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







Friday, October 21, 2011

cross stitch, web stitch and bumpy bits




It's moved on hasn't it? I honestly did do all this last night, what a transformation. It is damp stretched but not finished. I have the patterned fabric above the pink cross stitch to embellish but it's nearly there. This is probably the first of three pieces I need to finish toe wrap two. It is all starting to come together now. 
Tonight Helen is coming home and collecting her cloth. I am so looking forward to seeing her yet she will be gone all day tomorrow, visits in Scotland but then I will have her to myself all day Sunday and Monday. Monday we will venture up north, not as far as Scotland but Grandparents to visit and all that. This morning  I performed my weekly ritual of handing over copious amounts of cash to the supermarket. I swear they would go out of business If I stopped going. This afternoon it is teacher stuff to do. A few apples to count and some instructions for homework to titivate. Best get on with it then......


14 comments:

Jane said...

beautiful

deanna7trees said...

I bought a lottery ticket at the supermarket yesterday. Winning sure would help to pay for the fruits and veges that go up in price every time I visit. Love all the colors in this cloth.

Tatkis said...

Adorable! Love this addition of green and red to the white background!

Hugs,
Tatyana

barbara l. hale said...

Love the bit of color!! And I am envious of Helen's visit to Scotland...one of my favorite places on this earth.

Jackie said...

Lovely lovely lovely.

Flaming Nora said...

may be it has now morphed in to a Victorian show man's outfit made entirely of sweeties. Such fun.

Mosaic Magpie said...

Grocery shopping is not on my list of favorite things to do. Really the only shopping I like to do, has to do with stitching!
Enjoy your weekend and most importantly your daughter.
Deb

Jane Raymond said...

Karen, these touches of color are lovely. I particularly like the mounds with French knots and the webs- well, Ireally like it all. It has such a crisp look- must be your damp stretching- you have me hooked on that. jane R

JacksonFabricArts said...

a feast for the eyes...really lovely.

Hoola Tallulah said...

AH you bumpy bits are so delightful, and your choice of colours always so pretty, I am truly, madly, deeply in love with your work!

Suztats said...

How crisp and fresh the white looks against the color! Love the bumpy bits.

IamSusie said...

Karen, not long ago, you posted on facebook that your blog stats were going down. Did you recently change your feed settings so that only a partial post shows in blog readers? Yours shows up that way in my google reader and I don't generally subscribe to blogs that I have to click through to view. This is just an FYI. I haven't read all your posts lately (because of the partial feed), so disregard if you have already addressed this.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

The addition of green makes the red and white pop - great idea!

Anonymous said...

Those red stripes are really striking - they make a very strong statement!