Wildflower–Ribbon Stump work Tutorial Panel 2–Part 2

So we start where we left off on the snail by finishing the body

the body is quite easy to do, I outlined the shape with small stem stitch in DMC 729, then filled it with long straight stitch, the tentacles are also straight stitch, I added a small bit of stem stitch in DMC 369 under the snail so he's not floating in mid air.

Now its on to the Sorghum, using 1 strand of DMC 368, I made long straight stitch from the base to the tip of the stems and couched it down.

you can see here that because its straight it doesn't follow the pencil lines, this is fine, as you come to couch this stalk, just push the stem over the pencil lines as you couch it in to place

Couching

Couched

next is to work on the leaves, which will be chain stitched, with some whipped just to give a bit of definition
so you bring your needle up at the base of the leaf, take it down in the same hole you came up in or very close, as you pull the working thread though it creates a loop, don't pull tight, leave that loop and bring the needle up in the middle of it and then pull the working thread tight but leaving enough slack so that you can go down in the middle hole you came up in to make your 2nd chain

Make your loops follow the direction of your pencil markings and when you need to finish, on the last loop when you come up in the middle, instead of going back down in the middle just make a little stab stitch at the end to finish the chain like this

Do the same for each leaf and then its time to whip, using 1 strand come up at the bottom of your leaf and just whip your needle under & over the chains

Now I moved on to the flowers, now these are made of French knots, stab stitch (1 tiny back stitch) & Pistil Knots, which are basically French knots on a stalk. Pistils are so easy to do, come up where you want the start of the stalk the same as a French knot, wrap the thread around the needle and instead of going down near the hole you came out of as if to make a French knot, take the needle 1 cm away and go down, you still get the French knot, but now its on a stalk , I dotted tiny stab stitches & French knots with 1 wrap in & around the pistils for this effect

Once the flowers were completed, I just added some French knots at the base of the Sorghum & some straight stitch grass at the points indicated by the arrows

And this is Panel 2 completed

Stitches used in this Panel were: Twisted straight stitch(ribbon), Fly Stitch (ribbon), lazy daisy (Ribbon), French knots, Padded satin stitch, straight stitch, chain, stitch, Pistil stitch, stab / straight stitch, chain stitch, whipped chain stitch & couching.

So in the panel we worked with ribbon, and it is not as hard as you might think just using loops & twists, I hope through my clumsy explanations ribbon work is not so daunting and your inspired to have a go, just grab a doodle cloth and a spare bit of ribbon and have a go :D

Next panel is Narcissus, a Lily & a ladybird.