

I'm also excited about mail I am expecting. I am waiting for thread, I'm waiting for cloth, (three separate lots of cotton, some with eyelets some plain) If the eyelet cloth is as beautiful as it looks in the images I will be buying more of that. I'm also waiting for a book I ordered, on impulse, a children's book...can you tell I love children's books? The illustrations are always so beautiful, inspirational. The one here today, well, it's so beautiful I can't stop turning the pages....as ''embroidered pockets'' evolves I will share the inside with you in more detail.

This morning I have been playing with the shop a little, adding clarity to my ''work on your own classes''. I still have three left to rewrite......it takes soooo long! That will happen later today. I have sold quite a few of those in the past couple of days. There are people out there who have hours and hours of my voice ahead of them...oops....do they know what they've done?

Also this morning.....yes I did go to bed.....I made a very short video for you about this piece. So I'm going to leave it there for today, enough of my rambling....

Related articles

pattern

more doodling, a video

sorting cloth, a new class, cupboards and the table

It's been quite a busy week. I've sorted cloth, tidied boxes, folded an awful lot of white, made a mental note of the cloth I have, the cloth I need and the cloth I want which I'm sure you know is equally if not more important than the cloth we need.

I've been to Sheffield. I watched a game where my team won....or should I say maintained their lead by the skin of their teeth causing yours truly a lot of angst and quite a few palpitations.

I've had an extraordinarily late night followed by a very early alarm call for which I am suffering today.

I made the first video for the ''London Gathering'' which will be sent out next week. I realised that the 'London'' cake day is approaching fast, too fast. (what do you mean it's a sewing day not a cake day?) 

Sixth picture down, that's my foot bottom left....anyway, I digress.

The boxes in the top image, (I got asked about those a lot when they appeared on Instagram) The one with love on, it's a box not a book. It was a gift. The one underneath? That was full of Ted Baker bubble bath, lotions etc and Helen got that as a gift for Christmas....she gave me the box, she knows me well.

What else have I done this week? 

I finished the lemon pin pillow. I embroidered on a new pocket top. I have finished the surface embellishment on the white gimp piece. I ordered some rather funky new cloth. I doodled on cloth and I listed a new class.....Reinventing the page.....which is like a ledger class but more.....it's about creating interesting pages, creating sheets of design work by use of overlaid paper, by folding, by cutting and scrunching paper. There's no need to worry that you have pencil, paint and art phobia, I suffer from those too. We will be playing, having fun, you will be holding my hand. If you want to come and play then just go here to read a little more.....

The rest of the week?  This afternoon I will be piecing new pillows and hand stitching the edges of my white gimp pillow. In the next hour or so I will be stalking the postman hoping he brings my new cloth. Tomorrow? It's got to be doodling on cloth.....I can't resist....

mostly flowers.....

There are lots of flowers in these pictures aren't there. I didn't have them all at once though.....some will have died before I got the others. I read once that Elton John used to have a flower bill of 30,000 pounds a month, yes. Mine is a mere 3 pounds a week. I don't honestly think I could spend 30,000 pounds on flowers. Are they gold plated? And besides....think of all the cloth you could buy for 30,000 pounds.

This was my week, or more like the last ten days. Not many pictures for some reason, I'm slacking. It's been about doodling, ledgers, pouches and pillows. I also did a tiny bit of Christmas buying, wrapping paper, kidding myself that I'm organised.

How was your week?

Related articles

a bling page

pin pillow

growing....

come in....

I really wish you could come in and have a look at what's on my table today. This is just a tiny corner, I'm afraid I can't show you the rest until tomorrow. Suffice to say it's all blue and white. I have been playing with repeat patterns too. I will warn you now, think carefully before you start down that road as it could easily become an addiction.

I do have one, a repeat pattern that is but again, it will be under wraps until tomorrow. Please don't imagine that it's perfect or finished or amazing in anyway. It is to me but that's because I can't quite believe I managed to do it!

Related articles

a tiny patchwork pocket....

fluffy cloth hexagons and a tiny jar....

Wednesday's table

a table full of everything

I went out this morning. When I came back I did this. Gathering, looking, making a list, ticking things off another list. I love all of these individually. I love them more all together like this. You don't realise exactly what you have until you get it all together like this. Then you think, ''oh yes, I forgot about that''. You think ''that one makes me want to do x, y or z, that other one makes me want to do a, b or c.'' That's how your plans become thwarted. Doing this helps a lot in terms of planning but it also distracts, sets you off in a different direction for which you just don't have the time. Write it down then.... another list....you will forget if you don't Karen....

Related articles

the table....

two......

my table and my phone....(cloth and stitch clutter)

 

My phone and my table are inseparable. I take a picture almost every day of what is happening on the table, what that days clutter consists of. If you don't follow me on Instagram you would probably never get to see these. The last one is actually the ironing board, used almost as often as the table, cluttered to the same extent. 

There are plenty more where these came from too....you have been warned. 

The lace piece from yesterday is now in the shop.

this morning.....

 

 

 

This is what was on my table first thing today. I was gathering bits to make a video for simply stitch and also had just removed a piece of embroidery from the damp stretching board. You can also see my latest ''favourite thing''. It's a sewing gauge, you wouldn't believe, (trust me on this one), you wouldn't believe how excited I am about that little thing. I have had it for a year, bought purely because I liked the packaging, yes, honest. I started using it last week and now I can't let it out of my site. It is so useful that I am amazed I didn't buy one before. Now, if something is still for longer than a nanosecond it gets measured. So that's my house today....a video being made in stages and everything in site getting measured.

Thanks so much for all the responses to my question yesterday. You are there after all. Well I knew you were there but something is amiss with my stat meter. I can't fix it. I will have to live with it until they fix it. If you see them will you tell them? Thank you.

Related articles

continuing from yesterday

cross stitch.....

I'm not slacking I promise

table....

 

 

 

 

It's been a very busy weekend....of the best kind. Following yesterdays pleating bonanza and other assorted things that were happening my table looks like this today. I did manage a little leisurely sewing late last night too, a small panel for the body bag was finished and damp stretched....

Actually, my damp stretching board is working overtime at the moment. I have another piece ready to go on this afternoon and hopefully by bedtime I can remove that one and put another one on there. 

In the midst of all this creativity I also managed to fit in a mini meltdown, wedding related but hey....at least I know I can multi task. It goes something like this.....pleat, stitch, meltdown, coffee, more stitch, another thirty second meltdown, more coffee, stitch, bed.

So how was your Saturday?

Related articles

more surface embroidery for the sample cloth

damp stretched and waiting