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







Friday, August 22, 2008

As promised, I have been 'playing' whilst waiting for my elusive threads to arrive. This piece started life as a small crazy patchwork sample using more cloth which arrived courtesy of the always lovely and inspirational Jude. I have a feeling this gift will keep me going for years! I started adding to the crazy piece with scraps of lace and old tablecloth and now it has grown somewhat.





There is now a little voice in my head saying, 'handbag'...... who knows, I think there may be possibilities here.
Yesterday my eldest made her way to Reading festival and my youngest made his way to Leeds festival, both for the weekend. Today, lunchtime, BBC news, live from Leeds Festival, or should I say live from Leeds MUDBATH!! Did anyone see it???
Can I make a plea....would you all please hold hands and chant to invigorate my washing machine for monday, thankyou!!
Ages and ages ago, (sorry Jackie), I received this much appreciated award from stitchworks . Now it is usual, as you know, to pass this on. You will also know however that I am useless at this passing on lark, I would need three weeks to give this to all the blogs I love and I think you all know who you are anyway.
Instead I am going to use this as a motivational tool for myself. It is a mere 7 days until I start work, yes, only 7 days. The closer it gets the more I am apprehensive and excited at the same time. My biggst fear is that this blog will slide, so, I will use this award as a promise to everyone that I am going to do my very best to make sure you keep on loving coming here. Wish me luck!



6 comments:

Gina said...

I love watching these cloths grow with all the beautiful detail. I think we'll both be chained to the washing machine on Monday!

jude said...

i love that eyelet in the middle of that crochet. and all those textures are always so enhanced by your white palette. good luck with the laundry.

Jane said...

Oh so pretty, keep seeing something different every time I look at the pictures

Morna Crites-Moore said...

What a beautiful blog you have! I love your white colorway - so peaceful and so lovely.

Victoria said...

I love the tiny little bits of color, and the small square patches.

Needles said...

Enjoy these last days. Don't rush through them, pause, contemplate, take the long slow looks at everything from horizons to sunsets, to the garden in between. and above all look forward to firsts. The First days are adventures too.