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, December 14, 2015

Auditioning cloth





I'm back. Did you miss me? No? Oh, ok then....I had a fabulous couple of days shopping and eating wonderful food in the company of my daughter. The only thing wrong with the trip was it didn't last long enough. Actually, no...there was something else wrong. My favourite ever, most wonderful, highlight of my trip vintage shop has gone!! Closed down. Not relocated, closed down. I have no idea why but I am very curious as to what happened to her stock. To console myself I  accidentally bought some quite expensive silk. Oops.....I really wanted to traipse and wander until I found other vintage places but I had people with me with shopping needs of their own and zero interest in fabric. I think I see a solo trip on the horizon, me and myself and nobody else.....
This morning I was on the sewing machine at 8 am putting together this scrap of lace cloth. You saw the silk piece here last week. The lace cloth has some of my accidental silk in it. What I'm doing is sampling for overlays I can use on the silk piece. The silk in the lace cloth looks darker here than it actually is but in all honesty it's dark as night here too so even in natural light I'm struggling to get a proper sense of whether this will work. I'm not worried, I can wait for the sunshine and if it's not working I will just make some more, different, lighter.
- See more at: http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/#sthash.yUeI0UFo.dpuf

2 comments:

Stitching Lady said...

Very charming and wonderfully silky. And yes, it is getting dark so soon - but this will change in a few days and its getting lighter again.

Rachel said...

Well, this is definitely going to work. Love the look of it