A new technique: silk ribbon embroidery

This month I started my first ever Crazy Quilting project as part of the free on-line Basic Crazy Quilting Course run by Kathy Shaw. (I blogged about it briefly last week and although registration for this course is closed, registration for the next one will probably be starting this week.)

Crazy Quilting Project: quilting cotton fabric on a muslin foundation, embroidered with DMC split cotton and silk ribbon.

 So what's new?

Well to start with I'd never done Crazy Quilting before this month. Until I saw my own efforts, I'd never even seen a piece of Crazy Quilting in reality, only in photos.

Secondly, although I've been embroidering for over half a century, I've never used a ring before. It's a definite advantage here as very few of the patchwork pieces have been cut on the grain, and the danger of stretching the fabric is high, especially when working with ribbon. It does take getting used to, especially as it slowed me down considerably.

Thirdly, while none of the thread embroidery stitches was new to me, my stitching of stem stitch and French knots has improved beyond recognition (probably because of Kathy's tuition and the ring ).

But the real FIRST came this week with silk ribbon embroidery.

Until I started this course I didn't know it existed; until this week I'd never even tried it! I'm very proud of my first two irises.

I practised a little on a scrap of muslin:

 

This was done without a ring, and you can see in the row of running stitches how the fabric puckered. You can't see how it stretched, but it did, as I exerted great effort to pull the needle with ribbon through it.

The next part of the project is more silk ribbon embroidery: embroidering roses. I'm so excited!

I'm linking up to

 

so go and see what new things others have tried this month.

Happy sewing

Marly.