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







Saturday, May 3, 2008

Missing You!!

I am beginning to feel as though I am neglecting my readers. Not a good idea me thinks! I am so wrapped up in trying to finish my cloth and other things are popping their head up, stopping me working, stopping me blogging, even stopping me visiting blogworld as much as I would like. At the moment I am one highly frustrated embroiderer and blogger. Please believe me when I say that I am working when I can, and there is a tiny little bit of evidence here.
This is my text, immediately after being taken off the damp stretching board. I don't know why but I had an overwhelming urge to fold it, I just love looking at it, am i wierd??? Yes probably!



and here it is all marked off, ready to be destroyed and cut into hexagons. I love looking at them too!

I have managed to join some of the transfer pieces together. I haven't really done much with them but you can see how my brain is working, laying them on lace and text to hopefully stimulate some more ideas. I am definitely thinking that blue ones are a better idea though.



Last week I was lucky enough to receive this award from Jenny of Jenny Flower. I now have to pass this on to another five bloggers. Now there are lots of excellent blogs out there, some which I feel a real connection to, (you know who you are!) and if I haven't given this award to you it doesn't mean I don't think your blog is excellent. Recently I have come across blogs which are new to me, and which I think are definitely going to find their way into my link list, so I am going to let them know they have a new, impressed reader. Once again though, I fall a bit short of my task, I have only four, sorry!!

1. Jude of Spirit Cloth. A gorgeous embroidery blog with wonderful textures and colours.

2. Kim of Calamity Kim. A prolific stitcher with brilliant narration.

3. Victoria off The Silly Boodilly. Amazing colourful and exciting work.

4. Sara of The Fabric of Meditation. Inspirational embroidery.



3 comments:

Victoria said...

Thank you so much Karen! I am honored to be one of the four that you selected! I will be sure to pass the award on! I am looking forward to checking out the other people who you awarded this to, as well!

Also, I love watching your creative process unfold. The way you have created this beautiful work of embroidered text, and are now going to deconstruct it, and reconstruct it with other elements... fascinating! (and very brave!) Thank you for sharing!

Best wishes,
Victoria

Victoria said...

Duh! I just checked out the other links, and realized they are already some of my favorites! Thanks for including me with such amazing talent!

jude said...

oh pshaw! thanks!