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Ribbon Lily: Garden Bouquet Part 4

     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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Garden Bouquet Embroidery Part 3: Beautiful Berries

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Who’s ready for the next part of the Garden Bouquet project? I know I am!

 

garden bouquet part 3 beautiful berries

 

If you haven’t seen Part 1 or 2 of the Garden Bouquet project, here they are:

Garden Bouquet part 2: wild roses
garden bouquet project part 1

Today, we will be looking at the berries. There are two branches of berries in this design: raspberries and currants.

I embroidered my raspberries pretty much the same way as I did in this project, so I will go over it quickly. If you want more details, you can have a look at Ripening Raspberries, a project where I combined embroidery and pressed leaves.

 

Embroidering the Raspberries

 

thread key for raspberries: branch & leaves = DMC 3346, 3347, Berries = DMC 304, 347, 3331

 

I didn’t use beads this time, only French knots. I wasn’t planning on using beads anywhere else, so I thought it might look odd to have just one element with beads. So instead I filled the whole berries with French knots without leaving any gaps. I used three strands of DMC #304, #347, and #3831, and tried to distribute the colours evenly-ish. The sepals are made with lazy-daisy stitches, using two strands of DMC #3347.

 

embroidered raspberries with french knots

 

The branch is embroidered with a stem stitch with two strands of DMC #3346. The leaves are done in straight stitches, angled and placed to create a bit of a jagged edge. I used two strands of DMC #3347 and #3346. These were done rather quickly and without any clear method. I knew that I wanted to differentiate them from the rose leaves, so I used different shades of green, and tried to make the leaves smaller and thinner.

 

embroidered raspberry leaves with straight stitches

 

I absolutely love how it turned out! This was one of the easiest part of this garden bouquet and such a breeze after slaving over the wild roses 😉

 

embroidered wild roses and raspberries on garden bouquet project

 

Embroidering the Currants

 

thread key for currants: Branch & leaves = DMC 734, 937, 3345, 433, Berries = DMC 304, 321

 

Ah, the currants. I had a wonderful plan to cover beads with floss to create a beautiful stumpwork (3D) effect, but sadly all the beads I had were too big or too small. There was no time for an emergency trip to the crafts store, so I had to abort the plan and think of something else.

Not to be deterred in my stumpwork ambitions, I decided to try something else. I really didn’t want to make the berries flat, and French knots wouldn’t really have worked in this case. I remembered seeing “raised” satin stitch around before, and using stuffing or other materials to create a 3D effect. So I went with a cotton ball…the currant berries are so small that I only needed teeny tiny little pieces at a time.

First, I outlined each berry with a small backstitch, to have a good guideline for filling it.

 

currant berry outlined with backstitch

 

Then, I took what felt like a microscopic piece of cotton ball (I’m using just a regular old cotton ball from the drugstore) and shaped it as best as I could to form it into a little ball. I then place the tiny ball in the outlined shape.

 

cotton ball to create stumpwork effect

 

With one strand of DMC #304 or #321 (I alternated between two shades of red), I anchor the cotton ball by taking a few stitches over it.

 

currant embroidery - covering the cotton ball with satin stitch

 

With a satin stitch, I cover the entire ball, until none of the white shows through. And it makes a beautifully raised little red berry!

 

covered cotton ball with satin stitch to form a currant berry

 

So cute!

Once they were all done, I added a little “end” to really make them look like currants. This was done with one strand of DMC #433, and it’s just a very small straight stitch. I placed them in the direction where it made the most sense for each currant hanging from the branch.

 

embroidered currant berries with little "end" in brown floss

 

The branch was added afterwards, using two strands of DMC #433 and a split stitch.

 

And lastly, the leaves!

I had no idea what currant leaves looked like, so Pinterest was very useful here for some reference images. I remember stitching these very late at night, determined not to leave them for the next day, so they’re a bit less refined than the rose leaves. It’s hard to tell though, since they’re well hidden 😉

Again, same approach as before. Outline in split stitch first. Then I used two strands of DMC #937 and #3345, and very messy long & short stitches to cover the leaves. There really was no plan for this, just improvisation and deciding where to add a bit of shading on the spot. Currant leaves also have a ragged edge, so I tried to replicate that a bit all around my leaves by ending the stitches in different spots.

 

embroidered currant leaf in needle painting

 

I left some space along the center of the leaves for the stem and veins. Those were stitched with one strand of DMC #734 in straight stitches, again in a very impromptu manner.

 

finished embroidered currant berry branch on garden bouquet project

 

I really love how it turned out though (I say this a lot, I’m sorry! But it’s true!). The raised satin stitch with cotton ball stuffing worked wonderfully and I definitely want to try it again!! The currants look very solid and juicy.

 

embroidered currant branch next to embroidered wild rose in garden bouquet project

 

And that’s the berries over and done with!

The garden bouquet is starting to slowly resemble something at last. Woo! I hope you enjoyed this part, and I would love to know your thoughts in the comments. What do you think of the stumpwork idea? Have you ever tried something similar? How do you like to stitch your berries?

Stay tuned for Part 4 of this project, where we will tackle the lily. The majestic centerpiece of this piece, a flower amongst flower. I have an idea on how I want to make it, but will it work? It doesn’t involve a lot of thread… Can’t wait to see and share it with you all!

Thank you for following along on this journey, and be sure to connect with me on Instagram too for more progress pics & stitching reels!

 

Fondly,

embroidered berries garden bouquet part 3

Garden Bouquet Embroidery Part 2: Wild Roses

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello dear friend, and welcome to the second instalment of the Garden Bouquet project: the wild roses! (Click here for Part 1 if you missed it)

 

wild roses garden bouquet part 2

 

I’ve worked long and hard on this part, so I’m really excited to share it with you. We will be looking at the wild roses today! Roses are probably my favourite flower (although I kinda love any flower), and it was a real delight to bring these to life.

My plan from the beginning was to embroider the wild roses in needle-painting style using the long & short stitch. I knew they would probably take the longest to stitch out of all the elements in the bouquet, so I decided to do them first. They did indeed take forever. That’s the downside of needle-painting with one strand, but the results are worth it!

 

Here’s a little breakdown of all the threads I used for my wild roses:

thread key: branch DMC 898, Leaves DMC 3345, 3363, Brillanté d'Alger 594, Petals DMC 3805, 603, 605, 776, 778, 963, 225, Flower centers DMC 743, 744, 728, 729

 

Let’s Begin

 

First, I stitched the branches. That was the easiest part, I actually used two strands and took pretty big stitches. The blending is pretty careless, and it looks a little chunky in certain spots. This was (semi) intentional to give the branches a more natural look. I could have used more than one shade of brown to add more dimension, but decided to keep it simple and only used DMC #898.

embroidered branches long & short stitch

 

Next, I tackled the leaves, since they are more in the background than the flowers themselves. I also stitched them using long & short stitches, in a few different shades of green. Each leaf is fairly small so I knew the shading would be a bit tricky, but I think it turned out really well.

I started by outlining each petal with a split stitch, using one strand of green floss. Since the outline ends up being entirely covered, it doesn’t really matter which shade you pick. Ideally not the darkest (sometimes it can be seen through the stitches), unless the stitches covering the outline will be dark as well.

split stitch outline on leaf

 

Once the shape is outlined, I begin making long & short stitches in one shade of green to cover a certain area. Here I sometimes used two strands to go a little faster, but results are definitely nicer with only one strand. I planned in advance where I wanted the shade to hit my leaves, and which part of the leaves would require darker thread. Wild rose leaves have darker veins, so I knew the middle of my leaves would be darker.

long & short stitch first layer on leaf
second layer of shading on leaf
long & short stitch shading on rose leaf
finished leaf in long & short shading stitches

 

I also tried to create a jagged edge to each leaf to make them appear natural. Wild rose leaves have tiny little dark red thorns all around them, but I decided to just leave it at green since my leaves were very small. I created the jagged edge by ending stitches a little further than the splitstitched outline (usually stitches are evenly placed just outside that edge) and spacing them out.

finished leaf embroidered in long & short stitch

I used DMC #3363 and Brillanté d’Alger #594 to cover the leaves in long & short stitches, and then added a few more stitches in DMC #3345 to create the veins and add a bit more shadow as desired.

 

Here’s a look at the finished leaves:

 

finished cluster of wild rose leaves embroidered in long & short stitches
(little cluster of leaves situated behind a rose)
finished wild rose leaves in long & short stitch
(finished leaves against the rose branches on either side of the design)

 

The Roses

 

Once the branches and leaves were complete, it was finally time to stitch the rose flowers. They were hands-down the most time-consuming part of this entire project by a long shot, but I loved making them. Working with so many pinks was absolutely fantastic! Definitely a colour palette I really like.

I used the same approach as I did with the leaves. Splitstitch outline each petal first, then gradually fill with long & short stitches to create the needle-painting effect.

petal outline in split stitch

 

I played around with my different shades of pink a lot before deciding which ones I’d use, and how I’d use them. I had recourse to Trish Burr’s fabulous book Colour Confidence in Embroidery to help me out a bit. In particular, I observed and analyzed the shading in the French Rose project. It’s a red rose, but it gave me a good idea of where to place my lighter and darker shades.

I still experimented as I went along, and if you look closely at each finished flower you can easily see that they’re all different, and that most petals within the same flower are also different. The effect isn’t always very realistic, but for the purposes of the project, it works. 😊 I’ll be honest, I’m really no expert in long & short stitch. I’m still playing around with it, practicing, and learning how to do it better. But I must say I’m really pleased with how most of my petals turned out!

 

Here’s a look at how I fill a petal:

 

1. I decide which shades I want to use and in which order. I used seven different pinks to make my roses, but I didn’t use all shades in each petal. The gradients varied, as did the placement of lighter and darker shades.

2. In this case, I’m going dark to light. So I stitch the first layer in DMC #603. I like to make guidelines with my thread to keep the angle right, especially with a petal shape. The stitches are long and short, varying in length, creating a very uneven edge.

 

first layer of long & short stitch on wild rose petal
first layer of the long & short stitch on rose petal

 

3. Once the first layer is completed, I pick a slightly lighter colour (DMC #605) and begin to fill the second layer. I prefer to stitch from bottom to top, so I begin my stitch towards the base of the petal, and end it somewhere in the first layer. To create a beautiful blending effect, the idea is to end the stitches of a new layer well within the previous ones. In other words, I don’t end my stitches at the edge of the first layer, but higher, nestled among the stitches of the previous layer. Again, the length of these stitches shouldn’t be uniform. It looks more naturally blended if the stitches are of varying lengths.

I repeat these steps with as many colours as I wish. For this petal, I added a third and fourth layer, using DMC #776 and #963.

 

finished petal in long & short stitch shading

Doing this with only one strand of floss at a time is incredibly time-consuming, but it’s oh so lovely!

 

Here’s a look at a different wild rose, where I did the shading in the petals differently.

 

shaded wild rose petals in long & short stitch
The petal to the left was the very one I made, and I found it too pale. I tried something completely different for the one above it, where I placed the darkest shade closest to the center.

 

Wild Roses in progress…

embroidered wild roses in needle painting style

 

Rose Centers

 

Once all my petals were stitched, it was time to pick some joyful yellows for the centers. I went with DMC #728, #729, #743, and #744 (#729 is a little darker, a very light goldenish brown). I made straight stitches from the center to the petals using #743 and #744, leaving a very small circle in the middle (the center of the center, lol). In this little center, I used two strands of #743 to make three French knots, filling up the space. Still using only one strand of floss, I used DMC #728, #729, and #744 to make French knots scattered all around the outer edge of the center (at the base of the petals). As much as possible, I made them close to the end of the straight stitches.

yellow straight stitches to form wild rose center
french knots in the very center of the embroidered wild rose

 

Using only one strand of floss, I used DMC #728, #729, and #744 to make more French knots, scattered all around the outer edge of the center (at the base of the petals). As much as possible, I made them close to the end of the straight stitches.

finished embroidered wild rose
(this is the finished center of a different rose flower, because apparently I’m not very consistent with my photos, lol)

 

It really makes the rose come alive, doesn’t it?? I’m so happy with how that turned out, they almost look real!

The last little touch was adding little thorns along the branches. I used one strand of DMC #898 (same colour as the branch).

finished embroidered wild roses

 

And here we are! WILD ROSES COMPLETED!! WEEEE!!! (Sorry but this totally deserved some all caps squealing for joy :P)

 

completed branch of embroidered wild roses

 

I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I’ve never been able to believe it. I don’t believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.”

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

 

finished wild rose close-up

 

I hope you enjoyed following along and I can’t wait to show you Part 3! Raspberries and currants are up next! 😊

 

Other posts you might find useful:

 

And just in case you missed, here’s PART 1 of the Garden Bouquet project, all about the inspiration behind the pattern & setting up for stitching.

garden bouquet project part 1

 

Fondly,

garden bouquet embroidery: wild roses
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Ripening Raspberries: Embroidery & Pressed Leaves

     Anne      2 Comments

Let’s go berry-picking together, shall we? My embroidered raspberries are ripe and ready to be plucked! I had so much fun working on this week’s project. I’ve been playing with combinations of pressed botanicals and embroidery over the last few months, and I LOVE the results! I think they go so well together. It’s also much faster to finish a project since you save on embroidery time!

 

raspberry embroidery beads and pressed leaves

 

I don’t think a summer goes by where I don’t eat a copious amount of raspberries, even if it’s the store-bought ones. They’re one of my favourite fruits and it doesn’t feel like summer without them! Unfortunately this year, our red raspberry bushes only produced about five berries. ☹ They’re supposed to produce twice, so fingers crossed for the end of summer/beginning of fall. On the other hand, our black raspberry bushes were incredibly generous for their size! We didn’t have quite enough to bake desserts or make jam, but there was enough to stuff my face whenever I went out to pick them 😉. They’re smaller and firmer than red raspberries, but they’re really good, especially when picked under the warm sun.

 

black raspberries in nature

 

Ripening Raspberries

 

To fill the void left by the absence of red raspberries, naturally I had to embroider some. There’s an abundance of wild raspberry bushes at the edge of the woods on the way to the forest (which don’t produce much fruit either), and last spring I gathered a lot of leaves. Some were left to dry to make tea blends, and others were pressed with every intention of using them in such a project as this at some point. I really love the idea of combining embroidery and pressed botanicals in the same project!

 

flat lay view of raspberry embroidery finished piece, pressed raspberry leaves and teacup filled with black raspberries

 

The vision in my head was that of a branch laden with juicy berries and beautifully pressed leaves. I knew I wanted to use beads to make the raspberries sparkle. So I got my herbarium and my sketchbook out and began to design…

 

finished raspberry embroidery piece with red thread

 

Embroidered Raspberries ~ My Creative Process

 

1. Designing the Pattern

rough sketch for raspberry embroidery pattern

 

Confession: I don’t like designing. The sketching of what I want is my absolute least favourite part of the whole process. I’ve never been very good at drawing, so I find it frustrating not to be able to reproduce the wonderful idea in my head on paper. I’m working on it and trying to sketch more to get better, but it can be a real struggle sometimes.

Fortunately, you don’t need a great sketch to produce a beautiful piece of embroidery. The needle and thread do all the work. In fact, you really just need a rough outline of what you want to stitch. And I didn’t even have to worry about the leaves since I wasn’t going to embroider them. All I had to plan was their placement (which ended up changing anyways!). So anyways, step 1 is to sketch/plan where you want each element to go. As you can see this is a super rough sketch, but it’s all I needed for this project, thankfully.

 

2. Transferring Pattern on Fabric

raspberry pattern transferred on muslin fabric

 

I chose a piece of muslin for this project, because it’s a bit thicker and sturdier than my usual go-to factory cotton or linen. I knew the berries would end up being a little heavy with all the knots and beads, so I chose something more suitable than thin cotton. The off-white colour was also perfect for the colour scheme I had in mind. I used my lightbox and a mechanical pencil to transfer my design from my sketchbook to the fabric. Again, all I really needed was the main branch, a few stems and peduncles, and I just drew circles where I wanted the berries to be. The fewer markings on the fabric, the less you have to cover with thread later if you change your mind about something. I made the berry outlines smaller than their intended sizes to ensure they would be fully covered.

 

3. Choosing Thread Colours (and other materials)

embroidery threads and seed beads chosen to embroider the project

 

I had already picked some pressed raspberry leaves and played with them in Step 1 to determine where they would go on the finished piece, but there were still the threads to be chosen and the beads to find. I didn’t go out of my way to get anything specific and just used what I already had on hand. Consequently, I dug around in my floss box for thread that looked raspberry-coloured and found some slightly darker than what I envisioned, but still suitable. They’re from an unknown source (I have a lot of random thread bits in my box!) but their closest DMC matches could be #304 (Christmas red medium), and #777 (very dark raspberry). For the branch, peduncles, and sepals I used #937 and #3347. And finally, I located the perfect beads, a tiny bag hidden away with just enough for my project!!

 

4. The Stitching: Branch & Peduncles

embroidery in progress: main branch and stems

 

The first thing to embroider was the main branch and the little peduncles, since they are the elements the most in the background. I stitched a short stem where I knew I wanted to place a pressed leaf that didn’t have a stem. Near the bottom of the branch I left my pencil marks, since the leaves going there did have a stem already. I didn’t embroider the little thorns at this point, just the main outline. I used a split stitch and DMC #937, and made certain areas look “thicker” by doing two rows. This was to make the branch look more natural and less uniform. I stitched everything using two strands of thread, unless otherwise noted.

 

5. Embroidering the Raspberries

first embroidered raspberry with french knots
embroidered raspberries in french knots

 

Normally, the leaves would be next, but since they’re not embroidered, they will be placed at the very last, otherwise they will certainly break as I manhandle the hoop to get the berries done. So berries it is instead! I used French knots first, starting with #304 and ending with #777. I didn’t completely fill the areas to leave a bit of space for the beads. Once I was satisfied with that and each berry was filled with French Knots, I added a few more details to my branch.

 

6. Branch Details

straight stitches along the main branch for thorns

I did a few straight stitches using only 1 strand of thread along the main branch to represent the thorns (still in DMC #937). I also stitched the little sepals on top of the raspberries in lazy-daisy stitches using DMC #3347.

 

7. Adding Beads

embroidered raspberries close-up showing the beads used to add detail

 

Once that was done, I went back to my berries to add the beads! This was definitely the most exciting part of the project!! I used seed beads; some red, and others in this iridescent pink and red with touches of yellow. I’m so happy with the result of this!! I used silk sewing thread (not necessary, but the colour was the closest match to the berries). The seed beads are pretty small, so I needed a beading needle to be able to stitch them on. They’re long and have a very thin shaft so that the beads slide through no problem!

I stitched my beads on very randomly, switching between the two kinds and adding them where I had left space in between my French knots and in other little spots where it looked like one was needed. I absolutely love how ripe and juicy they look!! Beads really make such a difference in embroidery, I love it!

 

8. Adding the Leaves

pressed raspberry leaves glued on with elmer's glue and paintbrush

 

And now for the finishing touch – the leaves!! I ended up adding more than I originally planned and slightly changed the placement of some, but I’m SO happy with the result!! I added another little 3-leaf cluster at the very top and love the effect. Its leaves weren’t pressed completely flat, but that small detail adds a bit of dimension to the piece. I’m so glad I pressed a few of those! I had many larger leaves, but only two smaller clusters. I used Elmer’s transparent school glue and a paintbrush to glue the leaves to the fabric. I’ve tried this before with other pressed florals and it seemed to work, but if anyone knows of a better way (or better glue) to do this, please let me know!

 

close-up of finished piece
close-up of embroidered raspberries and pressed leaves

 

Finishing the Piece 

Now I just need to find a good way to frame/display the piece that will protect the dried flowers! Again, suggestions welcome. It’s a bit tricky because the leaves are flat but my berries are pretty 3D. I fear a glass frame would crush them. A shadow box might work? I shall have to experiment a bit and figure something out :). There has to be a good solution to this.

 

full view of finished piece
side view of finished piece
finished embroidery work with black raspberries
I managed to find TWO red raspberries for my photos LOL!

 

I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at how I embroidered my raspberries! What do you think of the embroidery/pressed leaves combination? I’m hoping to make more of this sort of thing in the future – maybe next time I’ll use pressed flowers and embroider the leaves. I know I’ll most definitely be using beads again, they add so much charm and life! I fell in love with beads and embroidery when I worked on my Loving Lilacs Inspired from Jane Eyre, and I knew I had to try it again. My next project involving beads will probably feature blackberries…the time for picking them is fast approaching and those bushes are looking much more generous than the raspberries! 😉

 

Thank you so much for reading my blog and I wish you a lovely day! You can also find me on Instagram and Etsy!

Fondly,

ripening raspberries: an embroidery project
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FREE Embroidery Pattern & Tutorial: Wisteria Branch

     Anne      4 Comments

Who’s ready for a hand embroidery pattern freebie? 🙂

 

embroidery freebie wisteria

Read on to download this sweet wisteria embroidery pattern & see the tutorial. 🙂 Last week, I introduced you to one of my new favourite novels, The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim. We talked about how dreamy and escapist it was, and how much flower inspiration there was to be found in it. The wisteria in particular, proved to be a wonderful subject for embroidery!

 

If you haven’t seen that post, check it out here.

 

I showed you a bit of how I embroidered my wisteria-inspired project, and if you liked it then the good news is that I have more wisteria for you this week!

 

embroidered wisteria branch finished side view
embroidered wisteria branch finished view from top

 

I created this pattern so I could share my newfound love of wisteria with you all. Now you can stitch your own! May it bring you sunshine and happiness as promised in The Enchanted April.

 

The pattern is super simple and accessible to beginners. I only used three basic stitches: the split stitch, the lazy-daisy stitch, and a form of leaf stitch. Simply click on any of these for a full tutorial on how to work them.

 

See also: The Only Embroidery Tools You Really Need to know which basic materials you will need for this project.

 

DOWNLOAD YOUR PDF HERE: Wisteria Free Embroidery PatternDownload

 

Tutorial:

 

I used DMC floss, but you can use another brand if you like. You can find a good conversion chart here. I used 2 strands throughout the whole project.

 

#153 (Vy Lt. Violet)

#210 (Md. Lavender)

#470 (Lt. Avocado Green)

#553 (Violet)

#3011 (Dk. Khaki Green)

#3042 (Lt. Antique Violet)

 

See also this post on How to Start & End Your Stitches.

 

1. Branches

 

Begin by stitching the branches (or stems?) with #470 . Since the leaves and the flowers will go over it, it’s easier to start with it first. I used the split stitch, but feel free to use any other outline stitch that you like, such as the backstitch or the stem stitch. Stitch all the way down the middle of the flower cluster. Some of it will show through once the flowers are stitched. You can also stop the branch before the cluster if you don’t want it showing through or you want to make your flowers very tight together.

 

wisteria stem in split stitch

 

2. Leaves

 

There are many ways to embroider leaves, but I kept it super simple here and just stitched mine with a simple leaf stitch. The method I use is kind of a cross between satin stitch and fishbone stitch. Using 2 strands of #470, make a small straight stitch from the top of the leaf to the top of the guideline running down the middle vein.

 

leaf worked in straight stitches

 

Work your way down the leaf by starting your stitches on the outline of the leaf and ending on the middle guideline for the central vein. Make your stitches at a diagonal angle to keep the shape of the leaf. I like to work one side at a time (usually I start with the right).

 

leaf worked in straight stitches one side at a time

 

If you’re satisfied with the look of the leaves as they are after this step, you can skip the next step! I just wanted to add a bit more colour and texture to mine.

 

Using #3011, make a straight stitch down the middle of the leaf for the main vein. I also added two very small stitches on either side, also on a slight angle.

 

view of finished leaves

 

3. The Flowers

 

The flowers are all worked in lazy-daisy stitches, sort of scattered in a downward motion and fairly close together to create the droopy cluster effect. On your pattern, the dotted line indicates the shape the finished cluster will take. You don’t have to transfer that line on your fabric as it may leave marks if it’s not entirely covered in stitches. It’s more just to give you an idea of the finished size and shape. You can transfer the straight lines going down from the stem, as those should be all covered and will help you to guide the placement of your stitches.

 

You want to work your lazy-daisies downward, some going straight down, and others going at slight angles from the branch. There is no specific placement for each of them though, and this is a very forgiving flower for embroidery. One stitch or two out of place will only add shape to it! Have fun with it and experiment with where you place your stitches if you want to change the shape a bit, or the way it hangs.

 

lazy-daisy stitches embroidered along wisteria branch to create flowers
wisteria branch being filled with lazy-daisy stitches to create the flowers

 

I used #153, #3042 and #210 for the smaller branch, and #153, #3042 and #553 for the bigger one.

 

finished embroidery work

 

And there you go! I decided to add a little bow at the last minute to give it a more finished look. I used a piece of narrow white satin ribbon, tied it into a bow and sewed it to the base of the branch.

 

view of little white ribbon bow at base of wisteria branch

 

It looks pretty cute I think! I really hope you have fun stitching this wisteria pattern. This is the first “real” pattern I’ve ever made so I’m pretty excited. Any feedback will be super appreciated and I would love it if you show me your results! Tag me on Instagram @northernbelle.atelier if you try this wisteria pattern! 🙂 Also don’t hesitate to reach out for any questions or comments and be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for more embroidery content!

 

Fondly,

wisteria embroidery free pattern
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Sunny Dandelions: Springtime Inspiration

     Anne      Leave a Comment

Hello friends!

What a time I picked to begin this blog, LOL. Life got really busy over the last few weeks, and I sadly didn’t have much time to devote to it. As some of you know, I had to say goodbye to dear Nova Scotia earlier this month. I moved back to a charming, quiet village in Ontario. It was a pretty major move since I lived for six years in Halifax- the longest I’d ever lived in the same city! So it’s been quite the change on many levels, but the charms of the countryside are quickly working their effects on me. I’m back, with all sorts of exciting plans and fresh inspiration!!

view of the countryside showing a trail in the woods bordered by a wooden fence

Springtime Inspiration

Springtime – and especially May and June – tends to inspire me the most. After months of bare trees, cold weather, and empty gardens, it’s so nice to see nature awakening again. It makes me want to embroider ALL THE FLOWERS. But of course there’s too little time and too much to stitch.

And since I’ve been so busy lately, today’s post is only a small project, whipped up in a couple of hours. Buuuut, I’m very happy with it, especially since I didn’t use a pattern and just free-handed everything. Which was kind of a big deal for me because normally I can’t survive without solid guidelines. It was really fun though, and I’m proud of it!

dandelion embroidery hoop art against backdrop of real dandelions

The inspiration for this impromptu little embroidery came, of course, from the yellow seas of dandelions seen everywhere this time of year (at least in my corner of the world).

field full of dandelions
patch of dandelions

Although dandelions are often considered as “weed” and/ or “unwanted”, I honestly don’t know how you could not love them. They’re so bright and happy, like pieces of sunshine! They enliven fields and joyfully border gardens and hedgerows.

dandelions bordering a garden

I love them 😊 So I had to stitch them!

dandelion embroidery against the real flowers

How I Stitched My Dandelions

I used some wool-like yellow floss for the flowers (I bought a bag of those spools a few years ago at a thrift shop, and there were no labels or anything so I’m not 100% sure what it is, but it feels wooly. Could be crewel wool.) and DMC cotton floss #470 for the stems and leaves and #3011 for the middle of the leaves.

embroidery hoop art and spools of wool floss

I stitched the flowers entirely with straight stitches. I made the first few very short and meet in the same hole in the middle to create the center of the flower, and then worked my way around. The flower to the very right has a center that’s slightly higher to give it a different angle.

close up of dandelion embroidery to show different flower heads
close up of first dandelion flower being embroidered, showing straight stitches to form petals
close up of embroidered dandelion flower

The stems are done in backstitch. I added a few more straight stitches in green to create the bracts (the little “leaves” that the flower head seems to rest on). The jagged leaves are worked in long & short stitch. I made them perhaps a bit small, but I think they look fine!

close up of embroidered leaf details

Dandelions have been everywhere I look lately since they grow all around our house, and it’s been really fun to immortalize them in embroidery. If anyone has another method for stitching them, do share it in the comments! I was tempted to make the flowers with narrow silk or satin ribbon to give them a better 3D effect. Thoughts? When you look closely at a dandelion flower, the outer petals have little “teeth” at their tips. I knew this would be hard to replicate if I stitched small flowers, but if I made a bigger one I could give the petals more definition. I’ll just have to keep my dandelion-inspiration going and try stitching them a different way next time!

close up of real dandelion flower

A Bit of Folklore & Other Interesting Facts

I was curious as to their meaning, so I dug out my pocket language of flowers dictionary and discovered that it stands for rustic oracle. According to folklore, the dandelion helps to tell the time, the weather, and even predicts love (much like a daisy).

“…its flowers always open about 5 am and shut at 8 pm, serving the shepherd for a clock.” – Folkard

Additionally, Chamberlain’s The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought tells us that children would blow the seed tufts to tell time. The number of blows it takes until only the stalk remains corresponds to the hour of the day. Since the flower is fully open when it’s sunny and closes in upon itself when rain approaches, it also serves as a barometer. Pretty cool, no?

closed up dandelion flower head

There are also a few different ways the dandelion can predict love, according to this same book. You can send a love message by plucking a dandelion head gone all feathery. Think of a sweet thought for each of the feathers, turn towards the place where your loved one dwells, and blow! The seedball will faithfully convey your message 😉 If you wish to know if they are thinking of you, blow again. If there is a single feather left on the head, it means they are also thinking of you.

half-blown dandelion seeds

Benefits of Dandelions

In addition to all this fascinating folklore, the dandelion also has many medicinal uses. The flower, the leaves, and the roots are all edible!* A super easy way to use the flowers when they’re fresh and is to add them to lemonade. Lately I’ve tried combining them with cold minty tea and honey, and it’s incredibly refreshing! You can also dry them in the sun to save later for brewing tea. I originally used this recipe for my lemonade.

glass bottle of dandelion lemonade in field of dandelions

The roots can also be used for tea. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’ve had store-bought roasted dandelion root tea before, and it’s amazing. Rich and earthy, with no caffeine, and it’s good for digestion. 😊 As for the leaves, they can be a bit bitter, but work well tossed in a salad mixed with lettuce. My mom even used them in lieu of spinach in a lasagna the other day. Mixed with the cottage cheese, it was delicious! They definitely lost some of their bitterness after they were baked.

bone china tea up filled with lemonade with a dandelion head floated on top

So basically, dandelions are lovely, interesting, and beneficial! If their sunny yellow colour isn’t enough to make you appreciate them, you can always try telling the time with their seeds, or see if you’d fancy a cup of tea. 😊

I hope you feel inspired by these happy bits of sunshine, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.

patch of yellow dandelions
dandelion embroidery held up against field
dandelion gone feathery held against field

Until next time, and happy dandelion-picking!

Fondly,

*As with most edible things, some people might be allergic to dandelions or parts of dandelions. Just be cautious if you’ve never tried them before. Likewise, although the Internet boasts several benefits of consuming dandelions, certain people may experience different side effects due to medical conditions. Just be careful before consuming and do a little research to make sure it won’t be bad for you if you’re unsure. 😊

Sources:

I consulted the Language of Flowers illustrated by Kate Greenaway and first published by Routledge (London) in 1884 to find the meaning of the dandelion. The copy I have – linked here – is an unabridged reproduction by Dover Publications (New York) in 1992. I got more information on its appearance in folklore by consulting The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought by Alexander Francis Chamberlain, available on Google books. This was originally published in 1896 by Macmillan & Co (New York and London).

I found the eBook version through this article from Coffee House Writers, which was very interesting.