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







Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Text

Hi! I can't believe it's wednesday already, the days go so fast now I am officially a tax payer. Thanks for all the encouraging comments re the artwork debate, I am still running ideas through my head and I am determined to do more, push myself and maybe get to where I want to be with that skill. On the same subject, check out my guest post for this week where I am (sorry) still complaining about the same thing! Whilst I was beating myself up about all the painting and drawing stuff my fingers were so itchy for a needle. There was no way I could stay away long, so here you have it...embroidery from a contented stitcher. These squares are tiny, 1 inch, (2.5cm) each. I have a hankering to make small in total contrast to the huge cloths. I am still not sure what this will be when it is finished, for the moment I am enjoying playing wih it, thinking about it, taking it slowly, excited at what it might become.

I embroidered one of my 'quotes' onto a largish piece of silk, damp stretched, cut it up and hey presto. You know me, I can't resist cutting my words up it makes it more mysterious. Is that the sign of a warped mind????





This is how they look tacked onto the card templates, very scruffy actually but at this stage I have a fear they will not be secure enough so overdo it a bit.


Then I did the same thing with a piece of cutwork. This is quite bulky compared to the text but I am not easily beaten and will make them 'sit' together if it kills me!

So far I have only joined a few pieces together, part of my playing phase, but I am more than happy with how this is progressing.


Oh, and before I go, don't forget the give away in the previous post! Less than one week left!



9 comments:

méri said...

The weeks seem to fly, indeed! I feel the same, but it seems that you are working in a good rhythm. I'm looking forward to see the result :)

jude said...

love this. like a little board game or something. and you have me itching to do some little squares again. it has been a while.

Threadspider said...

Gorgeous blue and white. Silly question-what do you use to damp stretch? Do you pin to a board, or something else?

Ulla said...

You never stop surprising me with your ideas! I love your pieces of text; and I'm a happy keeper of the secret of a complete text.

Jane said...

Not sure what this says about your mind, but I find these bits of text intriguing, spend ages trying to piece them together to find out what the quote is.

gunnelsvensson said...

I love these !!! beautiful with the stitch !!!

Michala Gyetvai (Kayla coo) said...

I love the miniture art works.x

Gina said...

This looks exciting. There is something special and precious about tiny work

jennyflowerblue said...

That blue and off-white is reminding me of pillow ticking... I know you will have proably done this before but I see people with sketchbooks that they have colour washed before using so that the harsh white is all gone. I've always been too bone idle to do it though!