A confectionery of ribbons

Firstly, let me say a warm thank you to everyone, who left such sweet comments concerning Fiona's heirloom quilt. I'm happy to say this pretty has gone home with Fiona to live happily ever after in her glorious 100 year old school house. Oh and I might add Fiona did love it....so much so that she has given me a few more stitching orders for me to fashion.....really, really fun tasks....but more about those another time.

After finishing Fiona's quilt, and having completed a few humdrum orders I hankered after a little more fun stitching. Boring orders punctuated with some pretty stitching always perks me up.

My fingers were itching to fashion oodles and oodles of pretty ribbons into oodles and oodles of floralicious delight!!

So, whilst away on a little road trip last weekend, meandering along the countryside in our faithful ole tin lizzie, in celebration of a BIG birthday of my significant other,  I sat happily in the passenger seat coaxing silken and shiny ribbons into  bloom after bloom, collecting them all together on the dashboard.

My, my......don't pretty ribbon flowers add to the countryside??? Me thinks every dashboard should be bedecked with a ribbon blossom or two!!

Back home again..........high tea anyone??? Tier after tier of French wired confections of pansies, roses, fuchsias.....so, so delectable.......so, so much eye candy!!

We cannot only have a pretty, tiered cake stand of ribbon delight to tempt the eyes, now can we?? A 'must have' is a Royal Albert, fine bone china teapot, overspilling with a pretty palette of blossomy delight!!

Mmmm.....very pretty, I hear you say.....but what is the purpose for all this ribbon delight??

A little over a year ago I fashioned another heirloom quilt for a very dear friend, whose home (which both she and her husband designed and built) and everything she and her family owned was destroyed in a devastating bushfire. I wrote about my friend and the fashioning of her quilt here.

I decided I wanted to stitch a lovely cushion to send to my friend, to perhaps sit alongside the quilt that I had fashioned. My friend and her husband have been very kind and and generous in their friendship to my husband and myself these past couple of months, so I thought I would thank them with this little gift. A cushion is always a fun pretty to stitch. AND......fashioning a basketful of gorgeous, ribbon delight is always the best fun.

I chose a pretty cream bridal damask that I had stored away in one of my armoires. It has climbing roses and leaves rambling their way across the fabric. The basket is a vintage doily which lends itself very nicely as a basket.

So......let the playing begin!

Each blossom was stitched to the basket; pretty, ruffled roses, fancy-faced pansies, dainty fuchsias and scrunchy, green leaves. I added a snippet of a doily and a pretty bow.....and voila......all pretty as a picture. I always find it joyous stitching baskets of overspilling flowers with their pretty, blossomy faces smiling back at me. I never tire of coaxing shimmering and silken ribbons into fanciful bouquets of blooming fantasies.

In closing my friend and her husband decided not to rebuild as the costs to do so were too exorbitant and prohibitive. So many  building codes, rules and regulations would have the costs go through the proverbial ceiling. They have since bought another home and are slowly beginning to gather and collate treasures. They are slowly continuing their biography, in which new chapters will be written and new memories shaped. My friend perhaps will tuck this bouquet of flowers somewhere near her heirloom quilt in her boudoir adding to the basketful of memories which our friendship of many, many years enjoys.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.....I don't suppose there will be any fashioning of pretty ribbons for me for a little while, as that bright pink front door has opened once again to those delightful kiddos who visit my humble abode and stitch a little.......toodles!

Linking up to Mary's Sweet Inspiration Linky party.

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