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







Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Knots....of the Bullion and French kind




The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that I have been fiddling with this blog.....I wanted to move...not as easy as you would think....so after many hours of frustration I decided that life is way too short to be spent bearing a grudge against technology....so here I stay...in a better way I hope with bigger images and less clutter. Some of the stuff has been moved ''upstairs'' to new pages...have a look upwards, they are there at the top of the page. Have a browse if you want....
I am on the beg too....for more liker's over on my new facebook page. You don't even ever have to visit, ignore it for the rest of your life....but please, if you can find it in your heart...like it first....I am putting pictures from Karen's Global Embroidery School on there every day....spreading the love.
Back to today, the pictures, Bullion Knots and French Knots, so very relaxing to embroider. I spent a lovely evening yesterday with nothing but decorative knots in my head.....wonderful. I am slowly finishing sections of my cloth...some require more work than others.....
A weekend of sampling and ''admin'' led to the completion of the early stages of prep for my new course. I am very excited about this one...I am excited about all of them but as this one is new it is a little bit of a challenge and I like a challenge. We will be creating surfaces first...surfaces for hand embroidery and we will be using the sewing machine. Those of you who know me will know that I am not the biggest fan of the sewing machine but I have to concede it has its uses. (don't panic though....the dreaded sewing machine plays a VERY small part in the bigger plan. I haven't gone over to the dark side) There has been a brilliant response so far and we are less than 24 hours in, so if you think you may want to sew with us then just pop here to register....or you could look ''upstairs'' again...there is a dedicated page up there....

12 comments:

jill said...

The blog looks great and so does the embroidery. I wopuld love to join the course but not yet, I think I should finish this one first, maybe in the future. Enjoy the challenge

Tatkis said...

Adorable! And I like your new blog design!

Hugs,
Tatyana

Joanna said...

The heading pictures sure look good. I like the way they don't take up as much room as the other photo - nice though it was

Iceni UK said...

Karen. Love the your new blog design and your embroideries are exquisite.

Signed up for the new class today..

My flickr name is : Colourinstitch sorry I haven't a blog nor on Facebook.
Looking forward to March when the excitement of learning begins. x

Jacky said...

I like the bigger pictures Karen...such wonderful detail. Love the knots!
Sorry, I'm not on facebook or I'd "like" you for sure!!!!
Your classes sound wonderful!

Jacky xox

Jane said...

Lovley knots
I'm kicking my heels waiting for payday. Can't wait for it to start

Suztats said...

Your new look is wonderful, and I love the knots!
I'm afraid I shall have to wait for the next run of this class, Karen--I needed new brakes on the car, and there went the budget. !@#$ brakes. I was so looking forward to taking your class!

deanna7trees said...

i love your 3 petaled bullion stitch flowers. i learned how to make a bullion stitch in crochet yesterday. i just love the puffiness of that stitch.
your new blog format looks great.

Tammie Lee said...

I already 'like' you Karen ;-)
I love these free-form creatures in your embroidery, they are wonderful!

Doreen G said...

I love the new look too Karen.

Marpet said...

I love this soooo much!Thanks for sharing.....
marjolein

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I would happily 'like' you if I were a fan of Facebook, which I'm not. So is it okay just to like you from afar?