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, June 11, 2012

damp stretched









Lots of pictures today because a lot of damp stretching went on last night. I was awake until 4 am as I had to drop my men off for their flight. What to do to pass the time? Stitch and stretch of course. There are three pieces of work here. Two white sections that now need to be added to my wrapping cloth and a surface for hand embroidery that I created using paper, silk and vintage scraps as in my extending embellishment class. On the white pieces there is cutwork, applique, a variety of hand stitch, prairie points, lace and loops. I will add these to the cloth over the next couple of days and when my girls have seen that I will show you too. 
I am going to hand embroider on my other surface, add mirrors and perhaps a little lace. I will have progress for you on that tomorrow.
The house is empty and beautifully quiet. I am going to clean and titivate....see you soon.

10 comments:

ersimarina said...

Sheer beauty! (No surprises there :)

I recently bought a piece of 'Hand Spun Antique Silk - Mawate Tsumugi Japanese white natural silk' on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/77561116/sale-25-off-hand-spun-antique-silk

What a name! I have no idea whether it will be adequate for embroidering or not but I couldn't resist having it. I hope it works. I haven't used silk yet, I am looking forward to trying.

deanna7trees said...

love all the raised embellishments and those pretty pink flowers.

Rachel said...

Some more wonderful photographs, Karen - lovely to see!

Jane said...

It always look so special after damp stretching. Enjoy your peace and quiet

Lois Evensen said...

Always soooo pretty!

barbara l. hale said...

Great texture, great pics! Just beautiful!

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

there's a magician at work here. i'm really looking forward to find out about the various matters that you are quietly exposing to us...it's the variety that is such a pleasure to wander/wonder over. things get done in the quiet...evening to you...as i'm sure the hours are getting into the depth of night over there. cheers.

magicmoonmusings said...

Yummy, delicious texture! The bits of colour peeking through are so pretty. Thank you for sharing so many beautiful pictures, they're very inspiring.

dandelion said...

cleaning??!! shouldn't you be eating chocolate and watching women type films and drinking champagne while they're gone??? Beautiful sewing as always
x

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Clean??? Why??? This is YOUR time and should be spent stitching and playing with fabric and paper...not dust bunnies.