A Cross with Silk Ribbon Flowers

This isn't a good picture, but a photo of a picture I took several years before I had a digital camera. I may have shown it on a long ago post, but thought since the subject has been silk ribbon flowers, I'd show it again. Anyway, it was when I first began playing with silk ribbon and exploring the possibilities for surface embellishment.

I don't like wasting time and materials, so devised a few useful shapes to teach myself. This was after learning the stitches from Judith Baker Montano's book "Art and Inspirations" - which was the first of her books I purchased.

Also, I was working on different ways to use beads, as incorporated into the body of the needlepoint, rather than just as accents. You can see them at the intersections where the "lattice work" crosses.

I have found making silk ribbon flowers to be almost instant gratification (sweet peas are the exception) - and these are just very very simple ones: spider web roses and French knots, with a few straight stitch "forget-me-nots." Also, Japanese ribbon stitch is used to make the blue buds on the trailing vine.

The flowers are, of course, added after the background is stitched. Beads are added last, but the places for them are left bare during the stitching. Click on the picture to enlarge it, and you will see these details quite clearly.