Pam's "Twist & Tack" Silk Ribbon Rose Tutorial

I was asked if I would share how I do the Silk Ribbon Roses on my crazy quilt projects.  Gladly!  I just had to wait to write it up until I could take photos.  Speaking of which, I apologize for the fuzzy ones.  They looked fine on the camera when I took them but when I loaded them into the computer, I was quite disappointed.

Still, I think the photos are good enough for you to see how to do this.  It's a really easy way to do silk ribbon roses and please keep in mind, they do not need to be perfect!  Roses in nature are not perfect so try to keep that in mind while stitching.

You will need 7 MM silk ribbon and a spool of sewing thread.  I usually use white but you can use a coordinating color if you choose.

For this technique, we are not pulling the ribbon through the fabric.  We are tacking it onto the fabric.

Step 1:  Thread your needle with sewing thread and knot the end as usual.  Tack your 7 MM silk ribbon and fold over the end 1/4 of an inch.  Then fold that 1/4 inch in half so you have a 1/8 inch double fold.

Fold that 1/8 inch over 3 more times.  This makes the center of the rose.

Pull your threaded needle up through your fabric/quilt block where you want the center of your rose to be.  Take a stitch at the bottom of the rose center and attach to your fabric/block.

Once you have it attached to your block, you can take an extra stitch to make sure it's secure.

Step 2:  To make the petals, you're going to twist your ribbon twice and tack it down with your thread.

Twist twice again, and tack it under the center of the rose.

Twist 2 times again and tack.

Continue to do twist and tack until your rose is about the size of a dime.

Cut your ribbon off and tuck the end under the nearest petal.  Tack with 1 or 2 stitches.

And there you have it!  A very easy Silk Ribbon Rose.  Enjoy!

Silk Ribbon Embroidery

I've been in and out of my car constantly for the past few days. I haven't had the energy yet to start on my mom's new cellphone pouch. Maybe later today.

In the meantime, I used the term "SRE" in my last post and was asked what that meant. It stands for Silk Ribbon Embroidery. You can see some on this cellphone pouch:



And also on this purse:



I made both of these projects last Summer. In fact, the black pansy purse is the one I'm using at the moment!

With Silk Ribbon, you can make 3-Dimensional flowers that look quite realistic!

Click on the images to go to my Flickr site where you can see a larger version.

On a final note for today, I still have 2 packs of cross stitch fabric from my mom's stash in my Etsy shop. These are nice fabrics, Evenweaves & Linens. I just dropped the price to get them out of my way. If you're a cross stitcher, please take a look.

Flea Market Finds & More!

You may remember me mentioning this awhile back. I've never been big on doing Silk Ribbon Embroidery but I love the way it looks so I've been adding more of it to my crazy quilting. Well, I never seem to have the colors that I want so I bought some plain white 7mm silk ribbon and hand-painted it myself:



I did these yesterday afternoon. Aren't they pretty! I can't wait to stitch with them.

Today, Scott had to work so I did my usual errands. I picked up my drycleaning and stopped at the bank. There was a flea market at the park so I thought it would be fun to look around there for an hour and see if I could find some goodies. And did I find goodies!



Look at that metallic lame fabric! Gobs of it in every color imagineable. And I found some vintage rhinestone buttons, some dyed Mother Of Pearl buttons in aqua, some vintage jewelry pieces, lace... Oh and ironically, my 12 inch quilters hoop that I use for my 9 inch blocks broke on me the other day. Scott glued it but we don't know if it'll hold. Well, I found another one at the flea market. An older and much better made one. And only for $1.00! I am in heaven!

Of course you know, it's not like I don't have anything to play with here. I've never had any trouble justifying my supplies. But I got all of that stuff for about $15.00!

My real prize though, is this white wicker rocking chair:



Now that the majority of the Living Room remodel is done, Scott brought my bentwood rocker down for the corner by the window and guess what? It just didn't work there anymore. It looked heavy and out of place. I decided that I need a white wicker rocking chair there.

My old furniture, which is pretty much hand-me-down stuff because I never could figure out what I wanted, does not work with my Cottage Victorian theme that I'm going for now. I've decided that I want all white wicker furniture. It's light, airy and easy to clean (remember, I have 4 cats). Anyway, I do like the mis-matched look and when I saw this chair, I knew it was mine! I'll probably put a fresh coat of paint on the runners but the rest, I'll leave as is. I'm sure you can tell that Lucy has already claimed it as hers! And can you believe, I only paid $35.00 for this chair? I have no idea how old it is but it's in really good shape and I love it.

So next, to find a white wicker sofa, chair and side table!