NEWEST PIECE

 

 

  I knew I was saving this piece of cardboard for something.

 

 

 

 Either way up I think it was worth keeping, don't you

CLOTH ON TOUR ........

 Well here are pics of the last bits on my cloth.  Actually its a fib as it is going out on tour now around the UK and each place it lands (hopefully) another stitch or two will be added by the recipient.

 By the time it gets back to me, to its forever home, it will be covered in happy reminders of friends and fellow stitchers around the country.

 So from this

 to this I hope you enjoyed the journey.

 

EMBELLISHED BY FRIENDS .....

 The sun shone down on us today so I took my cloth outside to work on.

 This lovely lacy handle started off as a hole in the corner of my scrim cloth.

 All the little bits of fabric, buttons and embellishments friends have sent me mean that my cloth has now become one of great meaning to me.

 

An old fabric brooch gave me this pleated piece of satin.  The glass button came from a local haberdashery shop for 40p.

I just love the fluidity of the piece, its fragility and its robustness. It can be left screwed up and it doesnt object.  Its at its best though when hanging by its lacy handle on display on my studio wall. You cant walk past it though without having to touch it.

 I want to trail it round with me like a child does a comfort blanket.

COLOURED SCRIM .....

 This time its this lovely box of coloured scrim.

 Here's a piece i've machine embroidered

 and to this one i've added handstitch and beads

 I am going to dive back into the box and see what I else I can do.

MORE ABOUT SCRIM .....

 Here's some that is tie dyed

 Then machine embroidered

I think it connects well with my C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. canvasses

 C........create

R......recycle

E...everyone

A............and

T.....together

I.....improve

O............our 

N........nation

SCRIM..... SCRIM.... WONDERFUL SCRIM

Scrim (material)

The term scrim has two separate meanings in terms of fabric. In each case, it refers to woven material, one a finely woven lightweight fabric widely used in theatre, the other a heavy, coarse woven material used for reinforcement in both building and canvasmaking.

 I started out with this

 Did a lot of this

And ended up with this

After I had done this 

LACE COURSE

with

www.karenannruane.typepad.com 

Be sure to sign up for her next course

Things to do with LACE

I am getting upto date now with blogging about my embroidery courses.  We have now reached my third course, only a short one but with lots in it and it can go on and on, like all Karen's online courses you can keep going back to it, adding photographs of your work to the Flickr sites and asking teacher's advice. www.karenannruane.typepad.com

 Using strips of lace and fabric we laid them out onto a sewing hoop and machine embroidered them together.

some of my collection of trims

The next stage is to hand embroider on top.

 In my earlier courses I learned about damp stretching your work once you have hand stitched it.

 I've added french knots here, cross stitch and a stitch now known as "Lynn's winging it stitch" as I could not put a name to it and may have made it up.

 The flowers are a fabric sample cut up. The white dot fabric is really special as it is part of a friend's wedding dress.

I am thrilled to bits with the lovely floaty wall hanging I have made.

See if you can link to this You Tube video to see it swinging gently round.

Gentle Lace Video

Next time I will be looking at the scrim work I did in the same class.

Pretty in a pinny

 In Alchemy, an online embroidery course, we created a design book.  Mine revolved around flowers and making an apron.

 Here are some of my design ideas and samples

 

fabric mini pinny

made with paper and lace trim

paper sample

Pocket samples

final piece

I learned how to machine embroider, applique, how to create a design book, simple stitching and a million other things. I love putting different fabrics together both old and new and I will build up on my stitch skills as I go along.

Online courses run by contemporary embroiderer Karen Ruane - www.karenannruane.typepad.com

MORE STITCHED BLOCKS

 Here are the blocks of embroidery I have put together for EMBROIDER EMBELLISH CREATE online course www.karenannruane.typepad.com

 They are now ready to either be stitched together or have backs put on them and made into individual cloths, wall hangings or framed pieces. As I am not sure what I am going to do with them just yet, I have them pinned up in my studio for me to look at and play about with.

Can you see the prairie points on the one above ? well here are some more that I did.

 I have yet to finish the loops on the bottom of this piece.

This is layered up cotton trim, prairie points and lovely vintage trim from an old tablecloth.

I will show some more pictures tomorrow of the first course, ALCHEMY, when I designed and made an apron.