Silk Scene Framed!

The Silk Scene is framed! I took it to Hampton Roads Wholesalers (where I buy some of my supplies) to have it professionally framed because it was an odd size. They did a wonderful job with it and I'm glad it's done. It's so nice to have them just across the river (the James, that is) in Newport News, VA.

They weren't used to seeing silk ribbon embroidery as something to be framed...probably had never seen it. Counted cross stitch, yes, but not this. And I had prepared it correctly by lacing it onto the padded mat board. That saved a lot of money. The framer suggested the mats and the frame to compliment the work which wasn't one I would have chosen, but it works well.

It's first public display will be next week at the workshop I'm teaching for the Cardinal Chapter of SAGA . I'm teaching my The Silk Ribbon Embroidery Sampler Class. 

Silk Scene Lacing

The silk ribbon embroidered Silk Scene is completed. So now it has to be "mounted". Mounting in this case is lacing the entire project to a piece of acid free mat board so it's smooth and straight. Pressing is important to get the hoop marks out. I gently pressed close to the stitching, but not over it, of course. This piece cannot be soaked or washed prior to mounting because the silk ribbons are not colorfast.

First I measured the embroidered piece (not including the fabric surround it's sewn to) to get an idea about what size board I need to cut. About two inches or more distance from the silk edge to the board edge is about right. Unfortunately the total measurements mean I probably won't be able to go with a standard size pre-made frame. Next I cut a piece of white cotton batting for a pad. The knots, etc., on the back of the piece will sink into the padding and reduce the likelihood of bumps on the front of the embroidery. I used a washable glue stick to stick the cotton batting to the board.

Next I laid the silk ribbon embroidery over the board to get an idea of placement. When I was happy with that I pinned it to the cotton batting to hold it in place so I could begin the lacing.

Lacing is attaching a piece to the backing via long back and forth stitches on the back, first worked horizontally, then vertically. The thread has to be able to withstand the tension, so I chose some cotton "Cotty" thread that's about the size of #12 pearl cotton (see spool in above photo), and a very long #5 cotton darner needle.

Lacing requires that you start in the middle of the work and work to one end first. I could not possibly have enough thread in the needle to do one whole side. I had to knot off into the fabric, then start a new, knotted thread exactly where I left off in order to keep the tension just right.

After completing one horizontal half, I turned the work upside down and worked from the center to the other end.

Next was the vertical lacing. This required lots of new threads since it was 13" tall. Again, I started in the middle and worked to one end, turned the work upside down and worked from the middle to the other end.

Lacing can be too tight, or too loose...so you have to keep checking the right side to make sure it's "just right". Below is a photo showing how the right side of the vertical lacing is completed and you can see ripples in the left side that had not yet been laced.

Done. Completed. It looks smooth and even. You can even see the background colors showing up: the pink around the flowers, greens around the dogwood tree and lovely blue in the sky. Lacing is not very interesting to see or do, but it's very important to do it correctly!
The results make all the work worth it.

Now all I have to do to complete this is to take it to be matted and framed

Silk Scene Finished

It's done. Another UFO out of the line-up. I was tired of seeing it hanging around my sewing room, but I had been sort of stumped as to what to embroider next. The "perspective" question was nagging me, you know, how to make the picture have depth from front to back. After much pondering I decided to just jump in and start.

First thing was some more plants in the front. I stitched pansies to bring out the pink and maroons. Little yellow French knots in the flower center coordinated with the yellow iris. Then I added some ferns (who doesn't like ferns?) with 2-3 colors of cotton floss using the Fly stitch and a few straight stitches.

Enter this bunch of Japanese Ribbon Stitch leaves which are 7mm ribbon. 

It looked like just a clump to me so I added stems of green floche and then 4mm ribbon straight stitches (3 to be exact) with the middle stitch on top. Then a French knot in the same green floche at the base of the leaves. That looked pretty good to me. Then some grasses in variegated silk buttonhole twist, more ferns and little tuffs of grass out of cotton floss to fill in.

Another big fern near the iris bases...Whew! 

And next some birds flying in the distance. I ended up with 5 birds (only 4 in this photo) in three shades of gray. The lighter ones look farther away in the distance. The birds are made using a Fly stitch with the wings tacked into a more bird-like shape. The "closer" birds have a single French knot at the bottom of the "V".

Another dimension trick was to add dimension is to make some of the same flowers in smaller threads and ribbons. I added the little group of iris (yellow and pale lavender) to the right of the rose bush. (The photo doesn't quite show them all.) The leaves are in silk buttonhole twist instead of 4mm ribbon. The stems are in cotton floss instead of the thicker buttonhole twist.

 Tuffs of grass scattered around the scene in buttonhole twist and floss add a little more greenery.

 I declare this Silk Scene finished!  Next it to mount it onto acid free board to get it ready for framing.

Those Pansies

I've been slow in posting...my laptop fried including the external hard drive. Luckily all of my files were finally recovered intact, and a whole bunch of dollars later, I'm back in business. I have to say, it was kind of nice to be free of the laptop for a short while. I devoted more time to actually working on projects such as my Silk Scene.

I had reached a conundrum of sorts:  what to start filling in with around the main parts of the Silk Scene. It was kind of daunting but I finally hunched down and decided to stitch some smaller plants to add perspective and some color. Enter Pansies....I consulted with several of my silk ribbon books and which way to make them with what I had on hand. It really does matter how you make a specific flower (in this case) according to the size of the ribbon used. I had 4mm ribbon so it looked like I could use tiny straight stitches for the petals in  2 colors. The top two petals are a dark burgundy (used in the foxgloves), and the lower three are a dusky peach. I stitched the top 2 petals first, then stitched the bottom three: one on the left, the right one and the middle one last.

Small pansy buds consisted of two tiny straight stitches of each color, slightly overlapping. I filled in the flower with a yellow center using a bright yellow floche in a one wrap French knot.

Next I added the stems in a green floche and a tiny lazy daisy green "leaf" between the top two petals (as you see in the photo below).

Each flower bud had a tiny lazy daisy stitch on one side and two small straight stitches on the other. Japanese Ribbon Stitch leaves in a variegated 4mm ribbon were clustered at the bottom of the stems.
After I finished three pansy plants around the Scene I wanted to add some ferns: I love ferns and have several varieties in my own yard. So here's the start of the first fern plant in front of the wall using one strand of floss in either a stem or outline stitch.

Now I have to stitch some more ferns around the scene and figure out what's after that. Slowly but surely!!

Silk Scene Tree

Back to the silk scene after attending the SAGA National Convention. I'm working a little each day on it when possible. I added a tree next to the wall to add more perspective...hopefully. I've never used this technique before: bundling different threads and colors together, then tacking them down with couching stitches. It was an interesting experiment and took some getting used to

The threads: mixed DMC cotton flosses in shades of brown to very dark brown, one Antique Ecru Floche  and a little bit of silk buttonhole twist.

I loaded a mix of these threads into a #18 Chenille needle (very large eye and shaft) with a knot on the end. Into the fabric to start at the base of the tree trunk and laid them down, twisting a little as I went.

I repeated this about 2 more times to get needed width. I also ran some along the edge of the wall in an effort to make it look like the tree was just on the other side of it.

About midway I divided the multiple strands and threaded some into another needle to lay them down as branches.

And some of those I separated again to create smaller branches.

Since these threads were laying on top of the fabric unsecured I used some of the same thread in a smaller #8 Crewel Embroidery needle to "artistically" couch them down. Read: stitches of different lengths and angles over the trunk and branch bases to hold them in place. Then I used a little of the very dark brown (DMC 3371) to add some dark shading where I thought the sun wasn't touching the tree. And some of the Antique Ecru Floche for highlights.

Various 7mm variegated green silk ribbons were perfect for the leaves of this unusual tree. The Japanese Ribbon Stitch was just right for leaves because I could curve them either left or right, or leave them centered, to add more interest and realism...at least I hope it does!

I laid my workbook down on the left side simulating the position of mat board when framed. The tree was lopsided so I added two little branches to the left, then leaves. It looks better to me now.

Not sure what I'll tackle next...I'll take some time and think about it tomorrow. Thanks for reading my blog about this Silk Ribbon Scene journey!

Silk Scene Iris

I'm back from the Smocking Arts Guild of America National Convention in Dallas...It was wonderful! Love seeing all my stitching friends and meeting new ones. But now I'm back at the stitching table working on the Silk Scene. I moved the iris from the right side of the original drawing to near the wall. Iris are fun to stitch in silk ribbon: they're easy. Each flower is a Lazy Daisy stitch and 3 Japanese Ribbon Stitches on top of a stalk. Then add straight stitch leaves at the bottom.

Long stalks are in Treenway Montano Silk Cord in Cedar, one strand for each stem and a long straight stitch. I used a solid 7mm white ribbon (from my stash) for Lazy Daisy Stitch iris tops, or "standards" (the technical term). Then Treenway Silks 7mm Montano Silk Ribbon in Daffodil, lovely variations of cream to a deep yellow, for the "Falls" in the Japanese Ribbon Stitch. Last but not least, some 2mm pale yellow ribbon again from my stash for a straight stitch "Beard" on each "Fall" (which you can see in the last photo).

Then I added straight stitch leaves in 3.5mm Treenway Montano in Spring Green. To add dimension I twisted a few of the leaves and positioned them lower and at different places to make the iris look taller and more realistic.

Next will be a "tree" next to the wall using twisted bunches of thread to assimilate the bark with leaves on the branches. 

Silk Scene Begins

It's begun...the all-consuming silk ribbon embroidery scene project.  I fell asleep dreaming about where to begin, and after thinking and reading up on these things I decided starting in the background is the best approach. I wanted a tree in the background and thought of a dogwood, a few of which we have in our yard. I've never been able to get a pink dogwood to grow so I figured I could at least stitch one.

First start: the tree itself without any leaves or flowers. I drew one in my notebook sketch to get an idea of size, proportion, etc., then drew it lightly in 0.5mm pencil on the silk. Again, reading up in a book by Ann Cox (Silk Ribbon Embroidery Designs & Techniques) I followed her idea of several types of threads twisted together to form the trunk. The photo below shows brown silk buttonhole twist, 3 colors of DMC cotton floss (browns), and 2 colors of YLI silk floss (brown and black), mostly using 1-2 strands of each one.

I used some of the cotton floss to couch down the threads at whatever interval I thought was necessary. Then I separated into three groups of threads to start the branches after making the trunk. And those were separated even more to make smaller branches.

Here's the final version...a little rough looking up close, but will be covered with flowers and leaves to fill it out. Notice the shading on the tree left in darker threads and some on the right branch bottom. 

Two millimeter pink/peach silk ribbon made perfect little flowers in French Knots. Easy to do and quick. Then I added little tiny Lazy Daisy stitches in one strand of green DMC floche, a slightly thicker thread (actually the thickness of 2 strands of cotton floss). 

I like the result. Then to add perspective, a little grass in 2 shades of floss and variegated silk cord, then little tiny Lazy Daisy stitches in a darker green floss around the base of the tree (again only one strand of each).

You ask: what is that other green stuff?  Well, it's another trick to add perspective to this scene. Working from the "wall" I added an edge-dyed 7mm ribbon along a line I drew to suggest a horizon line of sorts, again, another technique suggested by Ann Cox. I have never used this so I figured it would be worth a try. Thread a large chenille (usually an #18 with 7mm) with the ribbon and come to the right side where the wall begins. Then thread another chenille (probably a #22) with variegated silk cord from Treenway Silks.

Using straight and fly stitches I tacked and gathered the ribbon down along the drawn line, then followed with a stem stitch on that same line. Go back down on the completed line with both ribbon and thread and tie off.

Here's the finished product of a day's work so far.  

Not sure what I will tackle next, but tomorrow is another day.....