Rose Spray

The opportunity does not always arise to take 'time to smell the roses'. Margot Hammonds has designed and stitched this glorious spray of roses for all to admire and to take pride of place in your home when the real ones are not available for picking.


MATERIALS
• One piece of background fabric with printed leaves and stems, available from Creative Diversions
• Margot's hand-dyed 25mm (1 in) soft satin ribbon: 2m magnolia
• Kacoonda 13mm silk ribbon: 1.5m waratah; 1 m  306
• Kacoonda 7 mm silk ribbon: 1 m each of 306, 316
• Mokuba 25mm (1 in) organza ribbon: lm of 15
• Kacoonda 4 mm silk ribbon: 1 m each of 107, 306
• ET Diffussion wire-edged ribbon: 60cm 238
• Cascade stranded silk: one packet of 7490
• No 9 crewel needle
• No 14, 22 and 24 chenille needles
• Machine-sewing cottons to match the ribbons
• 30cm (12 in) embroidery hoop
• Water-soluble marking pen

DESIGN SIZE
18cm x 25cm (7 in x 10 in)

STITCHES USED
Folded ribbon roses, ribbon stitch, stab stitch, straight stitch whipped running stitch
Note: The rose spray is very easily arranged on a painted background of leaves and stems. The roses are placed on a gentle curve on the background stem, with the largest leaves and buds towards the base, and all the stems of the buds and leaves coming towards the large rose. This gives your arrangement a pleasing natural flow.

EMBROIDERY 

Foreground ribbon roses: Using the magnolia hand-dyed soft satin ribbon, make three folded ribbon roses and one bud. The bud is a folded rose with only one soft fold. For the large rose, cut three 6cm pieces of the magnolia ribbon for the small petals and three 8cm pieces for medium petals. For the second rose, make three small petals and one medium petal. Refer to diagram 1.

Place the lowest folded ribbon rose in position, referring to the pattern sheet for the placement, and stab-stitch it firmly into place using the machine-sewing cotton to match the ribbon threaded in a No 9 crewel needle. Place the petals, overlapping each one, attaching each end with a stab stitch and placing them so that they give the rose a balanced shape. Now stab-stitch the second rose in position and attach the petals to give the face of the rose a slightly upward tilt.

The third ribbon rose is placed just above the second rose, slightly to the left-hand side.
Bud: Thread the No 22 chenille needle with a small length of the 13mm (306) silk ribbon, and attach the bud to the background fabric with three ribbon stitches and a small straight stitch for the calyx.

Leaves: Cut four 13cm (5in) lengths of the wire-edged ribbon and fold each of them in half. Pull the wires tightly on one edge to gather the   ribbon,   then   overcast   the
gathered edge with a machine-sewing cotton in the No 9 crewel needle to match the ribbon. Refer to diagram 2. Stitch these leaves in place surrounding the large rose.
For the finer detail in your picture, make three folded ribbon roses in the 13mm waratah silk ribbon. Mark where the rosebuds are to be placed with a dot and stitch a soft ribbon stitch in the direction of the rosebud with the same ribbon in the No 22 chenille needle. Place the folded ribbon rose to come to the curl of the ribbon stitch and, using the matching machine-sewing cotton in the No 9 crewel needle, attach it firmly in place. With the 13 mm waratah ribbon in the No 22 chenille needle, stitch two or three ribbon stitches around the folded rose, with one of these stitches in front of the rose. Refer to diagram 3.
For the calyx, stitch a straight stitch with the 7mm (306) silk ribbon, threaded in the No 22 chenille needle, then bringing the ribbon back up through the fabric, twist it to form a stem. Take it back through to the back of the fabric where you want the stem to finish.
The small buds are stitched with the 7mm (316) silk ribbon threaded in the No 22 chenille needle, and are made up of three ribbon stitches with soft curls. The calyx is stitched with a straight stitch using the 4mm (306) silk ribbon in the No 24 chenille needle and the stem is formed by bringing the needle up through the fabric and twisting it in the same way as you did for the folded ribbon roses.
With small lengths of the organza (15) ribbon threaded in the No 14 chenille needle, stitch soft ribbon stitches so that the tips form a curve.
For the silk leaves, stitch a single ribbon stitch for the lower leaves, and a double ribbon stitch made up of two stitches worked 'top to tail'. These are stitched with the 13 mm (306) silk ribbon.
Draw lines with your water-soluble marking pen for the foliage and stitch a whipped running stitch line for the stem using one strand of the 7490 in the No 9 crewel needle. With the 4mm (107) silk ribbon in the No 24 chenille needle, stitch ribbon stitches at 45-degree angles
at intervals up the stem. Do not make them any wider as the flow of the stem seems interrupted if they are too open.
To complete your picture, make twisted ribbon stems and whipped running stitch stems as you did before, giving a variety in thicknesses and length.