For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Monday, March 10, 2008

Small creative diversion!

Whilst I was marking out the dots on the back of my panel which is embellished with text last night I suddenly thought...rouleau loops would look good on this edge. So last night was spent not on smocking, but on making and attaching rouleau loops. This required the cutting of lots of bias strips,



tacking then machine stitching them,
and finally, turning them right side out.






Voila! This is how they look finished. I am happy I did this and will now add the same edge to the cutwork and applique panel which will form the second part of this cloth.

The smocking was started this morning. Don't you just love how these lines look on the cloth? This is the stage before the threads are drawn up tightly to allow the smocking to be applied. I see a future idea here,







and I definitely see another technique which could be used sometime in these folds. I absolutely love this surface. Unfortunately, this time, these folds will disappear when I cut the holding threads but they would be perfect for another piece, maybe the next one.



















A question....... Is anyone else having trouble uploading images? I can only get it to work if I do one image at a time, I just grew a beard on this post! Any suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks. x






3 comments:

jennyflowerblue said...

Am really enjoying looking at your work and I can see no evidence of any compromise of artistic integrity (!) it's beautifull. It's really nice to see such considered embroidery. I love all the colourfull creations that are out there using melted-bubbled-glued-fused-stuff but there is such skill in sewing. (I have the filthiest grill pan in Christendom if you get any more ures to clean)

Kaija said...

Yes, there are definitely some serious issues with image uploading. I too uploaded mine one at a time. I hope blogger will fix this soon, I'm getting really bored while blogging.

I love your work in progress photos! Turning all those strips right side out... well, I must say that I respect you and your work even more after this. I have trouble even with tote handles :)

Anonymous said...

There just doesn't seem to be an y end to your talent! I LOVE the loops - playful and sweet and what a beautiful edge they created! I have trouble uploading images all the time - it DOES seem to take forever - but I thought it was just me! Keep up the great work! Nan