cloth and titivations

Yesterday afternoon....creating lace cloth on the sewing machine, measuring, pressing and marking silk and patterned cloth for buttons and Suffolk puffs. The buttons and Suffolk puffs were embroidered last night. I now have ingredients for goody bags.....not many goody bags as yet but it's a start. 

Other cloth pieces here are from my stash, my stash of things I have made, I have stitched or doodled and then had printed. If you have watched any of the videos posted on here about putting my little books together you will know that I embroider pieces of cloth, paint sheets of paper, doodle on paper in order to build a stock of pieces I can use in my artist books....just like in this video which I chose at random. Now that stash is coming in handy for goody bags.....who knew.

- See more at: http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/#sthash.EpG9RlJ4.dpuf

once upon a time.....

Yes it's true.....once upon a time I dyed and printed cloth. The design I developed too, all part of a box ticking exercise and now I'm sharing it with you.

external link

http://vimeo.com/39823953

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...

bumpy things......

 Another section for toe wrap two and more bumpy bits. These are quite a bit bigger than the last ones and I have added hand embroidery to some areas. It is very restful to pick this up of an evening and sit stitching in front of the t.v. .....a quick damp stretch before I go to bed, (the embroidery, not me!!) and it's all dried out and beautiful by the time I've had my beauty sleep.

It's been hectic this morning, won't go into details but I think it's build up of stuff to do, lists to tick before I go away next week. I tick from the top and things get added to the bottom???? Will it ever end...well yes I suppose it will when I actually leave the house and lock the door.

One of the things on my list was to put something out there in the hope that one of you knows the answer. I have had  little help from some of you already and now I would like to know if anyone out there knows of a place in Las Vegas where I am likely to get vintage linen, hankies, runners, napkins, tablecloths..that kind of stuff. I wait with pen and map in hand! It can't all be bright lights and poker surely?