Of Cushions, Flowers and Friendship

Good Morning to you. Another week passes by ever so quickly. Another week of lovely sunny Spring days tempting pretty flowers to burst joyously from their garden beds, weaving blushes of iridescent colour throughout our garden.

As my husband is still unable to do any work in the garden for a little while yet, I have picked up the trowel and shovel and attended to the weeds. Oh my goodness, there are sooooooo many weeds, so many, I fear I will become a little garden gnome. I really am too old for this caper!! I am much, much too venerable to yank and heave and jerk for hours on end at these tenacious and pesky varmints!! But.....persistence is paying off. I am determined not to be overwhelmed by these abominable interlopers, these pesky pains in the proverbial, that persist in trying to overthrow the reign of my kingdom of pretty flowers. With dogged resolve I am determined to banish them to the next world!!

So.....as I have taken residence in the garden, not a lot has been happening in my sunny sewing room; though I did stitch a cushion for a friend whose birthday is just around the corner.

Once again, I buried myself in ribbons and doilies. Yet again, I fashioned another basket of French ribbon work flowers. I never tire of fashioning an overabundance of flowers of the ribbon variety and though I have chatted about making a few of these flower-filled baskets before, one more can't hurt, can it??? And......of course each one is a little different. Besides, one of my dearest friends, for whom this cushion is intended, doesn't have one of these lovelies sitting in her home. With her birthday just a few weeks away, I needed to make something rather quickly. We have been friends since kindergarten and surprisingly enough, although I have stitched her many, many 'Kim Sharman' originals throughout the years of our friendship, I have never stitched her a basket of floralicious delight.

This time the basket of ribbon flowers sit prettily on a background of snippets of doilies randomly placed where they fell. I had a yearning to yet again, rummage through my embroidered pretties. I wanted pretty embroideries with flowers, the odd basket of flowers and butterflies. The fabric I chose for the basket is the prettiest silk fabric of interweaving pastel hues. I brought this lovely fabric a few years ago with the thought it would be an excellent choice somewhere down the yellow brick road of my stitching.

I never, never tire of fashioning these baskets of floral delights! Mmmm....now let me see......which friend can I next stitch a basket of  blossoms for??

One by one, the addition of a pansy here and a pansy there, a fuchsia or two, and blousey roses with leaves peeking from behind, assembling another blooming basket of floral delight.

I chose a fabric with weaving vines of flowers with the odd butterfly fluttering by. A doily with a birthday sentiment is free hand machine stitched on a favourite doily. Aah....bluebirds of happiness casting a little magic on our friendship.

Though one of my joys in life is picking a fresh bouqet of flowers and gifting them to a friend for their birthday, in this case my friend lives two states away, so this cushion of floral delight will just have to do. I don't think my friend will be too unhappy. An over-spilling bouquet of gorgeous french ribbon blossoms which will bloom forevermore.

Although a beautiful bouquet of fragrance-filled flowers will always put a smile in a gal's heart, I fear within a week they always seem to metamorphose into a pongy mass of organic matter. Yes indeedy, me thinks a sweet cushion of an over-spilling bouquet of gorgeous, french ribbon blossoms blooming forevermore, is a more lovely sentiment in celebration of our friendship.

Wishing you all the most wonderful weekend. Take time to perhaps pick a pretty blossom......or two....oh.....and of course drink in their fragrance.

Until the next time........

Linking up to lovely Stephanie's, The Enchanting Rose.

The frill of it all

It's safe to say that I love ribbons. Indeed, my sewing room houses many a hat box and many a suitcase filled with a plethora of gorgeous, frilly ribbons. I seem to be forever fashioning oodles and oodles of flowers out of an abundance of pretty ribbons as embellishments; adding them  to whatever it is that I am stitching at any given time......quilts, bags, cushions, a hat, a jacket, et cetera. So often a project is begging  to have a cabbage rose, a pansy, a ballerina-like fuchsia or some other floral pretty to add a little pizazz, a little bit of oomph to it!

Mmm.....well I did say that I LURVE ribbons!!

It's also safe to say that I love cushions. Cushions are quick and easy to stitch. There are a gazillion ideas that one can pluck out of one's brain pan, to fashion a cushion, and they always add the final decorating touch to a chair, a sofa, or perhaps a bed.

So, I decided to stitch a cushion............a cushion in the guise of a basket with an overspilling abundance of beauteous, frilly, ribbon flowers to sit atop the basket. I selected a pretty floral fabric as a base for the bouquet of flowers and an upholstery fabric which reminds me of a basket weave for the basket.

 So I gathered a profusion of rainbow hued ribbons and began to fashion many flowers and leaves.

 

I fashioned masses of flowers and leaves; wired ribbon roses, pansies, ruched frilly zinnias and stitched them onto the cushion until they resembled a floral-filled bouquet of vibrant, dancing colour!

 

Every bouquet of sweet smelling flowers requires a butterfly to rest atop the pretty blooms. After all, Hans Christian Anderson once said, "just living is not enough, said the butterfly. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." Oh, I so agree, though I must have many, many flowers!!

And......of course every basket of flowers requires a sentiment of love to be attached.

 

An everlasting floralicious bouquet, pretty forevermore.

Sitting  ever so prettily atop one of my upholstered parlour armchairs (upholstering preloved chairs is another love of mine) that I upholstered a li'l while ago.

Ooops....I don't know how this 'pretty' slipped into this post.......but this is yet another basket of flowers, cushion, which lives on the bed in one of our guest rooms. A room evoking a Japanese flavour.

 

Aaah yes......cushions, cushions, cushions....a gal can never have too many, can she?? After all, they add the finishing touch to any room!!

Linking to Randi at Show and Tell Tuesday

To embellish or not to embellish..........that is the question!!

Well.....in my case 'tis a rhetorical question as there was never any doubt that I would embellish.....even if only a little!!

And besides.......Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue is clamoring that she has a little bling sewn to her frock. Her French lace-cuffed hands are on her hips, ever so impatiently stamping her shiny, bright blue, satin slippers, petulantly demanding that her gorgeous, blue-hued frock be embellished with a little razzamataz!!

And....what do I need to add an ounce of sparkle, a shimmer of glitz to Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue?

Well......I must, must, MUST have a plethora of beautiful blue ribbons, of various widths to fashion ribbon flowers into a gorgeous arrangement of floral beauty.

And, of course I must have a receptacle in which to hold these flowers.

  

I happened upon a gorgeous vintage Indian sari in one of my favourite vintage shops in Sydney (Frou Frou Old and New) which had four of these wonderful jewel encrusted embroideries sewn on to it. I, of course, snapped it up for a song, having no idea at the time of what I was going to use it for; but I had an inkling that it just might come in handy some day as I strolled down my colourful, quilting path. And come in handy it did!

This exquisite embroidery reminds me of the beautiful French jardinieres from a century or so ago, that were filled with masses of floral extravagance with the odd cherub smiling amongst the flowers, with scrolls and cartouches dancing everywhere. So.....I decided to carefully stitch it on the quilt and fill it with a bouquet of flowers and leaves representing every shade of blue as a feature of Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue.

This jewel encrusted embroidered fancy is a beauty. The beads and jewels are sewn on duck egg blue tulle and has  a gorgeous aged patina where the jewels shine with a wonderfully muted brilliance. It is truly stunning......... and how serendipitous that I should find such a treasure!

 So....after ruching length after length of ribbon into zinnia-like flowers, folding and stitching french wired ribbon into blousey roses, stitching dancing ballerina-like fuchsias,  manipulating ribbon into pansies and fashioning ribbon into 'boat' leaves; with the addition of the odd smidgen of French lace here and there; I then stitched these efflorescent blooms where they now sit for evermore in the vintage 'vase'.

An overspilling abundance of floral extravagance.

  

 And....my signature vintage glove holding two or three long stemmed flowers.

And to finish the embellishing, swirls and swirls of ruched ribbon, buttons, buckles, beads and a few pieces of vintage ornamentation meandering it's way across Little Miss Blue.

 

 

I have covered the back seams with a 50mm width satin ribbon to cover any messy seams (as the backing is satin and just would not behave; there are a few seams that, let's just say, are a little less than perfect.....AND I am a bit of a  fusspot). Besides, by doing this the seams will have added strength.

Now......drum roll please................after stitching what seems like millions of tiny stitches, numb needle picked fingers and the bearing of Quasimodo after being hunched over and stitching for what seems an eternity......here she is....................

Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue.......... posing in all her glory complete with a pert little 'Alfreda' concoction (a present from my daughter whilst she was in France) sitting atop her pretty little head!

  

A blue-hued, embellished hexie which I hope will give many hours of delight to my very special friend Michelle!! Ours is a friendship of thousands of fibres connected to each other; threads which have lasted the gamut of life experiences....oft times hilarious, sometimes sad, shared interests, companionship, bottomless cups of tea AND always......Cadbury's chocolate!!

 

So Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue is all neatly folded, tied with a shiny blue satin bow waiting to make an appearance at her new home......where I hope she will give many years of pleasure as her new owner gazes upon her, bringing to mind special thoughts of a special friendship.

 It has been said that the road to a friend's home is never far......mmmmm.....well in this case my journey with Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue will involve a flight on a giant silver bird, flying over a very big pond, crossing a state till we arrive in Ole Sydney Town. Not to worry......I am looking forward to enjoying a lovely long weekend celebrating with my dear friend. I do hope that Little Miss Rhapsody in Blue behaves herself in the cargo hull of the big silver bird......she is not one for being couped up for too long.......and let's hope that she doesn't go missing in transit!!