Rousched Silk Flowers Tutorial cont.

Step 7: Oh look!! Now just open your flower keeping the raw edges on the bottom. Isn't it cute?? But we're not done yet. We've gotta tack it on a block somewhere. Here, I have a girls Christmas stocking I'm working on. I like to put five or six couching stitches on to keep the flower in it's place. Just put it anywhere you want. You can make it part of a seam treatment on a crazy quilt. You can make it the major motif in the center of a patch, or even the center of a sane quilt. You can use it for more framing on the corner of sash work. Goodness!! The possibilities are endless.

Step 8: And now that I have a beading needle in hand, I just start doing cute little beaded rounds in the center of the flowers. Or you could change needles and do a bunch of french knots in the center. Or even a straight stitch to mimic stamen. How fun is this??
It's your flower. Your creation. Your art. What do you want to see here? I'd love to see some of these cute little buds and flowers on your own work. Feel free to e-mail me pictures.



Step 9: Now make more. Yes!! And put them anywhere you want on your block. As you can see. I've scattered these flowers on both a purple seam and most of a patch. Then I added leaves. And the leaves aren't even green. They're metalic gold. Who says you have to make your leaves green, anyways?? Ya know. It's your art. Do what the fabric and embellishments ask for. And you could dangle charms, broaches, and old pearl necklaces in there if you want. It's a good day to create.

Love ya all. Happy stitching.

Rousched Silk Flowers Tutorial

Introduction: Here, I've decided to post a tutorial on my blog on how I make these rousched flowers. What is rousching? It's basically just gathered fabric for embellishing. In the Victorian era, it was very popular in clothes. Ruffles and lace and frills. Even men got into it.

You can make rousched flowers with bias cut silk ribbon or the cheaper way, with rousched silk fabric. This is a very inspirational way of embellishing. The possibilities are endless. It's a good day. And this is a day to be inspired to spread beauty around the world with art. There are nine simple steps to making these lovely flowers.

Step 1. Here are the supplies you'll need for the basic rousched flower: silk fabric cut on the bias or bias cut silk ribbon (the fabric is cheaper) thread or floss of the same color as the fabric, a beading needle, and beads (beads are optional). I prefer a beading needle, because it glides through the fabric nicely. AND I like to use beads at the end when the flower is all done.

The bigger you cut the fabric, the bigger your flowers will be. I usually cut my fabric to 1 inch X 3 1/2 inches or linger. Whatever. I'm not too picky about it, as you can tell. But they should be cut to what you see to your left. It's not an exact measurement.



Step 2. Fold the fabric in half long ways and make a running stitch along the raw edge. You should be going through two pieces of fabric. Easy!!

Step 3. Now just pull to gather your fabric. Look!! It's already coming into a circle!













Step 4. Now this part is a little tricky and hard to explain. We want to make a circle, so we need to sew the ends together. We don't want any raw edges showing on top. So, again, with just a simple running stitch, put the two edges together ("right on right", for those who sew), and pull the thread through without gathering. But you can pull the center of the flower to gather it nice and tight. Realize, you're going through four layers of fabric when sewing the two raw edges together. But it should be easy since the fabric is really thin. And a beading needle is also very pointy.





















Step 5. Now go right back down that same running stitch so the the thread is now coming out of the bottom center of the flower.

Tomorrow I'll show you how to tack it onto a block and the endless possibilities of these cute little flower. Or big ones. Depending on what you want to accomplish.

Michael

Michael. He's the baby. And, even though he's turned 3, I have a tendency to baby him too much. After all, he's my last one. I try not to treat him like a baby, but I do. I've gotta stop that. Don't want to make him into a sissy. At least he's starting to talk now. "Gok" is a dog. "Keecak" is a kitty cat. Eventually he'll get all the words. And then I'll have to tell him to please be quiet so I can think. Ha!!

Me

This is me before I lost 25 lbs. I'll have to get another picture taken. I think this one was taken almost two years ago. I really wasn't feeling good then, either.

And that reminds me that I really need to do some aerobics after I get done blogging here. Little Michael will join me. He's so cute. I've yet to post a pic of him. Of course, you can see him in the back ground of both Adam's an Alec's pictures. So cute.

I like to read, do Bible studies to get to know God more, Crazy Quilt, and I'll share some of that later, too. I'll even share what I've learned from God's Word. I love art, the Bible, my family, my dear husband, Steve, serving in Iraq right now. I'm very proud of him.

Well, supper awaits.

The Crazy Mountian Girl

Alec

July 26, 3008

Here's Alec. He's got more energy in his little toe, than we all have put together. He loves to go go go, and do do do. He remembers everything. He'll do well in school starting Kindergarten next month. If we can keep his little butt in his chair. I'm proud of him already. He's so smart.
Alec likes to climb trees, be other places besides home, discover new places and new things, and visit friends. As I said, he likes to go go go. He'll be the first out of the house come graduation time. He'll probebly be a world traveler, because he just can't sit still. He always wants to be some place different than where he is. That's Alec for ya.

I'm a Blogger

July 26, 2008

I've been wanting to start a blog for a long time. Now, look. You can check out pictures of my kids, my art, and read about what my husband is doing and about knowing Jesus Christ.

This is Adam, my oldest. He likes electronics and anything that has buttons. He likes to see how things work.

And there's the wood in the background. It gets cold even here in Southern California. It actually got below zero with the wind chill this past winter. Burrr.

Adam will be in first grade next month. I'm so proud of him, like most mothers.