Turning Girly

I can't remember my Mum ever buying me a pretty dress.  In fact, my childhood memories consist mainly of falling out of trees a lot, horse riding and fighting with my brother.  My Mum tried sending me to ballet classes, in hope that I would acquire some poise, but no...I'm still clumsy!


Don't get me wrong.  I've always loved colour.  Back in the 1980's I knitted three or four of Kaffe Fassett's lovely colourful jackets and jumpers.  

I should have seen the signs.  Suddenly my bears started appearing in girly colours.  I have developed a penchant for ribbons.  Now I've retired from teaching in boys schools, I've started wearing skirts again.  Where all this will end, I have no idea.  I just hope I don'ty end up like Dicken's Miss Haversham - batty and head to toe in old lace!

I digress - back to ribbons!  I love antique ribbonwork and French ombre ribbons.  Until now, I haven't had time to explore this engaging aspect of embroidery.  Now Hugglets has passed and I have two months before my next bear show, I thought I would 'have a go' at creating a ribbonwork  pansy.  The ribbons were so lovely, and I enjoyed looking at them so much, it took a lot of willpower to cut them.  Imagine Gollam looking at 'my precious' and you won't go far wrong.

To cut a long story short, the result is pictured above.  How I love those jewel-like colours!   I purchased a small kit from Helen Gibb's website to get me started.  I could not believe how easy they are to make.  If you can thread a needle and do a running stitch, you can make these.  I used a French Knot in the middle of each flower - wow, that took me back 30 years!  Now I think I have the bug and will have to try some different flowers.  I particularly like the fact that the flowers are sewn without the use of glue.

I am waiting for a book about Ribbonwork to arrive from Amazon. There will be no stopping me once that arrives!

There is still plenty of time to sign up for the teddy giveaway in the last post!

Hugs to all