petals and patchwork....

Work is continuing on my white cloth, the latest additions being a tiny piece of patchwork and some cutwork petals with lace. There is still a long way to go, probably two more sections to piece, surface embroidery to apply, rouleau loops to create.....I am talking myself into list writing here........If you want to check out how the girls are doing then just have a look here. You will be impressed I promise.

I had a lovely birthday too. Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes. I must have been a good girl because I got lots of beautiful gifts and was taken out to eat...twice!!! 

My birthday passing is also a reminder that May is nearly over...yikes!!! Where's my newsletter???? It's a plan...this weekend...promise.

embellishing

The latest titivated section of my new white cloth. Cutwork holes with snippets of my ridiculously cheap vintage lace frothing out from inside. This is the section with the wonderful tiny label that I discovered....I am thinking this is my favourite section and will always be my favourite section. I do believe that this piece is now finished, can be ticked off the list. I appear to be making progress....amazing....

I will be gone for two days...I miss you already....be good when I'm gone. I will be back on Thursday, a little older but probably not any wiser.....

and just because I can

tit·i·vate/ˈtitəˌvāt/

Verb:

Make small enhancing alterations to (something): "she slapped on her warpaint and titivated her hair". Make oneself look attractive. Nap Backing, Generally a quilting term that defines the fabric used as the back layer ....

hearts and lace

Just a small corner of my white cloth. Four cutwork love hearts with a lace insert. I bought this lace in London from a vintage shop. It was ridiculously cheap. There are yards and yards of it and it is so fine and delicate I think I found a treasure.

This cloth will be a gift for someone special. She doesn't have internet....unusual I know but good for me in this situation. It needs a label, a label printed with a long sentence which says something we share, kind of a private thought. It's not private in the sense that I can't share but the meaning only makes sense to us. When I have my label I will share and explain. Meantime I need to start work on my May newsletter, pictures of cakes from my afternoon tea with Alice in Wonderland, news of a new class, a little rambling.....note to self, get brain in gear!

titivated....

Yesterdays little piece has been titivated to exhaustion and is now finished, damp stretched and ready for whatever I decide to do with it...I do have a plan but I am going to let my girls in on that one first....sorry! It really is very delicate and measures maybe five inches square so it is tiny too.

I am hunting for time at the moment, time to develop 'extending embellishment', time to make a suggested equipment list, time to create a blog and a flickr group, time please...pretty please and meanwhile the ironing pile is growing! Also....big U turn here, embroider, embellish, create has been listed again.....don't ask....I was too quick to take that one off....enquiries caused that little change of plan...

so there isn't much of an exciting nature happening here at the moment, not much to bore you with at all today so go and treat yourself instead....go here and see the gorgeous thing my girls are creating....

small....

Sunday was very relaxing working on these tiny sections of my cloth. I extended the padded areas and added buttonhole lace, they look like little cups...the three cutwork motifs will have added embellishment before that piece is complete. Hopefully that will happen today sometime and be damp stretched overnight.

The weekend also involved some admin for me . I have had a few latecomers to embroider, embellish create, they are signed up and stitching now but I have placed that class on ''sold out'' mode this morning. We are in week four and although access to resources is indefinite I feel with that particular course interaction within the working group is essential and a huge part of the whole experience. I will be running it again later in the year but for now I am concentrating on creating the new class, 'extending embellishment', hopefully there will be more news about that later this week.

With regard to the button class...I have now listed that as a ''learning package''. Three month access to all resources, blog etc along with printable PDF documents. I felt it best to deliver that in timetabled format...e mail with weekly headings enabling you to work to a three week timetable if you wish or alternatively enabling you to dip in and out over the three months if you prefer. This is a comprehensive package and excellent value in my opinion....after all you get me forever!!! I am so cheap...in many ways....

There is a link to that top right on this blog or you can go here and browse.

Now I must clean, my work room/dining room/computer room really needs to be acquainted with a duster!!!

(and I cleaned the oven yesterday!! yikes...domesticity...)

sparkle....

Sparkle Cloth from k a ruane on Vimeo.

external link

http://vimeo.com/35686302

a short video today....only four minutes. This cloth is named ''Sparkle Cloth'' as I made it for a show called Sparkle. Least said about that the better...it was a disaster for me...consigned to the nether reaches of my brain.

There's quite a lot of colour in this one so please don't faint with shock, none the less I like it. It has a certain something that attracts me....

The good news today...the strangers in the bathroom have left for good and I don't think I have ever been to the bathroom as many times in my life to gaze at the newness and brightness of it all...From here on in every visitor to this house will be positively encouraged to go to the bathroom whether they need to or not so if you are planning on coming round for a brew (cup of tea or coffee to those of you who aren't English) be warned!!

hearts.....

Whilst I was damp stretching the piece from yesterday again.... last night, (yes again...because I had finished the section with two hearts and added web stitches and French knots) I realised that hearts are becoming a recurring theme in my work. Then I got to wondering if you all thought they were there for ''pretty'', ''cute'' or ''sugary sweet'' reasons......well to explain.......they aren't. Hearts are there because historically they were used in abundance on domestic samplers, domestic linens and cross stitch pieces. The heart motif is as old as time and that my friends is why I use it almost to exhaustion...

lace, gingham and puffs

a quick Sunday hello to reassure the winners of my puff give away that puffs are indeed on my mind. I am making some as we speak...including yours. Please don't worry, I haven't forgotten...they will be winging their way to you very soon....

a plethora of puffs......

In recognition of my latest exciting venture, you know....the one I completely forgot about!!......and about which there is more information through this link,

 Click here to view more details

which will take you to the blog of Alma Stoller where there is a lot more information.....I am showing you puffs. That is a very long sentence, probably half of it unnecessary and it is meant to say...in the most complicated way possible, that I am having a celebratory puff give away..we got there in the end....eventually....at last....

If you haven't switched off yet or gone insane because I can't string a few words together then read on.....

I am giving away TWO sets of SIX puffs, two lucky, or unlucky depending on your point of view, winners. All you need to do is say hi in the comment section, simple.......

Now I haven't actually made the puffs yet and I can't guarantee that I have any of the above fabric left but you can kind of choose what you want. Lace? Gingham? Printed Cloth? Vintage Cloth? You can let me know if you win.......

Last night a very nice man came and fixed my computer!! I am so excited, I have working speakers for the first time in century's.....I do hope the neighbours like Robbie Williams!!

white cutwork...

There are two pieces of my new white cloth here. One you have seen before but I put it on today so that you could see how it's coming together. The piece with cross stitch and the base fabric I don't like, remember? now has cutwork added. I am very happy with how they look side by side and feel this cloth will be as lovely as the one I made for Helen. However......I am a little lacking in motivation. Don't know why, don't know what's going on, feeling a little droopy, a little over tired maybe...who knows.....I am hoping it's temporary and that a little less sewing and a little more flicking through inspirational books, sketchbooks, magazines will give me a kick.

Part of me feels as if I want a WHOLE new direction...to where? Haven't a clue...a new project to excite me, I hope I can find it from somewhere deep within soon as I really hate feeling like this. I'm not unhappy...more 'creatively barren''....not a good place to be when everything you do depends on keeping the creative juices flowing. So as I can't think of what to sew today I thought I would bore you all instead, sorry about that......I will be chirpy from here on in.

Karen's Global Embroidery School opened for the winter today.It's all very exciting and as soon as my girls have created something I will point you in their direction so you can take a look and I promise that when I come back I will be newly invigorated...honest!!

giving away my needle doodling.....

Do you remember this from the other day? Some doodling that I had been doing with my needle, helps me think, gets the grey matter working. Well I don't really want to do anything else to this, so you can have it. Floor cloth? Dish rag? whatever, you decide......just a comment, a simple hi will do. You will only get the rag though, not the buttons. They are only there for reasons of aesthetics and to prove that I haven't been idle. Buttons made for my global embroidery school.... 

The winner of my last clear out is Coach Tina....postal stuff please!!

Helen arrived last night...late...heavy traffic...she was introduced to her cloth and she adores it...she has gone again now, in and out stopping only to collect embroidery!!! No, she will be back this evening, ventured up north they have to the wastelands of Scotland, or at least you would think they were wastelands, she was dressed for the Norwegian Arctic.

points and loops....

The Rouleau Loops finally got made.....some of them are now in the cloth and seeing them like this makes me realise why I love them so much. They just add something that I can't find the right word for but the cloth certainly wouldn't be the same without them that's for sure.I also made some Prairie Points with little areas of cutwork on them, loving those too. Sometimes embroidering a point will prevent it forming into a 'perfect' point, small price to pay I say for the added embellishment.

My class only has two weeks left to run....insert sad face.......I am going to miss it a lot. I would run it again immediately after the last day of this one but I am going away in early November so can't quite fit the six weeks in....shame. One thing I will miss though is making my videos. I have grown quite addicted to my video camera so I'm thinking......can you hear the cogs turning? Maybe I could make a little video for you. Would you like that? It won't be a technique but how about a tiny show and tell? Then you could all hear my very broad, (or so I'm told) Northern English accent....hmmmmmm, lets see what I can do.

bumpy things......

The area of 'bumpy things' is finished and damp stretched now....I do like it a lot and it's great to run your hands over. So that section will be grubby first then...I have also embellished a patterned section with hand stitch, the area that has red dotty things on it. Lots of white stitches on there, knots and stuff. This piece is heavily textured. I didn't plan it that way but I know I will have enormous fun fiddling with this when it's finished. 

For the past week my dining room /computer room / work room has resembled a bomb site. This morning I shook myself down and faced my responsibilities. It is now gloriously neat, tidy, clean and I would even go so far as to say it's positively pristine! I put the ironing board away and everything!! Can you tell I'm proud?

This morning was the first day of class, no detentions yet but I can already pick out the ones who are going to be trouble!! Only kidding....SK.....you know who you are!! Honestly though, what a gorgeous bunch of girls we have gathered over there...reminder to self...don't let them down. 

I will be posting links on here to their blogs when they have posted work so you can see what we are up to. The work I create for that will also be shown on here. In truth I am creating exactly what I always create. Same motivation, same methods, same process but over there they are getting me too. The real me. A photograph, video, talking, (lots of me talking actually, babbling away inanely, very broad Northern English accent, making no sense at all I am sure)

So there you have it, a day in the life...with cleaning and housework....make the most of the latter, it won't last!

silk...

I hope these pictures are o.k. for you. It is very wet, gloomy and dark here today and it was so difficult trying to photograph this tiny piece of embroidery. Tiny is a good word for it, it is very small. At the moment a mere 4 x 2 inches. So far I have spent four hours embroidering this piece. I am not complaining, not at all. That's one of the reasons I love embroidery, the satisfaction I get from the time and care invested in every piece and the knowledge that I am definitely not the first female to devote time and care to cloth, unquestionably that has been the case for generations.

I intend to expand this a little more before I add it to a piece of paperwork. I had a mini panic this morning...here I am faffing about taking a huge amount of time making one small piece for Sunday. I have tons of pieces I can take and I will take them, somehow I just got it into my head that I should make a special piece too, in honour of the occasion I suppose. The panic arose when it occurred to me that I should probably be preparing some stuff for the mini tutorial that will be part of the finished video....

Because of that sudden realisation I have spent most of the morning making lists and making plans. The lists are about the pieces I will actually take with me. The plans are for the things I need to prepare...a Blue Peter moment for the English among you as in the saying..'here's one I made earlier' so alongside working on this silk piece I will be preparing hexagons, joining them together and embellishing but not completing some paper pieces...that should keep me out of trouble for a while!