I mentioned awhile back that my camera/computer connection and I were having an argument.

I solved it by switching the connection cable from a USB hub to a USB port at the back of my computer (hint – removable hard drives don’t seem to like USB hubs either.)

I am finally able to show pictures of the finished RosesnPansies Silk Ribbon piece that I made for my friend Sally that have been sitting on my camera for the last couple of months. I’ve been scanning the pieces from my latest Butterfly project, tho I knew that I’d need to be able to use a camera for it pretty soon.

Sally has long since received it, and says that she loves it. I’m very glad because I tried hard to make it in her tastes.

The last time you saw it, I’d laced the piece onto padded stiff cardboard.

When Rachel of VirtuoSew Adventures visited me at Christmas, we talked about how we both thought the piece needed more space around it. The flowers filled up so much of the piece, not leaving a lot of ‘air’ around it. It felt crowded.

So, (mourning the effort I’d already made in lacing it onto board), I laced a bigger board with another, darker purple fabric. No padding this time.

I glued the piece on top of this, using Helmark 450 Quick Dry Adhesive (an Australian product from an art supplies shop).

This worked very well. I had thought that trying to blind stitch the very edge of the padded board onto the unpadded background board would be difficult, if not impossible to do well, so I went for the glue.

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I then glued on some braid onto the edges of the back board (hey, I was onto a good thing with this glue, tho it felt a bit weird to glue something, not sew it on).

The braid is composed of three thick pieces of lovely shiny copper satin ribbon, braided together.

I got this from the unlikely sounding on-line and store frontage shop called “Darn Cheap Fabrics”. http://www.darncheapfabrics.com.au/

I would have liked enough braid to go around all 4 edges of the piece, but sadly, I miscalculated and wasn’t prepared to wait for more to come through the postage by that stage.

For other Australians, that store has a few nice trimmings there that might be worth checking out.

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So the piece could be hung easily, I used Ruth O’Leary’s clear directions from her blog entry

http://rutholearytextileart.blogspot.com/2010/08/spirograph-panels-backing-and-hanging.html

I added on little pockets at the top of the back of the board. This meant that Sally could hang the piece simply with a piece of dowel/wood/whatever through the pockets, attach a string to each end, and hang the string from a picture hook. She’s framed pieces I’ve done for her in the past, and this time, I wanted to save her the cost.

You can see the ends of the braid at each end. I couldn’t finish it any more neatly, short of putting a little cover of purple material on top. I wasn’t too worried, since it was the back.

The braid wanted to unravel very badly, so I glued the ends and added a few stitches for security, then glued down the whole braid. The braid was flat, not round, so it was easy to glue down. A round braid, glued – ugh!

So – there you go. My first big ribbon embroidery project. I’ve still got some daisies and a sunflower to do, for two other thankyou presents for friends.

Silk ribbon embroidery isn’t hugely my thing, although I do like playing with the lovely coloured silk ribbons, especially the variegated and wired ones. The technique is a bit “Great-Aunty” for me. But it does have the advantage of being quick. Or at least, a lot quicker than stumpwork/goldwork/16th/17thC embroidery.