Karen Ruane

edges

This is the wrap I am making for my large artist book, the one with embroidered samples mounted onto paper pages. I'm almost there, just the edges to finish which is happening quite slowly due to me getting distracted every five minutes........you know how it is, you most likely get distracted every five minutes too. I'm in no rush though, part of me doesn't want to ever finish this as it's so lovely to work on, to pick up and put down.

a little page in a sketchbook

Three minutes 55 seconds.....that's all. The video....very short. A celebration of a doodle! Or a celebration of me picking up a pencil maybe.

Anyway, a little bit of page titivation in a very small sketchbook inspired by embroidery in progress. It was an itch I had to scratch.

embroidering a small wrap

The little wrap for an artist book has moved on considerably since you saw it here. The surface embroidery is complete and this now needs to be lined before I attach it to a little book I have in progress. The blue and orange sequins which came from a deconstructed necklace finish those seams off perfectly, they were just what I needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sequins on a seam. #embroidery #wrappingcloth #sequins #embroideryteacher

A post shared by Karen Ruane (@karenruane) on Apr 2, 2019 at 4:36am PDT

a smaller wrap

The piece I was working on in the video yesterday inspired me to create a smaller piece, a smaller wrap. This little wrap will protect a very small artist book which will have 4 x 4 inch pages. I had a dilemma however, adding embellishments to a seam which don't work for me today. They're going, they are gone.....

(to answer a couple of emails I have received this week....both my current classes are running for 12 months. You can sign up at any time and not miss anything which has happened up to now as you will have full access to the private class blog. There is no cut off point, you keep access forever so can work completely at your leisure, take your time. You can read about my embroidery class here and my embroidery ledger class here. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions)

beading a tiny edge

A quite short video today (and an excuse to hide in my little shed/studio.) I'm gradually making progress with the wrap for my artist book. I seem to have shared a lot of this process on here, it's almost 'your' project. There are so many videos on here about this piece, videos about piecing, videos about embroidery, embellishment, edges, pinning...so many. If you haven't seen them you can click on the 'video' link in the category list on the right hand side of this page. That will take you there (this post will be first, just scroll past it)

 

This weekend I will be working hard on pieces for embroidery school, two classes, both exciting, both needing lots of stitch and lots of attention.

 

a little bit of stab stitch

The wrap for my hand made artist book is getting a little more attention today. Stab stitch is being used to secure a strip of ribbon on one panel. There are two panels on here which still need a lot of embellishment before I can move on to lining this cloth and then wrapping it around my artist book. Actually, the artist book also needs more work, I may take that out this afternoon and do some thinking, make an assessment of exactly what is still needed for that.

Meanwhile a little chat, a short video.

 

toggles on an edge

Remember the toggles I made the other day?  (you can see that here if you missed it)

They are finished now, minimal embroidery secures them and they all have little loops on the reverse now which will be used to secure them to cloth. They were specifically created to use on my wrap. They look exactly as I hoped they would.

(stitch along girls.....I am posting another video for you on the class blog in an hour or so as I want to progress my 'squares'.)

 

toggles

I love making toggles with ribbon. I love making toggles full stop but they are so quick when you make them with ribbon. These ones need to be finished off, stitched, have a means of fastening attached but the rolling is done, it's used to be the rolling that I found trickiest but not any more.

I've got a new toy too. I've got a mini tripod for my phone! Who knew you could get a mini tripod for your phone?! Wow. Why didn't you tell me? Brace yourselves....I will be playing with it a lot......

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Toggle making #toggles #embroideryteacher

A post shared by Karen Ruane (@karenruane) on Mar 12, 2019 at 5:47am PDT

adding beads to an edge

This morning was my first time working in my new, as yet unfinished studio. I have been so desperate to get in there, I just can't wait. At the moment it's equiped with an emergency table. It works, it's sufficient. As I've been moving small amounts of stuff in there I've been seeing things which could be worked on more, which although 'finished' wouldn't suffer if I played with them a little more. With that in mind, once I had made one of my videos for 'Ledger' class I began to add danglies to the edge of this page .

(there will most likely be more and more little videos on here now I have a dedicated space to work, free from interuptions)

 

adjustments

 

I've had to make adjustments to my wrap. It's all explained in the short video today. (at the end of this post)

Meanwhile I am discovering more and more treasure as I continue to 'sort' out my new studio.

 

Tomorrow I will be making videos in the studio for the very first time. I have a house full of people this weekend so I will be able to lock myself away and ignore them. I can't wait.

(they aren't guests as such....it's my son and his girlfriend using my house as a convenient hotel....it's ok to hide away from them lol, they know where the kettle is.)

Do you remember this?

A lot more work has been done to this since you saw it last and it has sparked an idea for a new project in 'Stitch Along' which I discussed with the group yesterday. You can be part of that, registration is still open. You can read more here.

Tomorrow's videos however will be about Ledgers class....again, registration for that is also still open and you can read more here.

At the moment we are working on colour studies. This is my first page. (you've seen it bofore)

As usual the group is racing ahead of me but I guess that means they are inspired right?