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, September 5, 2011

white on white.....









Hi everyone, hope it didn't take you too long to trawl through all those photos. This is my progress so far on my white on white wrapping cloth for my daughter. I am thinking I need to get a move on..another two sections at least before the weekend. Can't have teacher lagging behind, that just wouldn't do.
I am getting more pleasure from this experience than I could have ever imagined and I keep asking myself why did it take me so long. That isn't said in a negative way, more an astonished way if you know what I mean. It is such a big part of my life at the moment that I am struggling to find anything else to talk about and if you really don't want to hear about my course then I'm sorry.
What else happened at the weekend? Very little truth be told, sewing in white and more sewing in white. A few trips to the washing machine, a little feeding of the hungry, some sleeping and that's about it. Yet to me that is far from a boring existence. Who doesn't want to stitch all day?
I fear a spanner in the works is coming though, horror of horrors I actually have to leave the house two mornings in a row this week, well three if you count this morning....and I can't take any embroidery with me either....big sad face here....

14 comments:

Doreen G said...

I love this wrapping cloth Karen-it makes me appreciate what a fabulous embroiderer you are.

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

I am glad you are enjoying this so much! So are we. And truthfully, I'm pleasantly surprised at the 'student support' - this feels like a great group. : )
~Monika in Canada

Lois Evensen said...

Lovely, as your work always is. :)

Suztats said...

Loving the wrapping cloth, Karen! I especially like all those french knots through the netting, knotting the two layers together.

deanna7trees said...

student participation is what makes me love online classes. a great group this time. loving the class.
a 'spanner'. have no idea what that means and looking it up didn't help.

barbara l. hale said...

Fabulous detail. The great texture certainly makes up for the lack of color. Wonderful!

Elizabeth said...

Your white work looks astonishing, I should be used to it by now but I'm still thrilled to see it each time around.

You definitely need a planner since three mornings away is definitely no good!!!! (hahaha)

Heartwideopen said...

So very pretty! I love the top 2 photos... so luscious and frothy!

;-) Debi

Flaming Nora said...

What a lucky girl your daughter is going to be. It looks a bit like the front of an Edwardian Ladies blouse. May be she runs the sweetie shop from yesterday.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I'm so glad to know you're enjoying the teaching process - now that you have that one under your belt, how about that book??

Joanna said...

I love that netting fabric (probably not the technical term) creeping across the other fabrics

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to see the varieties of lace and cutwork fragments you are working in here - lovely!

Michelle said...

As I scrolled down your latest blog entry, I was actually WANTING more pictures...never too many! I absolutely LOVE your work. I've never seen anything like it before and am awe inspired by your creativity. Also, quite jealous that I am not taking your online class with everyone. (lol) Maybe next time!

Helena said...

Wonderful! I love it!
Have a nice week.