Wildflower - Ribbon & Embroidery Stumpwork Tutorial

Panel 2 - Part 1.

A Daisy, wild Sorghum & a snail.

So we left this project with just a spider charm to add and are moving on to Panel 2 and using ribbons.
Materials used in this panel

We are using Groves & Banks Ribbons which you can get practically anywhere these days. Mint & yellow gold 3 mm ribbon & 2mtrs of each. Also DMC 729, 420 & 955

When working with ribbon you need a large eyed needle, for the ribbon to go smoothly through the hole the needle needs to be able to pierce a big enough hole, and the eye needs to be large to take the ribbon, if you create too large a hole you can always push the fibers back to close the hole at the end when tidying up.


I am using a chenille size 18 & 7 & crewel size 7.

we are starting with the daisy
so take the Mint ribbon, we shall be working on the stem & leaves Cut it to about a foot long (30cms) as its more manageable. Knot the end thread 18 chenille.
Come up at A at the bottom of the stem


Twist the ribbon and take to the back at B - just past the petals near the middle of the flower


This is a twisted straight stitch, easy eh . See I said it wasn't too bad. This is the stem completed, so cut ribbon at the back and using DMC 955 secure the ribbon tail at the back. Bring the needle through the front (your using a normal needle now), just push the ribbon in to place hiding pencil marks and just catch it down here and there with some tiny stab stitches to hold it.

Now on to the fly stitch leaves.
cut a new length of mint and now on to the fly stitch leaves, starting at the top of the leaf come up at A


catch a stitch at B and come through at C


make sure the ribbon is under the needle, use a thumb to keep it in place and pull your needle through keep pulling till it's tight and then take the needle down again as close to C as you can, come up again at the tip of the next leaf down and do the same again, continue all leaves.



Secure your ribbon at the back and snip excess, then change to the Gold ribbon.

Now its on to the daisy petals, every alternate petal is a open daisy chain or detached chain stitch
bring your needle up at A & take it down at b


Come up at C


And down at D


Do each alternate petal like this, I tried to vary the lengths, the in between petals are a twisted straight stitch, the same as we did for the first stem, it now looks like this


Now I filled the center of the flower with french knots, using 1 & 2 wraps & 2 strands of 729



So its on to the snail ( i didn't finish this today as I had to go to my class)

Outline the shell with stem stitch using 1 strand of DMC 420
come up at A And down at B but don't pull thread all the way through


Come up at C and now pull the thread through


take a stitch forward and then come up at C which this time will be right at the end of the first stitch


Pull through and keep going till you have outline the shell, the next step is padded satin stitch to fill the shell in


Satin padded stitch is easy, you outline a shape then stitch over it going outside the outline.
So
come up at A, Down at B (A Laying tool or spare needle used as a laying
tool works well here to keep the satin even)up at C & down at D,
and then just keep going following the curve.



So
this is far as I got, the next stage is to work the body of the snail,
which we will look at next time. As you can see its not too daunting and
quite effective once you get going.

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So today 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

Panel 4
Apaganthus,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 Apaganthus, 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 Apaganthus 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 UNRAVELING

Ribbon cut & singed


I used DMC 794 matching thread and came up in the center 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 center of each delphinium or a small bead!!!

I kept filling both delphiniums, then added the leaves for the Pink apaganthus 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 needed 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.

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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 centers in the middle of the daisies with DMC 420.

This is the 4th panel finished

Hope you can join me next time for Panel 5 which will be Iris, Rock Rose & Forget me nots.

Well if it inspires members to try something new, my work here is done lol.

Thanks Tenchy, even tho I'm afraid of ribbon work......... you pointed out a few stitches that I had not tried, the woven picot and the cast on.

What size perle did you use, 8 or 12?

The work you have done is very beautiful and thanks for sharing.

How wonderful! This is cool - what an interesting technique!
Although all those french knots Tenchy - you're braver than most, lol.

We left panel 6 with just the wisteria left to do

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

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

Using 2 strands of the varigated 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, contine 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 varigated 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 alot 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.