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







Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Wonderful Compliments and Cloth Excitement

I was browsing around my favourite blogs yesterday and was so suprised to see what the lovely needles said about my work. Take a look, the bottom seven lines. It really does give you a good feeling to know that you are held in such high regard, I am truly grateful, thankyou so much!!

I am getting really excited about the latest cloth. All the cutwork is finished and I am now on the applique stage. It is looking just as I had hoped it would. As I said in my last post I had to measure and play around with placement then calculate how many pieces I would need for the applique.




These are in the process of being applied, a rather time consuming task but one which I love. There is something so relaxing and therepeutic about repetetive hand embroidery and I just can't get enough of it.





Once the petals have been applied I am edging each one with split stitch in silk. This seems to 'finish' them, define their shape.



I am so happy with the way this is turning out and once this section is complete I am going to smock another large panel of silk and join them together. More of that another time.

4 comments:

Gayle said...

Thank you for your very kind comment. I am enjoying catching up with all you do. You create such beautiful art.

Ulla said...

Congratulations on your newest publicity! I enjoy following your progress on this new cloth, it's like getting "inside information" of something that is revealed to the public when it is al finished.

Anne Marie said...

Lovely hand embroidery! I too find it very relaxing and therapeutic :-)

jill said...

For anyone contemplating buying any of karens work, I have bought one of her purses. It was beutifully wrapped with lovely tags and the craftsmanship was professional. I love my purse and think it was well worth the money. Well done, I suppose this is what stops her from blogging on a daily basis!! it is lovely to see the work and I have to say it is even better in real life