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







Thursday, February 10, 2011

prairie points and unstretched flowers...

Prairie points....not many here but the others have been added to the next piece of toe wrap two and will be ready to meet you soon!! These are the spares, the rejects, not wasted though, they may well find themselves used further along the line.
A cutwork flower, well two to be precise...unstretched!!! Yikes, I don't like showing unstretched work on here but my little fingers just couldn't sew fast enough last night so it's not completely finished yet and yes, I know I could have damp stretched and then continued to work on it today. I don't know why I didn't but I wish I had, it just doesn't look the same.
I heard someone mention jacketgate yesterday. Well, it hasn't been seen for days...I think neither of us are wearing it for fear of the other one wearing it. We met in the street only last friday, both of us in different jackets. It was after 5.30 so technically it was her turn but if she isn't going to get her hours in I may just have to use them for her...watch this space...thing is we are having a local issue with car parking at the moment. There is a chance we could be out collecting registration numbers together, kind of like a task force, (this will happen when I finally decide I have no life) (which may be sooner than you would think) the jacket could become a unifiorm....o.k. that statement confirms I really don't have a life...
I am off to hang my head in shame because
a) I have no life and 
 b) I have shown non damp stretched work on here...
all the time wishing that I had trees like this.

11 comments:

Jan said...

Cause you have life and look what magic you are producing ,laughed at the uniformed car reg takers ,new slant on trian spotting in anaracs hee hee ...love Jan xx

jill said...

Are you going to have a special train spotters type book for them to go in. Are your jackets really anoraks, will these questions go in the FAQ section, this post has left so many unanswered questions.

Elizabeth said...

Everyone needs some crazyness, so you have jacketgate with registration number. That is totally fine.

Thanks for linking to the trees. That is really nice blog. Saw some beautiful sketchbooks. Knutselklub is a dutch word although I still haven't figured out how that came about since there is only one dutch lady as far as I could see.

Have a great day while stretching and needling away.

Karen Larko said...

Beautiful work as always Karen! I have to show my daughter your work and direct her to your Etsy shop. She has a new found love for embroidered linens and has started to collect some vintage pieces as well.
I wanted to let you know that I'm hosting some freebies on my blog. I did some Spring cleaning in my Etsy shop and I'm giving stuff away. Please stop by if you have a minute.

Jane said...

Damp stretched or not, it's still amazing

fabriquefantastique said...

wondering about the origins of prairie points. I have this imaginary image of ladies crossing the prairies in covered wagons, with no lace available they came up with this finish....but, I think I am wrong

Joanna said...

I was wondering what prairie points were yesterday so thanks for putting me out of my misery. I agree that the cutwork still looks great, so pretty.

I have trees like that, only they are a teensy weensy bit smaller

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xzw8bXvfIwM/TOqWhl0RXZI/AAAAAAAABhE/Jnq4OKu_DdI/s1600/DSC_2006.jpg These were our winter preparations for our young trees.

Anonymous said...

The prairie points are lovely, and I rather like your un-stretched cutwork flowers!

sylviesgarden said...

You might not have a life (although I suspect you do) but you are very funny.
I love the cutwork, it's amazing.
x

Patchwork Linda said...

Even if you think you have no life you certainly cram a lot into whatever you do have. Beautiful flowers.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Damp stretched or no - still beautiful.