Wildflower Ribbon Stump Work Tutorial–Panel 6 Part 2

We left panel 6 with just the wisteria left to do

Materials: DMC 209 / 211 / 553 - Variegated 105 -  DMC 564

Stitches used: Raised stem stitch / Fly Stitch / Stem Stitch & French Knots

Using 2 strands of the variegated thread at the darkest brown end, I cut a length off and made straight stitches along the top of the pergola, and the main mast ready for the raised stem stitch. To do raised stem stitch, bring the needle below the bar, slide the needle under the bar, gently pull the thread till its tighten and then move up to the next bar and slide the needle under, continue to do this till you get to the top of the mast then take the needle back to the bottom and start all over again. continue in this fashion till the mast is covered. The same is done across the pergola.

here you can see the bars in and the first row of raised stem stitch

Here is the top of the pergola finished in raised stem stitch

As you can see the variegated thread makes a nice contrast.

here is the pergola and mast complete

next is to add the wisteria, you need to create a wrapping stem around the mast then weaving stems across the top of the pergola, I did the top of the pergola winding branches in stem stitch, the hanging branches and leaves are done with stem stitch and fly stitch (which we have covered in previous tutorials) and the wisteria themselves are done in French knots.

The French knots are done with 2 strands near the top of the wisteria flower tapering to 1 strand near the point, I also experimented by using 1 strand of 553 & 1 Strand of 211 in the needle and think that the wisteria on the left hand side blend a lot better. As no flowers in nature are exact in colouring I think the experiment provides a bit of contrast.

So this is the Hydrangea and Wisteria complete and our panel looks like this so far

Our next panel is Red Hot Pokers, Arum Lilies and Natal Lily. Hope I am not boring you and your still with me.

Till we meet again.

Wildflower–Ribbon & Stump Work Tutorial–Panel 6 Part 1

I now update you with panel 6 - Hydrangeas & Wisteria.

Part 1.

Materials used, DMC - 209, 210 793 - spare waste cotton fabric. 7mm ribbon - green pepper colour.

Stitches used, French knots, detached chain & running stitch.

The hydrangeas are worked on the spare cotton and attached to the ground fabric, they look really effective if I say so myself.

Taking the spare cotton, I drew 10 circles within circles on to the fabric, mounted it in the hoop and proceeded to fill the inner circle with French knots using DMC 209, 210 and 793, mixing the knots, keeping them small and close together to fill the inner circle. Using a longer last thread once the knots were finished, I used that thread to create a running stitch in the gap between the 2 circles.

These loose tails will be pulled once each circle is cut out to form a ball shape, with the spare fabric tucked behind.

As you can see I used a spare pin to keep the tails out of the way as I worked the circles with French knots.

A closer view

the next stage is to cut the circles out making sure you don't cut the thread tails. Take each Hydrangea, and gentle pull the tail thread until the fabric curls under the back, secure with a couple of stitches but do not cut the tail off as this thread will be used to anchor the Hydrangea to the ground fabric. (saving thread).

Once that is complete you end up with a bunch of hydrangeas ready to place.

Starting with one of the bigger ones (they are different sizes for a more realistic effect, just make the circles bigger smaller), I placed the first Hydrangea at the bottom of the panel on the ground fabric and used the tail thread to anchor it to the ground fabric making small stab stitches between the French knots.

I carried on placing the Hydrangeas leaving space between them for the leaves.

Using the 7mm ribbon I created detached chains between the Hydrangeas, leaving some more puffed than others to create an interesting effect.

And this is the result.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out, even if I say so myself, these little flowers only took an afternoon and I find it quite therapeutic to create French knots which I find so easy to do. The 2nd part of this panel 6 tutorial is to create the wisteria which also uses some interesting stitches.

So until next time - I hope to have another update over the next couple of days.

Wildflower–Ribbon & Stump Work Tutorial. Panel 5 Part 1

So we return to the this tutorial,

Panel 5 - Iris's / Rock Roses and Forget Me Not's.

Materials used: Dissolvable canvas, 7mm ribbon in buttercup & custard colours, 6mm organza ribbon in lemongrass, 7 mm silk ribbon in lemon grass, DMC 369, 793, 3733 Anchor 300, 4mm sick ribbon pink/fuchsia.

This is the first time we work using the ribbon, on a separate medium, remove it then attach it to the ground fabric.
So I mounted the soluble canvas in a hoop and using the 7mm butter cup ribbon about 55cms long, brought the needle up to the front leaving a 2 cm tail at the back and made a puffed detached chain, about 15mm long. I brought the needle up through the starting point piercing the tail on the back at the same time to anchor it all.

I had to hold the tail to the back of the canvas each time a stitch was made, this ensures when you dissolve the canvas the ribbon won't unravel. I added some green organza in on the buds to simulate leaves.

So I repeated until I had enough Iris's & buds required.

the tails look untidy but once you have dissolved the canvas you can tidy things up before attaching to the ground fabric.

So the next job is to dissolve the canvas, I cut round the shapes and dissolved in a bowl of water.

And this is what they look like when dried.

Next job is to tack them in place, on the ground fabric.

As you can see I have tacked them once in the middle to the ground fabric and left long tails, this is so that I can anchor them fully after the wire stems are in place, tidy them up and tack the petals down in the position I want.

The next job is to add the wire stems, so I cut the cake wire in to 5 measuring the length from under the iris to the base, then couched over the wires all the way down with DMC 369. I then added green 4mm Shrub coloured ribbon in twisted straight stitch (we covered how to do this in previous panels)for the leaves and we end up with this.

You can see the wires poking out the bottom, this is fine as the rock roses and forget me knots and leaves will cover, so instead of pushing them through to the back, I just cut them off. & You can still see the tacking threads loose on the iris, now that the leaves and stems are in, the iris's can be anchored down in position. Leaving them loose and floaty before the wire stems are in helps when you need to lift them up to cover the top of the wire stems when couching over them.

The next job is to create spider web roses. This is so easy and effective, bringing the needle up you create 5 arms
so you have a a sort of 5 sided star shape like this

Bring the 4 mm fushia ribbon up close to the center of the shape then weave it over and under each bar, continuing round untill you have covered all the bars, and you end up with this.

You can see I have completed one, and have started the 2nd. There are four of these rock roses in 2 different colours, then on the other side of the stems, I then created forget me not's using tiny flat ribbon stitches and the center dotted with yellow French knots.
I created leaves in amongst them with detached chain stitch (covered in a previous panel), and dotted the whole area in French knots in DMC 369, 793 & 3733

And we finish with this.

now I may go back and add more foliage to fill space but I shall see how it looks when it is surrounded by other panels. Sometimes less is more but this needs deciding on later.

So this is panel 5. Our next panel is Hydrangeas &; wisteria, part of this also involves working off the main ground fabric to create the hydrangeas and I am quite looking forward to it . Till next time

Wildflower–Ribbon & Stump Work Tutorial Panel 4 Part 2

So we left this with just the Beetle daisies & French knots to do to finish off.

So using Groves & Banks Fiery Orange Ribbon, its just a case of making small straight ribbon stitch for the petals like this

I also added a couple of straight orange stitches with in the green leaves. The to finish just make French knot centres in the middle of the daisies with DMC 420.

This is the 4th panel finished

What we have so far

Next Panel is Irises, Rock Roses & forget me not's.
This panel involves a new technique using soluble canvas, so we will be working off the main fabby for a while, dissolving the canvas from the flowers and then attaching to the main project.

Until we meet again :)

Wildflower–Ribbon & Stump Work Tutorial Panel 4 Part 1

Panel 4
Agapanthus,Hollyhocks,Delphiniums &Beetle Daisies.

To save time, I have gone a head with basic stitches we have covered before, (Trying not repeat myself) So we first start with the Agapanthus, the stems are twisted ribbon long stitch, the flowers are made with clusters of 6 tiny straight stitches in a star shape. The buds are padded satin stitch, the leaves are twisted ribbon straight stitch.

In this picture, the pink Agapanthus leaves are not done as I will wait till the delphiniums are done first. I have also made a start on the stem of the hollyhock which is apple green perle thread couched down.

The next flower is the hollyhock, these are made with cast on stitch with pink perle thread. Cast on stitch is a raised embroidery technique used often in Brazilian embroidery. Its like knitting with your needle & finger pulling the working thread through the cast on wraps the same as you would for bullion knots which we looked at in an earlier panel.

So this is one cast on bullion - looks interesting but is not hard if you already have mastered the bullion, the principle once the wraps are

made is the same. In the next few photos we will finish off this first flower

First off bring your needle up at A


Take a stitch above the first finished side of the petal like this

Keep the working thread below the needle, now put your finger through the loop of the working thread

And twist your finger towards you so the working thread crosses

the slip the loop on the needle, use your fingernail to catch the needle so the stitch slips straight on


This is your 1st wrap, do the same till you have 20 wraps, then its time to pull the needle through the wraps the same as a bullion

Keep pulling slowly, keeping tension until the wraps slide down the working thread and you can gently pull tight, The stitch will naturally curl and then you can shape round the 1st stitch to form a flower - take the needle down at A

now each flower is made up of 3 cast on stitch petals and the wraps vary, so the 1st stitch is 16 wraps, 2nd is 20 wraps and 3rd is 24 wraps. I kept adding cast on flowers till half way up, as the flowers get smaller cast on stitch becomes too big I used bullion stitch flowers using 5 or 6 wraps. Once all the flowers were complete, I used 6 strands of 292 yellow DMC for French knots with 5 wraps, and we end up with this.

 

Once all the French knots are in your can faff about with the flowers and tidy them up.

Next comes the Delphiniums.

Starting with the stem which is the same process as the Hollyhock's, long stitch couched. Using a cornflower blue ribbon, I cut 14 lengths at 4cms and 6 lengths at 3 cms.
REMEMBER WHEN USING RIBBON TO SINGE EDGES TO STOP UNRAVELLING

Ribbon cut & singed

I used DMC 794 matching thread and came up in the centre of the delphinium marking using a 4cm length and made a running stitch down both sides and along the bottom of the ribbon, I fed the ribbon down the thread to the fabric and ruffled it up to make a rosette.

Once you have your rosette close to the fabby, catch the other end of it and plunge in to the fabby, You get this effect

Tidy it up and use the needle to secure it next using the same thread do the same again in the next placement, I used the longer 4 cm ribbons for bigger flowers at the base and then changed to 3cms ribbon nearer the top. Now preference time, you can either add a French knot to the centre of each delphinium or a small bead!!!

I kept filling both delphiniums, then added the leaves for the Pink agapanthus as I could push them under the petals, and then below the hollyhock & delphiniums I used khaki ribbon to make a few ribbon stitches for petals.

At this point I was on a roll but had to stop as the Beetle daisies require fiery orange ribbon which I need to get.

Threads used, DMC 974 / 292 - apple green 368 anchor perle
Needles - Chenille 18 - Crewel 8 -Straw -3
Ribbons - Groves & Banks - cornflower blue /Khaki / light green organdie

next time Beetle Daisies & Panel finish.

Wildflower–Ribbon & Stump work Tutorial Panel 3 part 2

In this part we work on the lily & ladybird.

Starting with the basket, create long stitches at intervals on the basket,stem stitch the outline and then fill the basket as we did for last one

Now that we have a full basket you can see the woven pattern better than on the 1st one.

Next is a wound floating stem the same as I did for panel 1 - if you remember I didn't like that floating stem too much so this time, I took the wire to the back and couched it down.

Next we work on the buds, this is detached chain or fly stitch, which we have work on before
so starting with the yellow 3mm ribbon, come up at A down at B

Up at C & down at C or very close too

Now to give the bud some extra oomph I'm going to cover it with the same organza ribbon as I will use for the lily petals, and then to finish, use the same green ribbon for the leaves to make a detached chain / fly stitch around the bud

you can see one I have already done, here, the organza ribbon is ribbon stitch which we have done on the narcissus, so come up at A and go down at c just inside the top of the yellow ribbon

You can see one already finished

Next as we're already using the organza, I worked on the lily petals, now these are also ribbon stitch, so nothing too difficult here. come up in the middle of the lily take the ribbon to the petal edge and make a ribbon stitch, you can make it as poufy as you like here

Once the lily petals are done, just fill the center in with French knots & pistils (French knot on a stalk) which we have also covered before. I used 1 & 2 wraps to the French knots.

All that remains to complete the Lilly is twisted straight stitch leaves which we have covered before and a fly stitch in the same green around the buds to make them look like they are just opening.

Next is just the ladybird to finish and the ground, the lady bird is padded satin stitch, in red & black, make a few French knots inside the ladybird, then stitch in red from the front to the back of the ladybird over the French knots, bring the needle up just outside the pencil line and take it to the back just outside the pencil line. Change to black, make a couple of satin stitches at the start of the ladybird and a couple along its back, then make a few odd French knots to depict his dots and 2 straight stitches for his legs

Changing to DMC 420, I made a line of stem stitch for the horizon and a few seed stitch (1 back stitch) around the base of the basket

And that is our 3rd panel finished,

Stitches used: Whipped spiders web, twisted straight stitch,Straight stitch, Ribbon stitch, Seeding, French knots, Couching, Pistil stitch, fly stitch, grab stitch, Stem stitch, Detached chain stitch, Satin stitch.

Threads: DMC 420, 429, 310, 349, 834, 368

Ribbons: Groves & Banks - 3mm Lemon, 3mm Khaki, 6mm Khaki, 7mm Organza Orchid

No 26 gauge cake wire (florists wire does the same thing).

Next Time Panel 4 - Agapanthus, Delphiniums & Beetle Daisies.