little bags of titivations

In addition to having lace cloth coming out of my ears I also have a titivation production line going on. Suffolk puffs, fabric beads (padded puffs) and other such things for adorning edges and surfaces are being created in abundance. I'm thinking little bags of mixed things, a combination, flat and padded.......like little bags of sweeties or candy. 

There was a point in time last week when I thought I was going to lose it, to become so stressed that I couldn't go on. That has passed, calmness has descended again and although my ''to do'' list remains long it's not unachievable. My days from now until next Sunday...flight time 9.30 am.....will be filled with finishing touches, labelling, packaging, packing boxes to pack into suitcases. I will not be making any more ''large';' pieces such as pockets or wraps or pillows, there's no time left, it's the little things which I need to attend to now.

Yesterday was a ''day off'' of sorts. Thanks so much for all James happy birthday love. I think he had a good day??? We went to Manchester to eat and I left him there with his dad so they could go and see a band and do other manly things....I drove home through snow, yes snow. I wasn't expecting that. 

The video below is a brief overview of my new class ''stitching a story'',  first posted on here a couple of weeks ago. I will be closing the shop before I go away and will re open it on April 25.

- See more at: http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/#sthash.lN92CN7g.dpuf

adorning, titivating.....

I have been making funky puffs for edges and adding lace to edges...this lace added to an edge of rouleau loops.

I want to paint, yes...I actually WANT to paint so if it's possible time will be set aside for that later this afternoon. Don't ask me what I will paint because I haven't a clue. I just feel the need...depending on how that goes I may show you. If it's a total disaster it will never be mentioned again......

backgrounds.....

I did warn you that I had developed a liking for these kind of  backgrounds...but never fear, it won't become a permanent ever present feature as I have very few paintings of my own. There are two here...little strips, studies of cherries and rose hips. They might not look like the best paintings in the world to you but to me they are marvellous.....I wrung them out of myself during a very stressful assignment way back. An assignment that I neither wanted, liked or enjoyed. Having said that....I am delighted I kept them. And the points, loops and puffs? Well I am consumed this week by titivation, edges, adornments because that is what the girls are on. I have been doing some titivating of my own too and will show you another time. I had better get looking for another painted background for them....

If you didn't stop by yesterday you missed my newsletter....you can read that here if you like and you can read about more classes here and here...

now I am off to rummage through folders in search of painting....

puffs......for you....yes you..

Just a quick visit today....my little girl is taking me out to Lunch.

It's that time again...you know, that time when I have a give away and take a lifetime to actually get it done and sent. Tammie, your buttons are on their way, in the capable hands of Royal Mail. The winner of the last give away....it's OK I wont be surprised if you forgot it was that long ago...is Sandi, from Impatient Cajun...postal stuff please Sandi.

So a comment is all I need....you don't even have to say anything either if you really don't want to, just leave your name....

wishing you all a lovely...free....lunch!




to read more and register for extending embellishment please go here.

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....

tomorrow....

Tomorrow is Sunday....and it's also a new year, something that doesn't really mean much to me but this year I think it's a good time to take stock. When you stop at any given point and look back at what's happened before it can be very revealing. This time 12 months ago I didn't know that I would have created so much ''white''. I wasn't aware that I would share sketchbooks with you. I hadn't really got started on ''paperwork''. I didn't have a clue that I would acquire a video camera enabling me to talk to you or that something like that would lead me to fall in love with the sound of my own voice!!

I have given away beads, given away paper, given away buttons....but most revealing....I didn't know that I would start to teach again, online, and be overwhelmed by the number of you who cared about that and wanted to listen to my inane rambling and learn something. I cannot begin to express how amazing it has been to ''meet'' and work alongside such amazing people in my classes and I want to also give them a massive WELL DONE and share their work with you, here, here and here...to my girls...you should be very proud.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is the start of another period for us all. I will share my stitching again starting in little over a week. 

I believe that you are supposed to approach the year as you mean to go on....I shall be stitching then!!

So tomorrow....and every day after that....not just at the start of a new year.....I wish you all everything you wish for yourself.

hectic.....

Hi everyone, only one picture for you today......some puffs I have made for the ''STITCHED'' workshops, more info in the right hand side bar...

It is crazy around here at the moment. I am making final preparations for stitched and I am being overcome by all things Christmas related. Much the same as you all are too I imagine. A large part of yesterday was spent in a well know Swedish furniture store buying curtains and tracks for a bay window....the rest of the day was spent in  physical combat with said curved curtain track!! Something I don't ever want to have to do again....

I love my new window but it magnifies the rest of the room and not in a good way!!! What a tip, honestly...so today I am throwing things away and re organising....refuse tip here I come. I did manage to post some cards too so the list is getting ticked off if only slowly....

I have finished the embellishment on my pocket and that is damp stretched and beautiful, relaxing in a tidy, clean place (believe me there aren't many of them round here!) and I hope to show you that over the weekend........so that's me.....tidying and throwing away with a little embroidery when I can snatch a minute. So I had better get on with it, bags to sort out.....

Before I go though I do have to remind you, (yes I really do, it's compulsory) registration is now open for January's embroider, embellish, create class. Just pop over here and take a look. If you do sign up you get to see a lovely video and listen to me babbling about cloth....what more do you need?

the wrapping cloth.....

The wrapping cloth series evolved from my research into motherhood and the role played by cloth in the lives of mothers and their children for centuries. Cloth protects, wraps and envelops yet can also serve as a thing of beauty containing precious memories and traces of those who have gone before. The Wrapping cloth series is created using traditional techniques of hand embroidery and fabric manipulation giving recognition to our mothers and grandmothers. it is my wish that these pieces serve as a tribute to my female predecessors.

I needed to place that paragraph at the top of this post. I am beginning to feel a little like a one woman promotion machine at the moment. It's important to me though that you know what really drives me and that kind of sums it up. 

My wrapping cloths started life created from silk, you can see some images of those here and here. Silk both then and now signifies precious to me, for the women referred to in that top paragraph any scrap of cloth was precious so I evolved. I evolved in terms of materials and I keep the same techniques, the traditional techniques constant in all my work. The cloths I create during my embroider, embellish, create class are born from the first paragraph and I don't think that will ever change but now I use scraps. Scraps of found cloth, old cloth, mixed with a small amount of new. The first cloth was for my daughter, the second one will be for my mother. I have started that one already, it is the white in these images. The other cloth, the coloured and patterned cloth is for me, as yet unfinished. To me it demonstrates that pattern and colour can signify my motivation equally as well as white.

It is my hope that anyone taking my embroider, embellish, create class, with my guidance, will come to feel the connections I feel whilst creating adorned cloth, whether it be a white cloth or a coloured cloth. Emotion has no colour, it is only us that can see it in any form.

reminder.....

Just a reminder for my double give away in yesterdays post, it's just a little scroll down.....I have disabled comments on this post. I love your comments I really do but my inbox is so full and I haven't replied yet or said thankyou or anything remotely polite that I expect a few of you will stop speaking to me soon!! I will visit honest but my other half is taking me out today. I can't complain can I ?

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!!

yes, more puffs.....

Friday already? Oh my goodness, only two more days until this starts, you still have time. For those of you who have just turned off through sheer boredom don't worry, torture is nearly over...promise I won't mention it again after Monday, Guides honour.

I also come bearing gifts, does that earn me a little forgiveness? The winner of my white buttons from so long ago that you have definitely forgotten is Deanna. Postal stuff please....and I hope that doesn't mean you won't be learning with us on Monday now that you have some ready made????

What do I have for you this week? Which pile of old tat am I trying to get off my hands and give to a poor unsuspecting reader....as if you don't suffer enough? Well puffs of course, what else is there.....

Help yourself, just a comment, a simple comment, a nice one, a not so nice one. Beggars can't be choosers so I take whatever crumbs are thrown my way.

Anyway, anybody would think I don't have anything to do. Must move my self and get on with some work...Bullion stitches, French knots, Web stitches, titivations...Karen's embroidery school is nothing without embroidery...just a grumpy woman from Lancashire who loves the sound of her own voice just a little too much!!

puffs....

We have been busy making puffs in Karen's Embroidery School.....so many wonderful things happening over there. You really should pop over and take a look at what is being produced, hard to believe it all ends on Sunday, for now anyway. 

There is another class starting on Monday though. Not about puffs but about buttons, as if you didn't know. You can go here for more information on that.

Me? I have caused myself a heap of trouble. Will I ever learn? I decided in my wisdom that I wanted extra sections on Helens cloth so now I am frantically stitching as fast as my fingers will go trying to get finished, damp stretched and backed before Saturday. Teacher is slacking in this case, lagging way behind she is, disgraceful really. Tut tut!!.

Thanks for the response to yesterdays video. I am really pleased I decided to use video on here occasionally. Makes a change from endless pictures of cloth and they are fun to make too, especially if you love the sound of your own voice like I do!! In case you missed it the video is here....

I think that's all for today, except to clarify that I will not stop nagging you about the class until it has started.

Also, I must say......I am loving the large type words, these have links attached but who knows, they may become a regular feature. Don't say I didn't warn you.

embroidery

Monday morning, the start of a very busy week chez moi. Exactly one week from today my first online class will start. I am very, very excited about it and am wondering why it took me so long??? I got there in the end though......it's going to be great, we are going to make wonderful cloths together, hopefully white but maybe not, that remains to be seen...there is more information about it HERE and HERE incase it passed you by over the weekend and  you can sign up HERE.

So apart from all the planning and writing and videoing etc that goes with that I have been embroidering. I still need to keep my fingers busy of an evening.

I have been titivating my second toe wrap (remember? I started it in the distant past) and boy do I love all these edges. Puffs, loops, fabric beads.....so tactile and pretty. These things are all included in the class too...more loops and puffs and beads and maybe even prairie points...I am so excited it will be a struggle not to start now!!

******tr.v. tit·i·vat·ed, tit·i·vat·ing, tit·i·vates. To make decorative additions to; spruce up. [Alteration of earlier tidivate : perhaps tidy + (ele)vate.] ******

a little personal message now...sorry, just ignore this if it isn't for you. I mean, you can read it, it just won't make any sense.

Adele!!! I was so happy to get your letter and the photographs today. I too have lost your e-mail address but you can contact me on mine which is

contemporaryembroidery@hotmail.com

the pictures are truly stunning!!! Thank you so much x

cold turkey....

Yes I know it was only one day and I know it was self inflicted but boy did I miss this little home of ramblings yesterday!! It wasn't the same as missing four or five days because I was away, I wasn't away. I was here, walking past the computer at regualr intervals. I could hear it calling me, whispering and wondering if I didn't love it anymore. On the positive side, I am getting more embroidery done....

For the next week or so I will be making little bits and maybe some bigger bits for a re stock next week...why? Well remember a while back I told you I had some exciting news that I wasn't ready to share? Well I can tell you now. I am being ''featured''  ''published'' ''talked about'' in this wonderful publication in the next couple of weeks. Now I'm not sure how big the article will be, a whole page would be amazing but I would be happy with two lines to be honest as it's such an honour. I did answer numerous questions for the article and supply copious amounts of images so fingers crossed for a good spread.

Todays pieces are for the shop, maybe next week as I said. More puffs, pink gingham this time and another fragment. Now to explain more about the work I plan to do next, my new direction. I really didn't explain myself properly on monday...sorry!! The work will be essentially the same. I have the way I work and the way I embroider and I have my preferred cloth and my preferred stitches and I don't think I could change any of that no matter how hard I tried. I am me and my embroidery, I hope, is recognisably mine. No, what I will be doing is making for a different market, a more commercial market where the pieces will need to be square, precise, with bound edges and labels on the back with serial numbers on them. I will of course share with you, maybe not the full thing but glimpses that will give you a pretty good idea of what's going on. After all, If I didn't I wouldn't have anything to blog about and then I would be going cold turkey all over again. But that is for next week or maybe the week after and I am finding it hard to contain my excitement....

puffs....

Sorry about yesterday, going AWOL and all that...I can get you note from my mum if you insist. I had so much to do to get ready for London. The third hook and eye piece was finished and then I had to get the suitcase down, try and figure out a way to get all three pieces to the other end of the country unscathed and sort out some stuff for whilst I'm away. I was relieved to get everthing finished finally and last night just kind of collapsed, (not in a bad way, In a relieved? satisfied? accomplished? way) onto the sofa without much ambition in the embroidery department.

I know I thought, puffs! So I made a little batch of these with a cheery green gingham insert and also added a little bit to the fragment I showed you earlier in the week. I leave at 1 p.m. tomorrow and am so excited!! I love London, as you probably know and I also get to see my little girl...result!! I intend to browse, yes browse various shops, maybe buy some fabric and trims but mostly just have fun. I will be back on monday but might not re appear here until tuesday. Will you miss me??