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THE LATEST

Floral Garden Bunting Project: a Wrap-Up on the 2023 Stitch-Along

Fall Floral Embroidery Pattern: Calendula Wreath

“Embroideries From an English Garden” by Carol Andrews – Book Review

Ribbon Lily: Garden Bouquet Part 4

September 11, 2021      Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello dear friend,

It’s back to the Garden Bouquet embroidery this week with Part 4, the ribbon lily! I have been so excited about the lily since the beginning. I knew I wanted to dive back into ribbon-work, and I just had this beautiful vision in my head of a gorgeous lily in shiny ribbon, full of life and bloom.

 

garden bouquet part 4 ribbon lily

 

It’s a success, I think. I love my lily. It crowns the whole piece beautifully. Amazingly, this is the part that was the least time-consuming yet produced a most stunning effect.

 

thread key for the lily: stem and leaves = dmc 3346, 1.5 cm wide green ribbon. Flower = DMC 433, 734, 3779, 2.2cm wide pink ribbon, 1.9cm pale pink ribbon

 

I rummaged around for pale pink ribbon and found two different colours that go perfectly together in my stash. One is Celebrate It from Michaels, and I got the other one in a Dollar Tree years ago. The former is pretty wide, 2.2 cm large, and the latter is a bit smaller, at 1.9 cm large. They are both polyester ribbon.

The wider the ribbon, the wider your single-stitch petal will be. That’s the beauty of ribbon embroidery. You can use only one stitch and create a beautiful petal. The needle is admittedly harder to pull through the fabric than for embroidery, but you can also create a flower in a fraction of the time that embroidery takes!

 

Let’s Stitch a Lily

For ribbon-work, we generally use chenille needles. A chenille needle has a really big eye, thick shaft, and a pointy tip. You need a pointy tip to be able to pierce the fabric, unless you’re stitching on something with a really broad weave like Aida cloth. I’m using a cotton for my project that’s heavy enough to sustain ribbon-work, but the weave isn’t broad enough to use a blunt-tipped needle.

My ribbon was so wide that I couldn’t thread it completely through the eye of my widest chenille needle! But it’s ok, because I was able to thread enough of the ribbon so that it wouldn’t slip out. It just meant that I didn’t have a tail like you normally would with embroidery thread, but you don’t really need it in this case.

 

trying to thread the large ribbon through a chenille needle

 

As well, I didn’t knot or anchor the end of my ribbon in any way. Usually for ribbon embroidery, you thread the needle through the end of the ribbon so it forms a knot on itself. This wouldn’t have worked with so wide a ribbon here, and would have created too much unnecessary bulk. So I just left a small bit of ribbon hanging from the back after each stitch, which I eventually secured with a sewing needle and thread at the end.

 

How to Start

Once the needle is threaded as best as you can, it’s time to take the first stitch!! The ribbon is very bulky where it sits in the needle’s eye, so you need a pretty big hole to be able to stitch through the fabric. I used a small tailor’s awl to poke a hole through the fabric first, before making a stitch, and it helped tremendously. I also used a gripper to help pull the needle through, since my hands were sweating uncontrollably. If you have dry hands, you might not have as much difficult pulling, although you will probably need to wiggle the needle quite a bit to make it come through.

 

using an awl to poke holes through the fabric for the ribbon lily

 

I worked from the center of the flower to the tip of the petals, careful to leave a bit of space between the stitches in the center. You don’t want them all the same hole or too near the same hole, or they risk coming undone and you’ll likely pull the stitches out accidentally when making a new one.

Each stitch is basically just a straight stitch (it just looks so much more impressive because it’s wide ribbon!). You start at point A (flower center), and go back down at point B (petal tip). You can decide how much ribbon you want for each petal. The tighter you pull, the thinner the petal will look. The looser you leave it, the more the ribbon will arch to form the petal.

 

single straight stitch to form a lily petal

 

You can also place the ribbon however you want it before bringing your needle back down. For example, the second petal to the right (from the top) was folded on itself before I ended the stitch. This gives the flower more dimension and a more realistic appearance. I also alternated between my two ribbon colours to vary the petal shades.

 

lily ribbon petal folded on itself to create realistic effect

 

Next, I added a little flower bud near the leaves. I also used straight stitches to create it, one stitch overlapping the other to create the appearance of folded petals.

 

ribbon work lily leaves

 

I worked the two leaves with straight stitches again, but with a thinner ribbon (that actually fit through the needle’s eye!). The ribbon was from my stash, but it was exactly the shade of green I wanted. 🙂

 

making a straight stitch with green ribbon for the leaves

 

Flower Details

Once I was satisfied with all this, I stitched the stem, using two strands of DMC #3346. I used long & short stitches with longer stitches than usual, and did a bit of whipping at the top where the stem was thinner. “Whipping” is when you weave your thread behind existing stitches without going through fabric. It creates a nice twisty look.

 

view of the full bouquet so far, to show the lily stem

 

I also added a few straight stitches (in floss) around the bud for the sepals.

 

close-up of lily bud to show embroidered sepals in embroidery floss

 

And finally, it was time to add more dimension to the flower and really make it look like a lily. I used one strand of DMC #734 and one strand of Brillanté d’Alger #511 (DMC #3779 is a close match) at the same time (so two strands in my needle, one of each colour) to create the filaments. I started from the flower center and just made straight stitches into the upper petals.

 

lily center with embroidery floss and straight stitches

 

Then I used two strands of Anchor #357 (DMC #433) to make smaller, slightly curved stitches to create the anthers above the filaments. (Yes, I had to google all these flower parts :P)

 

Finishing Touches

To secure all my dangling bits of ribbon at the back, I un-hooped my work, threaded a sewing needle with matching pink sewing thread, and sewed down each bit to anchor it.

 

backside of embroidery work to show the ribbon ends to secure

 

I also did a bit of sewing on the good side, to really place my petals as I wanted them, anchoring a fold here and there. To do this, you want to take very small stitches underneath the folds you wish to create so that the thread won’t be visible. It was also necessary to anchor a few petals down. Their arching form revealed the pencil marks underneath (and unfortunately this isn’t a piece you can wash easily – if at all).

 

complete ribbon lily flower

 

Voilà!! Now you know the secrets to stitch a beautiful lily flower with ribbon. I used to do a lot more ribbon embroidery a few years ago, and hope to get back into it. Each stitch is so satisfying, so lush, so beautiful!

 

view of completed bouquet so far, showing embroidered roses, currants, raspberries and lily flower in ribbon

 

With the lily now complete, my bouquet is really starting to look like something! All we have left are the little yellow daisies, the title, and a few finishing touches. I’m already prepping Part 5 for you 😊.

 

If you need to catch up on Parts 1, 2, and 3, here they are:

garden bouquet project part 1
Garden Bouquet part 2: wild roses
beautiful berries garden bouquet part 3

I hope you enjoyed embroidering a ribbon lily with me! Which has been your favourite part so far? Do you prefer needle-painting, stumpwork, or ribbon-work? Let me know in the comments!

 

Fondly,

ribbon lily garden bouquet part 4
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  • 2023 Free Yearly Stitch-Along + Mini Needle-Painting Tutorial

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Hello I'm Anne! Welcome to my little corner of the Internet where I share my passion for hand embroidery with you through tutorials and patterns. I hope that you enjoy browsing and leave with some new inspiration!

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~ Diary of a Northern Belle

Northern Belle Atelier is taking a break 🌸💖 Northern Belle Atelier is taking a break 🌸💖

Today (Feb. 09th) is the last day to place your order for any physical items in my shop (kits, needle minders, or finished works). I will be removing the listings over the weekend. PDF patterns will remain available for now, but they may be taken down at any time (so if you've had your eye on one, I suggest grabbing it before they're gone! 🥰).

I will also be tuning off Instagram in the coming days, but you can still reach me via my business emails if you need. My blog will remain up for the time being. 💕

Thank you ever so much for all the support you've shown my little business since I began sharing my embroidery here! It has meant so much to me to be able to do this, even if just in a small way. 💖🪡 Wishing you all some beautiful stitches ahead!

Anne
Xoxo
February Wreath aka "Victorian Valentine" pattern February Wreath aka "Victorian Valentine" pattern from last year 💖🌸🎀 I love this one so much and it's perfect for Valentine's Day coming up!

Find it in my Etsy shop 💜

(Sorry for the shaky video!!)
Needle minders will be leaving my shop soon!! 🍒 Needle minders will be leaving my shop soon!! 🍒 Snag a cute little fruity needle minder for your next embroidery project before February 9th! All remaining needle minders in my shop are 10% off until then 💕🍓🍒💛
✨️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ✨️ I will be disconti ✨️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ✨️

I will be discontinuing embroidery kits from my shop very soon, but I still have 2 left of this pretty summer wreath up for grabs!! 🌼🍓

I love this design and the kit comes with everything you need to make the project: two pieces of cotton fabric, thread card loaded with DMC floss, two needles, a good quality 6" hoop, and the PDF pattern! All presented in a handy folder to make it easy to keep everything together 🤍💛❤️

Visit my Etsy shop (linked in bio) if you're interested!! They won't be around for long!
Thank you so much for all the love on the Floral G Thank you so much for all the love on the Floral Garden bunting!! 💖🌷🌻 Following several inquiries from some of you who were missing some or all of the patterns from this project, I've decided to link them in a handy-dandy blog post for easier access! 💕 I've linked it via my bio if you want to have a look and get the patterns! I like to give my subscribers a bit of exclusivity, but since this project has now come to a close, I've decided to make it available to everyone. 🥰

I may also have taken that opportunity to write a bit about each flower, the inspiration behind the designs, and of course their meanings according to the Language of Flowers 😊🌿🌻 If that sounds of interest to you, read  the post to find out more! I've also linked some stitch tutorials that may be helpful. 

Happy stitching! 🎀🪡🌼

Anne
The Floral Garden stitch-along has come to a close The Floral Garden stitch-along has come to a close and the bunting has been sewn and hung! 🌻🌷🌿 what a joy it was to work on throughout the year, and I hope you've enjoyed it too! I'm thrilled with the final result 😍

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and enthusiasm for this project. I've just sent the final instructions + bunting template to my email subscribers 💌 it isn't too late if you'd like to give this project a try - you can sign-up via the link in my bio and receive the links to all 12 floral motifs from last year + the instructions for the bunting!! 💕

The embroideries are beginner-friendly and perfect if you want to try a bit of needle-painting, and the bunting part is quite easy and quick to put together (compared to last year's mini-quilt haha!) 🌷💕🌿

Happy stitching!!
Winter Fox 🦊🤍🌲 I think this makes the fir Winter Fox 🦊🤍🌲 I think this makes the first completed embroidery for 2024! Absolutely loved working on this and love the mix of watercolor with embroidery! Can't get enough of the little pinecones 🤎
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