Chaos

I'm afraid there isn't much embroidery to show you today. Chaos has descended on the Ruane household in the form of me doing today what I should have been doing last weekend! Beds have been moved, rubbish collected and treasures discovered (more of that later). This has resulted in the only free space available being the dining table, which only remains free until we need to eat! I am sewing, boy am I sewing, could get a gold medal in it, but I am so very disorganised and upside down at the moment that I haven't the heart to ready it all for photographs. So this is how my table looked this morning, all my precious things safe from the removals and dust. There is one thing here that is so special, my little blue book. This is the most lovely book I have ever owned. I love the colour, the stitches, the buttons and it even has it's own little bag to keep it safe.

We had so much light today, perhaps too much looking at these shadows and I really wanted to get good pictures of this because it is so gorgeous. It's a belated christmas gift from Kaija, and I am going to shamelessly plug her shop, why? because I can and because I want to. You too could have one of these, just look here!

Now back to that treasure I found, right at the back under the bed, a sketchbook I had forgotten about. When I use the word sketchbook I use it VERY loosely. Most of my sketchbooks never saw a pencil or paint brush only stitching. This one was for a project (Uni 2004 approx) about altering surfaces. The first two pics are hessian with a little weaving and a lot of machine stitching with a tailor tacking foot.

Below....same sketchbook, different plan. I had totally forgotten about this and am so happy to have found it. It makes me wonder again about how we choose a certain path and what would happen if we'd had a different thought that day. What would this little sample have become if I had taken it further??? I wish I had the time to find out, maybe one day. Pins on paper....

and a little sketch of fabric weave.

Right, must go, more chaos to create, have a fantastic weekend!

Wednesday already, the weeks go so quickly but then it follows that the weekends do too. Apart from working I have been stitching my fingers to the bone, continuing the work I showed you at the weekend and other stuff too. By the time I get in from work, sort out the meal then the dishes, then settle to my embroidery I figure I am only managing maybe two hours embroidery a night. Poor time management maybe.....I think I need to focus. I definitely want to get the shop updated but that isn't going to happen for at least a week. Then there is the book, still not sure about that, it looks so flat on screen. I am going to have to jump in and get one published for me, take a look, see what I think, make adjustments if I have to and take it from there. All this stuff is still going on even if I don't mention it here, it's all up there in my brain churning around. I've got some more work here from 2003. The dreaded machine embroidery! These samples were from the module for the tie, (I posted about it before do you remember?) Same thing, screen printed fabric heavy machine embroidery, still in the mounts for assessment.

I've also managed to join a few of the hexagons for 'swaddling band three'. Now this really is therapeutic work, a real pleasure. But focus.....this will have to wait now until the book and the shop are sorted out. I am fed up of juggling. It is half term in a little over two weeks and I have the builders coming. ( I think I am begining to regret that now, can't bear the thought of the mess!!!) and I am determined that my week off will not be dominated by building related angst, embroidery has to take place, it has to. So my goal is to get to february 23rd with an updated shop, 1 copy of a book and a new, enormous bedroom. Wish me luck!

and, can I say, if I owe you a comment or a visit or an e-mail I am truly sorry. I don't know where the time goes but I promise I haven't forgotten about you I think about you all the time!

The best laid plans and all that..

This weekend..............well this weekend was the weekend to sort out two bedrooms ready for builders. To throw away years of collected junk, to reduce my bedding pile to only the most usable, to move furniture, even throw some furniture away. It was the weekend to take exhausting trips to the council tip, the weekend for supreme sacrifice and organisation.
Instead this weekend became the weekend to take a trip into town, to buy a new soft, warm, cuddly cardigan , to buy metres and metres of silk, to buy buttons, to buy some VERY expensive bubble bath, to spend endless hours on the internet, to make coffee then make some more, to eat a full bag of cadbury's mini eggs, to have the most glorious relaxing bath with so many bubbles I was in danger of drowning and then to wrap up in my dressing gown, house to myself and tell you all how lazy I have been. The weekend isn't over but I get the feeling that tomorrow will follow a similar pattern. Who cares about organisation and builders, last minute is as good as well in advance and I feel great, so it's win win all the way!
No sketchbook pictures today sorry, my computer really isn't feeling well and I don't want to push my luck, new virus software is on it's way so fingers crossed for that. I will show you this though. I'm not going to say what it is or is going to be but I am sure you will figure it out anyway. It's part of the enormous amount of embroidery I need to get through to update the shop.

The fabric in the image below is from a piece I bought on the internet. I absolutely adore this fabric. There was only about 1 metre available because it's vintage and my piece is getting mighty small, I will miss it. I do have a patchwork cushion that I used it in but if anyone knows where I can get some more I will be eternally grateful. I think it's called 'seed packet' or something similar.

Remember I said I wanted to change the image on my blog and shop header? Well I tried, I played and changed and changed again but I couldn't do it, it didn't look right. I can see it in my head, can't translate it into reality though, maybe I'm not ready to break away from that particular image. Boy am I a loser!
Have a great weekend, relax, have a bubble bath, I can recommend it!

And still they keep coming!

I'm cheating a bit today....................I have jumped forward a few years. These samples were made whilst I was doing my teacher training, 2006, as an illustration of different embroidery stitches for a group of adults I was teaching. I had forgotten about them and found them when I was sorting through my stuff the other week. They look much better in the flesh, honest!

Another reason I have been sorting my work out is because I have the builders coming. You won't believe how spoilt and decadent I am being! I am having two bedrooms knocked into one so that I can sleep in my own little palace with so much room I can drape myself anywhere! ( I think my hubby may be relegated to the shed, I can't bear the thought of his socks spoiling the ambience!)

So, basically, the work has to go to a place of safety, no brick dust or plaster near my work thankyou very much. It is all getting lovingly wrapped and packaged and good old mum is coming to take it to her house, thanks mum. Anyway I digress, but I had to share, I am so excited!

More 'artwork' now. These pieces were also done for my plant drawing module (2003). Yes I know they are pins and keys but I think the tutors were delighted that I produced any painting at all so tolerated my artistic licence.

As you know I have plans. This weekend I hope to have some more work finished and would love to change the header on my blog and the shop, make it more current. In a couple of weeks I am aiming to have a big shop update with some things that I think may sell easier, smaller, less expensive things that I get amazing feedback on. The book is coming slowly, a little inconvenience called work is holding that up, and to cap it all I am having horrendous problems with my computer. A virus?? Oh I hope not!! My son bless him, said ''mum, buy a new hard drive £270 that's all'' Well I was thinking ''how much Marimekko fabric could I buy with that for my new boudoir!''

So hard drive, Marimekko fabric, work, book, builders and to prove that despite all this running round in my head I am busy. busy, damp stretching is taking place as we speak!

see you at the weekend if I haven't lost my mind!

More revelations from a dim and distant past.

More sketchbook glimpses! I have so many photos now of all this 'history' surrounding my creative life that it makes me feel quite strange. I can't imagine that I painted these dying flowers and seed heads let alone had the time. It also makes me think about the choices we make, the way we turn toward a certain process at different times. I am usually very critical and negative about my painting and drawing skills and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these are masterpieces but I really do like them. If you have been reading this blog for a while you will surely recall all the times I have said that I feel I am a frustrated illustrator, well I wonder, what if I had decided in 2003 that painting and drawing was my way forward not stitch. Surely by now I could be accomplished at this, better and definitely more confident. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying this out of regeret, I am merely wondering, what if? and thinking about how we make those choices and where they take us.

This picture illustrates perfectly the 'signature' in all my sketchbooks. I absolutely had to do this every time, paint tiny colour swatches in the corner as I was mixing, infact I think this was probably my favourite part of the whole process.

and then there is this, another illustration of turning away from a process. This work is so far removed from who I am now creatively that it is even harder to believe I played any part in it's making. A module called Design and Make (I think?) where we had to design and make a man's tie. I carried out the initial research (drawing and painting) screen printed the silk and then embellished with machine embroidery. YES MACHINE EMBROIDERY!!! As if I could ever do that now. There are people out there who have amazing skill in this work but personally the very thought of doing this fills me with horror. I am definitely not a frustrated machine embroiderer!

It is shown here still in the mounts that I put it in for assessment, to try and remove them would ruin the work and they have survived really well for five years so I am going to leave them like this.

Back to now, 2009, swaddling band three. I have begun to play with patchwork templates. My thinking here is long, thin, narrow patchwork interspersed with text on vintage linen then more hand embroidery on top. I have used vintage cloth and more of the comntemporary linen for the hexagons. Swaddling band two is still being considered somewhere in the deep recess of my brain, I am waiting for the light to go on and haven't forgotten about it!

Ta Da!! Here it is.

Well, here it is, 'swaddling band one'. The end of a long road. What do you think? It's really been a pleasure, a suprising pleasure, using coulor, using different fabrics allthough I did succumb to the lure of silk for the lining as you can see.

Hooks and eyes won out in the battle for the fastening allthough to tell the truth there wasn't really a battle at all I find it so therapeutic sewing these on. I have found it quite difficult to photograph this in it's entirety but for the record it is approximately 35 x 5 inches, or 89 x 13 cm. Now for the real test......'swaddling band one' will be in the shop later tonight.

Thanks so much to all of you for the positive feedback on the sketchbook work. I told you there was more! I have started the first tentative steps putting the book together but I'm not happy really, seeing it flat on a page doesn't excite me, I am very tactile when it comes to my work and I think it needs something else, not quite sure what yet but the brain is working.

These first three pictures are simple pen and ink with a little newspaper collage. I was examining the surface of lace.

I think they are a bit 'scruffy' but they inspired this piece of very open, free work on very fine cloth which I absolutely love. The lace on the edge was added later, I'm afraid I can't take credit for that.

Lastly, for today anyway, the earliest piece of university work I can find that includes text. (2003 again) It's quite freaky really how even here I am rendering the text unreadable.

and yes, the lace creeps in again! For the record, I had used text in my work before university, the final pieces for my foundation degree comprised of tiny notes rolled up and stitched down so you couldn't read them. Boy I sound wierd!