Progress on my Ruby May Quilt and a Deep Dive into Ribbon Embroidery on YouTube
After working on masks last week for friends, family, and a small donation to the Aged Womans Home of Georgetown, I finally made some progress on my variation of the Ruby May Quilt!
I removed the papers from each block (I appliquéd each “wreath” first and then cut the background fabric to remove the paper pieces).
Since the sewing machine was out, it was time to baste a backing onto my Ruby May blocks. For the background, I am using Brussels Washer Linen by Robert Kaufman for this quilt. It is a linen rayon blend that has this lovely, vintage look, but, I’m concerned that it is very lightweight for the hand embroidery that will go into the center of each block.
To create a firmer fabric for embroidery, I basted a square of 100% quilting cotton to the back of each block. (I used Moda Primitive Muslin in Tallow).
The Ruby May quilt has paper-pieced “wreaths” surrounding hand embroidery. Being a great hoarder of supplies for things I enjoy, but rarely do (hand embroidery!), I looked at my stash and remembered that a few years ago (at least five!), I had come across these fabulous youtube ribbon embroidery tutorials by craftyattic.com. She uses white 100% silk ribbon and promarkers to create her fabulous ribbon embroidery art. I bought a starter kit from her and a bunch of promarkers, and then of course, I never used them.
Now is the time folks. I haven’t done ribbon embroidery since I was in middle school, but, I watched a few tutorial videos, did some practicing with the ribbon and markers (they are fabulous!), and now I”m ready to design my embroidery blocks.
So, where to find inspiration (and maybe some patterns for my blocks). The center of my blocks are quite small (only about 4 inches), and I want to use a combination of ribbon and embroidery thread.
First I looked through my own library. My first shout out is to French quilters and embroidery artists, Cécile Franconie and Nathalie Méance. I was introduced to them through Quiltmania. Cécile Franconie is the author of Floralies: Quiltées et Brodées and Les Fantaisies: Quiltées et Brodées. Nathalie Méance’s book, Les Quilts Brodés de La Fée Pirouette, was my gateway drug into the French hand embroidery and quilting world. I can not recommend these books or authors enough. Their work has a unique point of view, not seen in US mainstream crafting publishers.
I also own three other books that specifically feature ribbon embroidery: Ribbonwork Gardens by Christin Brown, Romancing Ribbons into Flowers by Elly Sienkiewicz, and The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery: Embellishment and Appliqué by Janice Vaine. These books have excellent pictures and written techniques for ribbon embroidery. The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery has especially nice projects of the three (if you are interested in more than the techniques). They are appropriate for beginners as well as those exploring more advanced techniques.
So, after lovingly looking through some of my favorite books, I turned to the major time sink of YouTube.
If you have done some hand embroidery before but need a refresher, two of my suggestions for ribbon embroidery tutorials on YouTube are craftyattic and artesd’olga. Artesd’olga is in Spanish, but, her tutorials are so clear and simple, that the language is not an issue. Crafty attic would be appropriate for a complete newbie, since she recommends supplies and how to get started.
Since there are tons of amazing embroidery sites, I’d love to hear some of your suggestions for ribbon embroidery books and youtube tutorials.
Below you can see the blocks I’ve finished. One of the patterns is from Nathalie Méance’s book, one is artesd’olga and two others are modified from free patterns offered by embroidery artist Tatiana Popova. One thing I’ve discovered in this process is that I enjoy “painting” the silk ribbon with markers more than I enjoy the embroidery. Hopefully getting to color the ribbon will be enough incentive to embroider five more blocks!
Keep on making and musing my friends!