A new diversion

First of all.....I apologise! my brain must still be in holiday mode as I forgot to say when I would draw the winner of my holiday give away. It will be drawn some time on sunday so there is still time to get your name in the hat so to speak.
Before I went on holiday I had a moment, you know, one of those moments when you question what you are doing, what's the point and all that. I call it creative angst, creative insanity, Karen's curse. It didn't take me long to discover the point of it all however, all I had to do was pick up my essay's from Uni, re read the words I had written and that had inspired me to a degree show, exhibitions and lots of work since that time. Those of you who have been hanging around here for a long time will kind of know the motivation in most of my work, blaah, blaah, mothers, children, cloth as comfort, cloth as memory, cloth as history, cloth as a connection to our children and on and on and on, sorry if I am boring you. Anyway, with that in mind I popped on the plane with a burning desire to start this piece. These prairie points are for the edge,

This has been a work in progress all day, well the construction and finishing has, the embroidery has taken a couple of days. Hence the different tones of my images, all taken at different times today, some in good light some in not so good light.

Initially it was my plan to use applique on this piece, I seem to be over doing the cutwork. The cloth I measured though seemed too small for applique so I intend to use that next time. And here is the result of all the soul searching, my interpretation of a plantation doll. Plantation dolls were made during the American Revolutionary War using knotted mens handkerchief's as a way of keeping children quiet during long church services. (If any of my American friends have more info or different info on this I would be really interested.) Anyway, I think she fits perfectly with the concepts that drive my work. She doesn't have a face, originally she wouldn't have had a face and if I gave her a face she would not look nearly as appealing I can assure you. It's my understanding that Amish dolls don't have faces either so this is not so unusual.

I am so delighted with her, she is gentle, soft and comforting. Technically her head should be tied tightly with thread but me being me....I didn't like the idea of throttling her so she has luxurious ribbon instead and down her back hangs a piece of tape which reads '''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''' This quote belongs to me, I created it for one of my pieces of written research and I feel it is appropriate for this little girl. I have put her in the shop tonight, just to test the water but if she doesn't sell it definitely won't be a hardship keeping her close.I hope you like her as much as I do because I am going to start another one. First though I think I should do some housework. I wasn't kidding on sunday when I said I had no intention of doing any but my house truly is like a tip and I can bear it no longer!! Tomorrow morning, dusting, hoovering, ironing, washing floors, then I will be all set for more stitching.

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