Colourful flowers, stitched with ribbons in summer tones, make a cheerful tactile decoration for the home
EMBROIDERY IS THE art of decorating fabric with a needle and thread. There are many forms of the craft, including woolwork, blackwork, crewelwork and cross-stitch.
Silk ribbon embroidery uses stitches to create raised designs, which fill the canvas more quickly than other forms of the craft. The resulting piece is textural, with the shine of the silk giving the whole design a luxurious lustre.
Cross-stitch fabric, with its regular grid of small holes, and a sharp needle, with a large enough eye for the ribbon to pass through, are ideal, making it easier to plot a pattern and ease the ribbon through the holes.
Leaving the design in the hoop creates a cheerful piece of artwork to display in the home.
MATERIALS
• 7in embroidery hoop
• 14-count Aida cross-stitch fabric
• Needle
• Small amount of embroidery thread
• Scissors
• Lengths of 2mm and 4mm silk ribbon in floral shades
LAYERED ROSES
A five-point star is sewn with embroidery thread. A length of ribbon in the same colour is threaded onto a needle and pulled up in the centre of the star. The ribbon is woven around the star, alternately over and under each point. Once the star is covered, the ribbon is taken through the fabric to the back and tied off. Leaves are added by bringing green ribbon up at the edge of the flower and down in the next hole along, leaving a loop. The green ribbon is brought back up a few holes away, inside the loop, and pushed back down in t
