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







Monday, January 31, 2011

darker than dark....

O.K. who put the lights out??? I swear it's like the middle of the night here. I love winter it's my favourite season, grumpy in heat and all that but boy...please can we have some sun, only for half an hour, just long enough for me to take pictures...please!! Right, moaning over, off my chest....last night I basted more stitched paper to my wedding piece and embroidered around 6 more cutwork hearts with lace inserts. I should mention that the paper will look quite different once I have finished the surface stitching. I am going to add lots of french knots and those other round things that I embroider whose name eludes me.
I also managed to make a start on the edge of one of my pile of unfinished pieces. I am quite excited about these actually, they were languishing in one of those black artist folio things when I came across them during my housework marathon on friday. I made them for a show I did once, more as samples but I think with a little extra work they will be more appealing to the buying masses...whoever they are.

My printer is working overtime too, I seem to be constantly feeding it with paper. I'm not complaining at all it's just that it's in a different room to my ''comfy'' chair so I have to keep getting up and checking it...good for the knees I suppose, (or maybe not) It's not even a route that takes me past the kettle, if it was I could kill two birds with one stone. Don't let anyone ever tell you that us stay at homers lead sedentary lives!! I walk miles putting my kettle on...virtually worn a track in my carpet.
Sorry to let you down too but today I MUST iron...the pile is too high. Perhaps it is sunny outside after all and it's the pile of ironing blocking out the light....I will let you know in four hours when I've done it all........

11 comments:

Suztats said...

Very pretty with the pink ( I think of spring) and I love those hearts!

Patchwork Linda said...

Wish I'd have read your sunday blog sooner as I've just done some housework as I didn't realise you had done it for me!Thank you anyway.

Elizabeth said...

You are hilarious and it is good to hear that your printer is still working overtime. My little booklet also arrived, thank you for this pretty one.

Jane said...

We've had some sun today, it's been gorgeous. Trouble is, this time of day, it passes my window and it's just as if someone has turned out the lights.
The stitched edging and cross stitch border is beautiful.

sylviesgarden said...

It certainly is dark today. According to Fred the weatherman the sun is trying to get through. Me thinks it should try harder.
Lovely work again.
x

Jan said...

Oh how lovely ,there is a tube there ,hmm what is that about ? It has been a very cold but sunny day here ,so yes it must be all that ironing making it dark at your end lol ~~ironing ...do you want some more ? ...love Jan

Anonymous said...

Certainly looks intriguing! We could do with some sunshine here, too. Sunshine and heat are not the same!

Heartwideopen said...

I'd send a little bit of our peek-a-boo sun your way, but it's the first we've had in weeks and weeks! I prayed very hard for a bit of sun. The gray and the rain was getting to me and I've lived here all my life and most days in winter, don't mind the rain too much. But this winter, we are totally and completely water-logged! Oh, and I cleaned all day on Saturday. How was I supposed to know you were going to do it for me the next day!!! Unfair, I tell you.

;~) Debi

Storycloth said...

Stunning Karen! So crisp and precise. I love it. Gilly

Unknown said...

Well, we have the opposite problem here in Australia. Glorious one day, stinkin hot the next. I swear I've drunk so much water and juice today. I've melted. Really wishing our landlord would put in air conditioning for us.

Your wedding piece looks stunning. I too have worn a path to my kettle and back to my sewing table.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Ironing...who irons anymore!! At least not clothes anyway. My iron never gets used for anything but my sewing projects - poor thing wouldn`t know what hit it if it had to touch a piece of actual clothing!!