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







Sunday, January 4, 2009

Progress

Swaddling band one is now pinned, measured and tacked ready to have the lining inserted and then be finished off with some kind of restrictive fastening. I have changed my mind on the finshing of this piece so many times but now I feel I have got there, made a positive decision whch I think will do the work justice. I hope to do the sewing machine part this afternoon and make a start on the fastenings this evening.





















































It's back to work in the morning with a positive frame of mind. I have done quite a bit of embroidery these past few days and have enough photos to keep me going with posting for a while yet. I am concentrating on the financial benefits of employment, make the money work for me although spending money on flights kind of removes the money for promotion but hey, we all need a holiday sometime. So, I am off to Sweden for five days at easter, very much looking forward to it and hopefully I will have enough cash left to spend on the first part of my plan for world domination!
You can see here that I have also made progress of sorts with swaddling band two. This section is now backed, with hand stitched edges and I will post more on this midweek.





















I thought I would share a little of the gifts I received at christmas with you. Just look at these gorgeous cloths, I spend hours merely looking at them. The white lace belonged to my Nanna, it's truly a treaure.

























I am not loving these big gaps blogger is putting between my pictures, any ideas re what's going on here? It's very annoying!
Anyway, back to my plan, the grand master plan, I hope, sunshine permitting, to have some images of a different kind for you next weekend. The feedback I get, if I get any!! will inform my next move. But, it is quite scary, I may need medication!






























8 comments:

Jane said...

It's all come together really well. Can't wait to see the fastenings

gunnelsvensson said...

Beatuful stitching! So fun that you gonna to Sweden !!!

Michala Gyetvai (Kayla coo) said...

It looks so exciting Karen, the mix of techniques,the placing of colours.
I look forward to seeing it all together.x

Gina said...

It is looking fabulous Karen - such lovely combinations of techniques and colours.

Anonymous said...

You make such amazing embroideries!

Jacky said...

Beautiful laces of your Grandmothers.

Your band for the swaddling band is perfect. I love the red running stitch on the linen!

Looking forward to the next post.

jude said...

i love how you stitched through the linen's open weave, everything looks wonderful including the new gifts. and those gaps are really big. don't you just love blogging?

Threadspider said...

The stitching is fabulous and you are such a tease about the grand master plan. Waiting with baited breath...