An Amazing Book

Today in the mail,

I received the most beautiful book sewn by Karen Ruane. Before I show you the book, look at the wonderful detail in the packaging.

String. It has been decades since I received a package tied with string. How lovely.

The book had been placed inside a box covered with butterflies.

Then inside a cotton a broder slip cover.
.

Finally the book.

Beautiful page,

after beautiful page.

Then some more beautiful pages.

I am so excited to have this book of Karen's. I can't wait to show my friends and to leaf through this over and over again.

Embroidery School

Classes have begun again with Karen Ruane (here) for most of the winter months. This session, we will be watching Karen as she figures out what's what on her studio table. She'll be stitching, making journal pages and preparing for a class she has offered in London in the spring (it's full). The beauty of this class, is that there aren't any expectations. We can work on our own projects or we can mimic whatever Karen is up to.

A fun idea for appliqued hexagons was one of last week's projects along with a trick with bullion knots. I have set aside some white and blue/white fabric to play with while watching the videos.

I have also pulled out my wandering threads sampler and added the hexagon idea.

The second hexagon is a lot better than the blue and white one. I figured out how to cut the inner hexagon with more accuracy from the backside of the fabric. I'm keeping it short this week, sick husband trying not to sneeze all over the house means having to clean the entire house as he wanders through, because he has terrible aim. I have not reduced my behaviour to crawling after him in the pursuit of germs, but have instead wrapped my entire head in shower caps with breathing holes in the back of my head. It might work but it sure is hard to keep my glasses on.

Stalled in First

There's too much cleaning and organizing going on here. All my projects to start the year off are in neat little piles with the threads, textiles and notes.

 All these blank pages. It is much too neat.

Normally, there is a huge mess on the floor and I step over it and mix things around and then pick things out and put them in a pile and then do it again. Eventually, I get a few main ingredients sorted and then the stitching begins. This pile has been growing incrementally over the fall and the messy process has taken place over a long time.

The first step hasn't been missed, but altered. So instead of having several messy piles, I have calmly found containers and even rearranged a shelf so projects can be neatly stored away when not in my hands.

Sheesh, it feels too administered, too closed down for improvisation. Knowing me, I'll kick out against it and toss things into a heap again.

All these neat little baskets and bowls are making it hard to begin though. Which one to start with, which one to put aside for a few weeks.

They feel equally important and not important.

I decided to begin with the orange and red colour palette.

Being winter, it helps to have a good brisk colour in my hands and by the time the spring comes, I'll be ready for some blues and greens and can move on to that project. I have been excited by the prospect of the two pillowslip edges and that is also started now. Today is the first day of a new Karen Ruane class, and I have watched the first day's videos.

I have pulled out a few fabrics I knew I would want for this class and prepared them. I believe this class will be mostly about stitching and embellishment.(here) Go to her shop for more information. Karen has figured out a few new approaches to embellishment and I am looking forward to once again stitching while watching her videos.

Stitching a Story three and sticks

Every spring and summer I attempt seeds. It is usually a disaster, but this year, I think I might have sorted things out. That includes a beautiful tin to hold my unused seeds in. More importantly, I bought those stick things that you can write on to tell you what seeds are in what pots and when they were planted. Important why? Because I am usually flailing around finding little pots and fine enough soil and other sorts of dithering to label the seed pots. I have used the seed packets and taped them to the pots or stuck them in, or other irresponsible things. They get wet, I can't read the packaging after a few days, they fall off, or blow away and the seeds don't sprout anyways. This year, those little sticks were properly labeled, unused seeds remain dry for a second sowing, and low and behold, there are actual seedlings for a change. What a brilliant idea, those sticks.

Below, Rosie's Hat continues to be stitched. I've added some red beads to her hat and some red threads to blow in the wind. At her feet are some enhanced flowers and yellow gestural stitches.

On the back side of the first page, I managed to get the stitches to be more or less upright. The back of the French Knots have been left long to make tufts out of the knots. There is a red bead on the muffin for the gull to find.

 

Mama do you love me is coming along with more intense titivation. 

 

 

Here, Mama and daughter have had their skirts enhanced with ruffles and embroidery.

 

 

The green ruffle was a rectangle embroidered with lazy daisy flowers, sewn into a tube and turned right side out. The top edge has been caught down with small running stitches to get the curves to work. The daughter's ruffle has a couple French Knots to anchor each end.

Mama's ruffle is made the way a usual ruffle is, stitched down and then the orange chain stitch added at the end. That was a bit tricky as far as keeping the hands from banging the page up, but it is a short run of sewing and I kept it very much on the surface.

Here I am working on letters. The purple is meant to be the back ground, the piece of paper napkin the foreground. It was tricky to get the napkin paper trimmed to fit inside the purple edges. Very fussy.

It turned out the paper napkin was three plys of paper. Every thing was nicely glued down, then cut out, then as I was gluing it to the page, the coloured bits peeled off. More gluing.

Kunik means kissing on the nose in Inuktitut.

For those of you interested in our bees, the hive has been moved to a dryer sunnier spot beside the garage. Michelle is showing new to bee-keeping Nick, how to move the compartments around when there are gadzillion bees on them and flying around.

Michelle has added a decorative feature at the bottom of the hive, a turquoise base. Too bad about the concrete blocks, but this is a working hive, not a garden feature. But when I sit outside with a cup of tea or a beer, I just love watching these bees do their thing.

Stitch a Story two

But let's get personal for a moment.

I have a bee helmet. When it is not being used for preventing Bees from getting in my neck, it can be used to pretend I am an Edwardian woman on Safari. I am feeling a bit German with my Capitalization right now.

The owner of the bees in our backyard bought this for us because I mentioned I might have to borrow hers when I had to do the weeding in the garden around the bee hive. I wasn't expecting this gift and it is crazy. I keep forgetting I have it on.

Blowing one's nose with a huge net in front of one's face is a bit acrobatic. I am pretty sure drinking beer or wine is impossible with one of these on. Will it prepare me for the fantasy of traveling to the Delta region of Botswana? I feel the need for a hippo statue to make sure.

Seriously though, back to studio work. We continue to pursue fooling around with altering books. Here are a bunch of images for your enjoyment. We are adding stenciled text to the pages. I have used Gesso as an under surface before adding markers or Inktense watercolour pencils to adorn each letter.

Unikkaaq translated from Inuktikut language means "tell a story" From my understanding of first nation traditions, one must ask a story teller for a story before it can commence. It is the proper etiquette.

Qujjuk means whale. Unfortunately, the one "J" on the left turned into a candy cane. I wasn't looking for that to happen and it is a bit disappointing. But this stenciling business is kind of fun.

In Rosie's Hat, the hat blows away on the first pages.The main character is the hat. The left hand page has the letters G and O outlined in double running stitch, DMC threads and coloured in with a purple/blue combo of Inktense pencils. The right hand side page has an under painting of Gesso, an outline of purple markers and then, once fully dry, the same Inktense pencil colours as the other page. GONE, since the hat has blown away.

Well, that's it unless you want to know about the Cat squabbling with me about who gets to sit in the Sun, or what possible relevance Freud has to do with Quaker Theology or how my son's Beard seems to be appearing on many young Men in the city and I think he is every where. Put a pair of Sunglasses on a young Man with a certain style of Beard and you have a Finding Waldo situation on your Hands. So here's the question of the day. Does the German language, which I studied a lot in the '70's, still capitalize nouns? Or is it so yesterday?

Stitch a Story

Karen Ruane's course (here) Stitching a Story began yesterday and it looks like fun. I've signed up and enjoyed the first videos. Karen's site has good photos and descriptions.

Each of has chosen a book or two that have interesting images to play with. I have chosen two children's books, Mama, do you Love me? by Barbara M. Joose. The story line is soppy and sentimental but the illustrations are vivid and active.

Illustrated by Barbara Lavalle, each page has something interesting happening on it. A friend took the spine off both books and re-bound them with coil stuff. They will lie nice and flat when I work on them.

This is the page spread that sold me. These two animals are so irresistable.

Rosie's Hat was also chosen more for its illustrations by Anna Currey. Rosie's hat blows away and is part of other people's adventures. As an adult firewoman, Rosie finds her hat again.

There is a third little book that is meant for as a gift for a person who reads this blog, so I can't share it until it is done. Don't all get excited, it will take ages to complete.

Some free motion lace embroidery is part of the third book. I am stitching small areas with white coton a broider thread, adding bits of lace and smooshing things together to get texture.

It is meditative work, but kind of crazy, since the details sometimes need an arrow pointing the way. My photographic work has stalled. The lovely background surface won't stay adhered to the door's back. I don't want any screws or other devices to show. We are pondering what to do.

On the Floor

For two years now I've been stitching and sewing, drawing and fooling around with paint. My goal was to develop a studio practice that was disciplined enough to work when I said I would. I used Karen Ruane's classes as a means to develop the discipline. Keeping up with her videos and the flicker groups helped me to stay honest.

This winter I have had this underlying anxiety "what's going on here" sort of thing. I have produced tons! of stuff and once finished tucked it away. Finally, curiosity drove me to pull out all my bits and pieces to consider.

My best considering method is to have everything on the floor and to walk among it all. Literally. Everything was laid out on the floor higgildy piggildy and I spent the morning looking and considering. I had to consider what I would consider about as well. Eventually, patterns began to emerge. So did some gut reactions. So did some decisions. And so did the conniption pile.

I hadn't planned to make thing that belonged together in a set, but that happened. The larger piece is two pillowcases cut open, reattached and overlayed. The two smaller pieces have the same treatment but are simpler. I have a blue cross-stitched chicken that might need to join this gang.

This pair were a trio at one point, but I was convinced to lay the lace piece over a very colourful piece. A lace veil has joined this pair. I am super unhappy with the blue piece. It works on many levels but technically it is the worst of all. This group will go on a vacation to the bottom of the pile and once it floats to top again, I will decide if I have the interest in redoing the blue or coming up with another response.

I also realized I had an aversion to a few pieces. One set is lovely to look at but leaves me cold. No reaction to them beyond meh. I'm not sure what it is about lovely that bores me silly.

I think they might be too orderly. Yet if the same fabrics, stitching treatments and construction orderliness were on a garment, such as a 1930's evening gown, I would adore it. Maybe there isn't enough romance in a small wall hanging? Maybe I have a lack of imagination, extrapolating out an exquisite gown out of an 18" square? This group went back into the box and I felt not a wrench, nor a pang.

The conniption pile eventually gave way to two piles. Those that I loved enough to continue working with and those that no longer interested me. The pile that no longer interested me was comprised of items that I had begun because the rhetoric is that an artist works in themes or sets or series. I like a series of three but only if it really makes a good unit. If I have to really squeeze my brain to figure out three treatments or find enough materials to make a set, then I'm working from my head instead of my heart. Head out...heart in.

The conniption pile that stays is comprised of work that still has intrigue for me. This small pile turns out to be a pile of pieces that are singles.

 

They don't have partners or groups. They work against the bulk of my work as 'punctuation marks.' Steve came up with that idea. If a piece stands on its own then that can be enough. A set of Ones.

The final group is the Squish group. I started this several summers ago, when I took a rolling pin and squished different flower petals between fabric and some colour came out.

I have since stitched on one of those pieces and love it. Right now I have a set using forsythia, a blue flower and grass and another set using hydrangea petals and rosehips. I am looking forward to a summer of more opportunistic squishing, then a winter of stitching.My short term goal is to photograph the good stuff and pull a small portfolio together. Power-up the lights.