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January 23, 2026
Two pages from contemporary embroidery

 




Last time I was here it was all about the hand stitched overlays.

Today it's two new pages which will each have an overlay too.

I'm possibly going to add more to these, that's why they don't yet have an overlay. 

The embellishment here is all hand stitch, scraps of cloth and scraps of paper too.

You may have noticed a little watercolour in the backgrounds. 

I'm not sure of the gsm of the paper in this notebook.

It's quite thin and almost certainly not made to accept wet media but it didn't ...

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added by Karen 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under design , embroidery , notebook , sketchbook , stitched paper , surface design
January 21, 2026
Hand stitched overlays from contemporary embroidery

 




Hand stitched overlays for the pages in this little book.

They provide depth along with space to add more embellishment.

They are yet to be attached as I have plans for fabric swatches too and perhaps some little buttons for the pages, all coordinated of course. 

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added by Karen 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under design , overlays , paper , surface design
January 19, 2026
More bits and pieces. from contemporary embroidery

 In my last post I was rescuing homeless samples, adding more embellishment and joining them to create larger pieces. The pieces here today live in the same cabinet. The needlecase and pin pillow were created in class. The other two pieces here are stitched papers. Altered with machine stitch before hand embroidery was added. They are also homeless samples I guess. I'm

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added by Karen 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under embroidery , fiber art , fibre art , paper , stitched paper , surface design
January 16, 2026
Embellishments from contemporary embroidery

 Hand stitched embellishments for this project.Yes, they were fiddly! My girls in class won't be shocked to hear that ha ha.The little square pieces are one inch in size, the tiny tag pieces measure one inch by half an inch.If you can't source pieces to fit with your colour and pattern choices then why not make them youself?  

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added by Karen 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under design , embellishments , surface design
January 11, 2026
Composition. Inspiration. from contemporary embroidery

 The design sheets here were created some time ago.Now they are inspiring this collection, informing next steps as I continue to develop my current body of work. The colour and pattern aren't what I am looking at here.Rather, I'm examining the composition of these large design sheets in order to feed where I go next with my current surface design explorations.If you look closely at the

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added by Karen 5 months ago. under design , embroidery , embroidery design , surface design
January 9, 2026
Two new with embroidered fabric inserts. from contemporary embroidery

 This collection continues to grow.There are two new pieces with embroidered fabric inserts and a sprinkle of sequins.There will be four of these in total, two are still in progress.As this design exercise grows it is informing a new piece of work which will evolve in class. Fabric and fabric paints have been ordered!Now I'm getting impatient waiting.   

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added by Karen 5 months ago. under design , embroidery , surface design
December 27, 2025
Building a collection. Surface design. from contemporary embroidery

 Hi everyone. How are you all?I hope you had a lovely Christmas/festive season.Thanks so much for all the good wishes re my last post. I guess I was quite sick, a spell in hospital. Thank goodness for the NHS.I'm much better now, still taking things slowly under doctors orders but honestly feeling good. I've been playing with this collection, not strenuous at all ha ha.You have

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added by Karen 5 months, 2 weeks ago. under design , embroidery , surface design
December 26, 2025
2026 Plans and Thoughts from Quilt Paint Create

We’re fast approaching the end of 2025, and it’s time to think about 2026.

The past two years I’ve focused on completing a few projects in several categories.  This worked well for me, but the one category that hasn’t seen any finishes is UFOs.  No way am I making that my focus for 2026.  That, for me, would be an inspiration killer.

Instead, I decided to focus on kits, and I use that term loosely.  A pattern with all or some of the supplies fits my definition of a kit.

These are your standard kits.

This ...

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added by quiltpaintcreate 5 months, 2 weeks ago. under artquiltgroup , challenge , creative play , cross stitch kit , group challenges , kits , plans , quilt kits , surface design (Comments)
November 24, 2025
Monday from contemporary embroidery

 Fifteen two inch quares marked out, each one has a scrap of paper and a scrap of fabric attached.Next they will be cut out and stitch added before they form the next part of this collection. Also here, little bits that might inspire this work going forward. 

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added by Karen 6 months, 2 weeks ago. under design , pattern , surface design
November 20, 2025
Small pattern studies from contemporary embroidery

 Tiny cut out thread cards, fabric scraps, torn paper pieces, beads, sequins.Little pattern studies.I mentioned in this post how the joy with these comes from the 'doing'. That hasn't changed but it's also true that whilst you spend time on these exercises you are absorbing the details. What goes with what, which piece compliments another, which colours work and it's also hoped

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added by Karen 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under embroidery , pattern , surface design
November 5, 2025
Paper dolls from contemporary embroidery

 This project was started some time ago.The image below is from my first thoughts on these little paper dolls. The project was interrupted by a family bereavement and it seems my thought process regarding these has been lost too.Today I'm looking again, trying to get a spark.I will leave these somewhere visible and glance at them occasionally, that usually works. 

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added by Karen 7 months, 1 week ago. under paper dolls , surface design
November 2, 2025
A growing collection. from contemporary embroidery

 Yesterday I mentioned that three of the large cards weren't yet finished.They are finished now, a little texture has been added using the 'pin pricking' technique before tiny snippets of fabric have been attached using a single bead and a single sequin. There are also six tiny 'reference' tags which I stitched last night.  There will be more of those. I have also started

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added by Karen 7 months, 1 week ago. under surface design
November 1, 2025
Extending pattern from contemporary embroidery

 More stitch has been added to the pieces from this post. Three of them have added cloth snippets with a tiny bead and a single sequin attaching each piece of cloth. There are plans for the other three. The pages in the little notebook have stitched paper embellishing each page. I hope to extend the embellishment on those pages too. I get a lot of pleasure from these

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added by Karen 7 months, 1 week ago. under design , design for embroidery , surface design
October 30, 2025
Pattern play from contemporary embroidery

 Just a quick hello today, don't want you thinking I'm asleep.I'm playing with paper, collage and stitch. There are plans to introduce some of my new fabric to these.(the pieces on the right are the new ones)

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added by Karen 7 months, 2 weeks ago. under surface design
October 12, 2025
In progress. Hand embroidery. from contemporary embroidery

 A large panel, 23x15 inches of white cotton seersucker fabric, applique, sequins, bullion knots and gimp.This will be the front cover of my latest embroidered sample cloth book.I've added a few images below of the pages for this book because once again.........Typepad stole my original post.(can you tell it still hurts) I've been thinking about my embroidered sample books, there are a

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added by Karen 8 months ago. under cloth book , embroidery , hand embroidery , surface design
August 15, 2025
Paper doll play from Karen Ann Ruane

Surface design...paper doll.

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added by karen ruane 10 months ago. under design , paper doll , surface design , video
August 14, 2025
Inspiration from Karen Ann Ruane

surface design

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added by karen ruane 10 months ago. under inspiration , surface design
August 12, 2025
Sketchbooks from Karen Ann Ruane

sketchbooks, design for embroidery.

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added by karen ruane 10 months ago. under design , embroidery , sketchbook , sketchbooks , surface design
July 27, 2025
Paper sampling, a video. from Karen Ann Ruane

Stitched paper samples.

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added by karen ruane 10 months, 2 weeks ago. under design , embroidered paper , embroidery , paper , sampling , stitched paper , surface design , video
June 3, 2025
Scrim, silk tissue, silk velvet. from Karen Ann Ruane

Scrim, silk tissue, silk velvet. A surface for hand embroidery.

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added by karen ruane 1 year ago. under embroidery , scrim , silk , silk tissue , silk velvet , surface design