'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Sunday 7 October 2012

An Embroiderer's Ledger: Part Three

Sunday seems to have become my 'trying to keep up with Karen's course' day - perhaps because I am out of the house at some time on every other day of the week. You can see lots of images here  of the inspirational ideas Karen is showing us.

And here are my rather less accomplished efforts

Stitch inspired by the colours and shapes from the first exercises.

























More design work.






















A different approach - the inspiration for this came from embroidery transfers, of which I have a large, and vintage, stock. Good to find a good use for them.







I really, really wish I had done this course before I did C&G - and before the degree, obviously. The style of Karen's embroidery is a long way from my own, but that doesn't matter, because what she is teaching is a methodical approach to design work, and I do like 'methodical'. Even when feeling uninspired, I could work through some Karen's series of exercises and expect to come up with some ideas -  for example motifs to embroider on photos.

The other thing I'm enjoying is that the result of our efforts - the 'ledger' itself - is a great object in its own right. Karen is very neat, and as long established readers will have noticed, I'm not - but the emphasis on neatness rubs off and pays off. Karen emphasises that what we are making is a resource for the future, something we can enjoy looking through and continue to find inspiration from.


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