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







Sunday, November 12, 2017

hankies, sequins and French knots




Progress from hankie class. One of these embroidered panels is for a needle case, the other for a layered and embellished bag. There's a lot of French knots here, a little bit of cross stitch and quite a few sequins. 
If all goes to plan our needle cases will be finished later this week, the bag will continue for the remainder of class., more embroidered panels and layers of fabric edged with lace. That's the plan anyway.
Also this week I hope to make progress with my workshop kits for London 2018, a two day embroidery class. I spoke a little about those kits here. There are a lot of hexagons to stitch for that, a lot of ''grandmothers flower garden'' motifs to put together not to mention the embellished pockets I hope to make which will hold the workshop materials. That's a lot of stitching and not a lot of time to do it in. It will be here before you know it.